Sara Pagones

New Orleans

St. Tammany Bureau Chief at The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)

St. Tammany bureau chief, actor, book addict

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Articles

Gathering at the Tammany Trace to mark a 30th birthday

2 days ago | nola.com | Sara Pagones

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Slidell singers gather to sing for the joy of it

1 week ago | nola.com | Sara Pagones

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School system tightening belt, cuts $6.4M in staffing costs

1 week ago | nola.com | Sara Pagones

The St. Tammany Parish School Board agreed Thursday to bring back the position of associate superintendent, part of a central office staffing revamp that Superintendent Frank Jabbia said will free money for an employee raise.
Slidell City Council to consider $65M budget

4 weeks ago | nola.com | Sara Pagones

Slidell's proposed budget of just over $65 million will be up for public hearing next month along with ordinances setting the salaries of the mayor, police chief and council members. The budget for fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1, was introduced March 25 without discussion and will be on the April 22 agenda. The proposed budget represents a decrease from 2025, when a $4.6 million carry-forward for one-time expenses swelled the budget to $75.2 million.
Elizabeth 'Betsy' Nalty selected to receive The Times-Picayune Loving Cup for 2024

1 month ago | nola.com | Sara Pagones

Most people don’t embark on their life’s work until early adulthood, but Elizabeth “Betsy” Nalty's lifelong dedication to volunteering was ignited when she was very young, watching her mother’s community work in the post WWII era and getting involved in civic endeavors herself when she was just a child.
Mandeville prohibits electronic bikes on city sidewalks

1 month ago | nola.com | Sara Pagones

Riding electric bicycles and most other motorized vehicles on Mandeville’s sidewalks will be illegal, the Mandeville City Council decided Thursday, citing the danger they pose to pedestrians. Council member Cynthia Strong-Thompson pushed the measure, saying the issue came to the fore last August after a man was nearly hit by an e-bike, which she said can reach speeds of 35 mph and can come up on an unwitting pedestrian very quickly.
Poseidon Mardi Gras parade will light up the night in Slidell for its 10th anniversary

2 months ago | nola.com | Sara Pagones

A kitchen table chat about what was missing in Slidell’s Carnival experience led to the formation of what has become the season’s largest and most anticipated event on the northshore, the 700-plus-member Krewe of Poseidon, which is marking its 10th anniversary this year. Captain Ronny Kastner says he and the others sitting around that table thought it would take two years to launch Poseidon. But members of the coed krewe pressed for a faster start.
Slidell's Rosemary Clement: the queen of so many hearts

2 months ago | nola.com | Sara Pagones

When Rosemary Clement takes her royal ride through Slidell on Feb. 16 as the very first queen of the Krewe of Antheia, the experience won’t exactly be old hat, but more like old crown. After all, Clement, who taught several generations of Slidell children dance and gymnastics, has been a queen a whopping eight times — all of them after she turned 50. Her role with Antheia won’t even be her first time to be a krewe’s inaugural queen.
Slidell pastor continues to be inspired by the words of MLK

Jan 14, 2025 | nola.com | Sara Pagones

Slidell minister Norman Farve can still feel the power of Martin Luther King Jr.’s words when he listens to recordings of his speeches, even though it has been nearly 57 years since the civil rights leader and Baptist pastor was killed by an assassin’s bullet in Memphis, Tennessee. “The way he speaks — ‘I have a dream!’ His speaking is drawing,” said Farve, pastor of Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in Slidell.
St. Tammany megachurch pastor steps down after nearly 30 years in the pulpit. What's next?

Jan 9, 2025 | nola.com | Sara Pagones

When James Mitchell first came to Mandeville in 1995 to scope out the Methodist church he was to serve as senior pastor, the Bossier City native says he had trouble even finding St. Timothy on the Northshore. “I thought we had the worst location," Mitchell said. “All the other churches were on U.S. 190 and Highway 22. Here we were stuck back in the woods. We didn’t have very much parking at all, just the front lot and a little strip.” But there’s no missing St. Timothy today.