Founder and editor of WBR Independent. U.S. Army veteran, Purple Heart recipient, Eagle Scout, former volunteer firefighter. Covering West Baton Rouge Parish with principle, not politics.
$6.6 million separates two proposed sites — and the clock is ticking. Port Allen residents weighed in on where to build a new sewer treatment plant. The 65-year-old facility is failing, and the city says it can't wait much longer.
May 06, 2026
By John Summers | May 6, 2026 PORT ALLEN — The rain wasn't going to stop them. Despite the rain, a good turnout of runners and walkers gathered at Jack's Place on Thursday evening for the annual Running for Rachael 5K, a walk and run held in honor
May 05, 2026
By John Summers | May 2, 2026 PORT ALLEN — Syreeta Neal grew up in a family where music wasn't something you studied first. You sang first, and figured out the theory later. That philosophy is at the center of Sunday Chanté, a free monthly singing circle for women that
May 02, 2026
By John Summers | WBR Independent | April 30, 2026 PORT ALLEN — West Baton Rouge Parish residents will have a say on whether to keep funding their local public health unit after the Parish Council voted Thursday to call a special election on a property tax renewal — one of several action items
April 30, 2026
By John Summers | WBR Independent April 26, 2026 PORT ALLEN — When disaster strikes in West Baton Rouge Parish, the American Red Cross has no one here to respond. That was the message Burk Hughes, disaster programs manager for the Red Cross capital area, delivered to the Port Allen Neighborhood Watch
April 28, 2026
The board voted to close a civil service appeal that raised questions about who had the legal authority to fire him. The West Baton Rouge Parish Fire Protection District No. 1 Board of Commissioners voted Thursday to approve a $77,500 settlement with former Deputy Fire Chief James Hartley Jr.
April 27, 2026
PORT ALLEN — A former Port Allen High School special education teacher is suing the West Baton Rouge Parish School System and Superintendent Dr. Chandler Smith, claiming the district fired her in retaliation for reporting that a paraprofessional was bullying a student with disabilities. Melissa Durham filed the lawsuit on March
April 23, 2026
Council approves contract to modernize outdated policy manual; sewer project goes back out for bids PORT ALLEN — The Port Allen City Council voted unanimously April 8 to modernize the police department's policy manual for the first time since 2001, approving a contract with Lexipol, a company that provides
April 22, 2026
PORT ALLEN — The city is working on a written policy to govern how it handles past-due water and gas accounts, after its outside auditor flagged the lack of one as a material weakness in the most recent annual audit. The finding, from Ericksen Krentel LLP's audit of
April 21, 2026
