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Severe winter weather hit Northeast Louisiana Sunday. Snow and ice have closed schools and public offices across the parish. D'Arbonne Woods Charter School top photo, the Union Parish Courthouse and the Courthouse Annex are closed, along with many other businesses in town and across the parish. More severe weather is expected through Thursday. Gazette photos by Shanna Jones

The Union Arts Council will hold its ninth annual Competitive Art Exhibition on March 27. Vitus Shell will juror the competition. Shell is a Monroe native and lives and works there. Shell is also a visiting assistant professor of art at Louisiana Tech University. He earned a BFA from Memphis College of Art in 2000 and an MFA from the University of Mississippi in 2008.

Union General Hospital is in the process of identifying health needs in Union Parish, so they can better plan to meet those needs. The hospital is inviting UP residents to take the 2021 Community Health Needs Assessment survey to help them understand how to better meet the health needs of our community.

In a world that becomes more and more digital every day, many may believe that libraries are out of date or that they are a dying form of information. However, Stephanie Herrmann, Director of the Union Parish Library, and her staff are proving that to be very wrong.

The Louisiana Sheriffs’ Scholarship Program will award scholarships providing assistance to worthy Louisiana students in furthering their education and training with resources made available through the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Honorary Membership Program. According to Program Chair, St.

Union Parish has been awarded Federal Funds made available through the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)/ Federal Emergency Management Agency Under the Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program. Union has been chosen to receive $8,307 (Phase 38) to supplement emergency food and shelter programs in the parish.

The COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020 took the ordinary lives of Americans and turned them upside down. The March stay-at-home orders brought a sudden halt to almost everything. Businesses, restaurants, movie theaters, shops, hair salons and most other establishments were closed. People who were used to working, socializing and conducting busy lives were suddenly forced to stay home.

The Union Parish School Board met Thursday for its regular session and approved several important resolutions. The first order of business was election of a President and Vice President.

Gov. John Bel Edwards today extended his modified Phase 2 order, keeping COVID mitigation measures in place for another 28 days, and strongly recommended that all businesses in Louisiana move to remote work for as many employees as possible, as COVID cases and hospitalizations surge in Louisiana. The Governor’s statewide mask mandate also stays in place.

During economic downturns and fiscally difficult times, one area that people may not realize that feels this difficulty more than most are nonprofit animal protection groups like local humane shelters.