It grants me great pleasure to offer some words of inspiration and motivation to our parish elected officials who were recently sworn in to serve as leaders of our precious parish.

It’s with the utmost expectation that each one of you will remember that you have been chosen to implement the will and wishes of “the people” as a whole.

I encourage you to keep God at the forefront of your decision-making and you’ll never go wrong. Always remember that you’re working for the public to promote progress.

I ask that we stand behind our elected officials in a unified effort to move Washington Parish forward.

God bless our leaders, citizens and our great parish.

— Keith Merrill,

Bogalusa