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Franklin voters will choose a new mayor Saturday.
Incumbent city councilman Eugene Foulcard Sr. and former city councilman Jimmie Daniel II are the only candidates in the race. There are no other items on the ballot Saturday.
Polling hours are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

NEW ORLEANS — It’s daylight outside, but with indoor lights simulating a full moon, hundreds of bats flap back and forth. On a nearby wall, what appears to be a talking stone face provides bat fun facts.
It’s the night house at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, and it opens Friday. The Associated Press got a preview Tuesday.
The centerpiece of the $1.6 million night house is the 42-foot-long flight cage for 200 Seba’s short-tailed bats — fruit-eating mammals up to 2½ inches (6.4 centimeters) long, with a foot-wide (30 centimeter) wingspan.
“It’s amazing going in there and having the bats fly by you,” animal care staffer Dominique Fleitas said Tuesday. “You can feel the wind as their wings are flapping around you.”
She said their echolocation — the ability to use sound to locate objects — is so precise that they easily go around her.
The animals in the Criaturas de la Noche (Creatures of the Night) Bat House all are from Central and South America. The building’s interior simulates an abandoned warehouse set up to protect Mayan artifacts during a dig. One wall is painted with maps of the supposed site and its general area. Tiles, plates and other “artifacts” hang on other walls or sit on shelves.
Near one end of the flight cage is a giant simulated carving of a man with loudspeakers for earrings, topped by a movie projection of a speaking, sculpted face.
“Push my buttons. I dare you,” it says at intervals. “I’d do it myself but I have no arms. I’m just a giant button-head.”
Pressing the buttons elicits messages such as “Some bats live by themselves, while others live in caves with thousands of other bats. The largest bat colony in the world is found in Texas, at the Bracken Cave.”
A much smaller colony — eight vampire bats — lives in one of a half-dozen exhibit cases set up as if a visitor was looking through a broken wall into the jungle. Their home is made to imitate a tropical ceiba-tree’s buttress-like root with cup-like green lichen growing from it. During the preview, a half-dozen bats hung together from one such cup, forming a clump that could fit easily into one hand, while a seventh lapped cow’s blood from a small bowl on the ground.
Other cases hold giant cave cockroaches, reddish poison dart frogs with creamy white stripes, two kinds of tarantulas, and thumb-sized green tree frogs. At each end are two more elaborate displays, one for the Nancy Ma’s night owl monkeys, or douroucoulis, and the other for a ring-tailed cat — actually related to raccoons.
The roaches’ home is made to imitate a huge football-shaped termite mound formed around several branches and later slashed open by an anteater. A half-dozen 3-inch-long cockroaches were aligned along one branch, just hanging out.
“They’re creepy. Super creepy,” said Ashley McClaran, vice president for construction and exhibits. “They hiss at you and they’re giant. My son is going to love them. He’s seven.”
The ring-tailed cat and douroucoulis were wary of the strangers tromping near the quarters they’d just moved into.
Ignoring a slanted climbing wall designed to look like part of an intricately carved Mayan ball court, the ring-tailed cat occasionally left the shelter of a crate at one side.
The arboreal douroucoulis’ exhibit, created to look as if thick ropes were being used to haul up an intricately decorated 2-foot-wide pottery circle, has lots of places for above-ground clambering. But the monkeys were sitting on a shelf at the exhibit’s top left corner, and could barely be seen.
“We’re going to move that little shelf today,” to a much lower spot below the entrance to their sleeping quarters, on the other side of the enclosure, McClaran said. “It will give them an easy way to get into the back-of-house, and a platform to see them.”

The Cypress Sawmill Festival is set to return to the Kemper Williams Park Fairgrounds near Patterson Friday, April 6 through Sunday, April 8.

In October 2017, organizers announced plans to bring the festival back in 2018 after they had canceled the 2017 festival due to several recent years of bad weather and lack of revenues and volunteers.

The inaugural sawmill festival was held in 1991.

Its main purpose is to support and raise money for Louisiana State Museum — Patterson, home of the Cypress Sawmill and Wedell-Williams Aviation exhibits, said Jeff LaGrange, festival committee chairman.

The festival is also meant to be “a good family-oriented” event for the community, he said.

Included in the festival are All-American Lumberjack shows, musical acts, carnival rides, food and arts and crafts vendors, an old engine display, a softball tournament and children’s pageant.

A car show may also be held April 7, but officials haven’t yet confirmed if that event will take place at the festival, LaGrange said.

Entry into the park for the festival will be $5 per vehicle on April 6 and April 8. Entry will be $10 per vehicle on April 7. The gate opening times haven’t yet been set.

The Mitchell Brothers Carnival rides will cost extra. Pay-one-price bracelets for rides will be available each day during the festival, but those prices haven’t been determined yet, LaGrange said.

There will be three lumberjack shows Saturday and a Kids Lumberjack Sport Camp with chainsaw carving. Two lumberjack shows will take place Sunday in addition to another lumberjack camp for kids.

Festival organizers partnered with Road to 3rd Street Songs on the Bayou Songwriters Festival and Last Honky Tonk Music Series. The songwriters festival will take place April 5-15 at multiple venues in the area.

Brigitte London, director of the music series and songwriters festival, is also music director for the Cypress Sawmill Festival.

“What we did is kind of partner with her, and she’s incorporating some of her artists into our music. And then we’re going to help her throughout the following week with her festival,” LaGrange said.

Some of the entertainers will also be giving tours of the museum. A shuttle bus will bring visitors from the fairgrounds to the museum, he said.

Music will begin at 5:15 p.m. April 6 with Sadie McClendon, a 10-year-old country musician from Alabama. At 6:30 p.m., KQKI 95.3 FM will host the Country Music Showdown singing competition.

Déjà Vu will close out that night’s music at 9:45 p.m.

On April 7, Jus Cuz will kick off the music at noon followed by Cliff Hillebran at 2 p.m., Lowdown with Hal Bruni at 3:30 p.m., Mudbone at 5:30 p.m., Sean Gasaway at 7:45 p.m., and the headliner, Jeff Bates at 8:30 p.m.

Bates is a country singer whose most recent album, “Me and Conway,” has six original songs and six Conway Twitty classics, including a duet with Loretta Lynn, his website says.

On April 8, music will begin with a Gospel Jam at noon followed by the D.a.T. Sauce Young Artists Showcase at 1 p.m. and then Grammy Award-Winning zydeco musician Chubby Carrier at 3 p.m. to finish the Cypress Sawmill Festival music lineup.

Carrier will finish playing around 5:30 p.m., but the carnival rides will likely stay open “until the last people leave,” LaGrange said.

Also on April 8, New Orleans Saints mascot “Gumbo the Dog” will be at the festival grounds meeting people and signing autographs.

Camper space is still available at Kemper Williams Park during the festival. Those interested in bringing their campers may call the park at 985-395-2298.

For more information on the Cypress Sawmill Festival, visit cypresssawmillfestival.com.

A 21-year-old New Iberia woman was booked Tuesday in Morgan City on a charge of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, Police Chief James Blair said in a news release.

—Sydnie L. Wainwright, 21, of New Horizons Mobile Home Park in New Iberia, was arrested at 10 a.m. Tuesday on a warrant charging her with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.

Wainwright was located and arrested at Morgan City Police Department on a warrant. The warrant stems from a March 15 investigation when officers were assisting Patterson Police Department with an investigation that led to the Morgan City area.

The investigation led to a home in the area of Sacred Heart Drive, where Wainwright and several other people were identified. Wainwright was allegedly in possession of a large amount of suspected marijuana, Blair said.

The investigation continued and warrants were prepared for Wainwright’s arrest. Wainwright was jailed. The investigation is still ongoing.

Blair reported that officers responded to 46 calls and reported the following arrests:

—Tanner W. Beglau, 30, of East Old Spanish Trail in New Iberia, was arrested at 2 p.m. Tuesday on a warrant charging him with seven counts of failure to appear for trial.

Beglau was located and arrested at Morgan City Police Department on a city court warrant. Beglau was jailed.

—Dustin C. Lennep, 41, of Barrow Street in Morgan City, was arrested at 5:07 p.m. Tuesday on a warrant charging him with failure to appear to pay a fine. Lennep was located and arrested in the area of Federal Avenue on a city court warrant. Lennep was jailed.

—Demetrius J. Green, 26, of Mars Road in Bayou Vista, was arrested at 8:03 p.m. Tuesday on a warrant charging him with two counts of failure to appear for arraignment, another warrant charging him with failure to appear for arraignment and on a 16th Judicial District warrant charging him with failure to appear for revocation.

—Cortez Francois, 22, of Garber Street in Morgan City, was arrested at 7:37 p.m. Tuesday on charges of possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of promethazine with codeine.

Patrol officers observed a vehicle being operated in the area of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in an erratic manner. A stop was initiated, and Green was identified as the driver and Francois as an occupant. Francois was in possession of suspected marijuana, promethazine with codeine and drug paraphernalia, Blair said.

Green had several active arrest warrants through city court and 16th Judicial District Court. Green and Cortez were jailed.

St. Mary Parish Sheriff Scott Anslum reported that deputies responded to 40 complaints in the parish and reported the following arrests in east St. Mary Parish:

—Traylin Smith, 24, of Ellis Street in Patterson, was arrested at 7:29 a.m. Tuesday on a warrant charging him with failure to comply with the terms and conditions of probation.

A deputy responding to a call for service in the Patterson area made contact with Smith and located the active warrant for his arrest. The deputy transported Smith to parish jail. No bail is set.

—Sheila Sons, 32, of O Street in Patterson, was arrested at 3:13 p.m. Tuesday on a warrant for failure to appear on charges of possession of a legend drug without a prescription and possession of drug paraphernalia. During booking at parish jail, a correctional deputy located the active warrant for Sons. No bail is set.

Patterson Police Chief Patrick LaSalle reported the following arrests:

—Alicia Bertrand, 33, of Cremo Lane in Patterson, was arrested at 4:29 p.m. Tuesday on a charge of aggravated domestic abuse battery. No bail was set yet.

—Eric Gaskins, 37, of Como Street in Patterson, was arrested at 4:29 p.m. Tuesday on a charge of simple battery involving domestic violence. Gaskins posted $5,000 bail.

—Chane Favors, 42, of Plum Street in Patterson, was arrested at 11:41 p.m. Tuesday on charges of disturbing the peace by language, disturbing the peace intoxicated, resisting an officer with force or violence and simple battery. No bail was set yet.

Berwick Police Chief James Richard reported no arrests.