New location: Rotolo’s Pizzeria is expanding into Chalmette. The Baton Rouge-based chain has announced that it is opening its 34th location at 8109 W. Judge Perez Drive in Chalmette. The new restaurant is owned by Sandy Alphonso and her husband, Peter. The 2,757-square-foot restaurant features a game room with an air hockey table and three claw machines as well as a video poker area. Rotolo’s says the Chalmette location is at the forefront of an expansion initiative. New locations in Baton Rouge on Burbank Drive and Ben Hur Road and in Longview, Texas, are scheduled to open before the fourth quarter of this year.
A new phase: Joe Donchess is retiring from his post as executive director of the Louisiana Nursing Home Association, effective Dec. 31. According to a news release, Donchess’ retirement will mark the end of 30 years of service at the association. He joined the Louisiana Nursing Home Association in March 1986 as executive director. “Joe Donchess has been a very strong leader and one who has managed the association through challenging times and tremendous successes,” says Ron Goux, president of the LNHA board of directors. “His guidance, leadership and expertise have been instrumental to the association’s success throughout the past 30 years.” Donchess says he is grateful for the three decades he has spent with the association. The LNHA board will conduct the process to choose Donchess’ successor.
On the ballot: Louisiana voters this fall will decide whether college systems can boost their own tuition rates, whether to sock away money from oil price booms into savings and whether to rewrite the state’s corporate tax laws, The Associated Press reports. Lawmakers passed six proposed constitutional amendments during their three legislative sessions that stretched from February until June. All of the amendment proposals will be on the Nov. 8 ballot for voters to consider. That’s the same time Louisianians will be voting for a new president, the person to fill an open U.S. Senate seat and the state’s six U.S. House members. The amendments are not the heavy lifting of some years, when voters were asked to sift through a dozen or more constitutional rewrite proposals, but the complex list still could require some homework.
