Washington Parish Communications District

01/24/2026

Washington Parish Communications District – Weather Closure Notice

Due to the extreme cold weather conditions, the Washington Parish Communications District will be closed on Monday, January 26. No addresses will be issued during this closure.

Please continue to monitor local weather updates and take all necessary precautions to stay safe.

12/22/2025

Holiday Office Hours for Washington Parish Communications District.

Our office will be closed on the following dates:

• Christmas: Wednesday, Dec 24 – Friday, Dec 26
• New Year’s: Wednesday, Dec 31 – Friday, Jan 2

We will be back on Monday, January 5th.

We would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May God bless each of you—please stay safe during your celebrations!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Washington Parish Communications District

11/25/2025

Office Closure Notice – Thanksgiving Holiday

Our office will be closed on November 27–28 in observance of the Thanksgiving holidays.

We would like to wish each of you a very Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for, and the residents of Washington Parish are certainly among the blessings we at the Washington Parish Communications District are most grateful for.

Thank you for being part of our community, and may your holiday be filled with joy, family, and gratitude.

Psalm 100:4 encourages us to enter God's presence with thankfulness and praise. It says

"Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his
name."

10/31/2025

A Friendly Reminder About 9-1-1 and Addressing in Washington Parish

Hello everyone,

I’d like to take a moment to share a few important reminders about 9-1-1 services in our Parish.

The Washington Parish Communications District is responsible for maintaining all addresses and road names outside of our municipalities. When a new road is created, we update our 9-1-1 dispatch map with the new road and address information. This ensures that when you call 9-1-1, your location appears on the dispatcher’s map—helping us get emergency services to you as quickly as possible.

While many people rely on third-party mapping services like Google Maps, TomTom, and others—which are great tools—they may not always have the most current address data. These platforms can lag behind our official 9-1-1 system. That’s why it’s so important not to rely solely on them in an emergency. If you have an emergency, please call 9-1-1—our dispatchers will have the most accurate and up-to-date location information to assist you.

Another critical reminder: Make sure your address is clearly visible from the road—on both sides of your mailbox or post. Emergency responders may approach from a different direction than your mail carrier, and visible addressing can save precious time.

You can also visit our website: Washington Parish Communications District and click on Maps, then select Interactive Maps (Searchable). From there, you can enter your address to view its exact location.

📱 Want quick access from your phone? Scan the QR code from the site in the top right corner under Share to save to your favorites or bookmark it for easier access in the future.


Thank you all for being such a wonderful community to serve. It is truly an honor to work on your behalf. If you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly.

God bless each of you,

Joanna Thomas Director,
Washington Parish Communications District
54100 Dollar Rd, Franklinton, LA 70438
📞 985-516-3784 (Available 24/7)

Geo-Spatial Information

09/26/2025

As many of you heard yesterday on September 25, 2025 there were reports in the news regarding disruptions to the 911 system across multiple states.

While Washington Parish was briefly affected, I’m pleased to inform you that we have multiple layers of backup systems in place precisely for these scenarios. In the event that one system experiences failure, we have others that take effect to ensure continuity.

As a result, the ability to call for emergency assistance was only momentarily interrupted in our Parish.

The Washington Parish Communications District has designed the 911 system with a robust fallback mechanism to ensure continued access to emergency dispatchers during situations like this.

I refrained from posting updates because I knew the necessary information was being communicated through news reports and emergency notifications.

However, should anyone have questions regarding the 911 system or its current status, please don’t hesitate to contact me, Joanna Thomas, at 985-516-3784. I’m happy to provide as much information as possible.

09/20/2025

This is so true. I am so PROUD of our dispatchers! We have the best of I do say so myself. I love each one of them!!! Thank y’all for what y’all do.

“Behind every emergency call, there is a voice you don’t see — the 911 dispatcher. They are the first first-responders, the lifeline between chaos and help. From the moment the phone rings, they carry the weight of fear, confusion, and urgency, guiding strangers through their darkest moments with steady calm. They know people they’ve never seen, hear addresses they’ll never visit, and hold secrets no one else will ever know. Yet, they give comfort, send help, and save lives every single day. This picture is a reminder of the silent heroes who sit behind the screens, headsets on, hearts heavy, but voices strong. They are the heartbeat of emergency response.”

06/07/2025

06/07/2025

06/07/2025

05/29/2025

We are all extremely excited about this new chapter for the residents of Washington Parish. The Washington Parish Communications District and its board along with its staff and Homeland Security have had this vision for many, many years now and it has taken a lot of work and effort on everyone involved to achieve this goal. When the building was built 10 plus years ago it was built with the vision of having dispatchers sitting at the most ergonomically correct consoles with the state-of-the-art 9-1-1 and mapping system, as well as having a place for Homeland Security to gather together with other agencies and coordinate during a disaster or any type of an emergency. Well two out of the three goals were met, the Homeland Security part and the mapping and addressing part was met when the building was complete. We just had one more goal to achieve and the vision would become a reality and now we are proud to say that the vision is now a reality!
Sheriff Smith recognized the challenges that we all faced and needed to overcome and through teamwork and his campaign promise we were able to achieve goal. It took teamwork from everyone involved.
When the Communications/EOC building was built, it was built with all the state-of-the-art equipment. Many that have come to tour the Communications/EOC building over the past decade have all left with a very impressionable opinion. As in their words it was the best stat-of-the-art facility that they had ever seen around this area and they could not understand why only a portion of it was being utilized, but thankful to all involved the Communications District and its board members and their staff, the office of Homeland Security and the Sheriff's Department and all of their staff as well as all the ones behind the scenes that vision is now a reality, and we are incredibly grateful and extremely excited to see what the future holds for the residence of Washington Parish.
So, I would like to say on behalf to the Washington Parish Communications District and its board member as well that the addressing and mapping staff… WELCOME to the Washington Parish Sheriff’s dispatchers to your new home!!!

05/19/2025

We are excited to announce that the dispatchers from the Washington Parish Sheriff's Office have a new Home in the Washington Parish Communications District building.

We have anxiously waited for those seats to be filled for a long time now. And due to the promise of our current sheriff, they are filled.

It is also a great big thank you to the challenging work and dedication from the Washington Parish Communications District Board members, they now have a new home.

The Washington Parish Communications District board members are:

Jim Coleman, Chairman
Mike Stogner, Co-Chairman
Cynthia August, Secretary
Danny Harris, Treasurer
Olander Smith
Brett Jones
Sarah Burris

A retired board member who served as our treasurer for many years, Mr. Gary Fenner.
And, to our past Homeland Security Director Mr. Tommy Thiebaud and our current Homeland Security Director Ms Bobby Joe Breland.

All these ladies and gentlemen. Have worked tirelessly to achieve this.

The members of the Washington Parish Communications District Board serve without compensation. It is strictly for the love of the citizens of our parish they devote their time.

Many people are unaware of the fact Mr. Jim Coleman has spent numerous hours of his own free will and time planning and designing the technical details of this building.

Mr. Coleman is an engineer by trade and a ham radio operator. He knows the location of every bolt and wire in the building. We rely on his expertise especially me.

So, I would like to especially give a shout-out and a great BIG thank you to our Chairman, Mr. Jim Coleman who has devoted his time and effort to ensure that the parish benefits from the facilities provided by the EOC building. His dedication is greatly appreciated. Thank you, Mr. Jim Coleman we couldn't do this without you!