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Office: St. Helena Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness – coordinated with the Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff: St. Helena Parish Sheriff’s Office – 19 North First Street, Greensburg, LA 70441 (P.O. Box 1205) | (225) 222-4413 | Fax (225) 222-3144; Sheriff Clay Chutz, sworn in 2024 after winning election with 55% of the vote, following the retirement of longtime Sheriff Nat Williams (in office 2007-2024, the parish’s first African American sheriff); Chutz brings over 30 years of law enforcement experience, including service on the Louisiana State Police governor’s protective detail for six governors. 8 regular deputies plus 6 part-time deputies. St. Helena Parish Jail – 387 Sitman Street, Greensburg, LA | (225) 222-6896 | Fax (225) 222-6908.
Notes: For an active emergency, call 911.
Roads & Utilities
ROADS & TRANSPORTATION
Roads: LA Highway 10 and LA Highway 43 serve Greensburg, the parish seat, a small rural community east of Baton Rouge.
Notes: St. Helena Parish, established in 1810, is named for the island of St. Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.
Business & Permits
BUILDING & PERMITS
Office: St. Helena Parish Courthouse – Greensburg, LA; the adjacent Old St. Helena Parish Jail (built c. 1855) is on the National Register of Historic Places, one of the oldest surviving structures in the parish.
Notes: St. Helena Parish’s Sheriff’s Office has had a notably turbulent recent history: in the roughly two decades before Sheriff Nat Williams took office in 2007, three elected sheriffs and one deputy sheriff were convicted and imprisoned for offenses including misuse of government funds, fraud, and running a stolen-vehicle “chop shop” using state prisoners as unpaid labor – a period Williams’s long, stable tenure (2007-2024) is often credited with helping the parish move past.
Veterans Services
VETERANS SERVICES
Office: St. Helena Parish Veterans Affairs – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/st-helena-parish.
Libraries
LIBRARIES
St. Helena Parish Library (main branch, Greensburg) – confirm current address/phone via the parish library system.
Parks & Recreation
PARKS & RECREATION
Key Assets: The historic Greensburg courthouse square and Old St. Helena Parish Jail are the parish’s notable historic sites; St. Helena remains a quiet, rural community.
Notes: There is no widely marketed tourism draw for this parish; its distinguishing character is its small-town rural setting.
GIS & Maps
GIS & MAPS
Appraisal/Parcel Search: St. Helena Parish Assessor’s Office – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/st-helena-parish.
Animal Services
ANIMAL SERVICES
⚠️ St. Helena Parish has no public animal control department and no parish-run animal shelter – confirmed by a 2020 statewide Louisiana animal welfare audit that identified it as one of 11 parishes statewide without a public shelter, a status that persisted as of late 2025 reporting. The parish’s only animal welfare resource is a small volunteer-run, donation-funded no-kill nonprofit kennel; it has struggled financially (reportedly costing roughly $9,000/month to operate) and neighboring parishes generally will not accept St. Helena strays due to their own capacity constraints. Families needing animal-related help in this parish should contact the Sheriff’s Office directly for current referral options, as formal services here are limited.
Environmental & Waste
ENVIRONMENTAL / WASTE MANAGEMENT
Office: St. Helena Parish Police Jury Public Works – confirm current contact via louisiana.gov/local-louisiana/st-helena-parish.
NOTES: St. Helena Parish is the fourth parish in the eighth batch of the Louisiana v2 A+ sourced standard. This is a genuinely under-resourced rural parish for public services, particularly animal welfare – flagged honestly rather than smoothed over, consistent with this project’s standard. All contact information above was sourced via web search as of early August 2026 and should be reconfirmed directly with the relevant office before a visit, deadline-sensitive filing, or emergency-adjacent decision.
About St. Helena Parish County
St. Helena Parish is southeast Louisiana’s Bogue Chitto River and Feliciana Hills timber parish – the cypress-lined blackwater river refuge and the rolling pine timber landscape define a rural community where Greensburg serves the surrounding agricultural and forest families near Mississippi.
Greensburg (the parish seat, population ~600) is St. Helena Parish’s governmental hub on LA-43, a small southeast Louisiana community near Mississippi whose Bogue Chitto River access, timber economy, and courthouse anchor its identity.
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St. Helena Parish Assessor at 205 S. Main Street, Greensburg, LA 70441, phone 225-222-4574. LA assessed at 10% of fair market value.
Courts & Legal
St. Helena Parish District Court at 205 S. Main Street, Greensburg, LA 70441, phone 225-222-4549, handles successions.
Marriage & Vital Records
Marriage licenses, divorce records, and birth & death certificates are handled by the following office(s):
CLERK OF COURT (Records, Vital Records, Mortgages)
400 E. College St., Greensburg, LA 70441
(225) 222-4514
Genealogy
Parish-level record sources
St. Helena Parish Clerk of Court (succession/estate case files – see Succession section above).
The Greensburg Land Office and the Old St. Helena Parish Jail, both listed on the National Register of Historic Places, are significant local landmarks – the Land Office is among the two or three oldest buildings in Louisiana’s Florida Parishes.
Local societies
No dedicated St. Helena Parish genealogical society was confirmed in available directories.
Probate & Estate
Losing someone and having to deal with courts and paperwork at the same time is hard. This section won’t make that easier, but it should tell you what to expect, what it costs, and where to go – so at least you’re not walking in blind.
A NOTE ON LOUISIANA LAW: Louisiana is the only U.S. state built on a civil-law tradition (rooted in the Napoleonic Code) rather than English common law. Louisiana doesn’t use the word “probate” – the equivalent process is called a “succession,” and its 64 parishes are the equivalent of counties elsewhere. Community property and separate property rules also work differently here than in common-law states, which can affect what’s actually part of the succession.
Where to go
St. Helena Parish 21st Judicial District Court, Clerk of Court 369 Sitman Street, Suite 101 (P.O. Box 308), Greensburg, LA 70441 (225) 222-4514 St. Helena Parish was founded 1810, named for Saint Helena, in the “Florida Parishes” region of southeastern Louisiana. Its seat, Greensburg, is one of the oldest towns in Louisiana; the parish seat was originally at Montpelier before moving to Greensburg in 1832. The Greensburg Land Office (c. 1825) and the Old St. Helena Parish Jail (1855), both on the National Register of Historic Places, are notable local landmarks on Courthouse Square.
Step 1: figure out which path applies
Small Succession Affidavit – under La. Code Civ. Proc. art. 3421 et seq., available for estates with a gross value of $125,000 or less at the date of death (or of any value if the decedent has been dead more than 20 years). No court proceeding is required. At least two people must sign – typically the surviving spouse (if any) plus one or more heirs, sworn before a notary. If the estate includes immovable property (real estate), the affidavit can’t be recorded until 90 days after the date of death, and it must be recorded with the Clerk of Court/Recorder in every parish where the decedent owned real estate.
Succession Without Administration (“simple possession”) – used when there are no debts to pay and all heirs agree; commonly resolved in 30 to 90 days via a Petition for Possession.
Administered Succession – required when a court-appointed succession representative needs to inventory assets and pay debts before distribution; typically takes 3 to 9 months, longer if contested.
Important: for anything beyond a small succession affidavit, Louisiana courts generally require a licensed Louisiana attorney to represent the succession – self-representation and generic online forms are not accepted the way they are in many other states.
Step 2: filing a regular succession
File a Petition for Possession (simple cases) or a Petition for Administration (if a representative and formal administration are needed) in the district court of the parish where the decedent was domiciled at death.
The court admits any will and, where needed, appoints an executor (testate) or administrator (intestate), issuing Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration.
In an administered succession, the representative prepares a sworn descriptive list of assets, pays valid debts, and accounts to the court.
The court issues a Judgment of Possession, which must then be recorded in the parish conveyance/land records and with the parish tax assessor to clear title.
What it costs
Filing fees vary by parish and case type; publication costs apply when legal notices are required.
A full administered succession typically requires attorney representation – flat fees for straightforward matters often run in the low thousands of dollars, more if contested or complex.
A small succession affidavit is far less expensive and, when no real estate is involved, can often be handled without an attorney – though even small errors can cause a bank, title company, or the Louisiana OMV to reject the affidavit.
Probate filings, estate administration, and guardianship matters are handled by the following office(s):
Public Safety & Arrests
Arrest records, inmate search, and law enforcement services are handled by the following office(s):
SHERIFF
400 E. College St., Greensburg, LA 70441
(225) 222-4413
SHERIFF / TAX COLLECTOR
400 E. College St., Greensburg, LA 70441
(225) 222-4413
Elections & Voting
Voter registration, polling locations, and elections information are handled by the following office(s):
REGISTRAR OF VOTERS (Elections)
400 E. College St., Greensburg, LA 70441
(225) 222-4549
Health & Human Services
Offices & Contacts
Health services, social services, and assistance programs are handled by the following office(s):
St. Helena Parish Health Unit
(225) 222-4327
LA DCFS — Capital Region
(225) 342-4086
LA Medicaid
(888) 342-6207
Our Lady of the Lake (Baton Rouge)
ololrmc.com (accessible for major care)
Lane Regional Medical Center
laneregional.org (Zachary — accessible)
Public Health Information
PUBLIC HEALTH
Office: St. Helena Parish Health Unit – confirm current contact via Louisiana Department of Health regional office listings.
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Last verified June 2026
County Facts
Population: 11,000
Area: 408 sq mi
Established: 1812
Public Records
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