[0:00] My name is Bo Bologn and I have the
[0:02] honor of serving as chief administrative
[0:04] officer Fiberia Parish reporting
[0:06] directly to parish president M. Larry
[0:07] Rishard. Alongside President Rishard,
[0:10] our administration and our department
[0:12] heads, we work as a unified team to
[0:15] ensure the efficient and effective
[0:16] operations of Iberia Parish government.
[0:19] Iberia Powers government is comprised of
[0:21] 33 departments supported by
[0:23] approximately 300 270 dedicated
[0:26] employees and managed through an annual
[0:28] operating budget of over $100 million.
[0:32] For the past decade, President Rishard's
[0:35] administration has taken a
[0:36] business-minded approach to government,
[0:39] emphasizing fiscal responsibility,
[0:42] accountability, and the prudent use of
[0:44] public funds while continuously striving
[0:46] to enhance the quality of life for the
[0:48] citizens of Iberia Parish. This
[0:50] evening's presentation will highlight
[0:52] several key departments including
[0:54] finance, public works, Aadiana Regional
[0:58] Airport, Waterworks District number one,
[1:01] sewage district, waterworks district
[1:03] number three, excuse me, sewage district
[1:05] number one, and animal control. We will
[1:08] also address additional topics of
[1:10] interest such as drainage and roadway
[1:12] improvement projects, the port of
[1:14] Iberia, and the expansion of our fiber
[1:16] connectivity to homes and businesses
[1:18] throughout the parish. Finally, we will
[1:22] reflect on the accomplishments of the
[1:23] past decade and share our vision for the
[1:26] continued progress and future success of
[1:28] Iberia Parish.
[1:30] It is now my pleasure to introduce the
[1:32] individual best suited to speak on these
[1:34] achievements and outline the parish um
[1:37] forward. Our parish president M. Larry
[1:40] Rousard.
[1:43] [applause]
[1:53] » Good evening.
[1:55] » Good evening.
[1:59] First and foremost, I want to thank God
[2:01] for allowing me to be here with you all
[2:02] today.
[2:04] I would also like to express my
[2:06] gratitude to my wonderful wife, Kim, and
[2:09] our children, Tyler and Morgan.
[2:13] Before I continue, I want to take a
[2:15] moment to recognize and honor our
[2:18] veterans who are here with us today.
[2:19] Would you please stand?
[2:25] » [applause]
[2:30] » Thank you all so much. Your courage,
[2:33] sacrifice, and dedication to defending
[2:35] our freedoms and the foundation of
[2:38] strength of this nation is awesome.
[2:42] We owe you a debt of gratitude that we
[2:44] can never fully repay. Thank you for
[2:47] your service and your continued
[2:49] contribution to our our community.
[2:54] I am deeply thankful to my
[2:56] administration staff, my executive
[2:59] assistant and the provos. Please stand.
[3:03] [applause]
[3:04] Communications coordinator Joe Morgan,
[3:09] she's in the back. She put this thing
[3:10] together. [applause]
[3:12] Chief Administrative Officer Boalon,
[3:17] [applause]
[3:17] Chief Operating Officer, Michael
[3:19] Brousard.
[3:22] Finance Director Erica Duplan,
[3:28] Human Resource Director Edie Castleman,
[3:34] purchasing agent Michael Clifton.
[3:38] [applause]
[3:39] Their tireless effort and commitment to
[3:42] serving this community is invaluable. I
[3:45] would also like to thank all of my
[3:47] directors and managers, starting with my
[3:49] security manager, Daryl Manning. Please
[3:51] stand.
[3:54] Aadiana Regional Airport Director
[3:56] Mosanji.
[3:59] [applause]
[4:00] Animal Control Manager Amanda East,
[4:04] [applause]
[4:06] Office of Homeland Security and
[4:07] Emergencies Preparedness Brandon Migas.
[4:10] [applause]
[4:12] And you have a lot of work to do for the
[4:14] next few days. Brandon,
[4:16] library director Marjorie Hill,
[4:20] [applause]
[4:22] mosquito control director, Herbs Jones,
[4:27] Parks and Recreation Director Tammy
[4:29] Troh,
[4:33] Section 8 housing administrator
[4:36] Christina Francis.
[4:39] [applause]
[4:41] Y'all should have all been sitting way
[4:42] up here.
[4:44] [clears throat and cough]
[4:45] Waterwork and surge district director
[4:48] Brad Crater.
[4:50] [applause]
[4:51] GIS specialist Amy
[4:55] Brazar.
[4:57] Brad [applause]
[5:01] Network administrator Michael Pjan. He's
[5:03] not here. U he got some things going on
[5:05] right now, but Mike is our network
[5:08] administration administrator. Thank you
[5:10] to Mike permit and planning and zoning
[5:12] manager Agnes Connor
[5:16] [applause]
[5:18] facility supervisor
[5:20] Bill who you who where you at Bill
[5:24] [applause]
[5:25] and someone that's not on my list is my
[5:28] my budget officer my budget person and I
[5:31] got to talk about him Gary where are you
[5:33] Gary
[5:35] » There you go to mention you Gary your
[5:38] leadership and hard work ensures that we
[5:40] continue to move forward as a parish and
[5:43] your contribution do not [clears throat]
[5:45] go unnoticed. I would also like to thank
[5:47] all of the employees of a Berry Parish
[5:49] government for the work that they do to
[5:51] keep this parish flourishing.
[5:55] Thank to all of you for being a part of
[5:56] this journey as we continue to work
[5:59] together to make progress in a barrier
[6:00] parish.
[6:02] It is both an honor and a privilege to
[6:04] stand before you today as we reflect on
[6:06] the accomplishments of Aaria Parish and
[6:09] I look forward to the promising future
[6:11] that lies ahead. Together we have faced
[6:14] challenges,
[6:16] seized opportunities
[6:18] and witnessed remarkable growth of our
[6:21] parish.
[6:22] From expanding industries to critical
[6:24] infrastructure investments,
[6:26] Aaria Paris has invoken into a vibrant a
[6:30] vibrant thriving community that we all
[6:33] can be proud of and I'm certainly proud
[6:35] of it. Tonight,
[6:38] I invite you to join me as we celebrate
[6:40] our progress,
[6:43] recognize the dedication, the dedicated
[6:45] efforts of our businesses and leaders,
[6:49] and discuss how we lay the foundation
[6:51] for an even brighter future tomorrow.
[6:55] It's it's an [clears throat] exciting
[6:57] time in Iberia Parish as we have much to
[7:00] share about the positive transformation
[7:02] that's underway.
[7:05] But before I go anywhere say anything
[7:07] else, I want to make sure that I
[7:09] recognize my friend Mike Tarantino,
[7:15] who is also the president and CEO of the
[7:17] Iberia Industrial Development Foundation
[7:20] and the Iberia Economic Development
[7:23] Authority. Mike and I work extremely
[7:25] close together, and you're going to see
[7:27] later when that started. I've already
[7:29] acknowledged the current parish uh
[7:31] councilman's um and now I want to
[7:34] acknowledge uh wait a minute before I
[7:37] move forward I want to acknowledge all
[7:39] the parish councilmen. Stand up please
[7:40] to be recognized.
[7:45] [applause]
[7:48] We have um we have an unbelievable
[7:50] council. Uh the council that we have we
[7:53] have done some great things together.
[7:55] Uh, I mean, we work together as a team
[7:58] and um, [clears throat]
[8:00] we're getting some things accomplished
[8:02] here. Actually, I'm actually missing a
[8:04] paper where I was going to acknowledge
[8:06] you guys, but it's not on here. So, I'm
[8:08] just going to go and tell you guys how
[8:09] proud I am of you. Not only you, your
[8:12] clerk, uh, and everyone that works with
[8:14] Iberia Parish to do the things that we
[8:16] do. We just reelected a new who is the
[8:19] same person as the chairman of the
[8:20] council, James Trohol.
[8:23] [applause]
[8:26] Prior to that, we had a chairman for
[8:27] four years, Warren Gosan.
[8:31] We're doing great things with your guys
[8:33] with you guys helping. Uh so let's make
[8:36] sure that we continue to do that. At
[8:39] this time, I want to get every elected
[8:41] official in here to stand up, excluding
[8:44] the parish councilman to be recognized.
[8:46] Past and current.
[8:51] [applause]
[8:52] Okay.
[8:54] Okay, we have I seen the mayor uh
[8:57] Freddy, I seen Ricky, Mayor Promp, and
[9:01] also the district attorney is here. So,
[9:02] I got to recognize him. He might do
[9:04] something to me. Um,
[9:08] so with that said, let me see something.
[9:10] Cindy just brought me the actual page
[9:12] that I was looking for. But thanks to
[9:14] everyone for being here tonight and uh
[9:16] your continued support and commitment to
[9:19] making our barrier parish a place where
[9:21] opportunities
[9:22] um innovation and prosperity for uh
[9:25] flourish. So you're going to get to hear
[9:27] a little bit about what we doing in
[9:28] Iberia Parish right now and uh hopefully
[9:31] you guys like it. Thank you. Have a
[9:33] blessed day until I finish
[9:39] [applause]
[9:40] the
[9:40] » President. Absolutely. Absolutely. here.
[9:43] Let me put this mic on.
[9:44] » Yes, sir.
[9:45] » Let me put this mic on, Mike.
[9:48] » All ready to go.
[9:49] » Yes, sir.
[9:51] » Well, as Mr. Rishard is sitting down, I
[9:53] just want to express my thanks and my
[9:55] it's certainly my honor to be here and
[9:57] uh to do this again with you. Thank you
[9:59] so much for the invitation to join you
[10:01] tonight, which is for what is our 10th
[10:03] year opportunity uh to do this to talk
[10:06] about uh the wonderful progress going on
[10:08] in our parish and the optimistic reasons
[10:10] why we should all be optimistic in the
[10:12] future uh as we talk through the 2025
[10:15] state of the parish. You'll hear me say
[10:17] it again at the end, but I really
[10:18] appreciate all the citizens that are out
[10:20] here tonight uh to uh to hear about that
[10:23] progress and to and to join with me uh
[10:26] as we as we walk through it. I just want
[10:27] to uh turn your attention to the QR code
[10:30] that's up on the screen right now. If
[10:32] you'd like to scan that QR code, please
[10:33] feel free to do so. Uh that's that will
[10:36] uh bring you to the tonight's
[10:37] presentation so you can follow along in
[10:39] your mobile device. There'll also be
[10:41] another QR code later in the in the
[10:43] process which will which will give you
[10:44] some additional information. But we'll
[10:46] go ahead and jump right in.
[10:48] » I'm ready. So Iberia Parish um
[10:53] a lot of different things going on with
[10:54] Iberia Parish government and a lot of
[10:56] different ways that the citizens and
[10:57] taxpayers interact with Iberia Parish
[11:00] government. Iberia Parish uh funding in
[11:02] many ways and we'll find out tonight is
[11:04] from the hardworking citizens and their
[11:06] hard-earned tax dollars. And so as
[11:08] citizens we expect our uh tax dollars to
[11:11] be used wisely and our finances to be
[11:14] handled responsibly and professionally.
[11:16] And we certainly that is certainly the
[11:18] case within parish government. Let's
[11:20] just talk a little about what's going on
[11:21] within the finance department.
[11:23] » Our finance department oversees all of
[11:25] the finance u accounting functions. They
[11:28] do the collections, the the receivables,
[11:31] the whole nine yard payroll. Um they
[11:34] also play a key role in budgeting and
[11:35] auditing. They accounting is a
[11:38] department that I have to talk to daily
[11:40] because everything that we do in Paris
[11:41] business goes through accounting. uh you
[11:43] know no matter what it is if it's
[11:45] something with purchasing it's going to
[11:46] go through accounting and I I am one
[11:48] that truly believe in working close with
[11:51] my director of accounting and the staff
[11:53] that she have. So when you talk about
[11:55] when we talk about account accounting
[11:57] there are many generally accepted
[11:58] accounting principles best practices
[12:00] that happen in everyday business when it
[12:03] comes to accounting uh and one of those
[12:05] measurements is is the cash on hand that
[12:08] a business or a governmental body may
[12:09] have. So tell us a little bit about the
[12:11] cash on hand at parish government where
[12:13] it's been.
[12:14] » Well in 2016 when we came in I have
[12:18] several councilmans that's here when we
[12:19] started together we had nine new
[12:21] councilmans when I got elected as the
[12:22] president. We had 29 days cash on hand.
[12:26] Um and we had some $460,000 or something
[12:29] like that. Right now we have 377 days
[12:33] cash on hand. Uh roughly six you know
[12:36] close to $6.5 million. Actually we
[12:39] spending down a little bit right now
[12:40] because we have monies coming in right
[12:43] now from various places. Aaria parish
[12:46] only have two dedicated funds.
[12:48] » One is the general fund and one is the
[12:50] uh royalty fund which you we can talk
[12:52] about it later. Um is a fund that's
[12:55] basically depleted. We only receive
[12:56] around $151,000 a year from that.
[12:59] » But cash on hand means a lot to me
[13:01] because we have emergencies. We have
[13:02] things that could take place and you
[13:04] need to have money to be able to address
[13:06] those things. For example, if we have a
[13:08] hurricane or some type of emergency, we
[13:10] have to pay for that. We get reimbursed
[13:13] uh after, but some of that take time.
[13:15] So, I would like to see the um cash on
[13:17] hand be um you know, a lot more money.
[13:20] Not necessarily cash on hand, but I
[13:22] would like to see have a lot more money.
[13:23] » Absolutely. Absolutely. And so, uh you
[13:25] mentioned just now about the two main
[13:28] funds that fund parish government. Um
[13:31] one of those is the general fund. Let's
[13:33] talk about the general fund. Um, where
[13:35] it's been and where it's going.
[13:37] » Well, when we got here, it was pretty
[13:39] low. Um,
[13:41] I mean, pretty low, right? If I'm not
[13:42] mistaken, we had a deficit. I'm trying
[13:44] not to say that, but it was extremely
[13:45] low. And so, we actually took this thing
[13:48] in 17 from somewhere around $700,000
[13:52] uh to right now we have over $6 million
[13:54] in the general fund. Has been a
[13:55] progression, steady progression uh that
[13:57] we have. But the general fund is used to
[14:00] help us leverage dollars. We use a lot
[14:02] of dollars from the federal government
[14:04] and the state government.
[14:04] » Right.
[14:05] » So, one thing I learned early on in the
[14:07] council and I, we made sure that every
[14:09] dollar that we're going to use, if
[14:11] possible, we're going to leverage it.
[14:13] » Absolutely. And you know, so so when as
[14:15] we talk about the general fund, which by
[14:17] the way is the fund where most of the
[14:19] parishes uh business is handled, right?
[14:21] » Well, the general fund is is is the
[14:23] money that comes in where we can use
[14:26] that money for anything that we want to
[14:27] use it for. And that's why I personally
[14:30] would like to see the general fund
[14:31] somewhere around 1012 billion.
[14:33] » Well, another indication of the health
[14:35] of the general fund that uh business
[14:37] people are aware of of course is
[14:39] revenues versus versus expenditures. And
[14:42] this is a look at uh the the current
[14:44] state of the parishes revenues versus
[14:46] expenditures in the general fund. Talk a
[14:48] little bit about that.
[14:49] » I think that the parish council, our
[14:51] finance department, everyone, I think
[14:52] they've done a fantastic job when you
[14:54] talk about revenue and you talk about
[14:56] expenses. We have made a complete
[14:58] divide. You can see a serious separation
[15:00] that take place from the money that we
[15:01] get in from the money that we spend. Uh
[15:04] it's all about trying to have smart
[15:05] management. Um and I'm very fortunate
[15:08] that we have a group of people and I
[15:09] can't say enough about the council
[15:11] because the council
[15:13] I I do things but to be honest with you,
[15:15] I go to my council with everything,
[15:16] » Right?
[15:17] » And uh get them to understand what it is
[15:19] that we're doing. We have an extremely
[15:20] good finance uh chairperson. We have
[15:23] good chairpeople all over the council.
[15:25] So, we're doing a great job as you can
[15:27] tell. Um, we have a serious separation
[15:30] between our revenue and our
[15:31] » And that's a great thing. That's a great
[15:33] thing. So, uh, we we spoke about the
[15:35] general fund and how important that is
[15:37] to operations in the parish and the
[15:39] health the certain certainly the health
[15:40] of revenues versus expenditures, but you
[15:43] also mentioned that other fund and
[15:44] that's the royalty fund. Let's let's
[15:45] talk just a little bit about that.
[15:47] » You know, Mike, I've been doing this a
[15:48] long time. I got elected in 99, took
[15:50] office in 2000 as a councilman. We used
[15:52] to have $6 million $7 million in a
[15:54] royalty fund is serious decline. We down
[15:58] to like 150 plus $151,000 a year. In
[16:02] fact, when I'm I don't really
[16:04] concentrate a whole lot on the on the
[16:05] royalty fund to be honest with you. Now,
[16:07] we take monies from the general fund to
[16:09] put into the royalty fund to do certain
[16:11] things running through it, but I don't
[16:13] see the royalty fund coming anytime
[16:15] soon. IA parish of course have always
[16:17] been an oil and gas parish agriculture
[16:20] parish and it will always be absolutely
[16:22] » But we're not receiving a whole lot of
[16:23] money from royalties at this time.
[16:25] » Okay. Well, you know um citizens
[16:27] interact with parish government in in
[16:29] many ways. Um and I would venture to say
[16:32] that one of the big ways that that
[16:33] citizens uh interact with parish
[16:35] government on a regular basis is through
[16:38] the public works department. Tell us a
[16:40] little bit about public works. What's
[16:41] going on over there? Public Works is
[16:42] responsible for land management as well
[16:44] as water management. We only have 30
[16:47] employees working at public works right
[16:48] now. So, we're hiring. So, if anybody
[16:50] here know anyone looking for a job, tell
[16:52] them to go on Iberia Parish government
[16:54] website and uh fill out an application
[16:55] because we are hiring. Uh prior to us
[16:58] getting here, I'm saying to us, prior to
[16:59] me getting here been 16, public works
[17:02] had roughly 60 employees. We're down to
[17:04] 30, but believe me, we have found a way
[17:06] to make that work. We're gonna we're
[17:08] gonna find out here in just a second how
[17:10] busy those 30 people are. I can tell
[17:12] you. So, you mentioned uh land
[17:14] management and the other is water
[17:16] management, of course. Let's start with
[17:17] land management. Let's just talk about
[17:19] some of the things that are happening
[17:20] and some of the things public works does
[17:21] in the land management department.
[17:23] » Uh land management, we have over 400
[17:25] miles of roads. Um
[17:27] » That's about here to Houston.
[17:29] » That's right. That's right. We have 66
[17:30] bridges. 55 or so of those bridges are
[17:33] offsystem bridges which simply mean that
[17:35] they're handled by barrier parish
[17:36] government and the department of
[17:37] transportation. Uh they're responsible
[17:39] for like road repairs for striping for
[17:42] wash outs for tree trimming uh
[17:44] slashbusting. We do all kind of things
[17:46] that landfield operation. They have to
[17:48] deal with illegal dumping. They deal
[17:50] with litter abatement. We have a lot of
[17:52] things that we do with uh with land
[17:54] management at public works.
[17:55] » So as a coastal parish, you know, we're
[17:57] going to talk about that just position
[17:58] in just a second. Uh but being a coastal
[18:01] parish, we got that love hate hate
[18:02] relationship with our water and I know
[18:04] that I know that uh uh public works does
[18:06] a lot in the water management uh
[18:09] department. Let's talk a little bit
[18:10] about that.
[18:10] » Well,
[18:12] water management, we have over 800 miles
[18:14] of roadside ditches that we actually
[18:17] maintain. Uh you're talking about field
[18:19] laterals, you're talking about man
[18:20] channels. Uh they do things like build
[18:22] bulkheads. They take care of things like
[18:24] catch basins and ditch cleaning and
[18:26] channel clearing and all this good stuff
[18:29] including dealing with our beaver dams
[18:31] that we have here. We have some
[18:32] extremely smart beavers.
[18:34] » Even even at Iberia Parish beavers.
[18:36] » Yeah, we have some extremely smart
[18:38] beavers. So public works can go out and
[18:40] do something today and you give it a
[18:42] week, they have another problem. So it's
[18:44] a constant it's a constant job that they
[18:46] do. And I'm I'm very um impressed with
[18:49] the 30 people that work at public works.
[18:50] That's the most visible
[18:51] » Right
[18:52] » Department that we have in our parish
[18:54] government. I mean they work hard. Um
[18:56] they do need to take a break you know
[18:58] twice one in the morning and one in the
[19:00] afternoon and I can tell you I can wait
[19:02] uh for 9:00 in the morning 10 o'clock in
[19:05] the morning someone pass and they seen
[19:06] someone taking a break and they're like
[19:08] they wasn't working.
[19:09] » Uh but the job got done you know. So we
[19:11] we have people that works in public work
[19:14] not machines.
[19:15] » Well the machine the people operate the
[19:16] machines.
[19:17] » Right. Right. Well, one of the ways that
[19:18] public works, you know, that that people
[19:20] see the results of public works is when
[19:22] we have storms and rain and and you
[19:24] know, sometimes flooding and things like
[19:26] that. Um, and so let's just talk just a
[19:28] little bit about uh recent drainage work
[19:30] that's been completed.
[19:31] » Well, we keep a tally on all the
[19:33] drainage work that we do in Iberia Paris
[19:35] since I started in 2016. As far as
[19:37] roadsides, drainage and cleaning, we've
[19:40] done 561 miles.
[19:42] » Uh, 56
[19:43] » 561 miles. That's pretty serious. slash
[19:46] bustings and clearing of rightways.
[19:48] We've done 100 over 100 miles there and
[19:50] main channel cleaning and lateral
[19:52] chaining uh cleaning we've done around
[19:54] 186 miles. So the um public works
[19:57] department is really really working.
[19:59] Well, we started something um a little
[20:01] bit different in 2025. We're going to
[20:03] outsource more work
[20:05] » Which extends tax dollars.
[20:07] » Exactly. And the reason I'm I'm I'm
[20:08] looking at that and the council and I we
[20:10] talked about that is because it's hard
[20:12] to hire employees right now with the
[20:14] wages that we actually pay. So we
[20:17] outsourcing and we really see that we're
[20:19] getting a better we're getting actually
[20:20] more work done because when you think
[20:21] about it you're paying employees salary
[20:23] you're playing you're paying that
[20:25] benefits you're paying their retirement
[20:26] right
[20:27] » So we outsourced a couple of jobs so far
[20:29] this year uh a channel called M10 um
[20:32] they did a fantastic job that was the
[20:34] test job to see how it was going to
[20:36] work. We bid it out. We outsourced it.
[20:38] It worked extremely good. We did another
[20:39] channel, the L2 L2D4. Uh it worked
[20:43] extremely good. So, we're going to do a
[20:44] lot more uh this year. We're working
[20:46] with our um um director of public works
[20:50] and he's finding different things that
[20:52] need to be done. What we feel we need to
[20:54] outsource, we will. Right.
[20:55] » And what we can do in house, we'll do
[20:56] that.
[20:57] » Very good. Staying in the uh the water
[20:59] management lane and our coastal parish
[21:01] and things like that. Some, you know,
[21:03] drainage [clears throat] helps us take
[21:04] the water out. flood. Sometimes we've
[21:06] got to control those floods when water
[21:08] comes in and whatnot. Let's talk just a
[21:10] little bit about some of the recent
[21:11] flood control structures that parish
[21:13] that the parish has completed.
[21:14] » Uh, okay. We started doing flood looking
[21:17] into flood control structures right
[21:19] after we started receiving goes money.
[21:21] That's the money that we that we started
[21:22] to collect from u the u BP. Uh what we
[21:27] have done so far, we've done the
[21:28] Jefferson Canal North, Jefferson Canal
[21:30] South. We completed those two projects
[21:32] so far and and you and basically what
[21:35] you're doing, Mike, you're keeping the
[21:36] water that that actually comes in
[21:38] » Through a channel with a high tide and
[21:41] then uh it goes out when a low tide. So
[21:43] basically what we have with those flood
[21:44] control structures, they're no more than
[21:47] like a block valve,
[21:48] » Right?
[21:48] » When when the water start to come in, it
[21:50] blocks the water from coming in and as
[21:52] the water start to go out, if it goes
[21:54] out lower than what you have on the
[21:55] other side, it goes out as well. So,
[21:58] we're going to be able to use those
[21:59] channels as [clears throat] retention
[22:01] detention ponds that we currently have.
[22:03] So, it was a pretty good deal. We um
[22:05] started doing that with CPA uh quite
[22:08] some time
[22:08] » Protection and restoration authority.
[22:10] » Yes. I guess I'm doing it too much. I'm
[22:11] just giving acronyms, right? A lot of
[22:12] acronyms.
[22:13] » Um and right now we have [clears throat]
[22:14] under construction right now we have
[22:16] people's uh that's going to be
[22:18] completed uh in February.
[22:21] uh upcoming projects that we have right
[22:24] now for those flood control structures.
[22:25] We have u little valley um bayou that
[22:28] we're doing Ruten Real Stompy Valley. Uh
[22:30] we got about $19 million worth of
[22:32] projects right there. And I want to tell
[22:34] you something that the council again I
[22:36] got to go back to council because we
[22:37] worked together. When we first started
[22:39] to receive G Mesa dollars, we was asked
[22:43] almost told that we needed to bond
[22:45] because we figured we was going to get
[22:46] $20 million in 20 years. And we was
[22:49] going to bond the $20 million for 20
[22:50] years. And I think there was three or
[22:52] four projects that we could do. By the
[22:54] time this thing is over, you're going to
[22:56] hear how much money uh we're going to be
[22:58] receiving from um CPA and that we have
[23:01] already received. But just those
[23:02] projects that I mentioned, that's $19
[23:04] million that we dealing with right now.
[23:06] spectacular. It's all about protecting
[23:07] the water that's coming from the Gulf to
[23:09] these people that live on the coast.
[23:12] » Uh upcoming projects, Mike, uh that we
[23:15] have going on, we got the commercial
[23:16] canal, we got the Delin Canal. Uh the
[23:18] engineering and design is being done
[23:20] right now by raw engineering. That's a
[23:22] big deal. That's about $15 million right
[23:23] there. The total project uh is going to
[23:26] cost around uh $210 million just for the
[23:29] work. I'm not talking the engineer. All
[23:32] of that is being funded by CP. We've
[23:34] built an unbelievable relationship with
[23:36] CPA to where now we have some things
[23:39] that uh we're getting done and we're not
[23:41] even putting a penny into it. But that's
[23:43] called collaborating and working with
[23:46] » Another way of extending tax dollars by
[23:48] bringing in state partners and federal
[23:49] partners and other agencies,
[23:51] » Right? And when you look at commercial
[23:52] canal and you look at um the DelM canal,
[23:55] these are huge structures. This is not
[23:58] the little flood control structures. And
[24:01] this is going to work and match up with
[24:02] the um eventually we're going to have a
[24:04] levy in Iberia Parish. This is going to
[24:06] match up with that levy to where you can
[24:08] actually protect the water from coming
[24:09] into Iberia Parish because if we don't,
[24:12] » We won't be able to pay uh the insurance
[24:14] cost in Iberia Parish. So, we're going
[24:15] to have to understand where we live and
[24:17] and let's get this done. Uh but it's a
[24:19] big deal and all of that's being funded
[24:21] by CPA.
[24:22] » So, we hear about these drainage
[24:23] projects and a lot of them are being
[24:25] completed and uh they don't they don't
[24:27] appear out of nowhere, right? They they
[24:29] you mentioned that they're studied and
[24:31] they're evaluated for you know
[24:33] efficiency and then their cost that I
[24:35] see bit you know many are bidding on it
[24:37] to get the right lowest price. All of
[24:39] that starts with good drainage studies.
[24:42] So let's talk a little bit about
[24:43] drainage studies and particularly in
[24:45] this case Tibu. What's happening with T?
[24:47] » Well Tayou we actually uh doing a study
[24:50] right now. The council already u took
[24:51] care of that with me. Uh that's T by T
[24:54] Bayou actually starts in the city and it
[24:56] goes straight through the to the lake
[24:58] and actually goes all the way to St.
[25:00] Mary Parish. Uh we have U Royal Royal is
[25:04] doing the leading the study. Fence
[25:07] Jamaica is doing some work on that
[25:08] simply because they actually did some
[25:10] work many years ago in Tibu. But is at a
[25:13] point now with what we have going on in
[25:15] Iberia Parish and of course I parish
[25:17] surrounds every everything we have here.
[25:20] we need to start a dealing with drainage
[25:22] from the beginning to the end. So, this
[25:24] project that we're looking at at T
[25:26] Bayou, the estimate that we have once
[25:28] the engineering uh is done, we figure
[25:31] that's going to be around $12 million or
[25:32] more. So, that's a big deal for us. Uh
[25:35] and we're looking to um basically what
[25:38] that's going to do, Mike, is going to
[25:39] combine all of the improvements and
[25:41] provide a greater watershed for the
[25:43] parish. Right. And uh that's what we all
[25:45] trying to get done right now.
[25:46] » Absolutely. Well, while we're talking
[25:48] about drainage studies, tell us a little
[25:49] bit about what's happening in Cotto.
[25:52] [clears throat]
[25:53] In 2016, I guess 8 months after I got
[25:56] elected, we had a huge flood here and
[25:58] Coto got wiped out and we did a whole
[26:02] lot of things trying to figure out there
[26:03] were certain areas that was flooding
[26:05] around the park, around just certain
[26:08] areas in Coto. And we would do what we
[26:10] thought was the correct thing to do. You
[26:12] go and you clean this channel out, you
[26:13] move these jars or whatever the case is.
[26:15] It's not working,
[26:16] » Right? So, what we're doing right now,
[26:17] the parish council approved for me to
[26:19] get a a drainage study done, and we have
[26:22] a complete drainage study being done
[26:23] right now. We have a lot of development
[26:26] uh home developments that's wanting to
[26:27] come into Alberia Parish. In particular,
[26:29] there's one developer want to build
[26:32] around the Catholic Cade Road near Cotto
[26:35] and he can, but I'm actually telling
[26:36] them to slow it down a little bit
[26:38] because we have some drainage issues. Uh
[26:41] but now basically what I feel been
[26:43] taking place with with uh with drainage
[26:46] and people building is you have 30 acres
[26:48] or whatever the case is someone getting
[26:50] ready to build a subdivision and they do
[26:52] the the flood analysis and it's all
[26:54] great because they're doing the the
[26:55] flood analysis on that 30 acres. The
[26:57] problem is what happens to all that
[27:00] water when it get off of those 30 acres
[27:02] to the surrounding areas. So right now
[27:04] we're changing up a lot in our barrier
[27:06] parish and the parish council I feel
[27:08] strong is going to uh we're going to
[27:10] change some of the ordinances that we
[27:11] have to make sure these things are
[27:12] working right. But Koto we will end up
[27:15] with uh adding a couple of detentions. I
[27:17] have to from what I'm seeing so far
[27:19] we're going to add some detention uh
[27:21] ponds and some uh diversion channels and
[27:23] things like that in the Koto area. But
[27:25] we're looking for a long-term benefit.
[27:26] » Absolutely. We want to get something to
[27:28] where when someone build a subdivision
[27:30] somewhere, you're not messing up the
[27:31] people that was there in prior.
[27:33] » Right. So staying on drainage studies,
[27:35] tell us a little bit about what's going
[27:36] on with the Bayou Park Purdue study.
[27:39] » Bayou Park Purdue. Uh I guess somewhere
[27:41] around uh 200 I'm going to say 18 or 19.
[27:46] Um Governor John Bell had some $25
[27:49] million that came to the Aadan came to
[27:52] Kadan. I happen to be the chairman of
[27:54] the Aadiana planning commission, right?
[27:56] And uh basically what happened, Iberia
[27:58] Parish end up with some $5.5 million.
[28:01] Fortunately,
[28:03] uh Youngsville, Lafayette ended up with
[28:04] $5 million. And um Youngsville actually
[28:08] was shuttle ready. That's a big deal
[28:10] that we wasn't there many years ago,
[28:12] believe me.
[28:13] » So they were they were in a position to
[28:15] where they could start the project. They
[28:16] have since completed the project. Now
[28:19] we're doing ours. We've actually sent
[28:20] all of the paperwork off to get approved
[28:23] um to do our work. Now, that's going to
[28:25] cause not cause that's going to call for
[28:28] retention dep uh retention detention
[28:31] ponds as well. We're doing all the
[28:33] modeling. So, right now, every engineer
[28:36] that's working in our barrier parish
[28:37] that's doing any type of coastal stuff
[28:39] for us, we're looking at all of the
[28:41] modeling that's been done in our barrier
[28:43] parish, period. Whether it was done by
[28:45] raw engineers, uh fence maker, the
[28:48] federal government, we're taking all of
[28:50] these models and we work all these
[28:52] models together. So when we're telling
[28:54] people that they can build a home
[28:55] somewhere, we're looking at everything
[28:57] that's going on that
[28:59] » Right. So um in the long run it's going
[29:01] to be a great thing for our parish.
[29:03] Again um I'm going to talk about my
[29:07] council a lot because all of this go
[29:09] through the council and they have the um
[29:13] they have the leadership or the
[29:16] management skills to where they
[29:17] understand what it is when I'm telling
[29:19] them those that's listen. But anyway, um
[29:22] we have u some what we're going to do
[29:24] right here uh is going to help out a
[29:26] whole lot. So,
[29:28] » Absolutely. Absolutely. So, as we talk
[29:30] about uh drainage studies, uh we talked
[29:32] about a little bit before the uh before
[29:34] the talk tonight, we talked about how
[29:35] that's prioritized internally. Let's
[29:38] talk a little bit about Iberia Parish
[29:39] drainage uh prioritization.
[29:41] » Basically, what we're doing right now,
[29:43] Mike, this whole thing is talking about
[29:45] how we're going to handle channels and
[29:47] laterals moving forward. uh working with
[29:49] our public works department uh working
[29:51] with the different engineers that we
[29:53] have in Iberia Parish.
[29:55] Our public works department is going to
[29:57] we're going to work together and they're
[29:58] going to come up with these channels and
[29:59] they're going to say, "Well, we can
[30:00] actually manage cleaning this particular
[30:02] channel or this particular U lateral,
[30:05] this main channel or this particular
[30:07] lateral. We think it would be beneficial
[30:09] for us to actually outsource this." So,
[30:11] that's what this is all about. It's just
[30:13] prioritizing what we're going to do as
[30:14] far as maintenance in-house and what
[30:16] we're going to outsource. um we got to
[30:18] pay attention to the to the lowline
[30:20] flood plane areas that we have in the
[30:21] parish. Uh so we we always concern about
[30:25] tail water with having anything that's
[30:26] taking place here. So you always concern
[30:28] yourself about that.
[30:29] » Absolutely. So as we move away a little
[30:31] bit from drainage and from uh you know
[30:33] that kind of thing. We're going to be
[30:34] talking a lot about infrastructure uh
[30:36] tonight. Another thing that the citizens
[30:39] are very you know follow very closely as
[30:42] it pertains to public works and
[30:43] infrastructure. you know, we drive
[30:45] around the parish every day con to work
[30:47] and to school uh to [clears throat] live
[30:49] our lives, right? And so roadway
[30:51] improvements are are very very
[30:53] important. Let's talk a little bit about
[30:55] the roadway improvement projects coming.
[30:57] » It's extremely important. I got um three
[30:59] guys about about they're raising their
[31:01] hands up. When I walked here, they were
[31:02] talking about their roads and getting
[31:04] the roads. In fact, the parish uh we
[31:06] just had a tax pass about a year and a
[31:08] half ago or whatever. And uh the
[31:10] gentleman's that's actually raised their
[31:12] hand up. was instrumental in us getting
[31:14] this tax passed. So they would go to all
[31:15] of these different meetings with us and
[31:17] uh so they was talking to me about about
[31:19] some of the roads that's getting done
[31:21] and we have about 33 [clears throat]
[31:22] roads that we have already bid out
[31:25] already awarded contracts to all of
[31:27] those roads. Uh some of them have
[31:29] already started. uh some of them is
[31:31] going to be starting in a minute for
[31:32] example and I'll get to them later with
[31:34] the ones that's going to be starting in
[31:35] a minute but what we did this is a phase
[31:37] one project we actually had a we called
[31:41] it project AB and C so we used three
[31:44] different engineering companies uh to do
[31:46] the work to actually go out and uh do
[31:48] all of the design that need to be done
[31:49] with these work the first company uh is
[31:52] uh project ANS Bayro inhabits every one
[31:55] of those roads is already um awarded
[31:57] that's awarded to Glenn Lege Okay. And
[32:00] we talking about roads like C Romero,
[32:03] uh, Jack Brooks, Manat road all the way
[32:06] to the general roads up in the Coto
[32:08] area. So all of those roads are going to
[32:10] be um done shortly. We hoping that we
[32:12] can get all of these road done in about
[32:15] 16 months. Hopefully everything will be
[32:16] done in 16 months and we're going to
[32:18] start to work on the and we bond $17
[32:21] million to do that. We're going to start
[32:23] to work on the next bond hopefully in
[32:25] about another three or four months. So
[32:26] when we can actually get everything done
[32:28] in case we get it done earlier, we just
[32:30] want to move on to the uh to the other
[32:32] roads,
[32:33] » Right?
[32:33] » Uh phase two that's being done by
[32:35] sellers and associates. Uh they we just
[32:38] got received the bids back that was
[32:39] awarded to Glenn Lelay as well. Those
[32:42] are some major roads and the reason
[32:44] they've been haven't started yet is
[32:46] because like uh north side road is one
[32:48] of them. That road is used for grinding.
[32:52] Uh you have Dasput road. Uh we're doing
[32:54] Tesh Lake um Canal Road. Those big roads
[32:58] uh some roads that really need some work
[33:00] addressed. We also have uh project C
[33:03] that's actually being done by GEC, a
[33:05] company called GEC. They have a lot of
[33:06] roads,
[33:07] » A lot of roads in project.
[33:08] » Yeah, we have 30, like I said, 33 roads
[33:10] that we we have already awarded out for
[33:13] construction. Uh they doing a bunch of
[33:15] roads. All you know, Leon Landry Road,
[33:17] Josh Sige, Nelson Canel Road, a bunch of
[33:20] roads that's actually being done. And
[33:22] this is $17 million worth of roads.
[33:25] We're going to bond out later for
[33:26] another $17 million worth of roads. And
[33:29] that that'll be around 34 million. But
[33:31] let me make you understand that's not
[33:32] going to come out of the repairs,
[33:33] » Right?
[33:34] » We needed 30 when I was a councilman uh
[33:37] when we did an evaluation. I think we
[33:38] needed 34 36 million worth of road
[33:41] repair,
[33:42] » You know, 15 years ago. Uh but we we got
[33:46] a good start going. But we have also
[33:48] identified and the council uh we we got
[33:51] this tiff district that we created in
[33:52] our area parish where some of the roads
[33:54] that we're going to be doing we will not
[33:57] or may not need to use funds from the
[33:59] from the road tax.
[34:00] » So we created some things that's
[34:02] actually going to try to put this parish
[34:03] in a position to where they're going to
[34:04] receive money
[34:07] » Funds for quite some time.
[34:08] » Such an important part of infrastructure
[34:10] de development and economic development
[34:12] and community development is very
[34:13] important to the citizens. So, we've
[34:15] seen some major roads uh uh complete
[34:18] here just recently. Tell us a little bit
[34:21] about the South Lewis Street project.
[34:23] » I think that might have been Warren
[34:24] doing that one. Uh that's uh that's a
[34:27] that's a road in Warren district that we
[34:29] have been Councilman Warren Goshan that
[34:31] we have been working on for quite some
[34:33] time. Uh that road is actually complete.
[34:36] We have completed that road. Uh it was a
[34:39] major deal for Iberia Parish. It took
[34:41] quite some time to get it done. Um, and
[34:44] we were able to do that road, not using
[34:46] Roth from money from that tax. We were
[34:48] able to do that from the TIFF dollars.
[34:50] So, it's a big deal for us. Uh, we now
[34:52] we got real money coming into TIFF, you
[34:54] know, because we have a lot of
[34:55] development, a lot of big businesses.
[34:57] Uh, that's in the tiff area
[34:59] » And that construction is complete.
[35:01] » That is complete.
[35:02] » Absolutely. All right. We're going to
[35:03] talk about a few other ones here and uh
[35:05] they're they're all going to connect
[35:06] through, but let's just talk a little
[35:07] bit about uh ones that have recently
[35:09] been completed. How about Innovation
[35:11] Boulevard?
[35:12] » Yeah. Innovation Boulevard is a project
[35:14] that we started many years ago. Fin was
[35:16] the engineering company on that and that
[35:19] project was done by Glenn Leger. I
[35:21] caught a lot of problems from that road
[35:23] when that road was designed. I mean,
[35:24] people told me I built a road to
[35:26] nowhere. You know, you just bu spending
[35:28] this money. We don't have any money for
[35:30] roads. And you're right, we didn't have
[35:31] any road dollars, but we were able to
[35:33] get federal dollars, state dollars, and
[35:35] we're able to do what we what we did.
[35:37] But that is a a man a main hookup for
[35:41] what we what you're getting ready to see
[35:43] uh what we're doing in Iberia Parish.
[35:45] » I call that piece number one.
[35:46] » That is number one. So that's a big deal
[35:48] for Iberia Parish and that is totally
[35:51] completed.
[35:52] » That one's complete.
[35:53] » Complete. We also did one right on the
[35:55] side of that called um uh access.
[35:57] » Access way.
[35:58] » That'll be part of the new road when
[36:00] it's all done, too. Okay. So, that's
[36:01] piece number one of of of this little
[36:04] roadway that we're going to be talking
[36:05] about here. Second is Corporate Drive
[36:07] Roundabout. So, Corporate Drive, let's
[36:08] talk about Corporate Drive and Corporate
[36:10] Drive Roundabout.
[36:11] » Corporate Drive is on Highway 3212. We
[36:13] actually change the name to Corporate
[36:15] Drive. Uh we have a lot of businesses
[36:16] coming here and we needed something to
[36:19] reflect that. The roundabout at Corp
[36:22] Drive is is actually what is is going to
[36:24] connect with the other piece that we'll
[36:26] talk about a little bit later. But you
[36:28] can look at car at the at the picture
[36:29] here and it's going to show a spur. That
[36:32] spur wasn't done accidentally. We're
[36:34] going to take that spur and it's going
[36:36] to go along the airport property all the
[36:38] way to Highway 88.
[36:39] » That's going to open up the whole west
[36:40] side.
[36:40] » The whole west side of the airport.
[36:42] That's a big deal that we're doing.
[36:43] We're going to do it in phases. Uh I
[36:45] have have it in Capital Outlay right
[36:47] now. We're going to do it in phases. The
[36:48] first phase is going to be the
[36:49] roundabout and a portion of the road
[36:51] from Highway 88. The second phase is
[36:54] going to start from that spur and is
[36:56] going to go to near near the Seaway, I
[36:58] guess, and then we're going to connect
[36:59] later. That's a big deal for us at that
[37:02] airport. We have a we have some prime
[37:03] property and you know uh when I ran for
[37:06] office I talked about it a lot. You know
[37:07] that's um it's a jewel and you just have
[37:10] to actually polish it a little bit.
[37:11] » A big a big focus on the airport area.
[37:13] We're going to continue to talk about
[37:14] that. Kadana Regional Airport is
[37:16] certainly a huge economic asset for our
[37:18] parish and looking forward to continue
[37:20] to talk about that as we go. All right.
[37:22] So that's piece number two.
[37:23] » Yes.
[37:24] » All right. So here's piece number three.
[37:25] This is a a project that we that that
[37:28] maybe a lot of people don't know about
[37:30] and that's the highway 675 Jefferson
[37:32] Island Road roundabout. Let's talk about
[37:33] that.
[37:34] » That project we've been working on for
[37:36] many many years. Actually, we started it
[37:38] through Iberia Parish and then we turned
[37:39] it over to the Department of
[37:41] Transportation. The engineering company
[37:42] that designed that is Fence the Maker
[37:45] and
[37:46] 675 Jefferson Island Road is going to
[37:49] actually connect to the first thing we
[37:51] talked about which is Innovation
[37:52] Boulevard, the road that I built to
[37:54] nowhere. So that's going to connect. So
[37:56] there's going to be a roundabout coming
[37:58] off of Highway 90. Uh that's going to
[38:00] actually connect to Innovation
[38:02] Boulevard, which is going to go to the
[38:04] roundabout that we have on Corporate
[38:05] Drive that's going to go down Corporate
[38:08] Drive. And you're going to hear what
[38:09] we're doing later on to bring you into
[38:12] the airport. What we're trying to do
[38:14] hopefully at some point in time, the
[38:16] airport that we have become a
[38:18] international cargo facility. I I feel
[38:20] we wasted our time trying to compete uh
[38:23] with airports like Lafayette, trying to
[38:24] be commercial, this that and the other.
[38:25] We're not that. We need to understand
[38:27] who we are and move forward with it.
[38:29] I've been talking about it for a year. I
[38:31] think we have some people starting to to
[38:33] accept it and um and and we're going to
[38:36] move forward with that. But Highway 675
[38:39] 675 roundabout was the last piece. It
[38:42] was the bid went out. It was awarded uh
[38:44] to I'm not I'm not exactly sure who DOTD
[38:46] awarded to. I think I know, but I'm not
[38:48] going to say it. and they already
[38:50] started putting the flags out. So, you
[38:51] should see equipment there in February.
[38:53] » Saw the stakes out there this morning.
[38:54] Looks great.
[38:55] » Yeah.
[38:55] » One other thing about this particular
[38:56] project that I want to make sure that we
[38:58] bring [clears throat] up. You know,
[38:58] we're talking about connections and
[39:00] things like that. This project is going
[39:02] to go a long way toward making that
[39:03] particular area much safer for traffic.
[39:05] There's been some recent accidents
[39:07] there. This is going to make it a lot
[39:08] safer.
[39:09] » Yeah, absolutely. you know, when you're
[39:11] just coming uh when you're trying to
[39:13] cross, if you're coming from under the
[39:14] overpass and you're trying to turn left
[39:16] in front of Landre, it's terrible. And
[39:19] right now, we have all these trucks uh
[39:21] that's gone to to the big business at
[39:23] the air base right now and they trying
[39:25] to cross. It's it's a terrible
[39:27] situation. And I hope we don't have a
[39:28] whole lot of accidents before this thing
[39:30] is completed.
[39:31] » So this So these three So this is
[39:32] project number three. So, these three
[39:34] pieces of this project are going to
[39:36] connect are going to help connect uh one
[39:39] of two huge economic assets as I
[39:42] mentioned before [clears throat] uh to
[39:43] highway 90 and that's that's the
[39:45] Acadiana Regional Airport. Let's talk
[39:47] just a bit about what's going on at
[39:48] Aadiana Regional Airport.
[39:49] » The Kadana Regional Airport is is owned
[39:51] by Bria Paris government. Uh it's used
[39:54] to actually do training for uh like
[39:58] NASA, the Navy, the Air Force. They do a
[40:01] lot of training there, touchdown
[40:03] training, crosscountry training. Uh the
[40:05] airport u we have some 1,200 acres over
[40:07] there um at the airport that we can
[40:10] actually use and lease bring businesses
[40:12] there and lease and make real money off
[40:14] of it. Uh as long as you're dealing with
[40:16] uh businesses as pertaining to uh
[40:19] aviation for the most part, you can't
[40:21] you have you have certain areas where
[40:22] you can do certain things, but for the
[40:24] most part, you really have to be dealing
[40:26] with the um with with businesses in the
[40:28] aviation business. Uh, we have an
[40:30] unbelievable runway and taxi way.
[40:33] » 8,0002 feet.
[40:34] » 8,0002 feet. And that two feet mean a
[40:36] lot. It does.
[40:38] » Seriously, because it make us two feet
[40:41] longer than the than the next one.
[40:43] » Absolutely right.
[40:44] » It means a lot. So, we uh at that
[40:46] airport, we can, you know, we can land
[40:48] almost anything there. So, we have a lot
[40:50] going on there. And you're going to hear
[40:52] later some of the things that we have
[40:53] going.
[40:53] » Yeah, they're doing a great job out
[40:54] there. and um you know uh connecting the
[40:56] airport uh with those previous road
[40:59] projects that we were talking about to
[41:00] the highway uh you know when the Navy
[41:02] left u uh that was before the fourlane
[41:04] was built back in the day and these
[41:06] connections are helping us to connect
[41:08] Aadiana Regional Airport into the into
[41:10] the highway. Um I'm looking at the next
[41:12] photo here and I'm just going to go
[41:14] ahead and put that there. This is where
[41:15] it all started. Who is that guy on the
[41:16] left? I don't know who that is. So uh so
[41:19] » Oh Mike, that's uh that's a couple of
[41:21] months after I got elected.
[41:22] » Yeah. So, this was this was uh this was
[41:24] where all a lot of these discussions
[41:26] began. Um I remember going and talked to
[41:28] talking to some pretty bigname
[41:30] businesses about what they needed to see
[41:32] at our airport in order to make it. It's
[41:34] already an attractive airport and they
[41:35] agreed with that. But what did it what
[41:37] was it going to take? What kind of
[41:38] improvements did we need to make? And
[41:39] [clears throat] this was where it all
[41:40] started. Tell us a little bit about I'm
[41:42] reminiscing now, but I can remember
[41:44] right after I got it like that. I went
[41:45] to your office and I'm like, why did we
[41:48] why did we lose the FedEx deal? Why did
[41:50] we lose it? Why did we do this? And Mike
[41:52] was like, "Larry, uh, I don't really
[41:54] have a direct answer for you, but we got
[41:56] to do something." I said, 'Well, we need
[41:57] to go to FedEx. And this was in January.
[41:59] I just got elected, took office in
[42:01] January.
[42:02] » And, um, so we scheduled a flight, met
[42:05] with FedEx in February. Uh, we met with
[42:08] the executives at FedEx, and we, um,
[42:10] [clears throat] found out what it took
[42:12] to get a company like FedEx over here. I
[42:15] remember in the meeting they was talking
[42:16] about STEM time and I was and I was
[42:18] trying to be, you know, like I got all
[42:20] this figured out. STEM time. Now, what
[42:22] in the world is
[42:23] » STEM time is the the amount of time it
[42:25] takes to bring uh goods and and items
[42:28] from its first point to its end point,
[42:30] » Right? And that was like $50,000 a
[42:33] minute.
[42:34] » For every minute took, it cost them
[42:36] $50,000. So what happened is when they
[42:39] did the evaluation from the airport in
[42:41] Lafayette to our airport, we were like
[42:44] 60 six minutes over. That's $300,000.
[42:48] And they had taken another route on 182,
[42:50] but it was so bad they didn't even tell
[42:52] us how many minutes it was. So that
[42:53] helped out a whole lot early on. So then
[42:55] we realized that now we got to figure
[42:58] out what we can do to get these uh
[43:00] trucks to the airport quicker. So then
[43:03] we came up with roundabouts. And we have
[43:05] this thing that we do called the road
[43:07] show with DOTD and all it was brought up
[43:10] to DOT um and made it kind of urgent and
[43:14] next thing you know we have a roundabout
[43:15] there. But the whole re the reason for
[43:17] this here is to have access on both ends
[43:20] to that airport from 88 and also 675. So
[43:23] that was a big deal. Uh I can remember
[43:26] um I remember that meeting very well.
[43:28] » And so if I'm not mistaken, we brought
[43:30] some king cake.
[43:31] » We sure did. We sure did. That was it
[43:33] was hard to pack that in my luggage in
[43:34] the overhead compartment, but we got it
[43:36] there.
[43:36] » Actually, I think I might have had it
[43:37] FedEx though. I think that's what you
[43:39] think. Yeah,
[43:40] » Good thinking, right? So, uh, so anyway,
[43:43] so at that meeting, we learned about the
[43:44] road connections, the importance of road
[43:46] connections, the, you know, the fact
[43:47] that 18 wheelers don't like 90 degree
[43:49] turns and we've got to put in these
[43:51] industrial roundabouts to get trucks in
[43:52] and out. That was where it all started
[43:54] and and that was the the purpose the
[43:56] purpose for that. But because that
[43:58] infrastructure is put in, you mentioned
[43:59] all of these 18-wheelers and things that
[44:01] are now uh going to be coming through
[44:03] that bring you know flat fast forward a
[44:06] few years and that brings us to the
[44:08] first solar project which is which you
[44:10] know was a big part of all of that not
[44:12] then but has resulted in that now right
[44:14] tell us a little bit about that one. the
[44:16] first solo project. You know, I'm a very
[44:18] religious man. I'll say it was a godsend
[44:19] because it's the biggest project in the
[44:22] history of our parish that they came
[44:25] here and we talked about them. I
[44:27] remember the morning I received a phone
[44:29] call and I was supposed to be going to
[44:30] Lake Charles and I called you at your
[44:32] office and I said, "Mike, someone is
[44:34] calling saying it was actually uh Carmen
[44:37] Carmen is calling and saying that um we
[44:39] have a a a mill a billion dollar uh
[44:42] chance to get a business here." And I'm
[44:44] like, a billion dollars any Okay, great.
[44:47] So, I canceled a meeting in in Lake
[44:49] Charles and we met at your place and
[44:51] make a long story short, they came down
[44:53] and they looked at this cane field. I
[44:56] mean, it was nothing but cane and they
[44:57] we we sold them on that. This is a $1.1
[45:00] billion facility that was built uh in
[45:04] that cane field. 2.4
[45:07] million square feet on the roof, one
[45:09] roof facility. That's like nine times
[45:12] the size of the Superdome. Um, we have
[45:16] right now 832
[45:18] employees working right there right now.
[45:20] The annual payroll alone is $75 million.
[45:24] This is a big deal for us. It's so big.
[45:27] It's like the warehouse that they built
[45:30] that's 560,000
[45:32] square feet. That's more than two times
[45:34] the size of the Superdome. No one talk
[45:36] about it,
[45:36] » Right? You know, um, it's it's a lot.
[45:39] They brought a lot to Iberia Parish.
[45:41] They definitely stimulated what's going
[45:43] on in in in Iberia Parish in
[45:46] particularly around that uh airport
[45:48] area.
[45:48] » So between uh parish government, the
[45:50] airport authority, Iberia economic
[45:52] development authority, Louisiana
[45:53] economic development, all the partners
[45:55] came to the table to make that happen.
[45:56] We had to pull out all the stops. There
[45:58] was some pretty advanced economic
[45:59] development things happening with all
[46:00] the uh with all the partners.
[46:02] » This is a big deal because it's not only
[46:04] a big deal for Iberia Paris, it's a big
[46:05] deal for IDA. IDA our very economic
[46:09] development authority didn't have a
[46:10] nickel
[46:10] » Right
[46:11] » And we have an authority that we trying
[46:13] to bring bring businesses here but you
[46:15] have no money at all coming in to manage
[46:17] it so you you're the CEO of that but now
[46:20] Mike you have money that you are
[46:22] starting to receive right now uh because
[46:24] you actually manage the property at for
[46:26] solar
[46:27] » That we can invest right back in
[46:28] economic development of course you know
[46:29] when I when I when I mentioned parish
[46:31] government I think about it as a as a
[46:32] whole unit but the parish council very
[46:34] much involved in that have been a big
[46:37] partners with that. We very much
[46:38] appreciate.
[46:38] » Yeah, the parish council is is honestly
[46:41] the backbone to everything that's
[46:42] getting done in our area parish. Uh
[46:45] look, we all come up with ideas. I come
[46:46] up with ideas, parish council members
[46:48] come up with ideas and we try to work it
[46:50] together to make it to make it work, but
[46:52] first soul is strategically located um
[46:55] in you know the at the airport and it's
[46:57] it's you know the infrastructure, the
[47:00] investments, the the economic impact
[47:02] that is bringing into Iberia Parish. Our
[47:05] tiff district was up in December by some
[47:08] 463%.
[47:10] » 400 and over 400% increase. Wow.
[47:13] » Right. You know, so just last month by
[47:17] our from our tiff district, we received
[47:19] $3.1 million.
[47:20] » That's spectacular,
[47:21] » Right? So we we got a lot of great
[47:23] things going on and we have figured out
[47:25] how we can manage this business lack of
[47:27] business that it is and uh put it in a
[47:30] position to where the quality of life
[47:31] for the people here is going to be good.
[47:33] Speaking of quality of life, the average
[47:36] salary at First Solar is $90,000 a year.
[47:38] » Wow.
[47:39] » Wow. That's that's that's tremendously
[47:41] more than the median income and it's
[47:42] going to be great for our citizens.
[47:43] That's a great great thing. So, we're
[47:45] talking about we talked about First
[47:46] Solar. Uh there are other projects that
[47:48] are going out there that are huge. You
[47:50] know, you mentioned before, Mr.
[47:51] President, that we're an oil and gas
[47:53] parish and an agriculture parish. We
[47:55] always will be. We're very proud of
[47:56] that. Absolutely. It's part of our
[47:57] heritage and it provides a lot of great
[47:59] jobs for our area. But these projects
[48:01] are diversifying our economy and uh
[48:03] helping us to continue to round out what
[48:05] we offer. Really making the term made
[48:07] Niberia Parish great again, right? I'm a
[48:10] borrow but uh but you know really really
[48:13] good things. And so as we move for on
[48:14] from first solar let's talk about
[48:16] another big project that we've heard
[48:17] about recently and that's the UL
[48:19] Newberry Research Center. The two phases
[48:21] of a pretty big pharmaceutical project.
[48:23] » That's a big facility. That's a
[48:25] state-of-the-art facility. Um and we
[48:28] needed that level of safety. Three, what
[48:30] a lot of people don't realize is when
[48:32] COVID hit right here at our research
[48:34] center for Fizer, we actually research
[48:38] and develop that particular drug right
[48:40] here. And when the president used to get
[48:42] on on television and say we could have
[48:45] had this done 30 days earlier, 40 days
[48:47] earlier. He wasn't kidding because we
[48:49] didn't have a level 63 uh facility to
[48:52] complete it. We had to send it off. And
[48:54] uh with this level safety 3 facility
[48:56] that's going to be sent that's actually
[48:58] being built right now is going to put us
[49:00] in an unbelievable position because now
[49:02] we can do the research and development
[49:05] » And later on we'll tell you what else
[49:06] » Right and that the dirt's flying out
[49:08] there right now. If you drive by the
[49:09] research center you can see all of the
[49:10] excavators and the dirt flying and
[49:12] things like that. So this project is out
[49:14] of the starting gates. You know this is
[49:16] going to be huge for our area. It's
[49:17] going to provide some great
[49:18] opportunities for us to expand into
[49:20] pharmaceuticals.
[49:22] This is phase one
[49:23] » Right? Uh phase two, which we're gonna
[49:25] about to talk about here in just a
[49:26] second, is really going to bring a whole
[49:29] new diversified sector to our economy
[49:32] and that's going to be happening at
[49:33] Progress Point Business Park. You could
[49:35] see the on the picture you can see UL
[49:37] Lafayette's phase two, which will be
[49:39] building a pretty significant
[49:40] pharmaceutical manufacturing facility.
[49:42] Let's talk about that.
[49:43] » Right. Um progress point is something
[49:45] that you and I seem like we've talked
[49:47] about it so much over the years.
[49:49] » It's right on Innovation Boulevard.
[49:50] » So, and it is on Innovation Boulevard.
[49:52] So when I built that road to nowhere,
[49:54] that's what was going to be there. Um
[49:57] it's
[49:58] it's going to be by time we put all of
[50:01] this together when you're talking about
[50:02] what's the businesses that's going to be
[50:04] at progress point uh dealing with
[50:06] pharmaceutical, dealing with
[50:08] » Security.
[50:09] » Yeah. Go ahead. Defense, defense,
[50:10] manufacturing, and others.
[50:12] » We're we're going to see a you're going
[50:14] to see Iberia Parish really grow. When
[50:16] you're talking about the jobs at the
[50:18] innovation center alone, you're talking
[50:20] $130,000 a year average salary. So
[50:23] you're talking big jobs. You're talking
[50:24] many employees and big money. So we are
[50:28] diversifying what's taking place.
[50:29] » Estimates are 400 plus jobs somewhere in
[50:31] that net.
[50:32] » Yeah. So we are diversifying what's
[50:33] happening in our parish. But I can tell
[50:35] you uh when I was running for office,
[50:37] people was telling me that we needed to
[50:40] figure out a way how to keep people in
[50:42] our parish. and and of course we again
[50:45] we have agriculture and we have oil and
[50:47] gas but now we have diversified into
[50:49] manufacturing we're doing the panels we
[50:52] doing the pellets we we going to be
[50:54] doing the pharmaceutical we we got some
[50:56] things that we have in our barrier
[50:57] parish aviation the airport we're doing
[51:00] flight training we're going to have all
[51:01] kind of great things going on
[51:02] business-wise in in our parish so we we
[51:06] have divers diversified what we doing
[51:08] here and it's all about parish growth
[51:10] and the revenue that we're going to
[51:11] receive in the future from those uh
[51:13] those things. Pro uh progress point
[51:15] Mike, I know that's your babe. I know
[51:17] you've been working with that. I'm so
[51:18] glad to see that we actually have a
[51:20] drawing, a rendering. Uh we actually
[51:23] have money now that we can actually
[51:24] start to build the roads. Now, Berry
[51:26] Parish government, the council is aware.
[51:29] So, um uh we're going to be using monies
[51:32] from the tiff to help you do some of the
[51:34] things that you need to do.
[51:35] » And this is going to be great. This
[51:36] could be great for for economic growth
[51:38] long term.
[51:38] » That's what it's all about. It's all
[51:39] about infrastructure. If you can bring
[51:41] the infrastructure, you can get the
[51:43] businesses and we have done a lot of
[51:44] infrastructure work.
[51:45] » So, we've talked quite a bit about the
[51:46] focus on the airport area, which is so
[51:49] great. Uh, the Aadiana Regional Airport,
[51:51] the the investment that's been made
[51:52] there and infrastructure and the
[51:54] resulting businesses that have come and
[51:57] are coming. Um, let's shift a little bit
[51:59] if we could uh to Iberia Parish's other
[52:02] huge economic driver and huge economic
[52:05] asset. That's what that's what uh we all
[52:07] love as the Port of Iberia. Those guys
[52:09] are doing a great job.
[52:10] » Yeah, the port of Iberia is doing
[52:12] fantastic. I mean, Craig uh Romero is
[52:14] the um the director at the port. His
[52:17] commission, they're doing a fantastic
[52:18] job. The port have about 2,000 acres of
[52:21] industrial and and maritime um service.
[52:25] They doing a fantastic job bringing
[52:27] businesses here, lots of revenue. Uh
[52:30] when I started to put this together for
[52:33] uh the state of the parish, I ended up
[52:36] speaking to Dr. Lauren Scott to try to
[52:38] get some information about what's going
[52:40] on at the port. And we have
[52:41] » LSU economist economist ameritus.
[52:44] » That's right. And we have a lot going on
[52:47] right now. We we we have everything in
[52:48] Iberia Parish that we need. We have
[52:50] water. We have rail. We have we have
[52:52] everything that we need. [clears throat]
[52:53] We have um the roads. Uh we we looking
[52:56] really good. The port is a hub for
[52:58] what's taking place. I mean, think about
[53:00] it. You have the port of Iberia, you
[53:02] have New Orleans, and you have Port
[53:05] Author,
[53:05] » Right? We're right in the middle.
[53:06] » We're directly in the middle. And I
[53:08] think we on track right now to do some
[53:10] of the things. They actually did some
[53:11] dredging. Uh so they I think they did
[53:14] they dredged all the way to 16 ft. Uh
[53:16] which is a big deal. So we're going to
[53:18] have lots of businesses uh coming here.
[53:20] And if we we don't the port the way it's
[53:24] set up, I can see in the future where
[53:27] you can have a little bit more than oil
[53:28] and gas at that port because the
[53:31] waterway that you have, you can do some
[53:33] some great things. We market we market
[53:35] Iberia Parish as a multimodal parish.
[53:37] That means that you can bring raw
[53:40] materials in. You can transport them in
[53:42] by rail, water, by air, by road, and you
[53:46] can finish those goods and then send
[53:48] them back out into the world. Again,
[53:49] made Niberia Parish things made Niberia
[53:52] Parish is becoming more and more of a of
[53:53] a thing, right? Yes. And so we want to
[53:55] continue to invest in the idea that you
[53:57] can that you can move around the parish
[53:59] in that particular way. And a key
[54:01] component, we talk about roadway
[54:02] improvements all across our parish, but
[54:04] a key uh way of moving those goods and
[54:06] those services from the port and around
[54:08] is through road projects at the port.
[54:10] So, let's just talk about road projects
[54:12] specifically at the port of Iberia.
[54:14] » Okay. Um we're trying to to upgrade the
[54:17] roads at the Port of Iberia. Uh the
[54:20] director at the port was able to get
[54:21] some $2.5 million from the state uh to
[54:25] take care of two roads. There was David
[54:26] Bayard Road and also Canadian V U Vice.
[54:30] When we went out for bids, the bid came
[54:33] back at $5.4 million.
[54:36] But the way we building these roads at
[54:38] the port now, we want to build them for
[54:40] the future
[54:41] » Uh for the weight that's going to be
[54:43] actually uh put on those roads. Exactly.
[54:46] So, the parish council approved, I
[54:48] think, $2.9 million to uh to finish the
[54:50] project um to actually get enough money
[54:53] to do the project. Those two roads are
[54:56] already engineered uh designed and um
[54:59] one of them is under construction right
[55:00] now. It's a big deal for us in our
[55:03] barrier parish and for the future
[55:05] expansions that we're going to have
[55:06] there. We have to start doing things
[55:09] that's going to have long-term effect.
[55:11] » Right.
[55:11] » This thing about spending a million
[55:12] dollars here and it's going to last for
[55:14] three years. If you need to spend $5
[55:17] million, save your money and spend $5
[55:19] million away can last 20 years.
[55:20] » Right. Right.
[55:21] » You know, so um
[55:23] » That's where we're at with the port. the
[55:24] port is doing great,
[55:25] » Right? Absolutely. These investments in
[55:27] infrastructure are continuing to pay off
[55:29] and um we've heard, you know, and it's
[55:31] really getting the attention of some
[55:33] pretty major businesses that have
[55:35] decided to locate at the port. Let's
[55:37] talk about one that uh we recently
[55:39] attended the uh ribbon cutting forum and
[55:41] that's Cinjun industries. Huge win for
[55:44] » Is they're set up at the port. They
[55:45] operate and they're doing very very
[55:47] well. They're going to bring around 600
[55:48] new jobs. This is a big deal for the
[55:51] port of Liberia, for Iberia Paris in
[55:53] general. They going to be hiring, like I
[55:55] said, 600 um jobs, skilled trade,
[55:59] regular, good, hard working men. And we
[56:03] certainly have that in Iberia Parish. Um
[56:05] what they do, uh they're going to be
[56:07] building big fabrication jobs and this
[56:10] is going to be going all over the place.
[56:11] And the reason they picked Iberia
[56:12] Parish, of course, is because of the
[56:14] workforce. We have an unbelievable
[56:16] workforce here at Iberia Parish and
[56:17] surrounding area
[56:18] » And those infrastructure improvements
[56:19] you talked about as well. So, Kinjun
[56:21] Industries, and by the way, thanks to
[56:22] Cinjun Industries for their investment
[56:23] in Iberia Parish is very much
[56:25] appreciated, of course. Um, also, we've
[56:27] heard another one that's uh just just
[56:30] hot off the press almost, and that's
[56:31] Louisiana Concrete Products. What are
[56:33] they doing out of
[56:34] » That's a that's a big deal. Uh, they
[56:36] doing pre-cast. They pre-casting u
[56:39] materials that they can send all over uh
[56:41] the place for um you know, marine
[56:43] industry or whatever. That's 300 jobs
[56:46] that they bringing there at at um
[56:49] Louisiana Concrete Products. That's a
[56:50] big deal for us. So, it's strengthening
[56:52] us. It's definitely putting us in this
[56:54] position to where we're known as the
[56:57] hub. Uh and it's a big deal for Iberia
[57:00] Parishes. When you're talking
[57:01] fabrication,
[57:03] people should start talking about the
[57:04] Port of Iberia.
[57:05] » You hear about all the construction
[57:06] going on along the South Louisiana uh
[57:08] coast. You hear about the big
[57:09] construction projects happening in the
[57:11] New Orleans area, the LNG projects in
[57:13] the Lake Charles area, the Port of
[57:15] Iberia and Iberia Parish is a key
[57:17] component to all of those things. A lot
[57:18] of those pre-cast things you were
[57:19] talking about will end up in those
[57:21] projects.
[57:21] » Exactly. Right. They actually dealing
[57:23] with the LG. So we they're being
[57:25] fabricated here at the port and they're
[57:27] being shipped.
[57:28] » So when you see when you see those big
[57:29] things happening [clears throat] in
[57:30] those smile because most of it was again
[57:32] made in that area
[57:33] » Made in that area parish. And that's and
[57:34] look, we're [clears throat] doing well.
[57:36] I mean the the um the the port they
[57:40] doing extremely well.
[57:41] » Absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know,
[57:43] there's a lot of things that people
[57:44] don't maybe don't know about the
[57:46] wonderful things going on in Iberia Par
[57:47] staying, you know, staying in the port
[57:49] lane for just a moment. Um you know,
[57:51] I've been to a lot of christenings and
[57:52] you you know, you hear about christening
[57:54] boats and christening babies
[57:56] [clears throat] and things like that,
[57:57] but I didn't know you could christen a a
[57:58] crane, but recently
[58:00] » We went out to a crane christening. So,
[58:02] tell us a little bit about one of the
[58:03] biggest cranes in Yeah, they're one of
[58:05] the biggest uh cranes in North America
[58:06] right here at the port.
[58:07] » Yes, the it's a state-of-the-art crane.
[58:09] Um it's it's a very big deal. Uh it's
[58:12] it's a it's 75 ft tall. It's got a reach
[58:15] of 125 ft. It's picking up 52 tons. It's
[58:19] a big deal for Iberia Parish. It was a
[58:21] $6 million investment um at the port and
[58:25] they doing great things. and and our
[58:27] name port of Aberia Aberia Parish is on
[58:30] this deal with the biggest crane right
[58:33] » Around that's we got some history making
[58:35] things that you can be proud of.
[58:37] Absolutely right. So we we talked a bit
[58:39] about infrastructure. We talked a bit
[58:40] about the businesses locating. Um let's
[58:43] talk a little bit about how the port of
[58:44] Iberia is creating uh infrastructure for
[58:47] future growth. We were recently um uh
[58:49] part of the what's called the Millennium
[58:52] Expansion groundbreaking. Tell us a
[58:53] little bit about that.
[58:54] » That's a big deal for the port. It's 90
[58:56] acres of property that's going to have
[58:58] 50 acres of of waterfront. That's a
[59:01] that's a big deal. Basically, what uh
[59:03] Craig and his and his members are trying
[59:04] to do is design [clears throat]
[59:05] something to where we can bring new
[59:07] tenants to Iberia Parish and it's a big
[59:09] deal. The Millennium
[59:11] project is is huge for the port. And
[59:14] again, I can't say enough about the Port
[59:16] of Iberia. They're doing a great job.
[59:17] They really have a lot of businesses
[59:18] going there. They're bringing some
[59:20] serious revenue. They have a lot of
[59:21] employees working at that port. That's
[59:23] what we need. We need to get the
[59:24] employees working here and get this the
[59:27] economy is doing well in Iberia Parish
[59:29] right now. I I would like to see it do
[59:31] better, but we're doing very well.
[59:33] » You know, it's all about ready sites,
[59:35] right? Businesses want sites that are
[59:36] ready ready to go. I mean, they you
[59:38] know, businesses can't wait. If the if
[59:40] the sites aren't available and they
[59:42] aren't hooked up and there's not the
[59:43] right infrastructure, the right
[59:45] channels, the right the right sites for
[59:47] them to develop now, then they'll just
[59:48] move on.
[59:50] continuing to invest in infrastructure
[59:52] uh you know with parish government with
[59:54] the port of Iberia with the airport with
[59:55] IEDA um is really making those sites
[59:58] ready and ready for new business.
[59:59] » Yeah, I think the the Millennium was a
[1:00:01] major is a is a great deal see the port
[1:00:03] is planning ahead for them.
[1:00:06] » Okay, so moving on from uh from the Port
[1:00:08] of Iberia um but staying on
[1:00:10] infrastructure you know whether it's
[1:00:12] business or residents um you know
[1:00:15] quality of living and we're going to
[1:00:16] talk about that just just a little bit.
[1:00:18] so important for folks to have clean
[1:00:21] water utilities and things like that.
[1:00:23] We've got a great uh waterworks
[1:00:25] district. Tell us a little bit about
[1:00:26] what's happening at Waterworks District.
[1:00:27] » Waterworks district number three, what
[1:00:29] they do is they ensure the safe and
[1:00:32] efficient u potable water for the people
[1:00:34] of our Paris, the residents that they
[1:00:36] supply to. Uh they have to follow the um
[1:00:40] Department of Health guidelines and they
[1:00:42] do that very very well. They have a
[1:00:44] director that's actually taking care of
[1:00:45] water and sewer for us. That's Brad
[1:00:47] Crater. Uh that system produces about
[1:00:49] 1.5 million um gallons daily and they
[1:00:53] have about 2900 uh customers that they
[1:00:56] serve and it's about 150 miles of water
[1:00:59] line that they're dealing with on a
[1:01:00] daily basis. So they have a lot of stuff
[1:01:02] going on and uh I can tell you the
[1:01:04] waterworks the waterwork u facility that
[1:01:08] we have right now we've made some major
[1:01:11] major improvements in that facility. So,
[1:01:13] » Well, this is about bringing water in,
[1:01:15] right? And so, I know those guys are
[1:01:17] always working hard on improving the
[1:01:19] infrastructure. Let's talk just a little
[1:01:20] bit about some of the infrastructure
[1:01:22] improvements on bringing water in
[1:01:23] through waterworks district.
[1:01:24] » We've done a lot. Uh we have um 2
[1:01:26] million gallons per day water plant that
[1:01:28] we did at the Kadana Regional Airport.
[1:01:30] Uh that's for the of course it's for the
[1:01:33] airport, but we're trying to get a
[1:01:35] little bit more industry and commercial
[1:01:37] customers out there. They took care of
[1:01:38] that. They have 1,400
[1:01:40] gallon um per day water well, 5,000galon
[1:01:44] storage tank system that they have. They
[1:01:47] upgraded the existing water plant. Uh
[1:01:49] they've done a lot of work over there.
[1:01:51] They have got about 43,000
[1:01:53] um feet of water man that they have
[1:01:56] actually done since 2016. So I can tell
[1:01:59] you they have very very busy and and
[1:02:02] they doing a great job for our barrier.
[1:02:03] » So that's taking the water in. Well,
[1:02:05] when you take the water in, you got to
[1:02:06] take it out again. We got the same man
[1:02:08] doing that too.
[1:02:08] » Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about
[1:02:09] sewage sewage district.
[1:02:11] » So he actually to take the water in now
[1:02:12] you got to let it out right. So he
[1:02:14] ensures the safety of our parish
[1:02:16] residents. Um again he got to follow the
[1:02:18] guidelines of um the department of energ
[1:02:21] uh environmental quality and also um the
[1:02:24] EPA. Uh he have a little bit over 80
[1:02:26] miles of um sewer lines that he's
[1:02:29] managing with 3500 residents and
[1:02:32] commercial customers. It's a big deal.
[1:02:34] It was a big job. is a lot of staying on
[1:02:36] top of everything. And uh I'm going to
[1:02:39] be honest with you. Um for me it it's so
[1:02:43] much easier today because I throw it all
[1:02:44] on Brad now. So he just called
[1:02:46] » I think goes home.
[1:02:48] » I don't I don't think the man sleeps to
[1:02:49] be frank with you, but he's doing a
[1:02:50] fantastic job.
[1:02:51] » Sure. Absolutely. So just like on the
[1:02:53] water side where they're constantly
[1:02:54] doing infrastructure uh improvements.
[1:02:56] Tell us a little bit about the sewer
[1:02:57] infrastructure improvements that are
[1:02:59] going on right now.
[1:02:59] » Well, they uh they put in an 18inch
[1:03:03] force man. that's really uh that's doing
[1:03:05] a great job at the lift station. Uh I
[1:03:08] can remember he did some water sector
[1:03:10] grants in phase one if I'm not mistaken.
[1:03:13] Uh he added 12 permanent generators. I
[1:03:15] think he got four uh uh totable
[1:03:18] generators that's going to improve the
[1:03:20] system. In phase two he actually uh
[1:03:22] rehabilitated some sewer lines and
[1:03:24] upgrades and those types of things like
[1:03:26] in Orange Grove and other U areas. We
[1:03:30] got the big deal that we're working on
[1:03:31] right now, Mike, is a $60 million sewer
[1:03:34] plant. Uh we've been working with our
[1:03:36] congressional and state delegation. It
[1:03:39] looked like we have $10 million
[1:03:41] committed from the state so far, $10
[1:03:43] million committed from the federal
[1:03:44] government. I've spoken with Congress
[1:03:46] Congressman Higgins. I've spoken with
[1:03:49] Senator Cassidy and Kennedy. Uh we got a
[1:03:52] team that's working with us in
[1:03:53] Washington DC. And we it's very
[1:03:55] promising. If we don't get this water
[1:03:59] waste facility, we're gonna we're going
[1:04:01] to be in a bind in a few years to come
[1:04:03] because we're growing and the current
[1:04:05] facility that we have right now, we
[1:04:07] actually use it with the city and it's a
[1:04:09] great deal, but we're going to grow out
[1:04:11] of that. Um and and the the building the
[1:04:15] construction that we're doing right now
[1:04:16] is really a lot of it is in Cotto and
[1:04:19] you're going to have to run those lines
[1:04:20] all over the place to get to the city.
[1:04:22] So, it makes absolutely no sense not to
[1:04:24] start looking at um a waste water,
[1:04:27] excuse me, a sewer facility um in the
[1:04:29] parish
[1:04:30] » Preparing for future growth and making
[1:04:32] sure that we can take those all into the
[1:04:34] system.
[1:04:34] » And that's going to be a big deal. It's
[1:04:35] going to be a big facility. It's going
[1:04:36] to be a three uh milling gallion uh per
[1:04:40] day facility.
[1:04:41] » So, we're we're talking about utilities.
[1:04:43] We're talking about infrastructure. You
[1:04:44] know people understand when we talk
[1:04:45] about roads and drainage and uh water
[1:04:48] and sewer but a another piece of
[1:04:51] infrastructure which is crucial for
[1:04:54] [clears throat] commerce and for uh the
[1:04:56] citizens and for schools and for
[1:04:59] students uh is fiber to the home and
[1:05:02] business so very important to our
[1:05:04] community. Tell us a little bit about
[1:05:05] what's the status of fiber to the home
[1:05:07] and business. We partnered with uh
[1:05:08] Kinjun Engineer uh Kinjun Broadband,
[1:05:11] excuse me, uh many years ago when we
[1:05:13] started getting the the dollars, ARPA
[1:05:16] funds, and uh we were able to do, of
[1:05:18] course, you already know we have
[1:05:19] companies uh that's actually have fiber
[1:05:22] all over Iberia Parish. You have uh
[1:05:25] AT&T, you have COGS, we've been using
[1:05:27] Kinjun uh to do some work for us. So
[1:05:30] far, Cinjun have actually installed over
[1:05:32] 2500 businesses in the Coto area u that
[1:05:35] have fiber to their home. That's a big
[1:05:37] deal. Uh we did a groundbreaking last
[1:05:40] actually in 24 you were there.
[1:05:42] » We did the groundbreaking. Uh we spent
[1:05:44] about $5.2 million
[1:05:46] um grant dollars in in fiber in in in
[1:05:49] this parish. So we we're doing very
[1:05:51] well. Um we need cable, excuse me, we
[1:05:54] need fiber. We're connecting right now.
[1:05:57] Uh we doing another phase of fiber where
[1:06:00] we've stopped up in Cotto and now it's
[1:06:03] running from Cotto all the way to the
[1:06:04] port of Barbaria on both sides of the
[1:06:06] highway and also getting some homes
[1:06:10] along the way.
[1:06:12] Fiber is critical for businesses that we
[1:06:14] have because business global these days.
[1:06:17] Businesses are global these days and you
[1:06:20] have to have something that you can deal
[1:06:22] with that you can use that's going to be
[1:06:23] there for you when you need it. And um
[1:06:27] and that's what we do. And we have a
[1:06:28] relationship with all of the different
[1:06:29] companies that provide it. In fact, I
[1:06:31] have one of the guys here from AT&T
[1:06:33] tonight um listening uh we we have a lot
[1:06:36] of good things going on um
[1:06:38] » Uh with Fiverr. So, we're doing well.
[1:06:40] Well, I just want to let folks know if
[1:06:41] you see this weird looking machine
[1:06:42] around, you know, it's it's putting in
[1:06:44] something that's very important to our
[1:06:46] community. We get questions, what is
[1:06:47] that thing? And so, it's this is the
[1:06:48] bore machine that helps put those that
[1:06:50] fiber optics underground. And so, uh
[1:06:52] it's certainly certainly a positive
[1:06:54] thing. So, we've talked quite a bit
[1:06:56] about infrastructure and investments in
[1:06:58] infrastructure in just about every way
[1:06:59] we can. We've talked about roadways and
[1:07:01] and bringing new business and creating
[1:07:03] new jobs and um helping existing
[1:07:06] businesses continue to grow, those
[1:07:07] people that have been paying the taxes
[1:07:09] and been, you know, continue to hire
[1:07:11] people and supporting them and growing
[1:07:13] growing businesses and growing jobs. As
[1:07:15] much as we love it for uh much as we
[1:07:18] want to continue to create those good
[1:07:19] jobs for people to work here, we really
[1:07:21] want to see them live here, too. This is
[1:07:23] such a great community. and we'd like to
[1:07:24] welcome more residents to our community.
[1:07:26] So, tell us a little bit about housing
[1:07:28] opportunities. What what what's the
[1:07:29] landscape look like in Iberia Parish
[1:07:31] right now?
[1:07:31] » We have several developers that's
[1:07:33] looking to do things in Iberia Parish.
[1:07:36] Uh
[1:07:37] again, in certain areas where they're
[1:07:40] looking to develop, I constantly talk to
[1:07:42] them about taking your time because uh I
[1:07:45] want to make sure that when they're
[1:07:46] building these subdivisions, they're not
[1:07:49] having a negative impact on the
[1:07:51] surrounding areas. But Ravenwood is a
[1:07:54] subdivision. Uh when you go down Admiral
[1:07:56] Doll all the way to 88, that's an area
[1:07:58] that's actually being developed right
[1:08:00] now. We have some 100 lots right there.
[1:08:02] Uh Coto Ridge subdivision, we actually
[1:08:04] in phase three. That's some 200 plus uh
[1:08:08] lots that's actually available and they
[1:08:09] got some nice homes in there. They're
[1:08:11] building some very nice homes in there.
[1:08:13] Test Ridge subdivision. Um, Test Ridge
[1:08:17] was actually um purchased by uh another
[1:08:20] company recently and they are doing some
[1:08:23] wonderful things. Uh, matter of fact,
[1:08:26] um, we have I was going to say something
[1:08:29] that the mayor probably don't want me to
[1:08:31] say, but they're doing some wonderful
[1:08:33] things here in Iberia Parish. And uh,
[1:08:35] another another developer is um, uh,
[1:08:38] Cherokee. Cherokee have some 22 acres
[1:08:41] that they have actually divided.
[1:08:42] building uh going to be building some
[1:08:44] very nice homes in in that area. So, we
[1:08:46] got some development going on in Iberia
[1:08:48] Parish, but we need development in
[1:08:51] Iberia Parish. When you when you when
[1:08:53] you say you have 600 being employees
[1:08:55] being people hired at the port for this,
[1:08:57] another 300 hired for this, 800 plus
[1:09:00] hired for that company, you need some
[1:09:02] homes and we need some affordable homes.
[1:09:04] U and it's critical that we can um try
[1:09:07] to make that work for our very parents.
[1:09:09] So far, we're doing well.
[1:09:10] » Absolutely. Well, that's certainly good
[1:09:11] to hear. And so as we talk about
[1:09:13] bringing in new residents, as we talk
[1:09:15] about our existing residents and you
[1:09:17] know how they live here and grow and
[1:09:18] raise families here, um it's all about
[1:09:21] quality of living and we've talked about
[1:09:22] recreation in the past and and things of
[1:09:24] that nature. Quality of living, people
[1:09:26] knowing that when they come to a
[1:09:28] community that it's safe and that
[1:09:29] there's a good quality of living as
[1:09:31] well. [clears throat] Um along those
[1:09:32] lines, let's talk just a little bit
[1:09:34] about animal control. Tell us a little
[1:09:36] bit about animal control.
[1:09:36] » Animal control is a is a big deal for
[1:09:39] Iberia Parish. of course is a is a
[1:09:41] department that we have that's really
[1:09:42] don't have a dedicated fund. Um but
[1:09:45] we're dedicated to promoting the safety
[1:09:46] of the animals that we actually bring to
[1:09:49] animal control. We have a very good
[1:09:51] person that's actually that's managing
[1:09:53] that place. Amanda uh we're dedicated to
[1:09:56] trying to do everything that we need to
[1:09:57] take care of these these animals. Uh
[1:10:01] currently we actually house animals from
[1:10:02] the city of Newberry from all from
[1:10:05] around the whole parish to be frank with
[1:10:06] you. But the city of Newberry of course
[1:10:08] is the biggest city. So we would have
[1:10:10] more from them. Uh the department the
[1:10:12] department is responsible for all the
[1:10:14] calls that they get that's talking about
[1:10:15] animals in any kind of way. Uh the
[1:10:17] weather whether it's an abandoned animal
[1:10:20] but our goal is to try to find a home
[1:10:22] for these animals. That's what we do
[1:10:24] with the few dollars that we have. We're
[1:10:26] very very fortunate because we now are
[1:10:29] going to be building another facility.
[1:10:31] The bids are going to come in on
[1:10:32] February the 5th. Uh we have two
[1:10:35] facilities, two buildings right now that
[1:10:37] we're keeping. We're going to kind of
[1:10:38] clean them up a little bit and um we
[1:10:41] building this nice facility on the side.
[1:10:44] What we trying to do right now is just
[1:10:46] to make it where we can adopt more more
[1:10:48] animals and and make it a safe place. U
[1:10:51] and it's it's going to be designed very
[1:10:53] well. Wonderful. Wonderful. So, we've
[1:10:55] been talking about a lot of numbers. Uh
[1:10:57] you know, million here, five million
[1:10:59] there, 19 million here. So, it's it's a
[1:11:01] lot of a lot of dollars. uh some that
[1:11:04] are being invested now, some that we see
[1:11:06] coming in the into the future. Take a
[1:11:07] look at this list. This is quite
[1:11:09] impressive. Tell us a little bit about
[1:11:11] some of the uh ongoing infrastructure
[1:11:12] investments that you've seen here in the
[1:11:14] parish so far. We have a lot of invest
[1:11:17] investors and investments um that's been
[1:11:19] done in Iberia Parish. Airport
[1:11:21] development, we got uh roughly $9
[1:11:23] million that's been invested over there.
[1:11:26] Recreation, some $3 million, but we have
[1:11:28] drainage and flood control like $16
[1:11:30] million. We have uh in economic
[1:11:33] development industrial we have uh $1.3
[1:11:36] billion dollars uh and these are
[1:11:39] projects that's actually have been done
[1:11:41] you know so we're very fortunate with
[1:11:42] that when you're talking about public
[1:11:44] facilities public buildings you got 12.5
[1:11:47] million we did there technology some $4
[1:11:50] million transportation and bridges again
[1:11:52] I talked to you earlier about Paris
[1:11:55] using and working with the federal
[1:11:57] government we get money from the state
[1:11:58] we get money from the federal government
[1:11:59] » Leveraging
[1:12:00] » That's all it Yes. And uh and the state
[1:12:03] actually do work in each parish in this
[1:12:06] um in this great state of ours. But we
[1:12:09] have some $221 million that's actually
[1:12:12] been invest in road work in our barrier
[1:12:14] parish there. Water and sewer
[1:12:15] infrastructure, $38 million. Uh you
[1:12:19] know, so we have some big big things
[1:12:20] going on here.
[1:12:21] » So that's what we've seen so far. What
[1:12:23] are you expecting in the future as far
[1:12:25] as investment? When you when you're
[1:12:26] talking about just the commercial canal
[1:12:28] and the Del canal, you're talking $235
[1:12:31] million for that. That's a big deal. Uh
[1:12:33] when you're talking about the east side
[1:12:35] development at the airport, that's like
[1:12:36] $64 million. That's that's a lot a lot
[1:12:40] of work that's going to be done at that
[1:12:41] airport that by providing and building
[1:12:44] those tangibles there, we're going to
[1:12:46] bring even more businesses here and we
[1:12:47] get even more money. The post evacuation
[1:12:50] center that we actually have that was
[1:12:51] actually put down for a minute. We're
[1:12:53] not going to stop. We have um roughly
[1:12:57] 16,000 people in IB Paris living in
[1:13:00] poverty. I will never stop trying to
[1:13:01] figure out how to help these people when
[1:13:03] they need. So that's still on the table.
[1:13:05] We're still trying to move that forward.
[1:13:07] You're going to remember the hangar
[1:13:08] drive extension. You and I went to Baton
[1:13:10] Rouge. We actually testified to get the
[1:13:12] $16 million. If we wouldn't have gotten
[1:13:14] that, that was going to really
[1:13:15] » That's that crowning fourth roadway
[1:13:18] that's going to bring uh commerce and
[1:13:20] traffic right into the heart of the
[1:13:21] airport.
[1:13:21] » That's exactly right. is going to is
[1:13:23] going to is hangar drive. So we're going
[1:13:25] to get hanger drive and we're going to
[1:13:26] bring hanger drive all the way to LEL.
[1:13:28] Then from LEL to corporate drive we're
[1:13:29] going to do a roundabout there.
[1:13:31] » It's a very big deal for us. We have I'm
[1:13:33] going to get [clears throat] to the end.
[1:13:34] We have the west side develop that that
[1:13:36] we talked about with that spur on 3212.
[1:13:39] That's $28 million. We have a we have a
[1:13:42] lot of work that's going on in this
[1:13:43] parish that we've done that we presently
[1:13:46] doing and that we're looking to do in
[1:13:48] the very very near future. You may not
[1:13:50] believe this, but I did some very, very
[1:13:52] quick math in my head. I just wrote it
[1:13:53] right on my hand. And the addition on
[1:13:55] that comes out to the number that you
[1:13:56] see on your screen right now.
[1:13:57] » Okay, that number. Yeah, that's a big
[1:14:00] deal. I already know that number.
[1:14:01] Believe it. That's 2 billion80 million
[1:14:04] in Iberia Parish. very very proud to say
[1:14:07] that my administration, the Aberia
[1:14:10] Parish Council and every other partner
[1:14:13] that we worked with talking state,
[1:14:15] federal, whatever, whomever work
[1:14:18] together to see this happen in Aberia
[1:14:20] Parish. Very, very proud of it.
[1:14:22] » Absolutely. So, this is a huge number
[1:14:24] and it and and it represents a lot of
[1:14:27] hard work by a lot of different people
[1:14:28] to bring investment uh to our area. And
[1:14:31] I've always said if we expect people to
[1:14:32] invest in us, we've got to be willing to
[1:14:34] invest in ourselves. And so this is
[1:14:36] certainly a huge number and it's
[1:14:37] resulting in a lot of things. We talked
[1:14:39] about businesses, we talked about uh
[1:14:40] fiber optic connectivity, we talked
[1:14:42] about housing developments and whatnot.
[1:14:44] What have these investments meant over
[1:14:46] the years in terms of growth in jobs and
[1:14:49] wages and industry.
[1:14:50] » The one thing I I look at the most is
[1:14:53] the unemployment rate. In 2016, it was
[1:14:57] around seven and 8%. Right now, we're a
[1:15:00] little bit over four% to 5%.
[1:15:02] » Cut it in half. we cut it in half
[1:15:04] roughly. Uh that's a big deal. I look at
[1:15:07] all of the other things that that that's
[1:15:08] actually being discussed, the economic
[1:15:10] uh dependencies, the u you know the
[1:15:12] small business work that's actually
[1:15:14] taking place, that's all great, but I'm
[1:15:16] looking at jobs and I'm looking at how
[1:15:18] you can keep people working. If you can
[1:15:20] keep people working and they're making a
[1:15:21] decent salary where they can have a
[1:15:22] decent quality of life, um that's what
[1:15:25] it's all about for me. It's, you know,
[1:15:27] people going out making $25,000 a year,
[1:15:29] $30,000 a year and they got a family of
[1:15:31] four. That's not cutting it. We have to
[1:15:34] do better in Iberia Parish. We have to
[1:15:36] take care or put people in a position to
[1:15:40] where they can actually be successful.
[1:15:41] And I I'm telling you, the biggest thing
[1:15:43] in this whole parish that gets to me is
[1:15:46] the poverty rate, right? It's too much,
[1:15:48] right? Uh we we need to figure out how
[1:15:51] to get people in a position to help
[1:15:52] themselves. And um
[1:15:55] that's a big deal for me.
[1:15:56] » Well, we sure have talked about a lot of
[1:15:58] different things as far as uh optimistic
[1:16:00] outlook and uh the optimism in the
[1:16:03] parish and the way that it's growing and
[1:16:04] um our our potential if we continue to,
[1:16:07] you know, the momentum is moving, if we
[1:16:09] can continue to move that momentum and
[1:16:10] keep that momentum going, um what it
[1:16:12] might look like. Let's just talk about
[1:16:14] your thoughts on the the upcoming and
[1:16:16] the the future economic outlook for
[1:16:18] Iberia [clears throat] Parish. I
[1:16:19] » I think we have some very good momentum
[1:16:20] that's going on in Iberia Parish. Look,
[1:16:22] I have a year and 11 months left in this
[1:16:24] position. Uh, whoever is going to become
[1:16:26] the Paris president, I just hope they
[1:16:28] continue to try to bring infrastructure.
[1:16:31] If you can bring infrastructure, you're
[1:16:32] going to bring the businesses. You're
[1:16:33] going to bring the homes. But keep in
[1:16:35] mind, it's about quality of life for the
[1:16:38] people that you're actually
[1:16:38] representing. And [clears throat] in
[1:16:40] this business, you represent everybody
[1:16:43] in the parish. You don't represent a
[1:16:44] group. Uh, if you get where I'm coming
[1:16:47] from. So what I'm looking at in
[1:16:49] [clears throat] this parish is about the
[1:16:52] longevity of the parish and making it a
[1:16:54] place where we can stay strong, get
[1:16:56] private investors to invest in what's
[1:16:58] going on, do do partnerships uh with
[1:17:00] different companies, try to get the
[1:17:02] economy right. Uh and so far we're
[1:17:04] heading in that position. The deal is
[1:17:07] will we stay heading in that position.
[1:17:09] Uh so for me uh it's all about growth.
[1:17:12] We have a we have a great momentum. Uh
[1:17:14] Mike, I hope whoever come after me work
[1:17:16] close with you because I'm going to give
[1:17:18] you a major accolade right here. Most of
[1:17:21] the things that we talked about is
[1:17:23] things that you and I created or started
[1:17:26] not I don't want to use the word created
[1:17:27] talked about many many years ago and
[1:17:30] it's and it's tough you know you come up
[1:17:32] you dream up these great things but you
[1:17:33] got to get buy in and I'm fortunate that
[1:17:36] I have a council that understand uh what
[1:17:39] I'm trying to do and it's helping you
[1:17:41] you know they actually giving you some
[1:17:43] money every year for um what it is that
[1:17:45] you're doing with IDF and um we we just
[1:17:48] have a great chemistry that's going on
[1:17:50] right Now I just wish it don't change
[1:17:53] too much.
[1:17:53] » Well, you know, moment Thank you, sir,
[1:17:55] for saying that. And you know, the
[1:17:56] momentum has begun. I think if we
[1:17:58] continue to invest in ourselves as a
[1:18:00] community, uh there's no reason why we
[1:18:03] can't continue to have more optimistic
[1:18:05] things moving forward, growing our
[1:18:07] community for our for our citizens, um
[1:18:09] and uh moving forward all together. Uh
[1:18:12] we're just about uh concluded tonight,
[1:18:15] but I wanted to give you the opportunity
[1:18:16] maybe to mention something that uh maybe
[1:18:19] something that we didn't cover tonight.
[1:18:20] Anything in closing?
[1:18:21] » Well, the only thing I'm going to close
[1:18:22] with is I want to thank my wife for
[1:18:24] allowing me to do this for the 20 plus
[1:18:25] years that I've done this, Kim. I mean,
[1:18:28] my wife and my family mean everything to
[1:18:30] me, Mike. Um and honestly speaking, I
[1:18:33] don't want to sound like I'm ready to
[1:18:35] get out of office, but I'm ready to
[1:18:36] spend time with my wife and my family. I
[1:18:38] really am. In this particular business,
[1:18:41] you get a lot of people that say a lot
[1:18:43] of things. They really feel that they
[1:18:44] they know you a little bit better than
[1:18:46] they do. So, they have a tendency to say
[1:18:48] things or whatever the case. I have a
[1:18:49] very strong wife who knows me better
[1:18:51] than anyone. [snorts]
[1:18:53] So, um I just want to make sure that I
[1:18:56] give her the d the diligence that I
[1:19:00] should. Um because without her, of
[1:19:02] course, I wouldn't be where I'm at.
[1:19:04] » Sure. Um this particular building I'm
[1:19:06] gonna say this in two weeks Thursday
[1:19:08] after next I celebrated my wedding an uh
[1:19:12] my wedding
[1:19:13] » Memorial building right here in
[1:19:14] » I celebrated my wedding um reception
[1:19:18] right here. It'll be 43 years Thursday
[1:19:21] after next.
[1:19:22] » So it's all about you Kim. Love you.
[1:19:24] » Happy anniversary.
[1:19:25] » So that's all that's all I have to say.
[1:19:26] » Yeah. Well Mr. President, thank you so
[1:19:28] much for having me. I want to uh put
[1:19:30] this uh QR code up here. This is another
[1:19:33] QR code. I encourage you uh to scan it.
[1:19:36] Uh especially those that are watching us
[1:19:38] uh via video. Uh this this QR code will
[1:19:42] bring you to a booklet. There's there's
[1:19:43] a booklet that's being distributed
[1:19:45] tonight um that gives you a lot of
[1:19:47] details and some additional
[1:19:48] illustrations about what we talked about
[1:19:50] tonight. This QR code will bring you to
[1:19:52] an electronic version of that booklet.
[1:19:54] It's very well done and I encourage you
[1:19:56] to uh scan the QR code while it's on the
[1:19:58] screen and download that and follow
[1:20:00] along with us as we go. I want to I want
[1:20:03] to thank you uh Mr. Rishard for for
[1:20:05] allowing me to be here with on what is
[1:20:07] our 10th opportunity to come up here on
[1:20:09] stage. It's hard to so hard to believe.
[1:20:11] I really want to thank the citizens who
[1:20:13] came out tonight. We've almost got a
[1:20:14] full house as far as I can tell. And uh
[1:20:17] we really appreciate you being here.
[1:20:18] It's certainly been my pleasure. Uh and
[1:20:21] until next time, I want to wish everyone
[1:20:23] a good night. Thanks for joining us.
[1:20:24] Thank you so much. Thank you. [applause]