[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]

Iberia Parish Government

Agenda

Transcript