Aug. 11, 2026

Episode One | 46 Feet: Looking Back At The Historic 2016 Livingston Parish Flood 10 Years Later

Episode One | 46 Feet: Looking Back At The Historic 2016 Livingston Parish Flood 10 Years Later
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In this episode, “Local Leaders” Host Jim Chapman sits down with Maurice “Scooter” Keen as he reflects on “Great Flood of 2016” from his perspective, which in Scooter’s case is unique. Scooter at the time was a brand new parish councilman who had physical locations inside the city of Denham Springs. The challenges he and others in Parish Government were unprecedented and the steps taken in the last 10 years to counteract another 2016 type disaster make for one interesting discussion.

In 2016 an unpredictable storm caused unprecedented flooding in Livingston Parish Louisiana and surrounding areas like Baton Rouge. A decade later, Livingston Parish has come back stronger than ever. In this special presentation by Local Leaders the Podcast, you will hear not only hear the personal stories during that flood, but the comebacks that followed.

Timestamps:
00:41 Flooding in Denham Springs
05:11 August Storm Warning
10:38 Business and Parish Recovery
18:12 Government Under Pressure
20:30 Drainage Plans Begin
26:52 Building for Smaller Floods
31:39 Roads, Grants, and Progress
37:24 Parish Pulls Together
40:30 Insurance Discounts Return
46:06 River Dredging Challenges
49:22 Leadership and Public Service
52:52 Spring Park and the Future

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In August of twenty sixteen, prolonged rainfall from an unpredictable

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storm resulted in catastrophic flooding in the state of Louisiana.

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In my city of Didham Springs, ninety percent of the

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homes received water, some forty two hundred homes. Of those,

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three thousand of these homes received eighteen inches or more

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of water twenty five to thirty inches of rain in

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less than seventy two hours. The Amete River, which cuts

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through the heart of Livingston Parish, crusted at forty six

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point two feet, some five feet above its previously recorded

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record and some seventeen point two feet above its flood

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stage at Denim Springs. Hey everyone, welcome back to Local

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Leaders the podcast Glad to welcome someone today that if

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you're watching this on YouTube, you probably recognize this guy.

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He's he's done a little bit in the parish. When

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you say that, welcome Welsome, you've been, you've been everywhere.

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And what makes this guy unique, and of course I'm

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talking about Scooter Keane. What makes him so unique and

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why I reached out to him to come on the

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podcast is he he had a very unique story as

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it relates to the flood because he wasn't only in

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parish government at that time. And what were you?

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Oh, I was a parish counselman District.

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Three, District three the first year.

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We had just gotten sworn in.

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Yeah, right, welcome to the parish.

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Yeah.

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And in addition to that, you also own multiple businesses

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in the parish.

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We had a quick and handy drive cleaners.

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Yep, my favorite cleaners since then.

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Yeah, parish government.

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He couldn't get enough of it.

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I couldn't. It was once once it gets in your bloodstream.

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Yeah, you want to help people, that's right.

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And I enjoy doing what I'm doing now working for Randy.

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Yeah. Yeah, Well I see you every week on YouTube

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you're young YouTube store anyway on that well here you

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talked every week. But uh, I felt it was necessary

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definitely to get you on the show because of that experience.

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You kind of saw it from both sides. You saw

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it from a parish leadership side and you also saw

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it from a citizen slash business own your side. So

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of course, for those maybe just joining us, we're talking

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about what we referred to as the Great Flood of

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twenty sixteen. But what's interesting, Scooter, is it wasn't the

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first flood in August of twenty sixteen.

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Oh no, got us in March south of the interstate

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in to the east side. Yeah, pretty bad down there.

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And people forget about that one. A lot of people

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were affected by that down there, you know. They think, oh,

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there's not many people. There's a lot of people down

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there in southern Living.

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There really is. And that was primarily Mar.

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Paul Marpaul Springfield area down for Vincent Vincent.

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French settlement, Yeah.

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French settlement, and they got hit pretty bad. Because I

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remember calling Shane mac and I said, Shane, I said,

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it's flooding down there, and he goes, it is I said, yeah, man,

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I said, they got like sixteen inches of rain, you know,

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just us north of the interstate. And I said it's

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it's gonna be pretty bad. And he goes, well, okay,

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I said, you want to go check on it. So

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I went down to Springfield. That's about as far as

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I could get. I even tried to go to Ponchatula

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and you couldn't. It was over the bridge, you know,

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And I'm like, holy moly, here, what's going on? Because

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we were dry up up in Watson, you know, and

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so that was our first four a into Oh my god,

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we got to have recovery happening. Uh and thank god

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for Leighton Rix and Mark Harroll and the people who

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handled things, because we didn't.

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Know y'all were all fresh.

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Oh, we were all new, all nine. Uh. You know,

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Tracy and John Wascombe had had some experience because they

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had been on city councils. So that's why we had

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made them the chair and co chair because we like,

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we don't put y'all y'all.

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Know how to run a meeting at least.

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And uh so that, yeah, that March March was kind

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of strange, you know. Yeah, and then you know, uh,

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then we were in recovery mode from March. You know,

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we were still in it when August happened.

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August happened, and I want to I want to talk

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a little bit about maybe take me through your experience.

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We talked a little bit about this off camera, but uh,

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there was a couple of days there that were interesting,

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to say the least in that it was almost like

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a preparation for a flood. You never knew was coming,

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but you saw oddities in the weather, oh very much.

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You know, we had a council meeting that night, August eleventh,

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and we didn't even talk about that there may be

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a flood or you know, there was a little tropical

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system that was pushing through and it had been raining

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most of the day pretty hard. But it always rained

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pretty hard in South.

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We shouldn't, you know, That's what we did.

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And so we were actually a friend of our's wife

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had passed and we were going to the wake. So

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we all were in dress clothes and coats and you know,

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and I remember going through the meeting, no big deal.

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I don't even remember what was on. It was probably

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something to do with the March flood, you know, for

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all I know. But we go to Walker, to the

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to the church for the thing. I mean, it's dumping

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all the way to Walker. We get soaking wet getting

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into church, get out of the church.

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We thought, man go home, right, sure.

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Well buy Friday, all hell had broken loose. People were

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flooding all over the parish, not just to the south

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this time, all the way up to the parish line.

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And we thought, well, it's just rain, it'll quit, yah.

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But it didn't quit. Like forty hours, it never let up,

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and thank god, my house didn't flood, but I could

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hear the rescue boats on Saturday, going into a Cadiana

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place and different areas. I could hear the airboats rescuing people.

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I'm sitting there, Kane, hardly get out of my road,

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couldn't get to sixteen. And that was on Saturday. By Sunday,

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you know, we could get out a little bit and

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went checked on shelters and did things. We couldn't even

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get in touch with the parish president because all the phone.

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Systems and was not existing.

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The radios wouldn't even work. You know, they've given us

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a radio, said y'all might need radios. Why we might

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need radios never crossed our mind. The most catastrophic thing

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that could ever happen in Livingston Parish was about to happen.

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And so you know, and on my business in downtown

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Denim and we built one foot above the eighty three crest.

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That's all we built. And what it crest eight feet

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higher than eighty three. Didn't get water in my building.

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Which yeah, and you had multiple businesses, you have one

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on one.

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On South Range that took on water on Saturday Saturday.

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And I called just she made I said, Joe Mack,

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I have got to get down there and see. No,

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you can't come into town. We're not allowing anybody in.

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And I'm like wait, but he says, still be there.

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It's either gonna be flood there or not. Right, don't

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get in this and cause more issues. And you know,

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and I was kind of mad at Joe. Sure's my business,

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but he was protecting the city and the resources. You know,

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we don't have a whole lot of resources as far

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as fire and police for something that major, that covered

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ninety percent of the structures. So he finally called me

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on like Sunday afternoon. He goes, hey, come meet me

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and I'll bring you down there. So we brought the

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delivery vans, loaded everything up, brought it to the main

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plant that hadn't flooded. When we drove up, my wife

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had put something in the sliding door on the side

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so that if it was turned over she would know wow.

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And it was sitting there and she goes, oh my god,

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we didn't flood. And later that night a friend of

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mine from Baton rouge On Welsh's cleaners, Ricky Welsh, he

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sent me an aerial view of the cleaners and you

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could see the water in the parking lot all the

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way around it, but it didn't flood us because God

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knew we needed to be open, and we processed fifty

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thousand pieces of clothes in five weeks. Wow, we got

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opened on Tuesday morning. Employees made it in. We started

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processing clothes. The very first customer backs up a truck

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full of soaking, wet clothes covered in sewage, and God

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knows whatever, and so for about an hour we cried

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with these people. Then the next truck pulls in, and

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I told my wife, I feel for everybody. You know,

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we flooded five times and holding growing up from Tickfall River. Sure,

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but I feel for these people. But if I don't

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get started on these clothes right now, they're all going

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to rootin. So I said, you're gonna have to cry

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with people. I got to get in the back, and

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you know it, So September well, then to August. By then,

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so middle August one hundred and twenty five degrees in

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the back of the shop. We were working sixteen hour days.

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But we knew we had to do everything we could

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to help people because they had lost everything, everything but

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that dress that was special to them, or that christenin

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outfit for their kid. We saved those and got them

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back to them, you know.

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Yeah, and that's you know, from someone on the obviously

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outside of that, and I didn't own the cleaners. We

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just we didn't even realize the clothes could be saved,

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and so we were literally just I can remember, oh yeah,

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right there in the pile. And that kind of moves

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me to my next thought is Okay, that you know

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what happened, happened, and we all know what happened, and

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now you've got to put your parish government out on

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the right because.

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While we're still trying to run at us at the

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same time that we're trying to get people permitted to

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get back in their homes and everything else, to get

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them gutted and let their life move on. You know,

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Thank goodness, we didn't have a huge loss of life.

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We did lose a few people in the parish.

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Been a lot worse it could have. You know, one

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life is too many, too a thousand.

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That's like who would have dreamed that coffins had popped

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out of the ground all over the parish? Yeah, everywhere

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that flooded. And so that was a dawning task for

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for you know, the people to come back and try

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and identify who were in these boxes.

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Yeah, you know the cemetery.

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Yeah, everywhere down below a lot. So a lot of

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people in the city had done in springs. They have

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the big marble overlays and all. They kept it from

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doing it. Matter of fact, after this flood, we had

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so many questions that we had no answers. I mean

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we're like, you know, probably what six of the nine

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councilmen flooded, Light and Rick flooded, you know. And so

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they come to us about the coffins and they go,

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we need you to make a new ordinance. And it's

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been a while. It wasn't right away, but they said,

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we need you to make sure that a tag is

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a fix to every coffin from now on, that it

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can't come off like stainless steel with the information on it.

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And I'm like, y'all do they telling us this is

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a thousand year rain event. This ain't ever gonna happen again.

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And they're like, well, look at you know, Cotton Port

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and Mansurh and all that. The other day they had

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the same thing, you know, from a tropical system that

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just hung out. And so we all these things, and

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so we were new. We'd just gone through one flood

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in Marshall, so we was trying to kind of weed

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through that. And then here's August and we're trying to

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weed through that. So our first two years wasn't about

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oh well, let's fix ordinance on how you're going to

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build your house. Was like, let's fix that. You get

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to rebuild your house.

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That's right. And in addition to that, you had you

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had I don't know how many homes, thousands of homes

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that have piles of debris in their front yards and

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it's up to the parish, you know, anything outside of

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city limits obviously, who is who's going to pick this up?

231
00:13:23.039 --> 00:13:27.480
We had a standby person on under contract that if

232
00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:29.960
you had these type of things, because you'd have tornadoes

233
00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:31.559
that hit and all these different things, and if you

234
00:13:31.639 --> 00:13:35.679
got a declaration, then FEMA would pick up hauling off

235
00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:37.919
of all the debris. So we had to breed contractor

236
00:13:37.960 --> 00:13:40.519
on standby, and they do now. We always have to have.

237
00:13:40.559 --> 00:13:42.480
That, Yeah, thankfully.

238
00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:44.639
Matter of fact, I was going through my phone earlier

239
00:13:44.639 --> 00:13:47.759
to help Lizzie to get her some pictures, and I

240
00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:50.519
was I had pictures of a Kadiana where I went

241
00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:55.759
check on Jamie and that everybody everything that everybody owned everything,

242
00:13:56.200 --> 00:13:59.279
not some things. Everything was stacked by the roads. And

243
00:13:59.360 --> 00:14:02.879
one picture said are they coming to pick this up today?

244
00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:05.039
I can't get my fifth wheel out of the driveway

245
00:14:05.080 --> 00:14:07.960
to go dump the sewage. Can you get it? Was

246
00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:11.320
somebody sent me said can you check on this scooter

247
00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:14.200
and see when they're gonna come? Yeah, you know, I

248
00:14:14.320 --> 00:14:16.919
didn't even think about that that. Okay, they did get

249
00:14:16.919 --> 00:14:19.080
to They bought them a fifth wheel or they had one,

250
00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:21.600
parked it in their driveway because we made an ordinance

251
00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:25.759
allowing them to do that. But then they gutted their

252
00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:30.960
house and then well normally you'd say, I'm gonna call

253
00:14:31.000 --> 00:14:34.279
somebody come pump my septic out on my fifth wheel

254
00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:37.840
when they nowhere to drain it. Who they all flooded

255
00:14:37.879 --> 00:14:43.879
to No businesses were open. Oh, we were so blessed. Uh.

256
00:14:43.919 --> 00:14:46.120
My daughter and son in law and my son and

257
00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:48.919
his wife might have been his girlfriend a time, lived

258
00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:51.879
in Baton Rouge and they called us and said, hey,

259
00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:53.960
can we get to dinn On Springs because we're gonna

260
00:14:53.960 --> 00:14:57.279
come help you all at cleaners. Because they were attorneys

261
00:14:57.320 --> 00:15:00.600
and and you know, uh different things like that didn't

262
00:15:00.600 --> 00:15:02.720
have any work. They were flooded in Baton Rouge too.

263
00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:04.759
They didn't flood, but you know the business a lot

264
00:15:04.759 --> 00:15:08.919
of businesses did too, and said, yeah, but can you

265
00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:12.200
find us some food because we got eighteen people here

266
00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:15.919
working and nowhere to buy even some sandwich meat.

267
00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:17.679
Yeah, yeah, that's right.

268
00:15:17.840 --> 00:15:21.159
Wal Mart's all flooded everything all. So they came and

269
00:15:21.200 --> 00:15:25.279
they found Red Cross set up. Thank god for Red Cross.

270
00:15:25.480 --> 00:15:27.879
A lot of people complained, well, I only got a

271
00:15:27.919 --> 00:15:31.639
cold sandwich. You know what, a coal sandwich was better

272
00:15:31.679 --> 00:15:35.480
than no sandwich, or the beans wasn't cooked enough. I'm like,

273
00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:36.679
oh wait a minute, folks.

274
00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:39.279
Yeah, we're not a big mic. No, that's right.

275
00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:43.200
We're getting what we can get. And we've been blessed

276
00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:45.480
that they were here doing things and that look Red

277
00:15:45.480 --> 00:15:48.279
Cross would I mean Samaritans person? All these different people,

278
00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:51.799
the Cajun navies that popped up because of the flood

279
00:15:51.840 --> 00:15:56.279
have been instrumental in saving and helping thousands and thousands

280
00:15:56.279 --> 00:15:59.399
of people since the sixteen flood. So I guess our

281
00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:02.879
disaster turned into a major helpful a lot of people

282
00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:03.519
since then.

283
00:16:04.480 --> 00:16:12.200
It really did. And you know the pressure I couldn't imagine. Look,

284
00:16:13.399 --> 00:16:17.240
I flooded and lost every fricking thing I owned, had

285
00:16:17.320 --> 00:16:21.320
three kids, a wife, And I'm not special because I

286
00:16:21.480 --> 00:16:25.519
was one of three thousand, five thousand people in that

287
00:16:25.600 --> 00:16:29.480
same situation. I was blessed because I did have structure insurance.

288
00:16:29.480 --> 00:16:33.159
Now didn't have contents insurance, I learned later, But I

289
00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:37.000
did have structural insurance, and I was blessed to have that.

290
00:16:37.039 --> 00:16:38.919
There were a lot of people that didn't have either.

291
00:16:39.559 --> 00:16:45.639
And I retired folks right next to me that were

292
00:16:45.679 --> 00:16:48.360
happy to not pay that flood insurance anymore because they

293
00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:50.519
had just paid their house off. And I don't have

294
00:16:50.600 --> 00:16:54.200
to pay this stupid flood insurance anymore. It's never gonna flood.

295
00:16:54.360 --> 00:16:57.919
Are the people in flood zone X. So yeah, the

296
00:16:58.440 --> 00:17:01.080
figure that I got was like eight ninety percent of

297
00:17:01.159 --> 00:17:05.319
floods on X flooded. So it's so important even though

298
00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:09.519
you go, well, let's say you didn't flood in sixteen

299
00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:14.559
either flood, but yet you're an X. My house is

300
00:17:14.599 --> 00:17:16.559
paid off. I didn't have to buy it in the

301
00:17:16.559 --> 00:17:20.400
first place. Please go get some flood insurance. It's cheap.

302
00:17:20.680 --> 00:17:22.200
Peace of mind if it's.

303
00:17:22.119 --> 00:17:25.079
One hundred dollars a month and you don't have to

304
00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:27.000
think about it. They'll cover you up to two hundred

305
00:17:27.000 --> 00:17:29.039
and fifty thousand and I'm not sure how much the

306
00:17:29.079 --> 00:17:32.359
contents is, but it's very cheap insurance.

307
00:17:32.519 --> 00:17:33.400
Yeah, everybody.

308
00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:35.519
You know, there's a lot of people since then paying

309
00:17:35.559 --> 00:17:37.200
four or five thousand.

310
00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:39.000
Dollars me, you know, but I pay it.

311
00:17:39.079 --> 00:17:41.680
You pay it. What were you y'all were? Probably in

312
00:17:42.440 --> 00:17:42.799
I was.

313
00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:45.960
I was. I don't know what what zone it would be.

314
00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:50.799
Probably I was required to carry a flood insurance and

315
00:17:50.880 --> 00:17:53.400
it was God because I wouldn't have paid it if

316
00:17:53.400 --> 00:17:54.279
I wasn't required.

317
00:17:54.599 --> 00:17:59.839
It ain't a floods ten years ago. It was like, wow,

318
00:18:00.079 --> 00:18:01.000
that's eight hundred bucks.

319
00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:05.079
I'd take it all day long now. But I do

320
00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:08.799
pay it because obviously because I've been in that situation

321
00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:12.880
and I made sure I had contents insurances time. But

322
00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:17.279
from a parish perspective, y'all are juggling all of.

323
00:18:17.200 --> 00:18:20.160
This while running our day to day lives a lot

324
00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:22.759
of pressure. Yeah, a lot of pressure. And it felt

325
00:18:22.759 --> 00:18:25.039
like you were dropping the ball all day every day.

326
00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:28.319
New experience couldn't help people. It's learning on the fly.

327
00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:30.519
It was almost like having when you have a baby

328
00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:34.319
that's sick. Yeah, and you can't soothe the whatever it

329
00:18:34.440 --> 00:18:37.000
is that's happening. That's how we felt with one hundred

330
00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:40.519
and fifty thousand people. Yeah, you know, because most of

331
00:18:40.559 --> 00:18:42.720
them had some good If you were one of a

332
00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:46.000
few like I was, that didn't your home or your

333
00:18:46.839 --> 00:18:51.680
the plant didn't flood, it was almost like we felt guilty.

334
00:18:51.880 --> 00:18:55.000
Yeah that you know that. I bring into so many

335
00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:58.000
people like that, and they they they had almost a

336
00:18:58.039 --> 00:19:01.480
guilty feeling. Why why did I not flood? And you

337
00:19:01.480 --> 00:19:04.160
you hit it on the head. God needed you to

338
00:19:04.200 --> 00:19:08.000
clean people's clothes. That's exactly what it was.

339
00:19:08.160 --> 00:19:10.240
Tell people they go, oh, you flood and said no,

340
00:19:10.359 --> 00:19:12.680
we were very blessed. And my wife goes, no, don't

341
00:19:12.680 --> 00:19:15.000
call it that, because that means other people weren't blessed.

342
00:19:15.400 --> 00:19:18.720
I said, no, baby, I said, everybody's blessings are different.

343
00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:22.960
You lost everything in your house, but your house is

344
00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:26.000
still there. You got it gutted, You're going to rebuild.

345
00:19:26.319 --> 00:19:29.200
That was your blessing. You could have lost the house, absolutely,

346
00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:31.680
you know so. But it was so many weeks of

347
00:19:32.119 --> 00:19:36.880
this heartache. And then after that came rebuilding roads that

348
00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:42.759
tore up, rebuilding structures, Parish, the jail, I mean everything flooded.

349
00:19:42.839 --> 00:19:45.400
Yeah, you know. I mean y'all had tons of money.

350
00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:46.599
Yeah we had.

351
00:19:46.759 --> 00:19:49.680
Oh, actually, so we had spare money to do that.

352
00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:53.839
I watched my interview with Ken Benitas on the inauguration

353
00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:57.960
day in January sixteen, and he goes, I want you to, Scooter,

354
00:19:58.039 --> 00:20:00.640
I want you to tell me why you ran for

355
00:20:00.680 --> 00:20:04.160
this job when other people were going, Man, that's the

356
00:20:04.200 --> 00:20:07.839
worst job to have in Livingston Parish right now. And

357
00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:10.480
I said, because it's time to give back. Because like

358
00:20:10.519 --> 00:20:13.200
I said in that we did a podcast.

359
00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:13.599
Way back years ago.

360
00:20:13.799 --> 00:20:15.680
Yeah, and I told you what, if it wasn't for

361
00:20:15.720 --> 00:20:18.440
the people Livingston Parish, I wouldn't be anything. I wouldn't

362
00:20:18.440 --> 00:20:21.960
have had anything. I just have a job somewhere, you know,

363
00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:22.920
working whatever.

364
00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:23.119
No.

365
00:20:23.240 --> 00:20:26.119
I allowed me to run my business and to give back,

366
00:20:26.359 --> 00:20:29.000
but we never had time to give back, you know.

367
00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:33.480
But working in the permit office as I'm into planning

368
00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:35.079
and zoning, planning and development.

369
00:20:35.200 --> 00:20:38.119
Yeah, you're seeing a lot of the results of this.

370
00:20:38.119 --> 00:20:42.519
Now and now with the different things that we did

371
00:20:42.519 --> 00:20:45.640
a lot and then when Randy got it take took

372
00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:48.759
over as parish president when he won his election. Now

373
00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:52.880
we're doing the drainage master plan for the entire parish.

374
00:20:53.880 --> 00:20:58.720
We've done many, many drainage projects that would have never

375
00:20:58.839 --> 00:21:03.200
happened had the flood not happened. Okay, during Layton's years

376
00:21:03.279 --> 00:21:06.640
and now with Randy uh so many in the future,

377
00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:11.480
like we're gonna be letting a bid soon for dredging

378
00:21:11.480 --> 00:21:14.680
Amy River from Port Vincent all the way to Lake. Yeah,

379
00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:18.599
dredging it not just scooping out the trees, right, Okay,

380
00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:25.200
Now that's just one of many things. Oh but you know,

381
00:21:26.359 --> 00:21:28.839
these things wouldn't have we wouldn't even thought about it.

382
00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:32.359
We'd have just been moping long, you know, doing our things.

383
00:21:32.200 --> 00:21:34.400
One hundred percent. And I see that a lot with

384
00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:39.119
the council meetings now and both from the administrative side

385
00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:43.920
and the other side of the council, where uh first

386
00:21:43.960 --> 00:21:48.880
and foremost in people's mind is drainage. Now, I'll say this,

387
00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:52.160
and this is my belief on that flood. That was

388
00:21:52.200 --> 00:21:55.319
a storm that's set up over an area and never

389
00:21:55.400 --> 00:22:00.960
moved for three days. And I am of the belief

390
00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:05.440
that you could have the best drainage in the world.

391
00:22:05.559 --> 00:22:08.519
And if you get thirty six inches of rain in

392
00:22:08.680 --> 00:22:11.400
three days, you're gonna flood.

393
00:22:11.480 --> 00:22:12.079
Nothing you can do.

394
00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:14.400
You may not have six feet like I had my house.

395
00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:15.680
That's right, it may only be two.

396
00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:21.759
But still so I heard that from day one. Oh

397
00:22:21.960 --> 00:22:26.599
y'all over developing the parish. You're covering everything with concrete.

398
00:22:27.160 --> 00:22:30.839
It wouldn't matter if there was nothing but cow pastures

399
00:22:30.920 --> 00:22:34.279
left and you got thirty six inches, everything would have

400
00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:40.960
still flooded. Existing And so a lot of the things

401
00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:43.920
that are happening, like right now, we're doing eighty million dollars.

402
00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:47.599
We bonded out eighty million dollars for roads. Council voted

403
00:22:47.640 --> 00:22:51.599
to bond it out and it's gonna be set up

404
00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:57.319
in twelve different separate road program projects. We're doing cross coverts,

405
00:22:57.440 --> 00:23:01.880
We're doing drainage on every project. Now that's gonna help

406
00:23:02.640 --> 00:23:07.160
during rain events. Sure, five six inches make no difference

407
00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:12.759
whatsoever during a thirty to thirty six you can't make

408
00:23:12.880 --> 00:23:16.160
enough capacity for that. It's like the arb C is

409
00:23:16.200 --> 00:23:20.039
getting approved to put they they've already bought up a

410
00:23:20.119 --> 00:23:23.160
Meet River Basin Commissions already bought up land along the

411
00:23:23.279 --> 00:23:27.519
Upper a Meet to use old gravel mines as retention

412
00:23:28.359 --> 00:23:30.279
to pull some of the water off the a Meat

413
00:23:30.359 --> 00:23:33.200
river store it and then as it goes down then

414
00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:35.559
it'll let it back into the river. So that'll help

415
00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:41.279
certainly help you know, the Amy River diversion canal, I

416
00:23:41.319 --> 00:23:42.680
mean the Comeat River diversion.

417
00:23:43.519 --> 00:23:47.240
We'll see help Baton Rouge more than probably living.

418
00:23:47.559 --> 00:23:51.839
In central you know, if we get a few inches

419
00:23:51.920 --> 00:23:55.799
lower level, that'll help the eighty three style floods. But

420
00:23:56.039 --> 00:24:00.839
nothing that there's no that would that won't help thee now.

421
00:24:03.359 --> 00:24:04.960
In that short period of time.

422
00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:07.160
I wish there was something you could snap your fingers

423
00:24:07.160 --> 00:24:10.960
and we all do, but you can't. There's just no way.

424
00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:14.160
You know, we have Floodplaine Manager Kim Hymil in my

425
00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:17.880
office and we deal with so now with zoning. Now

426
00:24:17.960 --> 00:24:21.680
we have zoning. Every single thing. I have to check

427
00:24:21.720 --> 00:24:26.440
the zoning. Then we got to check the flood zone.

428
00:24:27.400 --> 00:24:29.599
Then we've got to see, you know, if it's the

429
00:24:29.640 --> 00:24:34.119
floods on whether they have to fill mitigation and retention

430
00:24:35.240 --> 00:24:39.480
and how much. So those things are going to help

431
00:24:39.559 --> 00:24:44.119
on a ten twelve fourteen inch of rains. Yes, that'll

432
00:24:44.200 --> 00:24:46.599
keep water out of some houses that used to flood.

433
00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:49.400
And that's a great thing if it keeps you for

434
00:24:49.519 --> 00:24:52.480
one matter of fact, that Thursday that started raining. I

435
00:24:52.519 --> 00:24:54.640
told you I was on the way home. I was

436
00:24:54.680 --> 00:24:57.519
headed to Dunroad before I went home to get dressed

437
00:24:57.559 --> 00:25:01.440
for the council meeting. Because they had two houses off

438
00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:03.559
a done road that every time it rained three or

439
00:25:03.559 --> 00:25:06.400
four inches, they were getting water on them in the houses.

440
00:25:07.599 --> 00:25:13.720
And they had gravity one with Wesley Kennerberg had dug

441
00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:18.240
new drainage behind these houses. And I'm standing out there

442
00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:22.000
in the driving rainstorm and watching the water leave instead

443
00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:24.640
of getting in them two houses. And I got beat

444
00:25:24.880 --> 00:25:28.400
to death over that, putting that drainage inure. So some

445
00:25:28.440 --> 00:25:30.519
people had to move their fences that had been built

446
00:25:30.519 --> 00:25:34.079
in the drainage servitude. But if it kept it out

447
00:25:34.079 --> 00:25:36.920
of two houses, these people, some of them had dug

448
00:25:37.079 --> 00:25:39.839
holes and put pump some pumps in them so that

449
00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:42.599
it pumped the water away from their house. When all

450
00:25:42.640 --> 00:25:46.640
it took was it was really a swell about eight

451
00:25:46.680 --> 00:25:49.599
to twelve inches deep at the deepest, you know, between

452
00:25:49.640 --> 00:25:54.160
two subdivisions. But it's never flooded again since then. And

453
00:25:54.319 --> 00:25:57.559
I would have been fine losing my election at that

454
00:25:57.640 --> 00:26:00.160
next election knowing them two houses.

455
00:25:59.799 --> 00:26:03.519
Did absolutely And that's what you want out of your

456
00:26:03.559 --> 00:26:08.039
council with these improvements that you're seeing is you look,

457
00:26:08.119 --> 00:26:11.279
the twelve inches of rain, fourteen inches of rain are

458
00:26:11.319 --> 00:26:13.480
going to be a lot more common than the forty inches,

459
00:26:14.039 --> 00:26:15.960
and so those are the things that you want to

460
00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:21.359
stave off the massive event like we had in twenty sixteen.

461
00:26:21.720 --> 00:26:24.680
Hopefully none of us ever see that again, but it could,

462
00:26:24.839 --> 00:26:27.039
but it certainly. But anything's possible.

463
00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:27.799
Things possible.

464
00:26:27.799 --> 00:26:30.720
But you're going to see a lot of those ten, twelve, fourteen,

465
00:26:30.839 --> 00:26:33.119
sixteen inch rains a ton.

466
00:26:32.920 --> 00:26:35.359
Of that's a five hundred year reign event when you

467
00:26:35.359 --> 00:26:38.240
get that like sixteen inches. Yeah, and we get it

468
00:26:38.319 --> 00:26:39.279
a couple times a year.

469
00:26:39.400 --> 00:26:42.519
Sure, Yeah, it's moving up a little bit now it's

470
00:26:42.519 --> 00:26:44.359
one hundred year event, it really is.

471
00:26:44.880 --> 00:26:47.920
And no, it's like a yearly event. But you got

472
00:26:47.920 --> 00:26:49.640
a factor in from the beginning to time.

473
00:26:49.839 --> 00:26:52.880
That's right. Oh, it only happens every hundred years. Yeah.

474
00:26:53.240 --> 00:26:56.799
But this council we have in place now, they've approved

475
00:26:56.799 --> 00:26:59.319
a drainage master playing the money to spend on that.

476
00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:03.119
They the road program where they're putting all the drainage in.

477
00:27:03.240 --> 00:27:07.839
So they are improving Livingston Parish as a whole by

478
00:27:07.880 --> 00:27:11.920
doing all these things. Except for the event of a

479
00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:15.799
catastrophic flood. That's right, and we can't and nobody can

480
00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:16.359
fix it.

481
00:27:16.480 --> 00:27:19.400
Nobody can fix it, nobody can really predict it. But

482
00:27:19.480 --> 00:27:22.240
I'll tell you what matters and what's important from a

483
00:27:22.279 --> 00:27:25.799
citizens standpoint, and that is you have people like a

484
00:27:25.839 --> 00:27:31.039
Scooter Keing somewhere in parish government still that experienced it.

485
00:27:31.119 --> 00:27:36.799
Because you can't replace experience. And you guys, the majority

486
00:27:36.839 --> 00:27:40.480
of you guys in those particular positions, have been through it.

487
00:27:41.799 --> 00:27:44.279
You kind of know what to do to start. Well,

488
00:27:45.119 --> 00:27:47.680
nobody wants to ever see it again, but I want

489
00:27:47.720 --> 00:27:50.680
someone in there that's been there and done that, and

490
00:27:51.279 --> 00:27:53.119
you learned a lot from that first one.

491
00:27:53.160 --> 00:27:55.400
Well, I've got several friends on this new council and

492
00:27:55.440 --> 00:27:58.079
I call them friends help Billy Taylor that beat me,

493
00:27:58.279 --> 00:27:59.480
I call them a good friend.

494
00:27:59.599 --> 00:27:59.839
Yeah.

495
00:28:00.039 --> 00:28:03.880
As we talk all the time. And John Mangus, for instance,

496
00:28:04.480 --> 00:28:08.359
goes to church with us, been in men's club, everything together.

497
00:28:08.640 --> 00:28:12.799
He'll call me and go, Scooter, he said, I'm working

498
00:28:12.799 --> 00:28:17.880
on this ordinance. What is the planning department? See how

499
00:28:17.920 --> 00:28:20.400
would it fit together in this ordinance? And I'm like, well, John,

500
00:28:21.039 --> 00:28:25.319
I'll check. And so we're working. The administration's working really

501
00:28:25.319 --> 00:28:29.160
well with the councils to bring change. It was a

502
00:28:29.200 --> 00:28:33.039
new day Livingstone right when they all got elected. The

503
00:28:33.079 --> 00:28:35.319
best thing ever happened in my life was to lose.

504
00:28:35.480 --> 00:28:39.079
It really was eight years. My family was tired of it.

505
00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:41.880
My wife was tired of everybody living. Some parents were

506
00:28:41.880 --> 00:28:43.960
tired of seeing me. But I didn't really go anywhere.

507
00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:47.079
But I'm here, but I'm not in that capacity. I'm

508
00:28:47.119 --> 00:28:51.000
not making laws. I'm helping every chance I get. Mister

509
00:28:51.079 --> 00:28:54.240
Randy said, look, any of those counselmen d D my

510
00:28:54.680 --> 00:28:59.279
actual boss DD to that she goes anytime they need

511
00:28:59.319 --> 00:29:02.079
help with SF. We're in this. We see it every

512
00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:05.279
day and they're wanting to fix the problems. To tell

513
00:29:05.319 --> 00:29:08.759
them what you're seeing. Help them all try to get

514
00:29:08.799 --> 00:29:12.200
it right, which you can't because there's no perfect gardenances

515
00:29:12.319 --> 00:29:16.039
right period. You write it, it looks great, they go

516
00:29:16.160 --> 00:29:20.160
to do it. Well, they got around that again. Let's

517
00:29:20.200 --> 00:29:22.839
try something else, you know, right, But these all these

518
00:29:22.880 --> 00:29:25.400
guys work so hard. That's like the pay raise. They

519
00:29:25.480 --> 00:29:27.839
finally passed the pay raids for the council a couple

520
00:29:27.799 --> 00:29:30.359
of weeks ago, and it doesn't apply to this council.

521
00:29:30.359 --> 00:29:32.960
It'll be whoever's in there next time. I tried for

522
00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:35.279
eight years and couldn't get the fifth boat.

523
00:29:36.079 --> 00:29:41.200
You know, and they if the average person knew how

524
00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:45.720
much time y'all spend. Oh lord, whether you agree with

525
00:29:45.759 --> 00:29:48.920
the counselman, disagree with the counselman, they put in their time.

526
00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:52.599
They need to talk to mister for small change.

527
00:29:53.200 --> 00:29:56.680
Joe walks. He comes around with his notebook, and mister

528
00:29:56.759 --> 00:30:00.880
Joe has been helping with flooding issues. With anybody calls him,

529
00:30:00.920 --> 00:30:04.039
he's gonna go. Yeah, Well he's like man, he said,

530
00:30:04.039 --> 00:30:06.400
I spend wading more than twelve hundred dollars a month,

531
00:30:06.720 --> 00:30:10.119
he said, in forty hours a week. That's funny.

532
00:30:10.079 --> 00:30:13.160
Yeah, I mean, I mean, even at at the raise

533
00:30:13.319 --> 00:30:16.200
level that they got, it's costing you more money than

534
00:30:16.240 --> 00:30:19.599
you're making. There's no doubt about it. It's still uh,

535
00:30:19.839 --> 00:30:22.440
you know, being a public servant. Yeah, nobody.

536
00:30:22.839 --> 00:30:25.000
And look, you don't sign on for the money, but

537
00:30:25.079 --> 00:30:26.599
you want it at least make enough to put some

538
00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:27.400
gas in your truck.

539
00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:30.359
You don't want to lose. You don't want to lose money.

540
00:30:30.519 --> 00:30:33.079
If you can help you and if it's okay, But

541
00:30:33.160 --> 00:30:35.279
when you go one thousand dollars in the hole every

542
00:30:35.319 --> 00:30:37.319
month from doing a job. He's like, I need a

543
00:30:37.319 --> 00:30:41.279
different job, right, yeah, And it's thankless because no matter

544
00:30:41.359 --> 00:30:46.200
what you do, even if it's on drainage, well we

545
00:30:46.200 --> 00:30:49.880
we don't want you to do all that. God forbid?

546
00:30:50.440 --> 00:30:54.200
Are we having to change a bridge out? Well, how

547
00:30:54.240 --> 00:30:55.079
long is it gonna take?

548
00:30:55.960 --> 00:30:59.839
Well, I mean you want to take a chance.

549
00:30:59.839 --> 00:31:02.880
And I was in Holding this morning. I went to

550
00:31:02.920 --> 00:31:05.960
Purple Bean to check on them and have a cup

551
00:31:05.960 --> 00:31:08.720
of coffee and I said, anything pressing up here? And

552
00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:11.519
they said, oh, Highway ten thirty six bridge last week

553
00:31:11.559 --> 00:31:15.279
they deemed was unsafe. Well, the new bridge. This is

554
00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:18.799
a wooden bean bridge that's been there since before I

555
00:31:18.839 --> 00:31:21.960
grew up Holding. Okay, And so they're going to replace

556
00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:25.319
that bridge with a new concrete and they're not going

557
00:31:25.400 --> 00:31:28.440
to have to block the channel nearly as much. So

558
00:31:28.519 --> 00:31:32.480
all the debris not going to be all polypic huge.

559
00:31:32.920 --> 00:31:35.599
So that's a big the bridge. Yeah, well it will.

560
00:31:35.720 --> 00:31:37.759
And I don't know how that bridge is still there

561
00:31:37.799 --> 00:31:41.559
after all those floods. Sure, but those things are. And

562
00:31:41.599 --> 00:31:43.759
that's the state, you know. Of course Paris has nothing

563
00:31:43.759 --> 00:31:48.039
to do with it. They can't state highway. But all

564
00:31:48.039 --> 00:31:51.519
of those things working together will improve when we have

565
00:31:51.759 --> 00:31:57.319
moderate flooding, okay, instead of massive flooding. Matter of fact,

566
00:31:57.559 --> 00:31:59.319
So I got a little place a hunt in Baton

567
00:31:59.400 --> 00:32:02.319
Rouge on the a Meat River. But it's right off

568
00:32:02.400 --> 00:32:06.599
O'Neill Lane. And last winter when I go hunting, I'm

569
00:32:07.079 --> 00:32:09.680
off on Friday, Saturday, Sunday right work for parish government.

570
00:32:10.559 --> 00:32:13.079
It flooded three times where I couldn't go hunting this

571
00:32:13.200 --> 00:32:17.039
past fall, this one that happened two or three weeks ago,

572
00:32:17.079 --> 00:32:20.559
with four inches of rain, got to thirty and a

573
00:32:20.599 --> 00:32:23.599
half feet on the gauge on one ninety right here

574
00:32:23.599 --> 00:32:25.720
in Dentil, right thirty and a half.

575
00:32:25.839 --> 00:32:28.599
Yeah, it's a little bit close. Well, that's I don't

576
00:32:28.640 --> 00:32:30.519
like to see that it's over flood. I mean it's

577
00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:33.720
technically ever minus twenty six is minor flood.

578
00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:37.720
So you're getting close to the middle of major, you know,

579
00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:38.599
moderate flooding.

580
00:32:38.799 --> 00:32:40.920
Yeah, okay, with four inches.

581
00:32:41.480 --> 00:32:45.000
Oh but it rained twelve inches in the watershed, so

582
00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:48.720
that's what happened, you know. And then when it gets

583
00:32:48.759 --> 00:32:50.920
down that's why the dredging of the a Meat on

584
00:32:50.960 --> 00:32:54.279
the lower end, because when it gets down, if it's

585
00:32:54.519 --> 00:32:56.960
got nowhere to go, it just backs up and then

586
00:32:56.960 --> 00:32:58.079
you get what you got in.

587
00:32:58.599 --> 00:33:02.759
Or it flows so slow that it allows it to

588
00:33:02.839 --> 00:33:05.599
back up, and that's what you want. That's why the

589
00:33:05.720 --> 00:33:08.960
dredging is so important. Because the faster that water flows

590
00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:13.559
through here and out of Lake ponta train somewhere, the

591
00:33:13.640 --> 00:33:16.920
faster that happens, the less likely the.

592
00:33:18.559 --> 00:33:23.480
Right. But those things all work together, and you only

593
00:33:23.559 --> 00:33:27.640
have a finite amount of funds, you know, we less

594
00:33:27.839 --> 00:33:30.799
since the flood. We've gotten many many grants for things

595
00:33:31.400 --> 00:33:34.640
right and and uh. And that's a good thing because without.

596
00:33:34.319 --> 00:33:38.079
The shoutout to Heather and search for that.

597
00:33:38.079 --> 00:33:41.319
That's that group over there, you know, Susan and Heather,

598
00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:47.000
and they constantly you know, and Randy made that one

599
00:33:47.039 --> 00:33:50.599
of his priorities. You'll go and look for every grant

600
00:33:50.720 --> 00:33:52.839
to do all the things we've been trying to do.

601
00:33:53.160 --> 00:33:54.960
Grand managers are worth their waiting out.

602
00:33:55.200 --> 00:33:58.279
And it's amazing. I told them at the infrastructure meeting

603
00:33:58.359 --> 00:34:02.079
Wednesday night. So I'm sitting listen about all the future

604
00:34:02.119 --> 00:34:05.319
projects and all these things. Of course, it's gonna take money,

605
00:34:06.319 --> 00:34:08.480
I told him. I've I was on that council for

606
00:34:08.519 --> 00:34:12.440
eight years and we did some great things. We worked

607
00:34:12.440 --> 00:34:14.199
together on a lot of stuff. We argued about a

608
00:34:14.199 --> 00:34:16.480
lot of stuff. Me and Randy argued about a lot

609
00:34:16.480 --> 00:34:18.800
of stuff. And that's why I think that's why he

610
00:34:18.920 --> 00:34:22.599
brought me in, because I would I would just say, Okay,

611
00:34:22.960 --> 00:34:26.039
I don't like it, you like it, let's fight about

612
00:34:26.039 --> 00:34:27.599
it right here, and then we'd get through and we'd

613
00:34:27.599 --> 00:34:29.639
be like, okay, nothing personal.

614
00:34:29.880 --> 00:34:30.840
You're not a guess man.

615
00:34:31.079 --> 00:34:34.320
No, but the bottom of the parish is built completely

616
00:34:34.320 --> 00:34:38.199
different as District three up here, you know, so what

617
00:34:38.320 --> 00:34:40.559
would work in some part of the parish we didn't

618
00:34:40.559 --> 00:34:44.800
think was right into other parts. So but but I

619
00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:48.760
told him, I said, guys, I said, and if like

620
00:34:48.920 --> 00:34:52.639
Ricky and Lonnie John Wascombe and mister joe.

621
00:34:52.559 --> 00:34:54.320
Erdie is on the shure.

622
00:34:56.480 --> 00:34:59.199
Yeah, I think that's who it is. I said, guys,

623
00:34:59.239 --> 00:35:01.800
I've seen more the past two and a half years

624
00:35:01.960 --> 00:35:04.639
under Randy the Laddin. And I said, and that's not

625
00:35:04.679 --> 00:35:07.519
a slap it late we had no money, yeah, when

626
00:35:07.519 --> 00:35:10.960
he you know, I said, but I've seen more happen

627
00:35:11.400 --> 00:35:19.199
drainage wise, roads wise, planning wise, cutting the budget, cutting

628
00:35:19.199 --> 00:35:22.400
the fat out of the budget wise. Then I could

629
00:35:22.440 --> 00:35:25.880
have ever imagined, you know. At one point I thought

630
00:35:25.880 --> 00:35:29.239
about running for parish president. Could not have done it

631
00:35:29.280 --> 00:35:30.159
like mister Randy does.

632
00:35:30.320 --> 00:35:33.039
Know he's done eight and he don't stop. Phenomenal job.

633
00:35:33.159 --> 00:35:37.760
Oh my god, he doesn't stop ever. It's like I say,

634
00:35:37.760 --> 00:35:39.760
where's miss Randy. Oh well, he's here a minute ago,

635
00:35:40.159 --> 00:35:41.079
truck's gone. Yep.

636
00:35:41.679 --> 00:35:44.719
You know, he gets after it. And I got no

637
00:35:44.800 --> 00:35:48.320
complaints me either. He's done.

638
00:35:48.480 --> 00:35:52.920
I don't hear complaints from anybody, you know. Period. Chris Anderson,

639
00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:56.599
OEP director doing a great job. You know. Robert du

640
00:35:56.679 --> 00:35:59.920
Got DPB director Rock total rock.

641
00:36:00.079 --> 00:36:03.519
I know this stuff, and.

642
00:36:02.480 --> 00:36:06.199
We trade jabs at meetings and all people like you

643
00:36:06.199 --> 00:36:07.880
can't talk to mister Robert la that I said. We

644
00:36:07.920 --> 00:36:10.519
used play football together. I do whatever we want, you know.

645
00:36:11.079 --> 00:36:14.880
But and Roberts including me in more and more, like

646
00:36:16.639 --> 00:36:20.360
the Better Roads program that's eighty million. I go to

647
00:36:20.400 --> 00:36:23.239
those meetings every week or two and we talk about

648
00:36:23.280 --> 00:36:25.760
where are we now, when's the next project coming out?

649
00:36:25.800 --> 00:36:27.199
And we got to get it to the council for

650
00:36:27.280 --> 00:36:29.719
approval and then we'll let the bids on it. You know,

651
00:36:30.960 --> 00:36:34.880
the first five out of twelve came out with Drainage

652
00:36:34.920 --> 00:36:41.079
with everything else. Four different companies on five bids. So

653
00:36:41.199 --> 00:36:43.239
that way they can all be working at the same

654
00:36:43.320 --> 00:36:47.079
time to get all these roads done. Instead of well,

655
00:36:47.119 --> 00:36:50.239
we finished in District three and two, we're gonna move

656
00:36:50.280 --> 00:36:53.639
down to here, We're gonna move over here. And it's

657
00:36:54.360 --> 00:36:57.719
I won't say it's a master plan, but it is

658
00:36:57.760 --> 00:37:00.880
a plan of we're gonna fix two hundred and sixty

659
00:37:00.920 --> 00:37:05.000
seven miles of roads before the end of next year.

660
00:37:05.280 --> 00:37:10.559
Look, and that is a major step forward for the parish.

661
00:37:10.679 --> 00:37:13.199
And I think a lot of it, a lot of

662
00:37:13.199 --> 00:37:15.320
the improvement I've seen, we kind of touched on it.

663
00:37:15.360 --> 00:37:19.840
But it is a result of a horrific situation that

664
00:37:19.920 --> 00:37:23.639
we never wanted to go through and pray we never

665
00:37:23.719 --> 00:37:27.559
go through again. But they're the positives that came out

666
00:37:27.559 --> 00:37:31.519
of the ability to take something and say, let's take

667
00:37:31.559 --> 00:37:34.800
something that's so tragic you wouldn't believe it and at

668
00:37:34.880 --> 00:37:37.239
least make some good out of this.

669
00:37:37.440 --> 00:37:39.039
You know, we talked about this a little bit a

670
00:37:39.039 --> 00:37:43.920
while ago. As soon as soon as everyone got everybody

671
00:37:43.960 --> 00:37:47.679
rescued out of floodwaters and the shelters were set up,

672
00:37:47.960 --> 00:37:52.639
shelter North Park to shelter at the church on Lockhart Road,

673
00:37:52.679 --> 00:37:55.519
Lockhart Baptist. I think is where I got pictures of

674
00:37:55.519 --> 00:37:59.679
them feeding people and animals tied up donkeys and horses

675
00:37:59.679 --> 00:38:02.440
and all tied up to their fences where people were

676
00:38:02.440 --> 00:38:06.480
bringing their animals. Okay, cats and boxes and all these things.

677
00:38:07.480 --> 00:38:11.840
Then everybody worked together and it didn't matter if you

678
00:38:11.880 --> 00:38:15.079
were black, White, Asian, Spanish. It did not matter.

679
00:38:15.440 --> 00:38:17.800
Now I'm coming out of water, didn't I.

680
00:38:17.960 --> 00:38:19.639
Oh, It didn't matter if you had a dollar or

681
00:38:19.760 --> 00:38:24.280
ten million dollars. Everybody was treated exactly the same. We

682
00:38:24.280 --> 00:38:29.599
were all one people Livingston Parish. We're still there, still there, okay,

683
00:38:30.119 --> 00:38:34.840
And as long as it's like this and one group

684
00:38:34.880 --> 00:38:39.079
of people can't fix any issue, but everybody doing their

685
00:38:39.119 --> 00:38:42.519
little part for whether you from your church or from

686
00:38:42.599 --> 00:38:46.599
your fire department or from your police whatever, working all together.

687
00:38:47.559 --> 00:38:51.360
When another thing happens, we're going to hit it again,

688
00:38:51.599 --> 00:38:53.400
just like it was again.

689
00:38:54.000 --> 00:38:58.079
And I say it all the time, Scugar, that no

690
00:38:58.119 --> 00:39:02.079
one can fight amongst each other like Livingston Parish can,

691
00:39:02.239 --> 00:39:05.000
but nobody can come together for each other.

692
00:39:05.119 --> 00:39:05.480
That's right.

693
00:39:05.960 --> 00:39:09.800
And I believe that because I believe there's very few

694
00:39:10.119 --> 00:39:14.840
cities or parishes rather in the country, and I know

695
00:39:14.920 --> 00:39:17.000
we don't have parishes all over the country, and everybody

696
00:39:17.039 --> 00:39:21.440
for counties if you will. In other aspects, yeah, that

697
00:39:22.639 --> 00:39:25.800
would have made it through this better. We made it

698
00:39:25.840 --> 00:39:29.320
through this better as a community in so many ways,

699
00:39:29.400 --> 00:39:34.239
and the credit goes to you know, like you say, everybody,

700
00:39:34.559 --> 00:39:37.840
but the leadership at the top made a big difference.

701
00:39:38.039 --> 00:39:40.320
You were part of that. Yeah, but I know you're

702
00:39:40.360 --> 00:39:42.039
not going to take credit for it, but you were.

703
00:39:44.159 --> 00:39:48.920
Leyton Ricks certainly the parish government as it is now

704
00:39:49.159 --> 00:39:50.679
with Randy.

705
00:39:50.719 --> 00:39:54.360
And all these very hard decisions in the first few

706
00:39:54.440 --> 00:39:58.840
days that you know, we had to answer for for

707
00:39:58.880 --> 00:40:01.920
a while. Sure know, FEMA was like, wait, you can't

708
00:40:01.920 --> 00:40:07.440
do that. Mister Layton was doing his very best to

709
00:40:07.480 --> 00:40:10.320
get his people back in their home right, and we

710
00:40:10.440 --> 00:40:12.960
still have some fallout from it now ten years later,

711
00:40:13.639 --> 00:40:15.880
and we're working through it as it comes up. You know,

712
00:40:16.159 --> 00:40:21.000
like I said with Kim with the building official Kevin,

713
00:40:21.760 --> 00:40:25.639
whenever we have an issue, we figured it all out,

714
00:40:25.840 --> 00:40:28.159
talk to FEMA, get it cleared up for whoever's in

715
00:40:28.519 --> 00:40:31.679
having an issue, and move forward. Now, another thing that

716
00:40:31.760 --> 00:40:34.960
happened since Randy took over. We got back into crs

717
00:40:35.079 --> 00:40:40.400
PA did which is which is a fifteen percent discount.

718
00:40:40.840 --> 00:40:43.559
That's right, but they're not giving it to you unless

719
00:40:43.599 --> 00:40:46.360
you tell them and ask for So when you get

720
00:40:46.440 --> 00:40:50.199
renew your insurance, make sure you let those people know

721
00:40:50.880 --> 00:40:53.519
and we can get you a letter from the parish

722
00:40:53.559 --> 00:40:58.280
saying yes. Mister Mangus went to get his done. He said, oh, no,

723
00:40:58.400 --> 00:41:00.679
y'all are back in. But unless we get a letter

724
00:41:00.719 --> 00:41:03.119
saying we don't have to give you a discount. So

725
00:41:03.159 --> 00:41:05.320
what did he do? Kim got a letter? You go.

726
00:41:06.079 --> 00:41:10.199
You know, look, I called my uh something on that topic.

727
00:41:10.280 --> 00:41:12.559
I called my insurance agent as soon as I heard

728
00:41:12.599 --> 00:41:17.079
about this state farm and I said, hey, I got

729
00:41:17.079 --> 00:41:19.440
my bill in. And in between the time that I

730
00:41:19.440 --> 00:41:23.199
got my flood insurance bill in, the CRS writing came

731
00:41:23.239 --> 00:41:26.960
out and it dropped for this parish. And so he's

732
00:41:27.280 --> 00:41:29.639
doing on his computer and he says, well, you're showing

733
00:41:29.840 --> 00:41:32.800
your rate went down, and so they must have known

734
00:41:32.880 --> 00:41:35.559
that by the time they build you. Now I'm saying,

735
00:41:35.639 --> 00:41:38.960
are you sure, I'm like, and he says, he says,

736
00:41:38.960 --> 00:41:40.880
I'm one hundred percent sure. And I said, how are

737
00:41:40.920 --> 00:41:44.000
you one hundred percent sharing? He said, because your rate

738
00:41:44.039 --> 00:41:47.960
would have never dropped unless something happened. So he said,

739
00:41:48.039 --> 00:41:52.079
you you saved about fifteen percent ever last year it's

740
00:41:52.119 --> 00:41:53.960
not going to go down if they didn't know that

741
00:41:54.039 --> 00:41:56.760
the CRS writing, So I take him at as well.

742
00:41:56.920 --> 00:42:00.920
Ava whether you're X or A or A ease zones,

743
00:42:01.440 --> 00:42:06.000
it's a fifteen percent and get better. Between Miss Cindy

744
00:42:06.000 --> 00:42:09.159
O'Neill and Kim I Mail, they've been working, work and

745
00:42:09.199 --> 00:42:12.960
working to get us to a six. Now now there's

746
00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:15.159
it's tough because you've got to get points in all

747
00:42:15.239 --> 00:42:18.280
these So we're looking for low hanging fruit. Had to

748
00:42:18.320 --> 00:42:21.079
meet with Half two weeks ago. That's who's doing the

749
00:42:21.159 --> 00:42:25.840
Drangers master Plan and UH along with ge C and others.

750
00:42:27.519 --> 00:42:29.559
But we said, where's some low hanging fruit that we

751
00:42:29.599 --> 00:42:31.960
can get something now?

752
00:42:32.119 --> 00:42:32.320
Right?

753
00:42:32.360 --> 00:42:34.320
To get it down the twenty five percent?

754
00:42:34.760 --> 00:42:36.119
Yeah, you know, a quarter off?

755
00:42:37.400 --> 00:42:40.920
So what what I'm hoping it'll do As we get

756
00:42:40.920 --> 00:42:44.519
it down lower, the people in X will go ahead

757
00:42:44.559 --> 00:42:46.880
and buy if they if they don't have it now

758
00:42:47.000 --> 00:42:49.239
go ahead and buy it. And what that does It

759
00:42:49.280 --> 00:42:52.559
replenishes the pool for one one reason, so that when

760
00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:56.480
the disasters happen, there's enough money in it to help

761
00:42:56.519 --> 00:43:01.039
people without having to go back to Congress. And you

762
00:43:01.079 --> 00:43:05.679
know how that is. And and peace of mind, that's

763
00:43:05.679 --> 00:43:09.360
what you were talking about Livingston parents pulling together my

764
00:43:09.400 --> 00:43:10.079
old cages.

765
00:43:11.239 --> 00:43:13.360
They look out for one though, you better believe it.

766
00:43:13.400 --> 00:43:14.280
I'm married to one.

767
00:43:15.239 --> 00:43:18.079
Marianne that was my manager for so long at the cleaners.

768
00:43:18.559 --> 00:43:21.599
She moved back to the valls after she retired. Yeah,

769
00:43:21.639 --> 00:43:24.920
and she called and she said, miss K, we need

770
00:43:25.360 --> 00:43:29.480
D humidifiers. Well, they had already had a truck loaded up.

771
00:43:29.880 --> 00:43:32.039
I think it was a loads truck. They were donating

772
00:43:32.119 --> 00:43:35.039
hundreds of D humidifiers. We don't need them back, get

773
00:43:35.039 --> 00:43:37.880
them to those people did dry them houses out so

774
00:43:37.920 --> 00:43:38.920
they don't get full.

775
00:43:38.760 --> 00:43:41.039
Of old Oh yeah, we need sts.

776
00:43:41.199 --> 00:43:45.360
K had fans, you know, but uh, I mean none

777
00:43:45.360 --> 00:43:48.039
of these people had experienced flooding. Most none of them

778
00:43:48.079 --> 00:43:48.559
were born.

779
00:43:48.800 --> 00:43:51.159
They were like us when we flooded, had no idea

780
00:43:51.239 --> 00:43:53.639
what to do? What do you cut your sheet rock

781
00:43:53.719 --> 00:43:55.559
at a lot of these people just had a foot

782
00:43:55.599 --> 00:43:58.920
and that do I do I gut before the theme

783
00:43:58.960 --> 00:44:02.079
of people come by or after? And all those questions

784
00:44:02.079 --> 00:44:04.679
that nobody knew the answer to. Now there's a lot

785
00:44:04.719 --> 00:44:07.119
of people know. They answered, I know exactly what to do.

786
00:44:07.320 --> 00:44:09.840
So we met with half a couple of weeks ago

787
00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:15.360
on training and getting ready during Blue sky days, so

788
00:44:15.440 --> 00:44:18.599
that when something does happen, when it's not blue anymore,

789
00:44:18.639 --> 00:44:21.920
it's black, it's just pouring. Yeah, the parish will be

790
00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:26.239
ready because we didn't. We weren't ready. We had no

791
00:44:26.280 --> 00:44:29.599
idea it was ready. You know, all of this is

792
00:44:29.679 --> 00:44:33.039
this is Randy Ready that got a vision and he's

793
00:44:33.239 --> 00:44:35.679
he's running with it, and it's okay if you don't

794
00:44:35.760 --> 00:44:39.719
like it. Yeah, you're not gonna like everything every politician

795
00:44:39.840 --> 00:44:40.440
wants to do.

796
00:44:40.960 --> 00:44:42.719
You hat to run into one that I agree with

797
00:44:42.760 --> 00:44:43.480
one hundred percent?

798
00:44:43.559 --> 00:44:45.039
Well, what kind of world would that be?

799
00:44:46.239 --> 00:44:50.599
After spending hours diving into these crazy cases, the last

800
00:44:50.639 --> 00:44:53.559
thing I want is to lie there staring at the

801
00:44:53.599 --> 00:44:57.519
ceiling because the sheets feel rough or I'm sweating all night.

802
00:44:57.920 --> 00:45:01.159
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803
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804
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805
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806
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807
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808
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809
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810
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811
00:45:31.599 --> 00:45:35.679
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812
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813
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814
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815
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816
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817
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818
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819
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820
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821
00:46:07.440 --> 00:46:10.800
You know, we got fifty million dollars after the flood

822
00:46:10.800 --> 00:46:15.000
of sixteen to clean out every creek stream, lateral ditch

823
00:46:15.599 --> 00:46:21.079
you know, which caused a problem because now there's no

824
00:46:21.199 --> 00:46:24.760
water retained in the woods and it's getting to the

825
00:46:24.880 --> 00:46:28.840
Meet river much quicker. It's leaving the walk the northern

826
00:46:28.880 --> 00:46:32.000
part of the parish in a hurry uprate. But where

827
00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:34.519
does that put it? So where did he go looking

828
00:46:34.639 --> 00:46:37.920
for the first project on Amy or the lower end.

829
00:46:38.880 --> 00:46:41.599
So they cleaned the entire thing out from parish line

830
00:46:41.639 --> 00:46:43.599
all the way down to the lake, the fallen trees

831
00:46:43.840 --> 00:46:45.840
just like two years ago.

832
00:46:45.960 --> 00:46:46.480
I remember.

833
00:46:46.519 --> 00:46:49.400
Okay, that wasn't flood money. That was another grant that

834
00:46:49.480 --> 00:46:54.000
did that. But now the river's flowing so good that

835
00:46:54.760 --> 00:46:58.000
uh oh, we got to fix the weir. We got

836
00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:01.440
a dredge lower Livingston. Yeah, because Lower Livingston would be

837
00:47:01.480 --> 00:47:04.920
in a buine if we had twenty something inches up here,

838
00:47:04.920 --> 00:47:06.679
and we got it to them really fast.

839
00:47:06.840 --> 00:47:07.239
Oh yeah.

840
00:47:07.559 --> 00:47:10.719
And so that's what mister Randy's concern is. Okay, we

841
00:47:10.840 --> 00:47:13.760
got this fixed up here, but.

842
00:47:13.800 --> 00:47:17.519
Now the Interstates and I'm below the Interstates.

843
00:47:17.760 --> 00:47:21.239
And so when you leave the unfunded draining districts, leave

844
00:47:21.280 --> 00:47:24.039
the funded draininge districts and get into all the unfunded

845
00:47:24.320 --> 00:47:27.440
that's all DPW. That's all that's available to clean out

846
00:47:27.599 --> 00:47:31.159
creek streams, laterals, ditches, you know, our own you know.

847
00:47:31.840 --> 00:47:35.159
And so there's only a finite amount of money. It's

848
00:47:35.199 --> 00:47:38.519
like ten million dollars years all DPW is run on. Yah,

849
00:47:38.599 --> 00:47:41.519
people got ten million dollars. That's a lot in today's dollar.

850
00:47:42.239 --> 00:47:45.239
Doesn't get you very far. Robert did a fantastic job

851
00:47:45.320 --> 00:47:49.719
on this, on this Better Roads program. Every bid is

852
00:47:49.760 --> 00:47:52.960
coming in seven hundred thousand to a million. I saw

853
00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:55.519
that under what he thought it was going to be

854
00:47:55.880 --> 00:47:59.239
what the engineers thought, not what Robert thought. Robert's not engineer,

855
00:47:59.400 --> 00:48:03.280
sure he's been seeing this for forty years. But that's

856
00:48:03.360 --> 00:48:09.400
big because then if you run into a drainage, let's say,

857
00:48:09.440 --> 00:48:12.559
a sixty inch culvert that's got to be changed out

858
00:48:13.280 --> 00:48:15.880
that wasn't in the bid when they ain't got money

859
00:48:15.880 --> 00:48:18.679
to cover it. Yeah, you know, and those on those

860
00:48:18.679 --> 00:48:20.760
local levels are going to make a big difference. There's

861
00:48:20.800 --> 00:48:23.639
lots of things happen, Like Walker's got a major project going.

862
00:48:23.679 --> 00:48:26.199
They did a cea between the parish and the town

863
00:48:26.239 --> 00:48:30.559
of Walker, City of Walker sorry to get the water

864
00:48:30.639 --> 00:48:34.119
on the Coyo Creeks through the city. But then it

865
00:48:34.199 --> 00:48:38.679
hits the unfunded drainage district. So all they have is DPW.

866
00:48:39.199 --> 00:48:43.119
And remember we tried to fund the drainage district. I

867
00:48:43.159 --> 00:48:45.760
guess this district EID is what they call the one

868
00:48:45.800 --> 00:48:50.960
that's seventy eighty percent of the parish. Yes, and we

869
00:48:51.159 --> 00:48:54.000
have to keep trying to fund that. The parish councilmen

870
00:48:54.119 --> 00:48:55.679
talk about it a lot, and they go, oh, but

871
00:48:55.760 --> 00:48:58.719
people are so anti tax, and I said, they were

872
00:48:58.760 --> 00:49:02.440
anti tax for draining after the flood, so it's going

873
00:49:02.519 --> 00:49:06.679
to be really hard to get somebody by. But looky, Killian.

874
00:49:07.920 --> 00:49:12.639
Killian just voted in a one cent sales tax passed

875
00:49:12.679 --> 00:49:17.400
by a lot because they needed it, because Killian is growing.

876
00:49:17.719 --> 00:49:20.119
I do want to thank you for continuing on with

877
00:49:20.760 --> 00:49:21.440
some other things.

878
00:49:21.480 --> 00:49:26.639
Yeah. So I'm still in the politics part. Whether you

879
00:49:26.679 --> 00:49:28.880
want to be in there or not, it is what

880
00:49:28.920 --> 00:49:33.159
it is. I don't get political because my job's not political.

881
00:49:33.760 --> 00:49:36.280
You know, if you send me to go talk to

882
00:49:36.320 --> 00:49:39.440
some people because they're not happy, I try and make

883
00:49:39.480 --> 00:49:42.320
them happy. I can't ensure that I will because you

884
00:49:42.360 --> 00:49:46.000
know it's on them. Had a gentleman the other day

885
00:49:46.079 --> 00:49:48.320
was having issues up in Watson and mister and he said,

886
00:49:48.320 --> 00:49:50.760
go see if you can help those folks, because that

887
00:49:50.960 --> 00:49:55.159
mystery won't say help everybody period. Okay, So I went

888
00:49:55.239 --> 00:49:57.880
and it was something we couldn't do, you know, And

889
00:49:58.400 --> 00:50:00.840
I told them what we could possibly do to help him.

890
00:50:01.880 --> 00:50:04.320
And I saw him outside of Walmart sunday. Ego. Man,

891
00:50:04.760 --> 00:50:07.239
he said, tell mister Rendy, thank you that we got

892
00:50:07.239 --> 00:50:10.519
it lined out and and it's just just y'all talking

893
00:50:10.559 --> 00:50:14.360
about it with other people helped us. You know, sometimes

894
00:50:14.360 --> 00:50:17.639
it's something you can't do with taxpayer money, and he

895
00:50:17.719 --> 00:50:20.280
won't do it with tax payer money. You know, he knew.

896
00:50:20.360 --> 00:50:23.199
I mean, Brandy's been a politician for a long time, sure,

897
00:50:23.440 --> 00:50:25.760
and but he doesn't act like it, you know, because

898
00:50:25.800 --> 00:50:28.719
he'll do things that you shouldn't do as a politician

899
00:50:29.039 --> 00:50:31.199
and want to get it reelected. But he goes this

900
00:50:31.320 --> 00:50:33.719
the right thing. We're going to do it well.

901
00:50:33.760 --> 00:50:35.599
And at the end of the day, I think that's

902
00:50:35.760 --> 00:50:40.480
what makes your your best leaders. All people that are

903
00:50:40.599 --> 00:50:45.599
going to do the right thing, even when it's hard.

904
00:50:45.679 --> 00:50:46.199
That's the one.

905
00:50:46.320 --> 00:50:49.320
And even when it pisses somebody off, they feel like,

906
00:50:49.880 --> 00:50:51.400
this is what needs to be done.

907
00:50:51.440 --> 00:50:53.239
That's what they were and you'll do it and move

908
00:50:53.280 --> 00:50:56.480
on to the next thing. I believe that the animal shelter,

909
00:50:57.360 --> 00:50:59.559
I mean we wanted to do I ran on animal

910
00:50:59.599 --> 00:51:00.880
shelter the first time.

911
00:51:01.119 --> 00:51:01.280
Yep.

912
00:51:01.599 --> 00:51:03.480
Oh we can't do that. Oh it's going to bleed

913
00:51:03.519 --> 00:51:06.840
the perish drive. Oh it's gonna No. He found a way,

914
00:51:07.199 --> 00:51:10.199
found a way, and it's fantastic. And I cry every day.

915
00:51:10.239 --> 00:51:13.199
I'm looking at Facebook and I'm like, oh, yeah, maybe.

916
00:51:13.000 --> 00:51:15.239
I need to I want to you want to get

917
00:51:15.320 --> 00:51:16.639
every one of them. Yeah, you can't.

918
00:51:17.320 --> 00:51:20.239
They had ninety nine dogs in there this weekend. Yeah,

919
00:51:20.280 --> 00:51:25.000
and you know they adopt out fifteen or twenty a week. Yeah,

920
00:51:25.119 --> 00:51:28.519
so people need to go to we can try to

921
00:51:28.559 --> 00:51:33.800
do a podcast on Okay, we're here now, so let's

922
00:51:33.880 --> 00:51:37.079
let's support all the things that are coming. You know.

923
00:51:37.360 --> 00:51:40.400
Absolutely make people aware of part parts tags.

924
00:51:40.480 --> 00:51:44.199
They vote down parts time, you know, and then they

925
00:51:44.280 --> 00:51:46.119
voted it baby people.

926
00:51:47.599 --> 00:51:48.840
Family entertainment.

927
00:51:48.960 --> 00:51:53.400
No, it's very the park, very cheap folks for what

928
00:51:53.480 --> 00:51:58.519
they offer, courts everything, Yeah, no.

929
00:51:58.519 --> 00:51:59.960
How much is a picnic table?

930
00:52:00.239 --> 00:52:04.559
Yeah? Well, so I was in the Livingston this year.

931
00:52:05.280 --> 00:52:08.159
Mister Randy wanted me to go. Why I'm old, right,

932
00:52:09.119 --> 00:52:11.760
but just I picked up several things that I did

933
00:52:11.800 --> 00:52:15.400
not know about our parish. Sure that will now help

934
00:52:15.480 --> 00:52:16.400
me in my job.

935
00:52:16.559 --> 00:52:20.199
One of the best things I ever did was was

936
00:52:20.320 --> 00:52:23.960
do that program and saw everything from where boats are

937
00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:26.519
made that you would have never have any idea that

938
00:52:26.519 --> 00:52:30.679
that was in Paris. Uh, the Hungarian Settlement something I

939
00:52:30.719 --> 00:52:33.159
was I was familiar I knew about, but I was

940
00:52:33.199 --> 00:52:33.960
not familiar with.

941
00:52:34.199 --> 00:52:36.840
Pasted in and said they.

942
00:52:35.199 --> 00:52:38.039
Got oh, look at that's cool, but don't realize the

943
00:52:38.159 --> 00:52:41.000
history behind. Yes, that's right. Uh so a lot of

944
00:52:41.039 --> 00:52:44.679
things learning you know about how the jail works and

945
00:52:44.679 --> 00:52:48.679
and uh government and all of the things you learn

946
00:52:48.719 --> 00:52:49.119
in that brand.

947
00:52:49.400 --> 00:52:52.280
So anybody that's interested in doing that should do that.

948
00:52:52.559 --> 00:52:55.800
Our project is Spring Park, right, and we're building a

949
00:52:55.840 --> 00:52:57.199
walking trail down to the springs.

950
00:52:57.320 --> 00:52:58.960
One of my favorite made me bring it.

951
00:52:59.000 --> 00:53:02.400
Up, picnic take. So we're buying six picnic tables and

952
00:53:02.480 --> 00:53:06.280
five benches. Well it was like ten thousand dollars.

953
00:53:06.639 --> 00:53:08.159
You would never think, you know, but.

954
00:53:08.039 --> 00:53:11.480
They're eighty eight complying. They're built to last forever. They're coated.

955
00:53:11.840 --> 00:53:12.280
That's right.

956
00:53:12.639 --> 00:53:14.719
If you're going to buy something by the by the

957
00:53:14.719 --> 00:53:15.400
good stuff.

958
00:53:15.199 --> 00:53:17.079
Yeah, you don't want to buy a wooden't one where

959
00:53:17.119 --> 00:53:19.000
you're replacing it every four years.

960
00:53:19.760 --> 00:53:21.440
And Buffy, Buffy, that's.

961
00:53:21.480 --> 00:53:22.880
Yeah, oh yeah, amazing.

962
00:53:23.320 --> 00:53:27.559
Buffy was on my team, thank god. And Buffy is amazing.

963
00:53:28.159 --> 00:53:28.400
You know.

964
00:53:28.519 --> 00:53:35.760
I hope calvins a picnic table on our on our team.

965
00:53:36.000 --> 00:53:41.639
But like like Michelle and Heather, all these guys, John

966
00:53:41.679 --> 00:53:47.360
Mangus was on and they don't know. No, it's kind

967
00:53:47.360 --> 00:53:52.519
of like Randy don't understand. Can't there's no can't, right, right,

968
00:53:52.639 --> 00:53:56.159
we got to figure it out. And uh so, our parish,

969
00:53:56.199 --> 00:53:59.039
our parents is in good shape, hopefully for at least

970
00:53:59.039 --> 00:54:02.079
the next nine and a half years, because Randy's gonna

971
00:54:02.119 --> 00:54:05.000
run two more times. Yeah, And I'll be there if

972
00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:07.119
he wants me there. If he doesn't want me there,

973
00:54:07.679 --> 00:54:09.559
I'll go back to doing what I was doing, which

974
00:54:09.639 --> 00:54:10.679
was nothing. When he comes.

975
00:54:11.199 --> 00:54:14.119
Well, I'm sure he's fine with you being there, and

976
00:54:14.599 --> 00:54:18.800
certainly you're an asset. Certainly you're an asset. So thank

977
00:54:18.840 --> 00:54:21.880
you so much for coming on scooter, sharing your experience

978
00:54:21.960 --> 00:54:27.039
with that flood and the parish' side of that, and

979
00:54:27.079 --> 00:54:28.159
we'll see you next time.

980
00:54:28.400 --> 00:54:31.039
If there was only a manual for all the future

981
00:54:31.079 --> 00:54:31.920
people to go.

982
00:54:31.800 --> 00:54:34.119
By, well, I'm telling you you know, will you write that.

983
00:54:35.679 --> 00:54:38.320
I'll get Ran task him to write that manual.

984
00:54:38.440 --> 00:54:39.119
Need to do that.

985
00:54:39.679 --> 00:54:42.400
There you go. Thank y'all so much for listening. Until

986
00:54:42.400 --> 00:54:45.400
next time, I'm you and Chapman reminding you love your community,

987
00:54:45.440 --> 00:54:48.000
support local business and keep leading. Thank you