The Livingston Executive Airport Takes Flight | Local Leaders #198

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Hi, This is Lorie Johnson with
Hancock Whitney Bank and you're listening to Local

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Leaders the Podcast. Visit Local leadersthepodcast
dot com for previous episodes or for information

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on peering on the show. Hey
everybody, and welcome back to another edition

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of Local Leaders of the Podcast.
And look, I have a lot of

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leaders on this show, as y'all
know, but the woman sitting across from

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me today is someone that I would
say not only is born and bred right

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here in Livingston Parish, but she
has done a lot for this parish.

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And one of those things we're going
to talk about in detail today, and

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that is the Livingston Executive Airports.
So, first of all, welcome is

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Dillia Taylor to Local Leaders of Podcast. Thank you, Jim. I appreciate

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that. You know, y'all we
visited a little bit before this show just

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now, and I can't believe this
is the first time we've had a good

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opportunity to sit down and talk for
a few minutes because I've watched as this

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lady has done so many great things
for the parish, the Livingston Executive Airport,

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so we're going to give you information
on that today, talk about some

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facts with you, and hopefully if
some of you out there are not up

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to speed on the advantages of that
and what's going on with it, where

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are we at with it, we'll
be able to clarify those things. But

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before we do, I want to
pat her on the back a little bit

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and just give you a little bit
of information on her background. She is

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born and bred right here in Livingston
Parish, lived out in Livingston area,

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Big Doyle High Gride, Go Doyle
Tigers Fighting Tigers. Yeah, there you

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go, and you left there.
You went to LSU and you actually played

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for the Lady Tigers. I did. I did. Yeah, And that

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was from maybe four to eighty six
Elite eight. Didn't they make it to

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the elite We did, and we
made it to the Elite eight. This

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was before they really structured the regional
play like they do now. We happened.

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They happened to put LSU, Georgia, Tennessee, and Iowa together in

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Iowa, so basically we knocked each
other out, but we lost to Tennessee

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by two points and missed the final
four by two points. Had had summit,

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had had summit. Gosh, she
was so good and you played for

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what Coach Sue Gunner. Yeah,
another again Hall of Fame, Nay Smith

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Hall of Famer. You know coach
Gunner's statistics. Uh, if you ever

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have a chance to visit that museum, they'll have an asterisk by her name

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because they know she has more wins
than what's recorded because she coached at a

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time when women's basketball was not on
the radar, if you will, it

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was not recorded. So she she
was a pioneer for the sport. She

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really moved it forward for a lot
of young ladies to be able to play

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today and man to think about where
it was then and now we have the

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Caitlin Clark and the Angel Reesis of
today, and it's it's we've come a

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long way, baby, a long
way. And so you have undertaken something

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for quite a while with a board, and that is this airport. And

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I guess maybe first where we can
start is how did this come to fruition?

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When was it first kind of talked
about? And how did it build

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into what it is now? Sure? Well, the council created the Livingson

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Parish Airport District in twenty sixteen and
that's when I was appointed along with the

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other board members. But the concept
and the effort to bring an airport to

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livings And started well beyond that.
You really should back up as far as

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maybe two thousand and four when you
had some local business guys and others who

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were looking at could we bring an
airport here? Where would we do it?

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How could we do this? And
they began the discussion that led eventually

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into some funding around twenty ten,
two thousand and eleven. Senator Dale Erdie

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was at the legislature at that time. He was able to secure some money

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then to do an initial master plan
and to determine if Livingson could be a

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site for a general aviation airport.
And so that study was done and they

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actually looked at three sites. The
FAA or no one wants you to just

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pick one site they want you to
see or their other alternatives. Do you

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really have the best option here?
And at the time they chose three sites

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that they looked at. One was
a little farther north, closer to what

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is now where Ligo is, and
because of that research facility, that was

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not a good location. The second
location was north of the interstate, again

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just kind of north of Satsumo in
the Walker area. It was too close

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to the waste management site to the
sanitation landfill, and a lot of sanitation

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landfills draw birds and bird strikes are
very serious issues in aviation. Now it's

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my understanding that waste management uses some
techniques to minimize that, but you know,

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the FAA was still saying, no, it's not going to work.

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So then that meant the third site
that they were looking at, and that

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was south of the interstate in the
Satsuma area, and so they determined that

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that was a great location, very
rural in not a lot of houses there

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and again a good location. And
at the time, Warehouser owned that property,

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and a lot of us are very
from the area know about Warehouser.

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They managed a lot of forest timberland
for years throughout that area and that was

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a very active site. They were
cultivating it for profit at the time.

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So again what I'm trying to say
is that property had value. And so

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when they looked at that side and
tried to determine well we could put an

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airport there, it had a price
tag on it and Warehouser was not given

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it away, and the Paris did
not have the money to buy the land.

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So then twenty eleven comes, it
goes, the study comes, it

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goes, it sits right until twenty
sixteen. What happens in twenty sixteen before

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the flood, By the way,
mister Gary lewis a developer, very very

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wealthy, very good businessman, brought
up a lot of property in that area

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and he began to hear the rumors
and whatnot that hey, Livingston's looking at

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wanting to put an airport out there, and began talking to our leaders at

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that time. Conversations sprung up,
Hey, mister Gary, do you think

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you might would give us some land
for that? Well he said yeah,

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wow. And you know, we
were very fortunate that not only it's huge,

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not only a developer and a businessman
and capable of giving that type of

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donation, but he was an aviator
in the war and still loves to fly

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today, so he had a love
for the industry. And so then there

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we are, and that's when the
council created the Livingston Parish Airport District and

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said, hey, we think mister
Gary will give you some land, go

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figure it out. And that's how
we started. There. You go and

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look, no easy task. Now
you have the land, but you've got

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to implement a lot of things along
the way, and I guess before we

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go any further, maybe let's explain
what the difference is between a general aviation

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airport and Baton ridgees Metro. Sure, because most of us are not familiar

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with general aviation airports. If we
fly we're going to Baton Rouge, New

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Orleans certainly going through it, Atlanta, Dallas, that sort of thing.

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So we're very familiar with the larger
airports. That is not what this is

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going to be. It is a
general aviation airport. The technical description would

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be this that we would not have
scheduled flights. Again, think about it.

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You pull up a schedule online and
you book your flight. They have

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them at ten am, at noon, whatever time it may be. You're

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able to book a scheduled flight each
day of the week, however it may

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work. GA airports do not have
scheduled flight service. That doesn't mean they

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don't have services for hire. You
could hire a charter flight or something like

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that, but they do not have
scheduled air flights. The other thing is

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we don't have the big guys.
So the airports again that we're familiar with,

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the Baton Rouges and the New Orleans
have the larger seven forty sevens and

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those type of aircraft and large cargo
aircraft and large military aircraft. We're in

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the middle. We have the single
prop single engine planes, we have the

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twin engines, and we do have
some corporate jets sixteen seaters if you will,

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the King Jet King air jets.
So we're in the middle, and

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we obviously could reach down to the
even smaller if we needed to. But

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the little guys who tend to do
the experimental type stuff, they try to

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even get off on a grass right
away and get away from everybody. Yeah,

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there you go, and so that
hopefully that'll answer some questions there.

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Now, we're one of only two
pair of shoes, I believe it is

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that don't have an air That's right, it's just us in Sant Helena.

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Not only are we one of only
two, we're the fastest growing parish for

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how many years? The last twenty
years, the last twenty years, so

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exactly. So it's not just that
we're in this unfortunate category with just two

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parishes, but when you look at
the fact that we have been the fastest

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growing now for twenty years, it's
almost absurd to think that we do not

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have this leg of transportation when you
look at land based multimodal transportation that we

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need for commerce. First of all, roads we have to have that.

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We know we don't have sufficient infrastructure
there that that needs to be proved.

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Rail we have a major rail line
that runs through us that contributes tons of

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money to our commerce, but we're
missing air and we need that. Obviously,

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other communities further south of here would
have ports. In fact, we

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do have, you know when you
start to get out toward Portmanchak, which

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is actually in tangible hoe huge,
huge industry, a lot of commerce for

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that parish. We don't have that
access, but we do have potential for

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obviously road, rail and air.
Yeah, and you brought up growth and

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we are. We're the fastest growing
parish in the state and have been for

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quite a while. But let's talk
about growth for a second. Because one

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thing interesting about this particular project and
another project pick your project, but may

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have the same economic impact, is
that this doesn't have the impact on the

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infrastructure or the schools that those other
programs might have. You're exactly right.

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Really, for us as a parish, this is a win win project.

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We don't have the downside that when
we bring this industry, we're not going

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to negatively impact our school system.
No impact on our school system. We're

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not even going to negatively impact our
roadway. Think about what we're saying here.

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When we are bringing some other businesses
and industry here, we still have

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to get to them via road.
That's not the case here. We're talking

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about air travel, so we don't
have that level of negative impact. I

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think the other thing we need to
realize is this is a clean industry.

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We're not talking again about another waste
management or a polluter of that sort.

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We're talking about a clean industry here
that does not have an impact on our

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any rooftops. We're not bringing the
rooftops here. We're not impacting the road.

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We do not have a noise impact. We've done noise studies and that

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information has been provided through public meetings. But when you look at the bell

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curve and you look at the layout
of the noise, it really doesn't leave

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our property. You would have to
be standing on the edge of the airport

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property to hear it, and it's
going to sound like a lawnmower for maybe

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ten seconds. During takeoff of a
larger plane, that's it. That's it,

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and that that's really hard to beat. Now, just to get into

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the economic impact, one thing that
I found interesting when I was looking at

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the stats that you supplied at the
Livingston Chamber meeting was that for every dollar

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spent, you're getting back two dollars
and fifty three cents in economic impact money.

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So basically that you know, people
think about it this way, for

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every one hundred thousand dollars out,
you're getting two hundred and fifty three thousand

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dollars back. If anybody would want
to borrow that from me right now,

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get me back two hundred and fifty
three grand, you got it. Yeah,

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I would love those odds and those
Yes, I mean that's a great

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investment. Yes, and it is
a beautiful thing for our economy in my

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opinion. Now, another thing with
the economic impact is obviously what is it

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going to bring in the in the
way of jobs and things of that nature.

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The state has looked at the average
for general aviation airports and the numbers

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jump out pretty considerably. I think
we talked about it earlier as much as

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of well over fifteen million dollar impact
even for some of the smaller airport.

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So the jobs that we're talking about. You certainly have those direct jobs that

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would be pilots themselves, instructors,
aviation instructors, mechanics, any type of

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service avionics, those that have to
deal with all the instruments that are now

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in planes. You know. Then
beyond that you have delivering clients, transporting

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goods, you know, moving any
type of clientele. You have that service.

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But then we have the extended services, right, the indirect services that

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go beyond just immediately impacting aviation.
It's how others benefit from having an airport.

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I think the best example is when
I found out the last airport that

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was built in Louisiana was Louisiana Regional. That's the one in Gonzales. And

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when they were building and there's going
to be almost forty years has passed before

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a new airport is going to be, which will be out of course,

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but one of the first people to
land at that airport, mister Tanger.

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Does that name ring about? Okay? So when mister Tanger was trying to

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decide where he was going to put
his next outlet mall, he wanted to

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have an area where he could fly
in, check on his investment, manage

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his property, manage his employees,
and then get back to wherever home is.

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So you and I don't need an
airport to go to the Tanger Outlet

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mall. That is an indirect impact
because the investor wanted it, the investor

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needed it. Now, think about
the jobs that were created there indirectly because

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aviation provided an added amenity for that
area to attract that investor, and the

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sales tax dollars and all those things
that go along with it. Well,

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and if you know Jim, at
that chamber meeting, you had the mayor

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of livingson stand up. He had
been working several years with a water bottling

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company. They had whittled down their
site selection to two sites and Livingston was

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one of those. Yeah, we
lost because we don't have an airport,

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because they went to Robert, Louisiana
because it's near that Hammond airport. Yeah.

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Yeah, that's another reason in something. I know that it's the average

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person they look at that and they
say, maybe I don't have a plane

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or you know, I don't have
a need for that, but these executives

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do. And with those executives came
opportunity and also another thing that people may

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not be considering is the advantages to
disaster response and things of that nature,

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law enforcement, emergency services. An
airport makes all it could make all the

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difference in the world in a life
saving situation. Well, definitely. I

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think too many of us still remember
the flood of twenty sixteen and the town

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of Livison in that area was an
island at the time. We were flooding

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from the am, we were flooding
from the Tangibajo. You couldn't get to

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us. I mean we were stuck. That property where the airport's going to

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be was above ground in twenty sixteen. That says volumes right there. But

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to be able to bring in emergency
response in a situation like that, you

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had delay getting goods and getting services
and getting just foot soldiers on the ground

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excuse me, yeah, in because
you had to wait for water to recede

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in certain areas well. If you
can bring them in via air and get

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them into the center of your parish
and then disperse out from that, obviously

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that speaks volumes. But then day
to day I don't think people realize how

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much our rivers are patrolled by our
law enforcement, by wildlife and fisheries,

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and how there are responses that have
to take place there. You're talking about

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a thirty minute difference to get from
Baton Rouge to Lake Marpaul, say,

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from Livingston to get to Lake Marpaul
and the waters here. You know,

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we're very fortunate that our sheriff does
have a helicopter and is able to make

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those type responses, but even a
fixed wing airplane decreases the cost for them

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and can be just as efficient in
monitoring again in an emergency, even monitoring

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escape or a flight where you have
a car chase or something. So aviation

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can be used in a lot of
ways for that that we certainly see as

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a huge benefit down the road.
Yeah, you serve on a board.

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Tell us about the board. How
has the process came along as far as

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the challenges are concerned. I guess
I'm trying to say so. The board

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was created in twenty sixteen. There
are nine members. The members are appointed

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by there I think four are appointed
by the council. There's one by the

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parish president. I'm actually the parish
President's appointee. Then there's someone from the

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Sheriff's office, someone from Fire District
four, uh, and then our state

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rep and our state senator have appointments, so those are the nine appointees.

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That's who makes the appointments, and
then they serve in stagger terms. So

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that's how we came to be.
Are they volunteer? Oh, total,

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totally volunteer. Nothing's paid at all. That's a lot of work. So

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you got to love your parents to
be doing that. Yeah, you know

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again, I think if I'd have
really known what the magnitude of this task

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back in sixteen, I probably wouldn't
have signed on. Thank god you did.

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But it's just one of those things
that, as I know, we've

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gotten involved and we see the potential
and we see what's happening elsewhere, we're

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like, we gotta have this.
This, this is this is too good

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not to have for Livingston. And
every time we visit somewhere and we're like,

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why not Livingston? Why not us? We deserve to have tax dollars

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invested in our paris. We deserve
to have airline fees reinvested in our parish.

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We deserve to have investors come into
our parish and create good paying jobs

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for our kids. We need new
career opportunities for our kids. So why

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not Livingston? Why not Livingston?
And one hundred percent with you on that.

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And you brought up career opportunities and
there are a lot in that industry.

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And look shout out to Live Oak
High School who has an aviation program

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at their STEM center. I believe
that's right, and Walker, I know,

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is planning on some opportunities. Southeastern
Livingston's what's right next to them.

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Yeah, they're literacy technologies there,
but they you also have the north Shore

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Technical College right there. So you
know, that's one of the things we've

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realized is when the education community is
starting to invest in certain careers, it's

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because they're looking at trends and they're
looking at opportunities, and they're wanting their

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students to be able to leave their
campus and start something even better. Right.

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So, Live Oak has already opened
a STEM center there and aviation is

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a huge part of it. They
would have sixty kids enrolled in the aviation

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curriculum. We've been talking to Walker
about providing an actual pilot school. Could

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these kids can go through their entire
ground school as a course and then maybe

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working their extra hours to take some
flight time and get their pilot certification.

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At the same time, we've got
north Shore Technical colleges talk to our legislative

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leaders about adding an aviation curriculum there
as we open our airport. We know

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that Batonrouge Community College has an aviation
mechanics curriculum that is at the campus just

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north of Central, closer to Baker
If you go up above Lovett Road,

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that's where it's located. And I'm
going to tell you a hidden treasure nationally

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is Louising Attach. They have an
outstanding aviation engineering program that's one of the

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best in the country. So we
have the educational resources within arms reach.

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Yes, we just need the facility
now to take full advantage of that.

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I agree one hundred percent. You
know, my dream for this parish for

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as long as I can remember,
was I wanted to see Livingston Parish get

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away from a bedroom community and be
to where you not only live in Livingston

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Parish, but you work there,
you sleep there, you play there,

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and all those sorts of things and
these type of projects enable that to be

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a possibility. Hey, if you
want to be in an airport mechanic,

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you can work right here in the
Livingston Parish at that airport and that could

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be your job, and you can
live here and you can spend all your

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time here and not have to cross
that bridge. That's a beautiful thing.

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And another little fun fact here that
I picked up doing some research on this

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is the number one job in the
United States for non four year degree people.

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So if you had a two year
degree, for example, an associate's

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degree is air traffic controller the entire
United States one hundred and thirty four thousand

283
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dollars a year starting pay. So
not only is the aviation industry something that

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is adventatious from a standpoint of tax
dollars and things like that that you get

285
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coming in, but it's also adventatious
as careers for people and options, you

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know. And if you're in the
aviation industry, it's because you love it.

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You love to fly, or you
love to work on planes and things

288
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like that. To give our people
an opportunity to do that, and typically

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we find that careers within that field
are high pain. Why because it's serious.

290
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Let's be honest. If the mechanic, not that the mechanic on your

291
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car is not expensive as well,
at least mine are. But yeah,

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if the car breaks down, somebody
can come pick you up over on airline,

293
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highway or wherever. It is that
you are that doesn't work in airplanes.

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Okay, we know how serious that
has to be and how good you

295
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have to be and make sure that
you check all the boxes there. So

296
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it's a very high pain industry.
There's a shortage in a lot of the

297
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areas. So there's real opportunities for
our kids, there really is. And

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luck I've looked over this project from
top to bottom. It is impossible for

299
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me to find a negative to this. I don't think we would ever have

300
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this opportunity again. I think it's
something that you know, there's certain times

301
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in life where you have the right
people in the right place at the right

302
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time, and something happens that's really
difficult to achieve. I see that with

303
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this project. Y'all have done just
a phenomenal job on it. Now you

304
00:24:17.680 --> 00:24:22.599
got the two hundred and forty two
acres draining studies are all done. I

305
00:24:22.599 --> 00:24:26.279
would imagine by now, the layout
plans, all these sorts of things,

306
00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:33.039
you've even designed the build out for
it already. So what's the estimating time

307
00:24:33.079 --> 00:24:37.480
to completion? I guess you could
say, do you have an estimated time

308
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that, hey, we're gonna have
planes on the ground at this point.

309
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Wow, that's the loaded question,
right. You know, everything takes time

310
00:24:44.079 --> 00:24:48.039
and that's the answer to every question
out there's time and money. I will

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tell you this where we are and
what we're anticipating, at least in the

312
00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:59.759
short run. So we have begun
advertising for our our civil construction, our

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clearing of the land or grubbing.
We're going to be moving dirt, We're

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00:25:03.799 --> 00:25:08.480
going to be creating drainage, retention
and proper drainage, creating, if you

315
00:25:08.519 --> 00:25:12.799
will, the foundations for the infrastructure
that we'll be there, which mainly is

316
00:25:12.799 --> 00:25:19.599
a runway and an apron. So
that is being advertised right now. We're

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anticipating getting those bids in June.
We're anticipating getting the state to approve.

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Everything that we do is not just
approved at a local level, it has

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to be approved at the state level
as well, because that's where our funding

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is from. Sure also understand this
dotd Aviation looks over our shoulders and make

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sure that all of our plans are
in line with what is expected by FAA

322
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to make sure that we're in meeting
FAA specs. So we're hoping that to

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be approved July. We're hoping to
start some construction. You're going to see

324
00:25:53.000 --> 00:25:57.680
some bulldozers and such out there late
July early August, so that'll be the

325
00:25:57.720 --> 00:26:03.160
first thing, clearing out some land. We have money that's been awarded to

326
00:26:03.240 --> 00:26:10.880
us also in Priority one funding through
the state that will become reality and just

327
00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:15.279
you know, maybe the next thirty
six seventy two hours, whatever it may

328
00:26:15.319 --> 00:26:19.680
be, when they finalize this legislative
session, that money will go through a

329
00:26:19.720 --> 00:26:25.519
bonding process. We anticipate that being
a couple of months. We're already beginning

330
00:26:25.559 --> 00:26:27.920
to look at the scope of work
and what we can do with that money,

331
00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:33.240
and we are looking at probably contracting
that out and having that done in

332
00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:37.400
place this fall, so that when
the dollars are there and we've done the

333
00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:42.200
beginning dirt work, that we can
start on the runway, and I'm anticipating

334
00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:48.400
that we would probably start early twenty
twenty five. We do have some other

335
00:26:48.640 --> 00:26:52.480
funding, what I call in the
vending machine that the state is understands that

336
00:26:52.880 --> 00:26:56.039
they're giving us money. Now it's
not enough, we're going to need more,

337
00:26:56.279 --> 00:26:59.839
but they're spacing it out because we
can't spend it all in one year,

338
00:27:00.599 --> 00:27:03.440
so they're spacing that out. So
you know, if all that funding

339
00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:08.319
comes through, and we keep working
both with dot D Aviation and with Facility

340
00:27:08.359 --> 00:27:12.240
Planning on the type of funding.
You know, we're very hopeful that we

341
00:27:12.319 --> 00:27:17.960
could have a runway in place by
twenty twenty six. Wow. Wow,

342
00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:22.920
And a long time in the making
it has been. But you know,

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I cannot think of a better thing
for this parish. And you said it

344
00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:33.359
earlier. Why not Livingston Parish?
You know, let me let me say

345
00:27:33.400 --> 00:27:37.599
this, Jim. I understand there
may be people out there that you don't

346
00:27:37.640 --> 00:27:41.039
care about aviation, you don't want
to fly. I got it. There's

347
00:27:41.079 --> 00:27:45.920
nothing wrong with that. But this
is there are going to be those who

348
00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:49.640
love this because they may want to
be an aviation they're an aviator, they

349
00:27:49.640 --> 00:27:52.039
may want to fly, they may
want to work on planes, they may

350
00:27:52.079 --> 00:27:56.799
want to be in that career field. So for them this is an immediate

351
00:27:56.799 --> 00:28:02.920
and has a direct impact. For
most of us out here don't have airplanes,

352
00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:07.480
may not never care to fly.
What you have to realize is this

353
00:28:07.559 --> 00:28:12.119
is an economic engine for us.
Yes, it's not about it's not about

354
00:28:14.559 --> 00:28:18.559
right. It's not that we're gonna
have thousands and thousands of people flying airplanes.

355
00:28:18.599 --> 00:28:22.960
It's that We're gonna create thousands and
thousands of dollars in our economy.

356
00:28:22.359 --> 00:28:26.480
That's paying for our schools, paying
for our roads, paying for things that

357
00:28:26.519 --> 00:28:30.440
we do need. Yes, it's
offering great opportunities, and you may never

358
00:28:30.519 --> 00:28:37.079
care about those opportunities, but in
the meantime, it's a revenue generating source

359
00:28:37.279 --> 00:28:41.559
that is clean industry. It's in
a very rural setting. We are not

360
00:28:41.640 --> 00:28:47.839
impacting the schools, we are not
impacting the roads, and our return on

361
00:28:48.119 --> 00:28:52.000
dollars invested. Oh, it's huge. It's huge. It's huge. It's

362
00:28:52.079 --> 00:28:56.920
like I've told people, you may
not have an airplane, but I bet

363
00:28:56.039 --> 00:29:02.599
you don't own a railcar or training
either. But we have a major rail

364
00:29:02.640 --> 00:29:07.400
line that runs through this parish that
contributes millions to our economy, our local

365
00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:11.400
economy. It's a huge part of
our commerce. Absolutely, same thing with

366
00:29:11.480 --> 00:29:15.799
this airport. You may never fly, you may never step foot on that

367
00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:21.559
property, but it will generate opportunities
for this parish for years to come,

368
00:29:22.119 --> 00:29:26.599
years to come, and it's a
long time coming. As we said,

369
00:29:26.799 --> 00:29:33.519
one more question for you, why
do you do this? Why why you

370
00:29:33.559 --> 00:29:38.440
know this scene? This is not
I'm going to help my neighbor build a

371
00:29:38.480 --> 00:29:42.720
fence. I mean, this is
something that has required a lot of you

372
00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:47.880
and a lot of the people that
have assisted you. Why why do it?

373
00:29:48.160 --> 00:29:52.200
You know when when I was first
asked, I looked at it because

374
00:29:52.200 --> 00:29:56.599
I do fly, and I've gone
to several general aviation airports and I've seen

375
00:29:57.279 --> 00:30:02.400
the positive impacts that they have on
those communities, and I've seen the commerce

376
00:30:02.400 --> 00:30:06.240
that goes through in the business,
and I thought, wow, we need

377
00:30:06.279 --> 00:30:08.599
that, we need that. So
yeah, why we stuck with it?

378
00:30:08.680 --> 00:30:15.559
Because the potential is there, the
promise is there. You know, this

379
00:30:15.640 --> 00:30:21.319
may this is going to be something
that helps my kids stay in Livingston Parish.

380
00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:26.400
It's gonna help so my grandkids are
here one day. And that if

381
00:30:26.759 --> 00:30:30.000
your grandkids want to fly or be
a mechanic, or again, if they

382
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:33.839
want to have nothing to do with
aviation, but they want to get a

383
00:30:33.960 --> 00:30:38.200
job. Because those involved with aviation
are buying it your business. They're buying

384
00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:41.039
at your restaurant, they're buying at
your gas station, They're going to your

385
00:30:41.119 --> 00:30:47.119
dry cleaner, they're buying it your
local nap up, all the parts.

386
00:30:47.119 --> 00:30:49.599
It doesn't matter, it's we want
the business here. I've heard people say,

387
00:30:49.599 --> 00:30:52.359
well you can go to bat and
reusion. You can go to Hammon.

388
00:30:52.440 --> 00:30:56.200
Yeah, and your dollars go to
and your dollars go to Hammon.

389
00:30:56.720 --> 00:31:00.559
And when you do, when you
when you follow that philosophy, make sure

390
00:31:00.559 --> 00:31:03.720
you buy your lawnmowers from the home
depot in Baton Rouge, or from the

391
00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:07.960
hardware store in Hammond. Go buy
gas over on Sherwood Forest or over in

392
00:31:07.039 --> 00:31:11.799
the middle of Hammond. It's the
same philosophy. You can, but your

393
00:31:11.839 --> 00:31:18.640
dollars follow what we want. Are
dollars invested in this parish. This project

394
00:31:18.680 --> 00:31:25.599
really is twofold for the aviation industry
and for that community. We are supporting

395
00:31:25.640 --> 00:31:32.880
the state aviation system. We're bringing
a new airport on board that meets the

396
00:31:32.960 --> 00:31:37.240
demand of aviation and strengthens the aviation
service for all the things we said,

397
00:31:37.279 --> 00:31:42.480
emergency response, better transportation, whatever
it may be. But really for Livingson

398
00:31:42.519 --> 00:31:48.440
Parish, this is not really a
transportation project. This is an economic development

399
00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:53.119
project because for most of us,
this has more to do about dollar staying

400
00:31:53.200 --> 00:32:00.559
here than necessarily the convenience of travel. Yeah, I love it. I

401
00:32:00.599 --> 00:32:05.039
love it, and it's a great
point. And you know what, people,

402
00:32:05.200 --> 00:32:10.000
and we'll leave you with this when
you have infrastructure issues that you're trying

403
00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:15.440
to fix and certain things about your
community that you're trying to fix. Relative

404
00:32:15.559 --> 00:32:21.119
to that, it requires money,
and those money can only be generated certain

405
00:32:21.119 --> 00:32:27.559
ways. And one of those ways
that to me, is almost flawless.

406
00:32:27.640 --> 00:32:30.440
I mean, it's it's hard to
find a negative. Is what you're doing

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right now and what is going to
take take fruition here in Livingston Parish born

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someone for singing event uh And that's
a beautiful thing. And I thank you

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for your hard work on it.
I cannot imagine how hard that was.

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00:32:45.799 --> 00:32:49.960
You make it look easy, But
I know better. I know that behind

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the scenes, and you know,
I look at something like that and there's

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00:32:52.920 --> 00:32:55.480
red tape everywhere. The wheels of
government turn, but they turn very very

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00:32:55.519 --> 00:33:00.319
slow, as we all know speed
of government. You know, when you

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00:33:00.319 --> 00:33:04.880
can see the potential gym, it's
not hard. It really isn't, because

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00:33:04.880 --> 00:33:08.480
if you just look beyond the hill, you see the horizon and that's where

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00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:13.920
we are with this project. I
do want to say this, as we

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00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:19.240
have moved forward on this project,
not at any time has this project ever

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taken away from any other infrastructure project
in this parish. Never so much of

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00:33:24.279 --> 00:33:30.519
the funding for this is uniquely for
aviation. It can only be spent for

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00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:37.039
aviation. And then, as I
mentioned, this is more an economic investment

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00:33:37.160 --> 00:33:39.839
project than even a transportation project.
When you look at the state, the

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00:33:39.880 --> 00:33:44.640
state looks at this and says,
hey, this is something that benefits Livingstone,

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00:33:45.240 --> 00:33:49.079
not just Livingston. It benefits the
I twelve quarter, It benefits the

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00:33:49.279 --> 00:33:55.000
entire region, and it benefits the
Louisiana State Aviation system. So when they

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00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:01.000
have invested in US, they've invested
US in US as part of something even

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00:34:01.039 --> 00:34:07.640
bigger than US. Yeah, you
know, about generating a stronger economy for

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00:34:07.720 --> 00:34:10.639
this area. So again I think
it's very important to know that. And

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00:34:10.679 --> 00:34:15.519
I think as as people really begin
to see and learn about the potential,

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00:34:16.480 --> 00:34:22.039
you do you get excited, You
get excited, you really do, and

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00:34:21.639 --> 00:34:23.280
uh and you stick with it and
you stick with it and you do it's

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00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:27.440
right, that's right. And uh
So before we get out of here,

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00:34:27.519 --> 00:34:32.039
I do have one announcement upcoming is
going to be inside l s U Ladies

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00:34:32.079 --> 00:34:37.599
Basketball with Jim Chapman and Dealey Taylor. So look for that. Well,

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00:34:38.039 --> 00:34:44.320
well we'll entertain you for hours talking
about talking about them Lady Tires but thank

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00:34:44.360 --> 00:34:46.639
you for coming on and sharing that
with us. Thank you for your service

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00:34:46.679 --> 00:34:51.519
and your hard work on this project
and many other projects. And of course

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00:34:51.760 --> 00:34:54.800
you're married to the one and only
Jeff Taylor, who who sits in here

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00:34:54.840 --> 00:35:00.559
often and also serves this community well, So thank you to both y'all and

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00:35:00.800 --> 00:35:04.000
to you for this. I appreciate
you coming on. Anytime you want to

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00:35:04.039 --> 00:35:07.239
come back, feel free. That's
it, and we'll definitely talk basketball,

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00:35:07.360 --> 00:35:10.760
Yes, definitely, And until next
time, I'm Jim Chapman reminding you love

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00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:15.400
your community, support local business,
and keep leading. Thanks