Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's up, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Parish Circuit. Today we're talking about water, Water, water, water, water, water, water. You ever listen to that Sesame street episode? Watch that Sesame street episode? No.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: You know what? I did not grow up watching much Sesame Street.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Oh, man, we love public television in my house, I gotta tell you. The giving thons and all that kind of stuff. Pledges, man, Public TV was in my house like crazy.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: So we. We were the weird ones. We actually did not have, like, cable television.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Well, we didn't have cable. That's why we watched.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Oh, there you go.
No, we, like, you know, like, we would just, like, watch movies and recorded Star Trek episodes from when my parents were Trekkies.
But, like, we didn't have, like, you know, tv.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: I'm. I love that I just found out that your mom and dad were Trekkies.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: I didn't know that before this point.
I cannot wait to see your parents in town again. That is gonna be an amazing thing. I really might do the Vulcan hand sign and just see what happens.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Oh, they'll know exactly what.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Oh, yes. Okay. Now that we've gotten the banter out of the way, the city of Appaloosa's got a loan for $17 million to redo the water system. Skunk. Is that right? $17 million, is that right?
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: That seems like a big number.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: 17 mil. And we had talked about this before.
It's like part loan, about half loan, half grant. Okay. You know, like half. We pay it back. We don't necessarily have to pay it back. Okay.
Some of the payback is also forgivable if we keep up with it, I think up to $3 million. Okay. It's low interest, Stuart.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Okay, listen, I just. I gotta tell you, I know how loans work, and there's reasons that they use certain words.
They're not just saying from the jump you get, you only have to pay this much. They're using certain terminology. A forgivable What?
Loan. They're. They're covering themselves. And the. And I get it, you know, you. They want to make sure that you do what you're supposed to do with the money that you're getting. And that's the terms of the loan. That's the way the portions of it will actually be forgiven.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: Right.
[00:02:06] Speaker A: But to start off, how big is it? 17 million. Is that right? Is that the right.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: 17 million?
[00:02:12] Speaker A: $17 million.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: About half of it to be paid back.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: And we're gonna be doing what with it? What exactly are we gonna do with it?
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Well, I can tell you. Oh, thanks to a couple local. Other local news stations. They've put out some steps that are involved in this process.
Okay. So first step is water production facilities. So they're gonna.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: So wells.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Basically rehabilitate five of the six wells that need rehabilitation. All right, so they're starting at the source.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: Got it, got it, got it, got it, got it.
[00:02:45] Speaker B: Then step two, add storage facilities to be able to store. Looks like a couple tanks that will hold up to 84,000 gallons of water to provide better pressure redundancy in case we're running low on water, because that's happened before.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: Water production, water storage.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: During that drought summer.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: During that bag drought a couple years ago. Yeah, that's right. Water problems had some issues.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Or when people are dripping their pipes.
[00:03:08] Speaker A: Pipes during the winter keep things from freezing. I got it.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: Step three, or category three, distribution improvement. So that's like pipe repairs. And they're going to reopen some pipes, apparently, that have been closed. That's going to help with some of the pressure issues and better distribution and things like that.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: And then fourth last step, or category is inventory. They're basically going to stockpile a bunch of, I guess, material to provide future repairs.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: And then also they're doing some stuff with, like, lead. I think they're. They're testing or figuring out kind of where there's still lead lines existing so they can go replace those over time.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: All that stuff.
[00:03:48] Speaker A: And I guess some of the clay pipe, too, probably.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe. Yeah.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I remember that was a big talking point. Four or five years ago was the amount of clay pipe that was still in the ground in Appaloosas and the clay pipes all just deteriorating.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Right, right. And I remember this actually sp Sparked something in my memory. We got a letter, or we maybe even get a letter every year from the city that kind of has, like, this warning. Like, we don't think there's any lead, but probably because of how old our house is. Yeah, they're like, where the line coming from the house, like, connects to the water mains.
There might be.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: There might be some lead.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Some leftover lead pipe.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: We don't really.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: We don't really know.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Could you imagine knowing the inventory of the entire city's water system? Like, what kind of records? Exhaustive records. That would have to be. The city is 300 years old. They say, like, that's. Wow. I can't even imagine having records, but surely I guess they exist somewhere for them to be able to say it might have some lead in.
Might have some lead or they just
[00:04:45] Speaker B: send it to everybody to.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: They just mail to everybody. We get a similar letter. We're on Leonville water system because my house is like 100 yards outside of the city limits. So we're on Leonville water and we get the same letter every year. They're like, hey, just so you know, the federal government requires us to tell you that there's contaminants in your water.
Thanks. And that's like every year we just get that letter.
It just shows up at the house.
So it's amazing. So it's not an isolated opelous problem, but we should stop and say this is great in the sense that we're paying attention to the water system.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: Way to go.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: Look, if we are going to.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: Way to go team.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: If we're going to raise money, if we're going to borrow money for something, it should be the infrastructure.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Infrastructure of the city. Yeah, yeah, 100%. I don't like the complicated terms of a loan like this where half of it's forgivable, half of it's alone. But a certain portion of the unforgivable part can be forgiven if you do X, Y and Z.
Like the bureaucracy complications are concerning. But man, I'm so excited that this is happening. I'm so excited that we're moving in a direction now. And I've also talked to people inside of the city administration and one of the painful truths that we all have to come to realize is that the issues with the water system in Appaloosas is not going to be resolved in our generation.
It's just not. Yeah, this is a, this is a multi generation project.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: Right. And what would we call this then, this $17 million project? I'd like to say, I'd like to think it's more than a band aid. It seems like they're making some fairly substantial steps in a direction.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean realistically the number that was given to me in current dollars right now is 2.2. Is 2 billion with a B is the total cost of the repairs that are actually needed inside of the city of Opelousas. So 17 million is less than 1%
[00:06:35] Speaker B: if you put it in those terms.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: It's a band aid, but it's still progress.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: I'd say it's more of like a category difference. The $2 billion must come in. This is just me speculating a little bit. Must come in because that involves replacing all of the pipes in a 300 year old city which requires that you tear up highways and, like, all the streets and all of that. So basically we're not taking that step.
The general distribution of the water is still going to have to be like, we repair the leaks when they come.
But. But.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: And we'll be that for generations.
[00:07:11] Speaker B: Yeah, but the. But. But when I see that the actual.
Just the wells, we're increasing storage.
Those are some good steps.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: Yeah, that's some positives there.
Hopefully the increase in pressure does not break old pipes.
Yeah. You like how I threw that sideways there, didn't you?
[00:07:31] Speaker B: Well, I don't know if. So I might have misspoken.
I don't know if it's increased pressure or if it's actually decreasing pressure. Yeah. Oh, they word it actually just as, like, an improvement in pressure.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: They had improvement in pressure,
[00:07:46] Speaker B: like, back.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: At some point in the last decades, they had to close off certain lines because they were so deteriorated or whatever. So now they're going to be able to reopen those lines and put new lines. So it's like they're going to have better distribution.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: Yeah. And honestly, like, God bless the guys who are working on this. I just. I can't imagine having a job.
I really can't. Like, kudos to you guys. And I can't imagine. I've talked to Julius, our mayor, several times, and honestly, the job that that guy has, Wow.
I can't fathom having that job. To be completely honest, it's incredibly daunting. He inherited a city that's got so many abandoned buildings and the infrastructure's not great, and he's trying to lead it. And any person who would take that job, as Christians, first off, we're obligated to pray for them. So we should. To pray for them and to help them and to be an encouragement to them and all those things, that's a huge deal. That's an incredibly daunting tas.
We're grateful for our city administration.
We also just want to say, at the same time, let's do good things. Let's do good things. Right. Let's build well, let's steward well.
And I think that fixing the water system is a good step in the right direction. Again, as far as I know, according to the numbers, this is less than 1% of the work that's actually needed to be done as far as monetary valuations go.
But you know what?
It's 1%.
I'll take 1%. We just need to do it 99 more times and then we'll be there.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: There we go.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: Yeah. But I'm pleased overall.
I think it's going to be a good step in the right direction.
Yeah.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: I mean, did we cover everything that we need to cover here?
[00:09:39] Speaker A: I mean, I think so.
I don't think there's really much. I mean, kudos to the city. Good job.
I would challenge our citizens of the city of Opelousis, the surrounding area, those who own businesses here, those who live here. I would challenge them to become more involved in your local political scene and know what's going on. That's part of the reason that we started this podcast, so that we can help to inform people as to what's going on inside of our city and inside of our parish and inside of our region.
So I would encourage them to become involved and engaged and talk to folks.
You'd be surprised in a small town like Opelous is just how much influence the average citizen can wield that just decides to wield it. Well. So, yeah. Get connected.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Ask questions at the.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: I just thought of this and sorry, at the risk of sounding cynical, I was going to mention this earlier.
Should we talk about our A rating as A. Oh, yeah.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: That's not a great. That's not a great moment. That's not a great showing.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Not a good look.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: No, that was not a good look. Yeah. So we got this A rating as a water system, but it turns out the only reason that we got an A rating is because somebody went to a conference.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: That's one of the reasons.
But I think.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: Don't say that publicly, man.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: We. Yeah, I think if he. Maybe if he didn't go to the conference, we would have gotten a B because there were, like, some other things we did that technically bumped our score up.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Yeah. It's just whatever the rubrics, based on
[00:11:06] Speaker B: it all, it all seems a little bit.
Yeah.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And a rating based on what? According to what? You know, we see pictures of people all the time posting pictures on the Internet of their bathtubs full of muddy water and all that kind of stuff.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: And we think about, like, if the required repairs to actually have, like, a modern, functional water System is like $2 billion, if that's what we would actually need.
But we have an A rating right now. That seems. That's like. That'd be like giving a student an A in reading because they took some steps, but they still don't.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:11:41] Speaker A: The cat is red, you know, like. Yeah, that's not. Yeah, I agree. I agree with that premise. But generally speaking, all in all, what we're saying is good step forward.
You know, we're moving in a good direction.
Let's. Let's continue to do that.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Yep. And hopefully we can encourage just some, like, just straightforward, honest communication about this.
That's what we're trying to do here.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: But.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: But, you know, encourage that at the city, parish government level.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: Absolutely.
We would love to interview people, and we have on this podcast in the past, like, and we've talked to zoning board people, we've talked to the chief of police in this podcast room, we've talked to the mayor for the city in this podcast room, and we'd be happy to keep doing it. Come on, guys, let's do interviews. Let's ask hard questions. Let's see where things really are. We'd love to do that. I don't mind that at all. In fact, next week we've got Elbert Guillory, who's a new mayor candidate, coming to do an interview with us. We're gonna have a great time with that. So look forward to that episode whenever it drops. And we'll get to know him a little bit, ask him some hard questions, and if you've got questions that you would like to ask him, send them to me.
Yeah, it is up on the Parish Circuit Facebook page. I'd be happy to facilitate some bonus content questions. That'd be fun. We could put them in the hot seat.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: That means we're gonna have to get this episode out quickly.
[00:13:00] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that's true. It'll probably drop today.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:13:03] Speaker A: But, yeah, but that's the gist.
Hope this is helpful and we're looking forward to seeing continued growth in the city of Opelousas over the next couple of years. We'll see what happens. Thanks for listening. We'll see you guys next time.
