[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's up, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Parish Circuit. I'm your host, Stuart Amadon. Thank you guys so much for listening today. Today we got a really special guest. It's Lance Ned from the city of Opelousis. Lance, thank you so much for coming and hanging out with us today.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Pleasure being here.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to have you. So, Lance, you are the building official and code enforcement director for the city of Opelousas, is that right?
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:25] Speaker A: Now, what does that mean?
What does that mean?
[00:00:30] Speaker B: A whole bunch of nothing and a lot of everything.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: You're the catch all.
You're the guy that gets the phone calls.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: When somebody get the phone calls, get the phone calls. So basically, let's do. If we do. The building official is basically, any new businesses that come to town, they may have to come through my office to get permitting and licensure, like Whataburger. Whataburger, Billy's. That's out here, Chick fil a those places like that also, you know, we make sure that they're building things correctly. And it's up to cold, no lean to's. Yeah, right. None of that. None of that.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: I got it. I got it.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: We try to make sure that everything is up to standards for welfare and safety of the public.
You know, we also, in reference to the building official, like, a lot of. Like every city, every municipality has to have someone that fits in that role of a building official to sign off on permits, okay. As well as occupy, occupancy, licensing, and things of that nature. So even, you know, as smaller towns, as, I don't know, Grand Coteau has to have someone, whether it's a third party or whether they have their own.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Now, what's. What's the grand purpose behind that? Like, why. Why does somebody who's coming into town. Because this is. Here's the classic rebuttal, right?
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: The classic rebuttal is, come on, man, y'all are just stopping new businesses from moving into town. Like, why. Why does a city. Why do we need that? Why do we need somebody to say, hey, hey, hey, you need to build this. Right?
[00:02:14] Speaker B: Let me. Let me dispel one thing, and I can speak for myself.
[00:02:19] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: And my office. At this point in time, we are pro business, so let's go. We don't. Yeah.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Wheels.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, you can ask anyone that has come in front of me, and I tell them we try to accommodate them as much as possible to make sure that they're successful and that we are Not a hindrance to them. Them being successful and opening their businesses and moving forward.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: That's awesome. Yeah, that's a. So like, you would classify yourself as aggress pro business.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Very aggressive.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: Roll up.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Very aggressive.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Well, I mean, I've noticed. So you've. You have been in the seat for what, Lance? About a year?
[00:02:56] Speaker B: I've been in the seat for. Since January last year. A year.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: A year. Well, happy anniversary.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: Well, thank you.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: So that's. I have mean. I mean, look around. We're seeing a lot of things moving inside of the city limits of Opelousas. I see a lot of new businesses coming in for a town that for a long time had nothing going on.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: Right, right. That is. That is correct.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: Over the last two or three years, we've had, what, McAllister's Hobby Lobby, Chick Fil A, Billy's Whataburger out on. And there's, I'm sure, more that I can think of.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: We have a school being built. We have some medical facilities that's being built.
We have a cannabis dispensary that's going to be built.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: I've got an episode out about that one.
It's coming.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: They're not in the city yet, but I think they may be coming this way.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Oh, so the city. The city. Does that mean city annex or does.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: That mean it would be annexed?
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Okay. How far down would that annex be?
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Or would, you know, what you mean.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: If timeline, like the south, how far south would that endeavor.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: They're between, like doctor's hospital.
Well, ogh. South, because. So they're right between O.J. south and I think, Judson Walsh. So the way the city is on that side of town is kind of like a hodgepodge because you got one lot in the parish and the next lot may be in the city.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: You know, so it kind of works like that.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: I see.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: But interesting.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So, you know, that's another aspect of the office.
[00:04:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Where we do annexation is figuring out.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: Which properties are going to be considered inside of the syllabus.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Well, it's up to them. It's up to the business. If it's something they want, if they want to annex into the city. And of course, you know, we try to, you know, obviously, you know, we have our selling points and things of that nature. You know, obviously, city utilities, you know, the ease of the fact that, you know, if something goes wrong with those utilities, we come there and we take care of that.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: So you've been in the seat for about a year. A lot of positive things happening inside of the city.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Good. New businesses coming in. You've got an aggressive position towards being like pro business inside of the city limits of Opelousa. So there's this new ordinance that just dropped.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: And there's a lot of questions about it. I've heard from some folks, they're like, it's about time, you know, And I've heard from other folks, Hesitations about it.
[00:05:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: So I think it would be helpful. What is the. I don't know the technical term. The abandoned building or the vacant building.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Or vacant building ordinance?
[00:05:39] Speaker A: What is the vacant building, building ordinance and what's its purpose?
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Okay. So obviously, over the past several decades, you know, we talk about just the outside of Appaloosas is growing exponentially.
[00:05:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: As we can see.
[00:05:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:54] Speaker A: Especially the south side.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Right. So we want to establish that same type of growth inside of the city.
So, you know, we've been having buildings that has been vacant for decades.
[00:06:10] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: So, you know, at this point, it's.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Like, that's like, I'm in downtown. Our office buildings in downtown.
[00:06:15] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: Like, I see it every day, literally. My. My front window of my office looks out at the old abandoned federal building that's been abandoned and vacant for, I don't know, longer than I've been here.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: Right, right. And, you know, you have to understand is that it's almost like these vacant buildings are taking a stronghold on the growth of the inside of the inner city of Appaloosa. So we are in the process of moving aggressively towards remediating that.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:47] Speaker B: And this is why, you know, you'll see some. I've put some tags on a few buildings.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: You know, I noticed that. I saw that. Yeah. I walked. I was walking down the street to my office one day and I looked over and I see these big orange signs on the handful of the buildings. And I was like, I gotta call Lance.
[00:07:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:05] Speaker A: Because something's going on. I need to understand what's going on.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And look, all it is is that we want to get these buildings back into commerce because it's going to benefit everyone, you know, yourself, the citizens, people that are entrepreneurs and want to open up businesses and want to have those opportunities. So, you know, it's like, if you have. If you have these buildings and you have a plan for them, let us know.
[00:07:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:31] Speaker B: You know, if not. And we're not. We're not trying to strong arm anybody.
[00:07:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: With their. With their property, but it's like, okay, if you've been having this for 20 years. Abandoned or vacant. You know, we need to get. We need to understand what exactly is going on.
[00:07:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: And we need to bring these buildings back into.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: What's your purpose for this property?
[00:07:54] Speaker B: What is your purpose?
[00:07:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: And you know, you know, it's just as black and white as that. You can go into, I mean, cities such as Crowley or Bro Bridge, Abbeville.
You could go as far up as West Monroe and look at their downtown revitalization and just see how immersive it is for the community and the economic growth that it's gonna. That it brings downtown.
[00:08:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: And believe it or not, despite some of the things or some of the dispersions that's put upon Opaloosas, we are growing at a considerable.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: I've been saying it for a decade, like the. The 49 corridor is continuing to grow.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: It is.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: And it's either. It's either we're either gonna grow with it or it's gonna skip over it, but it's gonna grow.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Right. Look, I can say. And when I took. When I took this position, I made it very known that I was going to be aggressive on this. And, you know, I kind of. I kind of slowed down a little bit because I was told that I was moving a little bit too fast.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: That's a small town word right there. Now, Sonny, hold on here. You're moving too quick. Right.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: But, you know, but look, you know, is we need to have progress. And by the time my goal is, by the time I leave, I want to be able to say that, you know, we are in the right direction. And when I leave it to whomever comes behind me that they have a. Somewhat of a smooth road.
[00:09:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: To follow.
And, you know, that's pretty much my goal. So I'm hoping within the next several months that we do have some. Some good movement going on downtown.
[00:09:51] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: You know, I've tried to work with. I've tried to work with several of the property owners currently.
And you. I'm sure you noticed that they do have several for sale signs.
I've seen that some of the properties.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: A lot of these empty buildings. Yeah, I saw that notice go up and then the nose came down the sale side.
I was like, oh, look, it worked.
[00:10:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: So, you know, and you know, I must say with the people that, I mean, wonderful people, great intentions.
[00:10:23] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: You know, I just think sometimes you need a little push.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: To, you know, to get things done.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: But well, and realistically. So let's think about this from the terms of A business owner, you own billions of dollars worth of estate, and Your portfolio is 20 pages deep. All right?
And then at the bottom of page 21 are these buildings that you live, you know, 20 hours away from that you don't check in on that you don't think about.
Sometimes you just need a reason to remember.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Like, oh, I need to. Wait, what's going on with that property? You know, sometimes you need a reason to remember. And so an ordinance like this is at the very least, that, a reason to remember.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: And I definitely.
I know this is an informational podcast, so I'm going to put this information out for people that has some of these buildings that may not see a tag, but if it is abandoned, we are coming and we will be addressing it. Addressing it.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: Now, what constitutes abandoned is just.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: It's just occupied, just vacant for like six months a year.
[00:11:37] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: And they have to be within the.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: Downtown corridor, and that's 190. Is that the downtown corridor?
[00:11:45] Speaker B: 190. Part of Maine. Part of you.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
So, you know, and I'll. I'll use an example for the ones that still have the tags on it, you know, like if. Which means you have to register your building.
[00:12:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: And let us know that, you know, that basically you acknowledge that, you know, you do have a vacant building, you basically maybe say, hey, I'm submitting a plan that I may be trying to sell it or bring it up to code or things of that nature. And if that's not done, you can be fined up to, I think, the max, maybe 5,700 a year.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: Yeah. And we will be enforcing those fines to the tune of where we. Even if we have to put a lien on the property, which, you know. So unfortunately, again, I said I will be aggressive with it.
[00:12:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: But it's not to hurt anybody. It's just to let people know that we here in the city of Appaloosas, you know, we are serious. At the same time, don't just take our letters and throw them in the trash.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Sure. Pay attention.
[00:12:55] Speaker B: Pay attention, because they will mean something.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: Take a listen. So it's interesting to me that this type of incentive, or maybe it's not an incentive, maybe a risk problem scenario even needs to be applied, because. Okay, so as a business owner, if I owned a piece of property, I would want it occupied.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:23] Speaker A: You know, like, that's just. So right now, here, this Property is generating $0. I either need to get rid of it or get it occupied so that it generates Revenue. Again, like, how are we in a situation where business owners aren't already doing that? Why are we in a situation where there's been so many empty buildings for so long and they have never been occupied? What's the. What's the driving force behind it?
[00:13:48] Speaker B: You know, I. I don't know if it's the social, economic status of the community.
I mean, honestly, for any business that want to come, not lose. I mean, we have one of the lowest tax bases in the state here. I mean, you know, for the. In reference to the city.
[00:14:06] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: And the tax base that. The taxes that is charged to the business owners and to the community.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: These are facts. So you're not. This is. You're not shooting from the hip here. This is true. I have talked to.
So, you know, our company, we do business with people all over the nation. I have clients in Florida and Idaho and all kinds of places. But I had a client in Texas who came in for a project, and I was just talking to him about our business located here in the city of Appaloosas. He's like, man, this is an odd place for y'all to be, huh? What's going on? And I said, well, we started here also.
It only cost me this much money a year to run this whole office. And he looked at me with his mouth on the floor.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: He was like, what are you talking about? Because he was from Dallas, Fort Worth. And I said, yeah, I only pay a tiny bit of money every year to run the whole office. And he was like. He legitimately looked at me and said, I might be moving my office here. Like, dead serious. Because he was in the same situation. He does business all over the country. So it doesn't matter where his office is, as long as there's an airport close.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: You know, and they can do stuff in different ways. So there is a huge incentive, especially in the Internet age in which we live.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: For companies to operate in an area that has a low overhead, that has fiber optic.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: You know, running down street. We have fiber in our office.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Cheap rent, low overhead, and you can still reach the same target audience that you were trying to reach in the first place. I mean, look, tremendous opportunity.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. And, you know, if I could sit in bunch in front of a bunch of investors, I mean, I would implore them, like, this is a gold mine, bruh.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: You know, say it again, man. Gold mine. I mean, there's so many empty buildings.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: In the Internet age, you could start white collar, Internet Service business. Internet oriented services providers.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:15:59] Speaker A: And run 10 of them out of one town.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: And I can assure you you will not have any issues with the permitting department.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: You might even buy much.
Let's go. See, that's what I'm saying. This is, there's a tremendous opportunity that is just being overlooked. And I think, I think you, you said it earlier. The social or the, the, the social stigma and the socio, the perceived socioeconomic status of the community turns people off.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: Right.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: To which I'm saying deal with it. Like let's go anyway, because you will. We've been here for.
Our office has been located in downtown for I think seven years now. And we have never had a break in.
I have never had to call the police.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: All right.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: No one had like one time, no joke, one of the buildings to my office got left open for hours and I realized it at 11 something PM and ran to the office and everything was fine.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: No problems. You know, we, we've been great here. There's not, there's not a huge stigma. It's, it's, I don't want to go as far as say fake news, but it kind of is. Yeah. I mean it's a great community.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And it is. And you know, the other thing, and I would tell this to any investor, you know, you have to understand that one of the most growing cities is 15 miles down the road from here, you know, and you know, at some point.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: And Costco delivers.
[00:17:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
So it's like, you know, sometimes you just have to take a common sense approach and understand that I can get land and property for probably a quarter of what it would work would be worth if you go 10, 15 miles down the street.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: Yes, 100%. No. So this, I tell this story all the time, Lance. So we bought a house on about four acres, completely renovated it, put probably $35,000 into it. We bought the land next to us. Okay. So now we have a total of probably about eight acres of property.
Nice house, shop, pool in the ground, shed in the back, apartment that we can rent out on the property. We paid a grand total of about 235.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: And where are you going to find that exactly?
[00:18:37] Speaker A: And I had a contract. It wasn't like me doing all the work in my house. We had contractors there too.
There is tremendous opportunity in this parish for people who are willing to take the initiative it is and be risk takers and go for it. Tremendous opportunity.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: And quietly, you do have some business owners and businesses within Appaloosas that are quietly making A ton of money.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: I know, right?
[00:19:10] Speaker B: You know?
[00:19:12] Speaker A: I know.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: So, you know, they kind of like. I kind of like things the way it is, which I'm like, I bet you do.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: That's right. That's right.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: Yeah. So, you know, we just trying to.
We're just trying to unlock another level. Just trying to go to the next. Like a video game. We're just trying to go to the next level.
[00:19:32] Speaker A: Let's go a little higher. That's right.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: We right there. Yeah, we right there. And I tell them, I say, look, everybody gonna eat.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: Everybody say it again. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
So we're so, you know, I'm a Christian. We're a Christian company.
That doesn't mean that we don't work with non Christians, but just our orientation, it's towards Jesus. Okay. So what I tell people all the time is, okay, so we serve a living God who promises to provide for his. If that's true, then there is no such thing as making your slice of the pie too small because he promised to provide for his people. So you got to get out of that mindset first.
I'm not going to create a scenario where God's suddenly not going to take care of me anymore.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: Yeah, look, we can make the daily bread every day.
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Come on, let's go. We about to have church.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: There we go.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Man. Man. So new ordinance. When did it go into effect?
[00:20:26] Speaker B: It went into effect in April.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: April. Okay, April. So it's almost been in effect for a year then.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: Okay, okay.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: Correct. So that's why they was like, let's kind of slow down a little bit.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: Maybe don't put the signs up yet.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Because, you know.
You know, honestly, I'm. I'm like an office of one when it comes to that aspect.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: Sure, sure.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: So I do need to get me an assist. You know, it can become a little bit overwhelming for most people, but not for me.
[00:21:02] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:02] Speaker B: You know, I mean, look, I can. I can handle it.
I embrace it.
[00:21:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Because I want to see the change.
[00:21:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: And, you know, and I also want to help people, you know, because even with some of the people that has come in, I have been very.
You know, look, I tell people, I say, we're not here to hurt anybody. Say, but, you know, we just want. Obviously, we want things to just move forward and not just stand still. We don't want people to come here and say, oh, I haven't been back in Appaloosas in 25 years. And then they come and they look and they say, oh, nothing has changed.
I don't want to hear that.
[00:21:43] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: You know, so that's what we trying to change.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: Well, there's a. I'll tell you, man, there is a lot. So we lived in Appaloosas twice. Okay? So I graduated from college, we moved down here, and my wife and I started teaching at Westminster. And we lived in an apartment, a garage apartment right next to Benny's Grocery for about a year, year and a half, two years somewhere in there.
And in those two years, year and a half, it was not. It was not great.
We had a lot of issues of foot traffic moving around our road. That was questionable. There was things that the city did not seem to be swinging up. It seemed to be swinging down.
[00:22:25] Speaker B: Right.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: And so we were like, hey, I think. I think we're gonna move.
[00:22:28] Speaker C: We're gonna.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: So we relocated to Cairn Crow. We also started having kids. And, you know, in a one bedroom garage apartment, you can only fit one kid.
You gotta get creative, right? So we. We moved to Care and Crow. We had a place that we stayed in down there. And then we got the opportunity to come back.
My wife and I came here to plant a church here. That's what really brought us here 10 years ago. Brought us back here 10 years ago. And I tell people all the time, let me tell you, let me just be completely honest with you. I did not want to come back.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: All right?
[00:22:59] Speaker A: I'm gonna put that out there, make it public. I did not wanna move back. I was like fighting with God about it. I don't wanna do this, but we have moved back and we have lived here for, like I said, about a decade. We lived for about five or six years over on Azalea street, right behind the Episcopal Church of Masonic. And then we just recently bought a house next to the casino. We're just like right out there. So I think technically we're like 100ft outside of the city limits right now.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: I know exactly what you guys throw.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: A rock and hit the city limits. But anyway, so we live right over there now. And to be straight, we love it. You know, I remember whenever we first came here, from when we moved from Karen Crow, we went to Pizza Hut. We drove to Pizza Hut. It took three minutes because it takes three minutes to get anywhere.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: Right? Right.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: And my kids looked around, they were like, we're here already.
[00:23:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:50] Speaker A: Because they were used to living in, like, Karen Crow, where it takes half an hour to drive anywhere you want.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: Right?
[00:23:55] Speaker A: Right.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: We loved that. We loved the community it's been helpful for us. And it has visibly only gotten better.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Right.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: Since we've moved here.
[00:24:07] Speaker B: Right.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: Like, there's. And I don't want to try and put lipstick on a pig here. Like, I don't want to try and say there's no problems. Give me a break. You know, like there's issues we're dealing with all the time and we're. I as a person, I'm loud about the issues when I see them. But there's a lot of good things going on.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: There's a lot of positive trajectory. Like there's a reason Hobby Lobby, Chick Fil A Billy's Whataburger wanted to open here.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:24:33] Speaker A: They don't make multimillion dollar business moves based on a hunch.
[00:24:40] Speaker B: And if you go to any of those businesses, you will see their parking lots always.
[00:24:44] Speaker A: They're busy, they're making money.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: And that's why I say it's a gold mine.
[00:24:48] Speaker A: I'm telling you.
[00:24:49] Speaker B: I'm telling you. Making money.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: There's a reason that the corridor where 190 cross is high property.
[00:24:58] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: You can buy high traffic property for an insanely cheap price.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: And get something going. It's a great place. Yeah, It's a great place to start.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Look, we've had just within the past few weeks, we have. I don't know if I can say, but, you know, we've had some high profile businesses call with interest about possibly coming into the city.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: The window's closing, guys. You better be listening. Like, if you don't make the move, you're going to miss your opportunity, man. I'm telling you, I got a house for less than a quarter million dollars that I'm gonna die in.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:34] Speaker A: Come on, man. Like, this is the, this is. But, but that window, you better pay attention.
[00:25:40] Speaker B: Right. And look, and I want people to understand that. And I know, you know, they have things going on. They're redoing the stadium, they're putting community centers. I think they're putting baseball fields.
So I know a lot of. I read some of the things that go on with that, what people say. And some people are 100% for it, some people are 100% against it. But, you know, my thing is understand the economic boost that this is going to bring. Because if it's anything in reference to what I see in a Youngsville or Broussard Lafayette with these fall ball, spring ball, summer ball, baseball leagues, I mean, these places are packed every weekend.
[00:26:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So the One that comes to my mind immediately is Pelican park in Cairn Crow.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: So my kids, you know, they play T ball or my son. My son played T ball. And I remember the first couple of times that we went to. I don't remember one of the Thursdays or something like that, whenever he had a game and that lot slammed and they're making tons of money. And if you've ever been to Pelican park, it is not convenient to get to. No, but it's slammed out.
[00:26:55] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: It's on the far end of town. It's only got a two lane road coming to it. And if you're coming in or going out, you need to add another 10 minutes to your day. If it's busy because it takes time, you're going to try to take a minute to get in and out.
[00:27:07] Speaker B: But it generated traffic, it generates traffic. And you know, I tell people, I say what you have to understand.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:27:13] Speaker B: The people that come to these places, they want to eat, they want to drink, they need somewhere to stay.
[00:27:20] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: You know, I mean, it's a lot of services that's going to need to be rendered to accommodate the traffic that's going to come through.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: That's true. That's a good point.
[00:27:30] Speaker B: People just have to, you know, understand the.
[00:27:35] Speaker A: So your argument is like the putting a complex like that in brings more business to the city. That's what you're saying.
[00:27:42] Speaker B: No doubt. We don't. We. But we may not even have the business to support it.
I mean, that's what I'm saying is.
[00:27:49] Speaker A: You know, so you're not wrong. I mean, there's like what, six or seven restaurants inside of the city.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: Somebody open up a hot dog stand.
[00:27:56] Speaker A: I mean, just put a trailer on your truck. Let's go, like figure something out.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: Something.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: No, it's going to be a lot. It's going to be a lot of need, you know, And I say that because I know that's something that is going to come into fruition sooner than later.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: Okay. Can I be devil's advocate?
[00:28:13] Speaker B: Sure you can.
[00:28:13] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: You know what they're going to say?
How come the water pipes and the roads aren't fixed yet, Lance. And we're going to build this huge sports complex.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: Well, and this is what my answer would be.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: Okay, go ahead.
[00:28:27] Speaker B: It cost a lot of money.
[00:28:29] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:28:30] Speaker B: If you look on, on the back of every police unit in Appaloosas, it says Louisiana's oldest, third oldest city.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: I know what you about to say so.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, you know, is where you do have to start somewhere.
[00:28:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: It will not be our, in our lifetime where all of these roads and pipes are going to be fixed. But I know they do have a plan.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:58] Speaker B: And that plan is actually being implemented as we speak where they're updating the water plant, then they'll be up. Then I think they even have money to do some of the pipes.
[00:29:09] Speaker A: That's right. They put the new water treatment plant in over by the new housing development that's going in. Right. Isn't there a new water treatment plant?
[00:29:15] Speaker B: Well, they're gonna do an entire renovation of the main water.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: Oh, the existing plant.
[00:29:21] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:29:22] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:29:22] Speaker B: Okay. So that's, that's, that's in process right now and gotta be getting done. So unfortunately, these are things that probably should have been done 20 years ago.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: But you know, it has to start somewhere and it's starting right now. So people just, I ask people to be patient and to be understanding because it's not just Appaloosas with problems either.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:29:47] Speaker B: But it is, you know, but if this is where you live, then I understand the concern and you know, it's valid.
[00:29:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: But you know, it's like, you know, people like. And I understand, I hear folks say, well, what about all the grant money and all this? All of that money has to be matched most of the time. So if you said, if the city said, well, I want to, we need $100 million to fix the roads, the state or the federal government gonna say, well, okay, you need to match 10% of that.
So that means you got to show $10 million cash.
So we don't even have a large enough tax base to generate that kind of money. So consistent to where you have that type of funding.
[00:30:32] Speaker A: And the point is that the amount of disrepair that the roads and city are in or the roads and the pipes are in, it's almost insurmountable. Is that kind of the.
[00:30:45] Speaker B: I think it's, if I can quote the mayor correctly, when he had one of the meetings, he said it's 120 miles of pipe running through the city of Opelousas. It's a lot of pipe that has to. That would have to be changed.
[00:31:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: 120 miles to change.
[00:31:07] Speaker B: Yeah. These are 85 to 100 year old pipes.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Okay.
[00:31:12] Speaker B: So, you know, I mean, you know, thinking about changing all of that and most of them are running on the street, so you got to uproot the streets and then you Got to later streets back down. So it's not impossible. And it's something that is, you know, that it's going to get worked on and get done at some point, you know, with the funding that they have. Will it be all of them? No.
[00:31:39] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: You know, so what you're really saying is it's a multigenerational plan.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Like, it's not. It's going to be our grandkids.
[00:31:46] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: You know that actually look around and are like, all the pipes are fixed.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: Right.
And by that time, they're going to have to start back at the first pipe that was fixed.
[00:31:56] Speaker A: All right, Just keep going. Just start them again.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: So, you know, but look, if you go, you know, I've been. I've been all over. I mean, you know, in my last profession, I've been from London to South Africa.
[00:32:12] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: New York, California. Look, they all have these issues. You go in certain now, you know, you're not gonna. Well, I was gonna say you're not gonna go in Beverly Hills and find, you know, bad streets. Yes, you will.
Yes, you will. We'll go on Wilshire Boulevard and there'll be some pretty messed up streets.
[00:32:30] Speaker A: Well, I was just in Austin probably a couple of months ago, and I was surprised by driving through there downtown. It's not that great. Okay. Like, you hear Austin, like, oh, it's Austin, you know.
[00:32:40] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: I drove through there downtown, and I was like, oh, look, Kels roads are jacked up too. How about that?
[00:32:45] Speaker B: However, as a caveat to that, I will say this though. If you do want to see some great streets, go to China.
The streets are beautiful out there.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: Government, not so great.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: Hey, socialism, communism going on. But.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: But they got great roads.
[00:33:05] Speaker B: Got great.
[00:33:07] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:33:09] Speaker B: And you can definitely walk the street at 2 in the morning by yourself and don't have to worry about nothing.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: Yeah, because that. That prison system, you just gonna disappear?
[00:33:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:22] Speaker A: Oh, you doing that? No, we put. Wait, we disappear people like you, we're.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: Gonna throw you away, man.
[00:33:29] Speaker A: This is Lance. Thank you so much for coming and hanging out.
[00:33:32] Speaker B: Thanks for having me. I enjoyed it.
[00:33:33] Speaker A: If somebody wants to follow up with you, like, they got questions about opening a business or maybe they've got questions about the ordinance that we talked about or anything like that. How can they get in touch with you?
[00:33:42] Speaker B: They can get in touch with me at three. City Hall. Third floor for one.
[00:33:47] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:33:48] Speaker B: Phone number would be 337-948-2533.
And you know, we open Monday through Friday, seven to five, and by all means, we will welcome those calls.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: And if you have any complaints, just call another number to call that one.
[00:34:10] Speaker A: This is not the complaint department. This is something else.
[00:34:13] Speaker B: Just playing. Just playing. Just playing. Just playing.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: Well, Lance, thank you so much for hanging out with me. I really appreciate your time. Thanks for having me, guys. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Parish Circuit. You can find these articles
[email protected] you can look up anywhere that you find podcasts and search for the Parish Circuit. You can also find us featured in St. Landry now, the local, local St. Landry Paris newspaper. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you all next time.
