Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's up, guys? Welcome to another episode of the Parish Circuit. I'm Stuart Ammidon, and with me, as always, is David Riley. Today we have Jesse Bellard back in the building. Jesse, thank you so much for coming back by.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Again, thank you all for inviting me.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: Hey, man, I appreciate you. I know you're a busy guy and there's all kinds of things going on. So one of the things that we want to talk about today, trail rides. This was blowing up my social media feed last week, man, like.
So let me tell you what it looks like is happening on my side, and then we'll talk through it and try to figure things out. So it looks like we stopped doing trail rides for a while.
We started doing them again at some point in August. Was it? Or September. When was that?
[00:00:40] Speaker B: This is the first one.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: This is the first one in October.
And then some kind of rumor started going around the Internet about there being gunfire.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: That's not true.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: That's not true. No, no. Okay. And. And then some drama ensued as a result of that. So that's what the Internet, you know. You know how this works. I saw something land in my feed and somebody's like, check on your people over at the Yambile building. And I remember thinking, like, I haven't heard anything about this from any actual news source.
I haven't heard anything about it. So talk. Like, talk to me about this. What's going on at the trail ride space?
[00:01:18] Speaker B: So the reason why we had stopped doing trail rides was because obviously they had a shooting.
[00:01:24] Speaker A: There's a safety issue.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: It was a safety issue back then.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: And I sat down with all the organizations several times and said, okay, I know we want to keep this going. We want to keep the tradition alive.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: But at the same time, we got to figure out a way to do it safely.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: So I put some procedures in place and I said, we're going to have X amount of officers on the ground.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: We're going to have parking. We're going to have whatever is going to take to have an event at the Yambale Ag arena area as safe as we can make it possible.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: So why Play was the first one. They already had booked everything. And. And I had just been waiting to see how we were going to do this.
[00:02:05] Speaker A: This was the one that just happened.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: That just happened.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: That just happened in October. Okay.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: So what we did was we put additional offices on the ground, we had additional parking, and we had additional people parking to make sure that every little space was utilized on the. On the grounds.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Because we didn't want to have too many people on the roadways. It's just. That's where it becomes unsafe.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: Yeah, but because these are massive events.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: This right here, you're going to have
[00:02:34] Speaker A: 3,500 people at the yam at the same time.
[00:02:37] Speaker C: Can you give us some context there? Because I'm going to be honest, I'm actually not totally familiar and I don't know, maybe some of our listeners aren't.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: David's from Washington State.
[00:02:45] Speaker B: I've lived in operations long enough, I
[00:02:47] Speaker A: should know probably, but.
[00:02:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:02:49] Speaker C: What's the like, what's the history? How long has this been going on? And what does a. What does this trail ride look like?
[00:02:55] Speaker B: So. And again, people look at a trail ride and say that trail ride is the issue, but it's not.
So the trail ride actually happens on a Sunday, so the events start on a Friday night. It's a big zydeco band that plays at the Agrina on.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: It's the pre party.
Okay.
[00:03:14] Speaker C: So this is like a whole weekend.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:16] Speaker C: Thing. Okay, Gotcha. All right.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: So every night there's a different band playing on the stage and it attracts
[00:03:22] Speaker A: a lot of people.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: Okay. So again, we want to keep things going in our parish, no matter who it is, what they want. I want to try to accommodate them if I can.
But this is a lot of people coming. All right. Each night they had over 3,000 people which. Which packed the area and packed everything around us, which was good because people don't realize. And you can look at and talk to the local stores.
They were buying gas, they were buying alcohol, they were buying whatever they need to buy to go to the event.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: So there's tax revenue. There's a lot of tax revenue coming in.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: And. And that.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: Which matters, we're talking about revenue being important thing.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: So.
[00:04:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:08] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: So to.
That's like a extra piece of information that's good for the people of our parish.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: So. But whenever we have those events, it takes a lot of people to work it.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:19] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: It just so happens this one was on the same night, the Friday night as the OHS homecoming game.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: So OPD was tied up with that, you know, or the homecoming. And so we had to get some out of parish people to come in and help with security.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Which was fine. I mean, it's. As long as we have them.
And it worked out great, honestly. I mean, they had traffic problems. But anytime you're going to have an event that has 3,000 or more people, you're going to have traffic problems.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:04:49] Speaker B: Go to New Orleans. Go to Lafayette. I don't care where you go. You're going to have problems.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: You're going to have traffic problems. Yeah. It's going to happen.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: So we did that on a Friday night.
No issues.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: You know, no issues at all. Except the traffic. The Saturday night, the same thing.
No issues. Of course, people like to start rumors and make it sound so bad.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's what I saw.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: I saw. Go check on your people at the end. Yeah.
[00:05:14] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Because you got these people who don't want to see the trail rods events succeed.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: But at the end of the day, everybody does things differently. You know, I don't care to go to. To that. You know, I mean, I was there, But I don't like. I'm not going to leave my home and go say, I'm going to a trail ride. Okay. But that doesn't mean that I shouldn't support that activity in my parish because, again, it brings in revenue from people that normally wouldn't have been here.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Because people travel in from all around.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: They have people from Oklahoma.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Really?
[00:05:50] Speaker B: Oh, yes. They come in and they come in to have a good time, and their main purpose is to come have fun and do this ride and do the whole weekend event.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:00] Speaker B: So that was a great. A great thing.
Of course, the traffic was an issue. And of course, I get criticized for everything that happens Because I allowed them to come into the parish. Well, here's a little. A little story behind that.
There's an ordinance in place that says what a person has to do in order to have a trail ride.
And as long as they fit and they follow that criteria, I can't deny them, you know?
[00:06:29] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: And so. But at the same time, I've asked them to do above and beyond what we asked for in the ordinance.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: To make sure. And they. They did above and beyond. Trust me. They. They had. I think they had an additional 10 officers and of course, all the parking attendants. I think there was eight parking attendants that was there.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: Parking people. All that's above and beyond what we asked for.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:06:52] Speaker B: So it worked for me. It worked out like it should have been for the amberly grounds and the ag arena and the parking in that section on the highway.
It was a bit confusion because of the number of cars.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: But the state police came out and helped us on Friday night.
And then on Saturday night, Our people was out there doing the best they could and. And doing what we could.
But whenever somebody calls and complains.
I don't know what to tell you. I can't stop the traffic. I can't stop that trouble. They want me to, but I can't.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: You mean the congestion on the highway as a result of the event because people are backed up trying to turn and all that kind of stuff? Okay, I got you. Yeah.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: So that's where. That's where the problem comes in at. But I have to make sure that we do what we can for the people of our parish. And I, trust me, I want to. I would rather them not have nobody on the road.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: But, you know, unfortunately, with that many people coming at one time, I couldn't.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: So let me ask you some. Some questions. So the.
We stopped doing them in May because of the shooting.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Right, Right.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: So what made you say, okay, we got to stop this, we got to. We got to put the brakes on here? Or was that an actual formal stop?
Did you say at one point, hey, we're not doing these right now?
[00:08:12] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I stopped it from happening on any. We didn't have any. We didn't deny anybody any permits.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: I just said we're going to stop and we're going to relook at this and see how we can make it better and make it safer.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: So the next event would have been
[00:08:26] Speaker A: a Y play, which is the one that just happened.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: That just happened.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: Okay, I got you.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: But so all this time we were meeting with the organization and making sure that we all understand each other, because, trust me, they want it to happen as safe as possible as well.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: You know.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Well, you don't want to be the guy who puts on the event that people keep dying at.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: Yes, exactly.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Well, at least I would hope you don't.
[00:08:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: So this is what I told him. I said, listen, I said, y' all know who should be here and who shouldn't be here. The trail ride organizations, they know each other. Like, it's a big group of people that just know each other. Understand each other.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: And if they see one person, that person shouldn't be here. Don't look right. Raise your hand, let us know so we can understand it better. And go talk to this individual and find out what's going on.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Because we don't need trouble.
[00:09:17] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: But it worked out good. And another thing people don't understand is if I don't have trail rods, if I say, nope, I'll go to the council, I'll say just pull the whole ordinance, not have it. Well, then you don't have Mardi Gras, you know, in Eunice, you don't have the beef cook off because that's all, that's all trail rides. That's the definition of a trail ride.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: I see.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: So, you know, it doesn't just affect one set of people, it affects the entire parish because everybody kind of does their own little thing and it, it by definition becomes a trail ride. Okay, so our problem we have. And now, in fact this weekend. I saw a flyer this afternoon about a group of individuals who's having something on Hippolyte Miller.
It says horses and ATVs welcome and is on private property. Miller Road on Hippolyte Miller.
[00:10:14] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: Yeah, by sunset.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: Oh yeah, the. Where the old convent is out towards that way.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: No, out by sunset.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
So I, I looked. Well, I'm trying to find out who's, who's putting it on because if they doing anything on a public roadway, then it needs to, it needs to be permitted as a trail ride. And even right now it's too late.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: You know, so it's called bus down field party.
[00:10:47] Speaker C: Got it.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: And it's on Hippolyte Miller on October 17th.
Well, if you're going to be on a public roadway with ATVs, you can't. It's against the law. And if you're trying to get on the roadway with the horses and you have more than 50 horses, it constitutes a trail ride. You got to have a permit.
With all of that being said, even if you own private property and it's 500 people or more, then you got to have a special event permit to have that event there because it's considered a mass meeting.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: Either way goes, you got to have a permit. They got to have a permit to do this. And if they don't have a permit, which I know they don't because they didn't come apply for one, the mass being permit is too late. The trail ride permit is too late. This is in a couple of days.
Nothing that they could be doing on the ground if he meets the criteria is permitted.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: So we have those that's going on their own and do them and people
[00:11:42] Speaker A: doesn't sound like they're doing anything anymore.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: What ain't no, they have them, but I mean. Right.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: They're not permitted. So what does that mean for them?
[00:11:50] Speaker B: They still go and do it.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: They're just going to do it anyway?
[00:11:53] Speaker B: Yes. Oh yeah, we have that happening on the other side of Lochiel. We have a couple of areas where they go in the field and the next thing you know, they got Four wheelers and side by sides and horses on the gravel road making that round.
And it's like, come on, people, you can't do that kind of stuff. So they need to call the sheriff's office reporter and, you know, and hopefully stop it.
But if we don't know about it, then we. We can't permit it. So what I'm doing now is I'm trying to reach this. Whoever's putting his own. Let them know ahead of time.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: You know, because they're going to have some trouble if they don't.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: So it seems like trail rides in general in St. Andrew parish, and correct me if I'm wrong here, it seems like they have a poor reputation. Am I reading this correctly?
[00:12:35] Speaker B: So the trail ride itself is not. The trail ride itself is actually, there's no trouble on the trail. Right.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:41] Speaker B: The. The ride that leaves and goes on the public roadway. That's permitted. And it has the deputies, you know, following and along the route.
Notice, there's never any trouble.
[00:12:52] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Is it has a bad. A bad name because of what happens for the weekend events, you know, the pre party. Yeah.
[00:13:00] Speaker A: What goes down to the pre party.
[00:13:02] Speaker B: So, I mean, even if we say no more trail rods, we're still not stopping the partying.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: Because they come in and rent the building and they. They get everything they need. So, I mean, I don't know what more to tell people, like, the trail ride is not the problem. The trail ride is. If it's just a trail ride, then we're good.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: Yeah. It's the organ. It's at least the violence that seems to be going on is associated with the pre party before the event.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: Right. Yeah. And what we're trying to do is stop it ahead of time, which is why we ask for extra people to work.
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is the security officers that we're trying to supply. You're saying, hey, we need more cops out here.
[00:13:39] Speaker C: We need more.
[00:13:39] Speaker A: And how many officers was it? Was it like 35?
[00:13:42] Speaker B: They had 35 or 36? Yes.
[00:13:44] Speaker C: Wow.
Dang.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: Yeah, it costs. I want to say cost them over 40 grand into security just to throw this thing. So that's just security.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: Yeah, that's just security.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: That's not counting. That's not counting.
[00:13:59] Speaker A: That's crazy.
[00:14:00] Speaker C: That's an officer per 100 people, basically.
[00:14:03] Speaker B: Roughly. Yeah, roughly.
Yeah, roughly because of, you know, then again, you got people checking because they scan them and they. They pat them down before going inside. So, you know, it's a big process. But again, we want to make it as Safe as possible.
Yeah.
[00:14:19] Speaker A: So in another interview that I found, Greg LeBlanc talks about, he says how this seems to be like a pattern, not just here, but across the Gulf south. Like what, what is driving that pattern, would you say? Like as far as these, these pre parties specifically going south or needing such a beefy security detail, like what's, what is the deal? What's causing this?
[00:14:42] Speaker B: I mean, I was there every day. I was there Friday night and Saturday night and I was, you know, on a golf cart riding around and just watching.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: You were there?
[00:14:51] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I went.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: No, I went. Because I want to be able to see and understand it better myself.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: What did you see?
[00:14:57] Speaker B: Well, I think what it is, is you have a lot of people in one general area and one of the problems we had was people couldn't get in fast enough.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: The entry to get in, which we're going to fix that was. It was not fast enough. So you have this crowd of people waiting to get in, couldn't get in aggravated.
So of course, and somebody cut the line or it was just a bunch
[00:15:21] Speaker A: of that stuff, but it's just acting like a fool.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. They were just mad because they couldn't get in or, you know, but overall, okay, the security was making them go where they need to go. And it's just, it was, it was tough because you got a lot of people. But I don't know what would be the driving factor other than what I saw those nights was it was just impatient going inside. And once they got inside, everything was fine. Everything was fine because they were listening to the band, doing what it needs to do.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Interesting what happened in May.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: So they had some type of, some type of issue from another parish that they brought to our parish and they did. They were shooting at each other in the back by the campus.
And I watched the video and I'm glad they can't shoot because they had every opportunity to hit people, but they were shooting up in the air like they don't know how to shoot.
[00:16:20] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: So that's a good thing.
I watched the video and I'm looking at this, I'm thinking two people got hit.
But non. That's right, you know, no non. Life threatening injuries.
[00:16:38] Speaker C: Okay. Okay. Yeah. I guess my lap maybe. The other question that pops my head, was there a pattern to this at all or was that kind of like a one time thing?
[00:16:46] Speaker B: Well, it was isolated on, on that. That it was early morning, you know, around, I think around 3 o' clock in the morning on it.
[00:16:54] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: And then during the day, they had a fight that took place and of course, another shot was fired.
They don't fight no more. They just shoot, you know. So what we did with the reason we.
We think that problem was, is because they were in the parking lot, they were just hanging around. So the new procedures is very simple. You get there, you get out of your vehicle, you go to your event.
No hanging around in the parking lot. You know, get out of there and go to the event. If you gonna go back to your car, you're gonna go on the road. Just that simple, man.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: It really is, I think, a good demonstration of the state of our culture.
The amount of police presence that is assumed necessary in order to keep people from killing each other.
One a cop per every hundred. Like, that's a lot of cops on site, man.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. But visibility is a prime thing. You know, if. Oh, yeah, most people, if they see the officer's presence, it will deter the crime. Yeah, most sure they got some who don't care.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
What.
So talk us through. You said there's an ordinance in place to be able to use the yam for these events?
[00:18:09] Speaker B: Well, the ordinance is. The ordinance that we have in place is for the trail ride itself.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Oh, for the actual bride.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: Right. They can do it anywhere in the parish. It's just. Okay, they got to follow this ordinance, and that's basically anything over 50 horses becomes a trail ride.
[00:18:22] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: Then you got to start notifying the proper authorities, having the right kind of security and everything.
[00:18:26] Speaker C: So the yambale rental is done by the same people, but it's technically a separate.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: It's separate.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: Renting a building.
[00:18:32] Speaker C: But they're.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So what are.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: What are the rules to follow for the yam? Like, what do they have to do to be able to be in the yam?
[00:18:38] Speaker B: It's going to be counted. It's the same thing as what we're doing. Basically. No outside activity. If you have an event inside the ambulance or inside the aggregate, you get there and that's where you go.
You know, like I was telling these organizations, they're not making you any money if they're outside by their vehicles. You know, if they don't go in and pay, they're not making them no money, but trouble.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:00] Speaker B: So the same thing applies.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: If they get there, they go inside. If they don't, they leave.
[00:19:06] Speaker A: And this is all this expense is covered by the ride organization? Correct. Like, parish ain't paying for none of this. This is a moneymaker for the Parish.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: It's a money making for the parish and tax. And let me take that back. The tax revenue for the majority of it is in the city.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: In the city of Appaloosa. City of Appaloosa, not so much the parish as a whole.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: Parish doesn't collect any taxes in the city.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:19:29] Speaker B: But it does bring in the tourism. It does bring in the people that is going to be exposed to our parish.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: And they come in, they're spending money. So like this, that weekend right there, I think we made around 3, $500 on rentals and whatnot.
So it, it's a rental facility and it made money for the weekend. Didn't cost us anything from as far as labor standpoint.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: And it brought in people to come in and it disrupted traffic.
But again, if, if you go to Lafayette, you're gonna, you're gonna have a hard time parking. You're gonna have a hard time.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:04] Speaker B: Driving. So.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: So let me ask you this, and then we'll, we'll wrap with trail rides.
What?
So the May shooting happened. You said, hey, we're going to shut this down. Re examining things.
What would it take for you to be like, nah, trail rides are done. We're not doing those in the parish anymore. Y' all want, y' all want to do you guys somewhere else?
[00:20:26] Speaker B: If we get another shooting, you'd be like, we're done. Yeah.
[00:20:29] Speaker C: Would that include things like Mardi Gras
[00:20:32] Speaker B: and other things like that whenever you have a. When you, when you cancel trail rides? That's exactly right. Because the Mardi Gras ride is a trail ride.
[00:20:40] Speaker A: That's the same permit they apply for.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: Correct?
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Got it.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: Yes. And like the beef cook off they do every year.
If you have more than 50 horses, no matter what type of organization it is, then you have.
You got to get a permit.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: Okay, Got it. Okay, guys, thank you all so much for listening to another episode of the Parish Circuit. You can go to the parish circuit.com to find more information and support, download podcasts, read articles, all that kind of cool stuff, and we appreciate you being here along for the ride. Thank you all for listening and we'll see you next time.
