Porch and Parish The Podcast
Our mission is to make sure every Zachary resident feels heard and engaged! Hosts Mike and/or Jen Gennaro facilitate candid conversations with local leaders, influencers and innovators in Zachary, Louisiana and beyond with the help of producer Mike Holt. New episode every other Monday at noon!
Porch and Parish The Podcast
Mayor McDavid Update: Home Rule Charter Updates on the Ballot May 3rd
Mayor David McDavid brings decades of public service expertise to this revealing conversation about Zachary's governmental evolution. After examining the city's 15-year-old Home Rule Charter, McDavid recognized the need for updates that would clarify operations and improve efficiency as Zachary continues its growth trajectory.
The proposed charter changes address several critical areas of governance. Council member residency requirements would be strengthened, ensuring representatives actually live in the districts they serve. Leadership protocols would shift, with the mayor pro tem running council meetings while clearly defining who takes charge during a mayoral absence. Department head residency requirements would be eliminated, expanding the talent pool Zachary can draw from for key positions.
"We're not asking people for millage or anything like that," McDavid explains. "We're just trying to clarify some things to make sure that the city operations are clear and more efficient." His pragmatic approach balances progress with fiscal responsibility, emphasizing that changes to compensation structures wouldn't take effect until future terms.
Beyond charter reforms, McDavid shares exciting developments for Zachary's infrastructure and growth. From annexation plans that could extend city boundaries to the Mississippi River to new public safety radio towers improving emergency communications, his administration is laying groundwork for Zachary's future. Economic development initiatives are attracting new businesses while maintaining the city's clean, attractive appearance that continues drawing positive attention.
As Zachary embraces its "Thriving '25" theme, McDavid's vision combines practical governance with ambitious growth plans. Don't miss this opportunity to understand how your vote on May 3rd could reshape how Zachary operates for years to come. The future of our city government is in your hands – be sure to make your voice heard at the polls.
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Hey, zachary Residence. This is Mayor David McDavid. Keep listening to Fortune Pairs Podcast.
Speaker 2:Hey, zachary, wherever you are today, you are listening from the right place as we sit down with Mayor Mac McDavid, a longtime public servant who went from walking the beat to leading the charge as Zachary's mayor. With over 40 years in law enforcement and a lifetime of local insight, mayor McDavid is now guiding Zachary through a potential game changer a new Home Rule Charter. What does that mean for how our city runs and, more importantly, how it serves its people? Pull up a chair, grab your coffee and let's talk about the future of Zachary one ordinance at a time. I'm Mike Gennaro, host of this podcast. We're on a mission to bring you front porch conversations with a parish-wide impact podcast.
Speaker 2:we're on a mission to bring you front porch conversations with a parish-wide impact. This is porch and parish the podcast, and welcome mayor mcdavid. Thank you so much, mike. All right, what's up? Tell us, tell us what a home rule charter is and what is going on exactly.
Speaker 1:Well, when I took office I looked back at the home rule charter, talked to a lot of residents here and I thought maybe we need to maybe clear it up a little bit, change it a little bit to make the city operations clearer and more efficient. That's what we looked at doing. We came up with a board member including the council was able to put a board member on there and you know it was an open meeting, it was a public meeting and you know they went through the Home Rule Charter one by one, went through it to see if they cleared up, update it. You know what need to be taken out. You know last time we did it was 15 years ago, so it was time to look at it to make sure to make it more efficient and make the city run, uh, clearer, yeah all right.
Speaker 2:So, uh, how do you want to do this? Do you want to run us through step by step and just kind of let us know?
Speaker 1:yeah, some of the key changes. And, like I said, council members and you look at section 201, uh 2-02. Council members must live in their district with clear rules and residencies. Before uh. You know if uh. And then what happened before with uh. You know brandon old. He found out he was moving outside the district. He stepped down and I think that's important when you're moving outside the district, go ahead and step down, let somebody take over your spot. You know it spells that out. You know it's a boundary change which it could come, you know, census time again.
Speaker 1:Or you know it could change again when they redo the census where you know, make sure Zachary's even, you know, representative. You know that can change that way.
Speaker 2:So if you're thinking, you're going to run now, but the boundaries changed the day before the election, nothing Zachary would have been able to control, right.
Speaker 1:It comes around every 10 years where they change it. Oh, okay, that's different, it was done about two or three years ago and so another seven years. They'll probably come back around again. But, like I say, if a counselor doesn't no longer meet the qualifications, they need to go ahead and step down and they lose their position, which is only fair.
Speaker 1:I mean, if they move outside their district, they need to make sure that they step down and let either the governor or the council pick somebody to represent them, or, if it comes down to where the governor has to pick somebody to represent that district.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Now is there a story behind this. What is it trying to?
Speaker 1:solve. I mean I think, basically, if they are outside their jurisdiction, I mean they need to step aside, I mean they're no longer in that jurisdiction. They don't represent that jurisdiction. They need to step aside.
Speaker 2:As somebody who wants to step up and represent that, area, rather than trust in the precedents that Brandon Noel set.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean Brandon, he stepped aside, he was moving, he moved outside the limits of zachary and, uh, you know he's no longer in that district he represented, which was district two, which is my district. Okay, all right. Then they had a special uh, the appointment somebody the governor did because the council couldn't come to agreement. Agreement, and then they had a special election, gotcha.
Speaker 2:All right, want to take the next one.
Speaker 1:Yes, also council meetings Section 2-08, where they have the flexibility to schedule meetings around holidays. I mean, sometimes you have meetings that come up on holidays, so it gives the council the ability to schedule meetings around the holidays where they're not having a meeting on the holidays. So I think that's very important. Another thing we come up with is the mayor pro tem runs the meetings. If you look around East Baton Rouge, parish and other areas, the mayor pro tem runs the meetings. The mayor has no vote. All he can do is call the meeting to order and go from there and keep order. Yeah, it has no vote.
Speaker 2:Do you have a vote now? No, no vote.
Speaker 1:Do you have a vote now? No, no vote Okay.
Speaker 2:No vote. So you're just basically running the meetings, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think a mayor pro tem can run the meetings just like they do in Baton Rouge. Yeah, and you know, I think that's more sufficient than me just sitting up there every time, you know, running the meetings, where they can be running the meetings, and if I have something on the agenda I'll be there for that meeting. Yeah, gotcha, you know. The other thing we set up is mayor's absence. Look at Section 30-06. It's something you know. We set up a clear plan who takes charge if the mayor is temporarily unavailable?
Speaker 1:In the past it's the mayor pro tem. Now the mayor pro tem is not there every day running the day-to-day operations. The chief administration officer is who I suggest runs in my place if I'm unavailable, if I'm sick, whatever it may be. They run the day-to-day operations until they can have an election, or if I'm out of office or I can't continue to serve, then that person will run. They're there every day seeing what's going on to serve. Then you know that person will run. They're there every day seeing what's going on. Sure, I think it's more efficient for them to be able to run the day-to-day operations that are mayor protean there, who's just their own council night. So we change, we're changing that got it, got it.
Speaker 2:And this is only um. I mean I have to ask does the public have any say about this, or just through their elected representatives in council?
Speaker 1:through their elected representatives in council I think I mean I think some of the council are on board. I mean they all voted to take this to a vote of the people and I think they're on board with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what day does this go up for a vote?
Speaker 1:May 3rd we need everybody to come out and vote. We've got four or five other things on the agenda. All this is all together.
Speaker 1:So it's all or nothing it's all or nothing and you vote yes or no. Yeah, you know, and, like I say, you know, I think it's a good proposition. I think we put it out there. Uh, the other day we had 42 shares on our facebook page. I think we're being transparent. We want the public to know what we're talking about. We, what we did, is typed it out in layman's terms, where you know not in lawyer terms where we can.
Speaker 1:You know the public can understand it and if they have any questions, stop by, we'll sit down with them and talk to them about it. We'll show them the old Home Reach order where we, you know, took the items out. We have it in red. What we're changing, come feel free to sit down, we'll send it to them by email. Whatever they want, we'll be glad to give it to them. Yeah and that.
Speaker 1:So yeah, uh, the other things we're looking at too is uh, you know, the uh, mayor, council and police pay. Uh, you know where it clarifies how their salaries are set and adjusted. What it will be will be a council vote. They'll make a decision to vote if they want to change the salaries of the mayor or, you know, chief uh, police or the council. Now, this don't take effect until the first term and the new term. So it's not like you walk in and say, okay, I want my pay raise now. It takes effect in the new term, the first year of the new term after the election. So that's very important there, because they can't just go out and just keep giving themselves a bunch of pay raises.
Speaker 1:So I think it's very important there, you know because they can't just go out and just keep giving themselves a bunch of pay raises. So, yeah, I think it's very important Now that's the only thing you know that's the dealing with money will be that they make the decision to look at changing the salaries Now, are the salaries low? Yes, they are, and it's something that we need to look at. I think it's very important. You know that we look at that. Yeah, uh, you know that we uh look at that yeah, I mean it's all public record.
Speaker 2:I don't want to make it awkward, it is public record.
Speaker 1:Uh, I mean, I'll give you one example yeah please do chief lawrence was my second command. He's probably in the 80s, I'm not sure zach mount make him. When we left office tremendous amount of work, yes, and when he took over as police chief he was brought back down to 69 000. Now, if you think about it, a lot of his guys who are working overtime or made might have been there many years too, are probably making more than he is.
Speaker 1:I know there's two or three, maybe four within my department making more than I do. You know it's. It's okay. I understand that because I made more than the chief did sometimes, but I was working detectives and I was working a lot of hours. You know overtime hours and stuff like that. But I still think you need to look at you know the salaries. I mean, we've done a study and we have a copy of it. We're glad to let the public see it. We've done studies all over Louisiana I know Chris Calvert did it along with Steve Donnery Louisiana. I know Chris Calvert did it along with Steve Donnery. They did a study and show the different mayor salaries, the council salaries and the chief police salaries. So I think we need to take a look at that down the line also.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what is the potential check on that, on just unadulterated raises?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, it's something they'll have to look at and we look at, compare ours to cities our size. Now there are some cities that are smaller than us and making way more than we are. I mean currently Gonzales, I think, their chief's around $110,000. You know where their mayor might be in that area too. I'd have to go back and look at this, but some are more, some are less. You just got to look at it, I think our counselors pay is very low.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that needs to be raised up. I think that would you share what the council pay about around 11 000, but you got some areas around 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 000.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I mean you got to look at that and see you know where the pay is and stuff like that. Some councilmen want insurance. I mean it's something we have to look at. We'll have to. The council has to make that decision. You know it. Look at, the council has to make that decision. It's not me. The council has to make that decision If they can afford insurance with our budget and everything else. So I think that's important to look at. That's a council decision Got it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. The next one up is city administration, which is section 4-01 to 4-05, which means department heads and the city attorney don't have to live in the city. What has happened in the past, starting in the 70s, when this was drafted up, and that department heads, whether it's attorney, the CAO or CFO, which is chief financial officer, had to live in the city. Now, if I go know, or CFO, which is chief financial officer, had lived in the city. Now, if I go down, and what this will help is have a bigger pool of applicants, you know that we can go after. You know, I'm not saying we don't have them here, but it's very limited Cause, zachary's, you know 20,000 residents. So you know, if a person lives in Baton Rouge and say they, they're a great lawyer, they're one of the best, and you want to hire them, but they don't want to live in Baton Rouge because their kids go to a school in Baton Rouge, whether it be a public school U High Southern, lab, dunham, catholic High, st Joe but they want to stay in Baton Rouge, why shouldn't you be able to hire them here? Because they're one of the best? And, like I say, I think it's important we open up the pool of candidates more, yeah, applicants and that. So that's very important. Also, what we did was list responsibilities of the chief administrative officer and chief financial officer, which we thought was important. You know where. You know they help each other. But also, chief administrative officer is my backup when I'm out of town or if I'm in the hospital or sick or something I can't serve. They've got to understand what their roles are and what they need to do. So I think that's important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in the police department we had this been going on for a long time the police chief also serves as a city marshal. Basically, what he does is he kind of gets officers in the court. Where it may be, a deputy marshal serves as a bailiff. They go out and serve subpoenas, they serve papers, uh, do evictions and stuff like that. So you know, when I was police chief, I was a deputy marshal too. So you know, back in the early 70s and that they, you know 80s, they had an election where, uh, you know before it was, we were called marshals and that Now we're chief police. So we clarify that and it also allows the police chief to appoint a deputy city marshal. You know we don't.
Speaker 1:You know the back old days was some of them thinking now we need a chief police and we need a marshal? To me you're doubling up, yeah, doubling up. To me it causes tension. We call attention. You know, all you need is one chief here in town and he can cover the town. He can handle the marshal and bail of spot got it. You know, and the bailiff serves. You know, when they're with the judge, protection prosecutors, anybody in the court, he's there to help them. But also, you know they got people, all the bailiffs outside who are checking for weapons, making sure everybody's coming in dressed properly and that. So I think it's very important that the chief is able to handle that and make his decision who he wants to pick. I did it for years. We just want to make sure we clarify it and that's cleaning up the home-reach order from the past. Yeah.
Speaker 2:This might be off-topic, but when you mentioned martial, the first thing that comes to mind is Marshall Law. Right, has Zachary ever been in Marshall?
Speaker 1:Law status, Not as I know of Reading back in history. I've never seen it.
Speaker 2:Got it. You know, I got those New Orleans roots. I mean, we've seen that a couple times. All right, okay.
Speaker 1:So you know, on down to city budget, which is Section 5-02, reduces the budget proposal time from 60 to 45 days and what it does is, you know, gives the CFO 45 days to get the budget in which we do it now within 45 days. And we already started budget meetings with our appointed directors and that, and we, you know, getting their wish list and looking at their budget and just to accelerate the process yes, okay yeah, just to make it get in there.
Speaker 1:So we get it out and yeah, we got to have it. You know ready to go? Yeah, come in june does it?
Speaker 2:does it cost more money when it goes beyond um the 45 day period?
Speaker 1:it'll cost more money, but it can cause other problems, I think yeah, and you know so we got to make sure that's what the Home Retailer expects of us.
Speaker 1:We already do it within 45 days, so let's go to 45 days. Also, if the council doesn't approve a budget which they can deny a budget, 90% of the previous year budget becomes the default, which means it goes back to 90% of last year's budget, in the past year's budget. And in the past has happened, you know and you know. You just got to make sure you got to have money to operate on, so it goes back to 90% of the budget. Then you have to fix the issue. What, when it was the council's issue? What? What needs to be fixed? And he gives you time to fix it, got it?
Speaker 1:And the last one here is Section 508 requires majority council approve the issue of bonds and take on debt. I think that's very important. The council is the legislated part. I'm an executive and yours, and I think it's important that they are able to look at bonds and that we don't want to sink our city into major debt. What if I have an idea and it's my idea and I just want to just put it out there and I'm going to do it anyway, not really thinking about the long-term effects, but the council looks at it and says, hey, you know, it's sticking us in a pretty tight hole for next 20 years. They got to be able to make that decision and they they represent their constituents too, and they got to make that decision. Yeah, so I mean, it's taking debt and I think that's very important, that they are allowed to do that. So we cleared that up.
Speaker 2:Do you all take on debt for pretty much any major capital improvement like buildings, and you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're looking right now, like we told before, we're looking at redoing City Hall.
Speaker 1:We've got to make sure our chief CFO, deanna Mankins, is looking over the numbers right now. We're looking at the budget and can we afford to do it? I don't want to stick administrations 10 years down the road with a heavy debt. I don't want to see that happen. I mean, right now, are we sufficient there? We're out of room, but we can continue to operate without setting ourselves up with a big debt. That's important. We just finished the police station. We're looking at everything. We want to make sure we're not situated with a bunch of debt. That's what we want to be careful with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, are we able to squeeze in any talk about the old police station today?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, do you want to just touch on that briefly?
Speaker 1:Yeah, basically what we're doing right now, we have to provide a building for the court system. They will stay in there right now until we can figure out what we're going to do with city hall and maybe put them in there with us or in that area. Uh, you know, add on to it. I mean, we've talked about buying the old am ryan's building and lot over there. We'll we'll talk to the owners of that and see if that's still on the table and we decided to do that. But we have to provide them an area and that provides them a good area there. It gives them more room Now that the police department is out of there. You know, uh, back in the days that that was the police department and the court system was where the annexation was building to us. Yeah, we can't add on to that because we had people look at it. We just can't add on to it. It's not feasible. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:So you know we do it would be. You know, hopefully we'll do something with the city hall, which is an old bake mill, and we have already got some architect drawings and looked at it. It's real nice and we just got to make sure financially we're without living week to week or two weeks at payroll. So that's our goal and, like I say, our CFO was very conscious of that. She's on top of that and hey, sometimes she says, hey, mary, no, you can't spend that money. And I respect that. I want her to tell me that and she does that. And it's kind of funny. We were in meetings the other day and she's got a little gadget that says no, she might ask for something and she says no.
Speaker 1:A lot easier to say no that way. I mean, you've got to realize she's a certified public accountant and her licenses are on the line. She's got to make sure she's doing the right things too. She lives in the city, so it's important to her.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's what we're looking at there. So I mean, you know, we want the public to understand these updates to aim to strengthen our city government, improve our clarity and make operations more efficient. So we're asking the public to go vote may 3rd. We think it's important. Every election is important, you know, and whoever votes makes the difference and like I say, it's determined by people who go vote yeah and regardless of small, which I know we got the DA's thing coming up, the millage.
Speaker 1:I know he'll be talking about it. I don't want to touch bases. I'll let him talk about his own millage, but we've got to look at all this, and this is just clearing things up. We're not asking people for millage or anything like that. We're just trying to clarify some things to make sure that the city operations are clear and more efficient. That's what we're looking at.
Speaker 2:Yeah, got it, got it. You know we're never here for the tough questions or anything like that. I just have to clarify that. The one on the pay raise I think that'll probably be the most controversial, just because it involves money. What is, what is the check and balance on on the pay raise? Uh, so if if the council just says we all want 100 grand, you know to be on council, and they, they just vote that in not that they would ever do that uh, do they just get voted out of office after that term?
Speaker 1:or you were saying it starts the term after the pay raise will start the first year of the term after re-election. After re-election, got it. If I get a pay raise next year or this year or whatever it may be, you know you have to do it, you have to start talking about it or, you know, clearing it up now, between now and before next year, because once the next year gets here, you can't talk about it, you can't give yourself a pay raise in that last year of your term. So once you vote on it, it takes effect under the new election. And what we do is I'm sure the council will probably want to talk about it do workshops, like I said, we've done studies, we looked at it, we want to be feasible.
Speaker 1:I know there there has some controversy down south and saint george, where the you know they thought they're, you know their uh, the pay was high there and like I say, that's something they voted against down there. They didn't like the way it was going down, so they voted against. So, yeah, and you know you got to be, you know you got to be um, very smart and and then how you do and spend the people's money.
Speaker 3:That's what they want you to do and you've got to look at that.
Speaker 1:Granted, we all like to get paid tons of money, but you've got to be within reason to be smart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and attract the top talent to those positions too. We appreciate you all so much. Is there anything else that you want to talk about on the agenda? I ask you this every time I see you. Is there just any new developments? You much um is there anything else that? You want to talk about on the agenda. Any um, I mean, you know I ask you this every time, I see is just any new developments you want to talk about?
Speaker 1:I mean you know we got uh we. We met with the dotd the other day and we had a great meeting with them and explained to them some of the issues we have here, including uh signing off on the final annexation paperwork for the jerry lane which is coming in the city of Livingston-Zachary.
Speaker 2:Oh, you got it annexed yeah they're coming in.
Speaker 1:We're just waiting on DOTD to find it off. We'll check back with them in the next couple weeks about it, see if they signed off on it.
Speaker 2:yet there are a few implications to that that are positive. I mean we've never had control over the entryway corridor to our own town down east mount pleasant right and we're working on that right now. Yeah yeah, so I mean, once it's annexed, maybe I'm not gonna say it was an ugly drive at all, but it you know you're going through the swamp there's, there's, there's obviously some points of blight, that that on that street yeah, we'd have to sit down and talk to them and get some of that cleared up that we think it's important yeah, I
Speaker 1:mean, if you go back, we've done it. We probably tore down 10 to 12 houses since I took office and we've got some more we're going to look at. We want to give people a chance to fix it up. Sure, sure, including heirs that might be heirs to the houses. Fix it up, but after a while you're hurting people's property values and that We've got to clean it up. It tracks crime. It tracks rats. It tracks snakes. People hide snakes. You know people hide, criminals hide in there. Drug deals will be done in there. I mean being law enforcement.
Speaker 1:I've seen it myself yeah, firsthand so you got to clean that up, you know, and like I say, when you make zachary pretty, like it is, yeah, you know, we had louisiana boot the other day. We had people from coke cola, we had people from, uh, other areas. Come here, man. Y'all sure have a clean town. Yeah, well, if you have a clean town, people want to come live here. They want to go to school here and they want to shop here, and they want to, you know, live here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we think it's important, kids can walk to school without being afraid of passing that one scary house that's true.
Speaker 1:But you know, yeah, we had a good meet with dotd. We explained to them about old scenic, the amount of wrecks we've had there, and we need turning lanes or something. We need to come up with a plan and we're working on that right now. We also met with you know, talked to them about that. We're trying to finish up getting our lights, traffic signals done. We're working with the parish and the state on that. All our traffic signal boxes were obsolete, outdated.
Speaker 2:Oh really.
Speaker 1:We're working on that. We're getting some new stuff put in there trying to finalize that. We've got the crosswalks. We're trying to finalize.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a crosswalk is featured on the new cover, or the cover of the newest Fortune Parish magazine, with some Zachary legacy family on there that we hope you'll enjoy.
Speaker 1:We think that's important. You've got a school there, you've got a restaurant there, but also you have a sidewalk there. I mean I like traveling around Zachary on my bike, but also you have a sidewalk there. I mean I like traveling around Zachary on my bike, I like getting on the sidewalk.
Speaker 2:You know little times I get a little worried riding a bike on some of these houses, I mean on these highways out here. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But I want you know connectivity is important. It is Better to walk.
Speaker 2:My kids are runners too. Yeah, and that's important and they've got to go eight miles sometimes, and sometimes it's like you get tired of running in the same circle correct, and that's me.
Speaker 1:I like to switch it up. Uh, on my bike and yeah, you know, I go to an area and I go there in may you know, play sawpon and uh, great bunt, texas. The walkability there is unbelievable.
Speaker 1:I've been there yeah, oh, it's nice and then they have so much things down there but dotd, we think it's important for our uh, you know our economic development. We got uh things wanting to come in the city limits of Zachary. Some of the areas out in Oak Scenic up to the diversion canal which we want to take all that in is outside the city limits. So we're working on getting that in and my long-range plan is to go to the Mississippi River. You know you've got your boats to come in down the river. I like that. Come visit Zachary. Yeah, got your, your your boats to come in down the river. I like that. And visit zachary. Yeah, you can bring big lp gas company there and sell gas off to other states or good countries. You can have um, a lot of your smaller towns like west wisconsin, east wisconsin, have uh places where the barges can uh dock up for the night. They make money off that, yeah. So I think it's important that we look at that. Take that in. Uh, you know where gray chevrolet is. You got the woodside family which is around 243 acres. We want to bring them in up to the, you know, up to that white antebellum home. They got to the north of them. We want to take it in and right now we can take that in without having to hire more police officers because we have enough right now Our fire department already covers that. So we're good there. So we want to make sure our infrastructure and everything's in place before we start taking all these areas in.
Speaker 1:I'm thinking about maybe and this is what we talked about and we'll have to see how the public thinks about it the areas we want to annexation in. We might come up and say, okay, we want to annex these areas in. I think my understanding is we can put it to a vote of the people that live in that area and see if they want to come in. I mean, you know, we can save them a little bit on fire district one tax there. We can save them a little bit on different taxes that were different in Baton Rouge here. And plus, you know, right now I mean you've got a police force up to six on a shift we cover a lot of areas Right now. We're probably the first one in this area outside the city limits because the sheriff's office, you know, at night comes out of central Scotlandville. So we think it's important that we can, you know, annex some of these areas in. To cover it Back, when I first started out we covered all the way out in the Pride Baywood, all the way out in the Pride.
Speaker 1:Baywood all the way out to the Mississippi River and some south. We had to help the sheriff's office out because they were small then, but we're looking at all that right now for the city.
Speaker 2:Sounds like nothing but positives on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're back doing our road rehabilitation. We're Church Street between Hot Tails to Old Slaughter Road.
Speaker 2:We're widening that a little bit A lot of cars are coming that way, coming off from the Walmart, and that it's like a diet right there. I don't want to say the wrong word, but it gets smaller.
Speaker 1:It's very small there and we widened it. Right now we know people are trying to come to the light to get out there. It's tough getting out at Montegutter. We got to DOTD looking at some traffic studies in the area to see what we can prove. You know it's been talk of a roundabout, maybe down at Rollins and 964. We'll see. You know the roundabout costs a lot of money, so we got to look at that.
Speaker 1:I know, right now, the legislator just started yesterday and they're looking at reforming DOTD and we think it's important. Like we met with him the other day and we told him the problems we have on Highway 19. We we met with him the other day and we told him the problems we have on Highway 19. We have problems that we have on Plank Road. The amount of traffic. You think about it. People come out of the Felicianas, they go to Southern University, lsu, exxon, they go to work, they go to travel down there. They're going to stop in here and visit. If they see a clean town, they're going to stop here. Oh yeah, but we've got infrastructure here too to get them through here, you know, in a safe manner, but also in a quicker manner, you know. Yeah, so we, you know we have a lot of people come through here now. You got to think about what's coming up north the ai bitcoin whatever they want to call it is possibly coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you got to realize they have a moratorium up there. So where you think the people are going to live, they're going to live here, they're going to shop here and they're going to come here. So we think it's important. So we're looking at all of them. A lot of other stuff coming up too that we're trying to make the city. We've got our public safety radio tower going up, ribbon-cutting the mar out there on Propolitan Road.
Speaker 1:It's been 10 years in the making. A lot of times in Walmart, the schools and north of Zachary Radio was tough. You couldn't hear, you couldn't speak. So that tower is going to give us that one function to protect police officers, the firefighters, sheriff's office, ems. It's going to make it better. So we're doing a ribbon cutting on that tomorrow.
Speaker 2:And can you hear local radio too better?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I'm sure you can. And what we're going to do too with that, that's great, that's great, that brings a smile to my face. If we can you know, maybe Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, we'll have room for them to add on to it too, to make the signal better.
Speaker 1:I mean that's what's important here is, you know, public safety. And it's been 10 years and we finally got it done, great, great Making ground on it. So it's going to be in the city limits of Zachary. We don't take care of the maintenance around it, the city of. Zachary will be, so we think it's a win-win for us here in Zachary.
Speaker 2:It is my radio station. When I first moved to Zachary, I was still young enough to listen to KLSU 91.1. But the signal would go out somewhere around I don't know where. Exxon was on 61. I'd be like, oh shoot, give up a little quality there.
Speaker 1:This will help us here. You know, as acker grows, we're trying to get our technology better here.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you know, we a lot of our fiber coming in too.
Speaker 1:Yes, oh yeah, we got revs in here. We got at&ts in here. You know I've talked to both of them and I hope they get on top of it. We got still some areas in here in zachary don't have internet, don't have access to internet, and I think that's that's bad. Now, granted, they can go to the library, but I think they should be able to have access to their internet. Yeah, whether it's in brian road and there's some areas in copper mill that don't have it and I think we need to really focus on that and that's what we've done.
Speaker 1:You know, we've had people call in with their addresses. They don't have it send it to the representatives. Hey look, you're here in town, you get, you know, they got a bunch of grant money. So here, yeah, let's fix these issues here. That's important, zachary, you know, fixing the issues that people can use the internet, whether it's teachers uh, kids do school work. Our business owner, you know, might be working from the house, or something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's important you know and uh, so we we're glad to see that going on right now. We have a lot of construction going on around town. Here we're fixing some areas who have you? You know some of the water pressure issues and that we just our new wells are going to go on line here pretty soon and we met with, you know, senator Kennedy's office. We're looking at possibly down the line and also our legislator in Baton Rouge maybe getting a water tower, a water well and, you know, maybe a new gas transmission line. We have two gas lines, one right there at Diversion Canal and one out here on Kearney Road to get our gas to where it needs to be. And you know our guys watch it. They can watch it on their phone. When the gas pressure, when it's cold it goes down, they can pick the pressure up a little bit. Make sure the city stays on line.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Our sewer lift stations are monitored. We have that going on right now. We check them, our water lines, we check all that. We're getting our technology where it needs to be to make sure we run efficient here in Zachar. But that goes to the men and women. They're working hard here.
Speaker 1:They understand our vision here, what we're trying to do in that and I think it's important. I mean I have to give them. Without them it would be tough. I mean I think it's important, I mean I have to give them without them it'd be tough. I mean I give them all the credit. Uh, you know they, they get out here and work and you got the ballpark out here. You got 35 to 40 tournaments a year here. Think about the people visiting zachary, using our hotels, doing our shop and doing our, you know, visiting our restaurants. Uh, it's great and you can eat off the floor at the ballpark out there, he's got a peewee the ball.
Speaker 2:He's great. He's the greatest I go out there.
Speaker 1:All his machinery is clean his lawnmowers, his weed eaters. I mean, he hung correctly. I mean you cannot beat that. And before that, shane abe, I did a great job too, and uh. But you know you've got a lot of stuff's happening here, zachary, and every time I'll ride around here at night the whole, uh, the restaurants are full. It's busy here in town and I'm grateful to that. We got, you know, the off-the-hook came in here and it's been a plus, and we got more stuff looking to come, it's been good.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, benny's is on the works. I know they're waiting on Baker to kind of get finished there, but they're coming.
Speaker 2:No, they didn't give up, huh.
Speaker 1:Not. I talk to the family every time I see them at a meeting.
Speaker 2:Good yeah, where is it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and then I think other things will jump off after that around town. I know that there's a piece of property that Susie Gautreaux is trying to get in right there in. Ocasinic. That's going to be a plus for us and we're working on some other stuff, a 14-acre tract right there. Right by the law office.
Speaker 2:Right there, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then we try. I think it might be a welcome barbecue or something like that.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, that's a deep track. It goes all the way back to Breck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's nice and we like to. You know we got I met with a property owner or a business owner and a baker the other day and they wanted to come to Zachary T&T Smokehouse. I mean they got some good smoke uh barbecue here and you know we we've had them at a couple of events and bring it. Yeah, I mean we're trying to get you know we're recruiting and and we uh, my economic development is recruiting, working hard, trying to get people here.
Speaker 2:You know. Well, a big shout out to y'all for attending ICSC. That's something that that a lot of you know non-com commercial real estate folks don't don't pick up on. But y'all are traveling to to the states where the retailers are, are meeting with brokers and y'all are setting up your, your uh stand as a city.
Speaker 1:I mean that's, that's incredible, yeah if you go down and you tell them hey look, you know, we had one of the best schools districts. We've been 16 years number one. We got a 50 million dollar expansion going on lane hospital. Your fire department's got a number one rating which saves you on homeowners insurance, business insurance. I mean that's important, you got crime here, but it's low crime. I mean you got it here, you got it's everywhere. I mean, but it's here, I mean you got. You know, when you sell that to them and they ride through zachary and see how clean it is, how people work together and make Zachary happen, look at the school system and academic, but also the sports of our school system. You go down, you've got sports at the elementary schools now. We didn't have that when I was here in the early 70s and 80s but I mean that's how Zachary has progressed and people are looking for that. I mean, when I travel all over the United States playing ball, I look at different things. Well, look, number one how can I prove Zachary what?
Speaker 1:do they got. I want in Zachary. I look at all that. You know a lot of people. Well, we want to target. Well, a lot of these businesses ain't going to come here unless you've got 30,000 more residents. Yeah, it's a formula and they look at it. They do their homework, they can tell by cell phone visits and they do everything. I mean they can get it down to a size.
Speaker 2:They don't even really need to be in the city to make that decision.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean we've had some great talks with a lot of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's just, you know, I think Not there yet, yeah, and you know they'll, and we'll have some more. I think getting part of 61 in is going to be a plus for us Critical, critical I think with that major US highway coming through there, I think it's going to open up some possibilities for us down the line. You've got to think about the future and that's why I say let's go out to the Mississippi River, take it in, look at Georgia Pacific, look at the landowners to the left and right out there.
Speaker 1:You still wouldn't have to hire more officers because you've got three or four houses out there. Now you'd have to go out there on a police issue which is Georgia Pacific, but the fire department already covers that out there. They work together with Georgia Pacific Fire Brigade, so they work together on stuff out there together. So you still again, you wouldn't have to hire more police officers Now if you go north from Flanagan Road up to the Parrish line.
Speaker 1:yeah, with Sunnyside and Beaver Creek area you'd have to hire some more, and we have people I've talked about wanting to come into the city limits of Zachary. We'll have to look at that, but we have to get that infrastructure in place, whether it's water tower, gas transmission lines, sewer gas, water in that area. So, yeah, we're working on all that, All right.
Speaker 2:Last big question for you, Just as somebody who likes to run and play a lot the diversion canal has a really pretty levee. Is that something that people can walk on at any point.
Speaker 1:That's something. I'm going to tell you what my plan is. I don't know who to happen, uh, and we'll see who they turn. I'd like to make that a new east and west highway that's a roadbed there.
Speaker 2:A roadbed, yeah, at the bottom of the levee.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, it runs all the way up to plank road. Yeah no brainer we need to look at, maybe to help us relieve some traffic in town here. Yeah, we got other areas we can look at again it's about money, yeah and I think hopefully the uh, the legislator that will prioritize and throw some more money at dotd and fix some of these streets. I mean, I think, it's important with growth, you got to do something yeah, it'll take pressure off of main street. Yeah, it will and you can make it more walkability yeah, you know where people can get around do some things downtown.
Speaker 1:I mean, I went to ribbon cutting today at best, best company boutique. It's nice place in there it's wonderful one in there and it's, you know, like, hey, it's nice in here, you can go shop there. You ain't got a little baton rouge, you can shop here. It's got blue jean. It's a lady's store but they got plenty of stuff and there was ladies in there shopping, yeah you know. But so things like that, you coming to Zachary is a plus. I mean, we had Empire Wings come in here the other day.
Speaker 2:That's the one that's got people buzzing right now.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you I've had their honey barbecue wings and they're good. I know they were down at Southern University. I mean this is something you can run in there and grab you some chicken wings for a party or a football event or whatever it may be. They got some good fries and other stuff. You can't beat that, you know, and every time I passed by they've been busy. Yep, I mean so it's a plus.
Speaker 2:I mean I see people walking. Uh, you know you're not supposed to walk on the train tracks, but they walk from empire down the train track and everybody's got the little white box from empire wings now. So I know it's, it's great, I mean it's, uh, it's a plus for zach yeah.
Speaker 1:And so that's our goal is to bring in, you know, economic development, bring some sales tax so we can make sure we maintain our infrastructures, our fire and police and all that is dependent on that, and that's important that you continue to maintain that as we grow. Yeah.
Speaker 2:All right Well let's leave it there. You know we highlight the best of Zachary with everything that we do and I know we're very well aligned with the city on that. So continue to do your good work, mayor, and we send you some prayers and you know we got your back. That is it for this episode of Porch and Parish, the podcast. You can catch us most every week. I know I've been a little bit sporadic We've had some technical difficulties lately, but what you got, man, I just want to let you know our theme for this year Thriving 25.
Speaker 2:I like it. Okay, we can spread that. Can we get the sticker Thriving 25. Let's leave it there and we'll see you next time. Thank you, america, america.
