June 3, 2024 • 35 mins
Delia Taylor is our guest today on Local Leaders podcast and discusses the development of the Livingston Executive Airport, highlighting its history, site selection process, and economic potential. Delia Taylor emphasizes the airport's benefits for job creation, local economy, and educational opportunities in the aviation industry and underscore the economic prospects and clean industry advantages the airport will bring to Livingston Parish, detailing the construction timeline and project phases. This exciting project is covered in depth on this episode of Local Leaders and we are excited this opportunity is finally taking shape and becoming a reality in Livingston Parish.
#LivingstonParish #Avaition #Livingstonexecutiveairport #deliataylor #podcast #localleaders
Timestamps
03:05 Inception of the Airport Project
07:02 General Aviation vs. Metro Airport
08:55 Importance of Having an Airport
10:21 Economic Impact and Job Opportunities
17:38 Role of the Airport Board
18:36 Passion for the Airport Project
24:35 Timeline for Completion
29:26 Purpose of the Project
32:26 Economic Development Benefits
#LivingstonParish #Avaition #Livingstonexecutiveairport #deliataylor #podcast #localleaders
Timestamps
03:05 Inception of the Airport Project
07:02 General Aviation vs. Metro Airport
08:55 Importance of Having an Airport
10:21 Economic Impact and Job Opportunities
17:38 Role of the Airport Board
18:36 Passion for the Airport Project
24:35 Timeline for Completion
29:26 Purpose of the Project
32:26 Economic Development Benefits
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, This is Lorie Johnson withHancock Whitney Bank and you're listening to Local
Leaders the Podcast. Visit Local leadersthepodcastdot com for previous episodes or for information
on peering on the show. Heyeverybody, and welcome back to another edition
of Local Leaders of the Podcast.And look, I have a lot of
(00:22):
leaders on this show, as y'allknow, but the woman sitting across from
me today is someone that I wouldsay not only is born and bred right
here in Livingston Parish, but shehas done a lot for this parish.
And one of those things we're goingto talk about in detail today, and
that is the Livingston Executive Airports.So, first of all, welcome is
(00:46):
Dillia Taylor to Local Leaders of Podcast. Thank you, Jim. I appreciate
that. You know, y'all wevisited a little bit before this show just
now, and I can't believe thisis the first time we've had a good
opportunity to sit down and talk fora few minutes because I've watched as this
lady has done so many great thingsfor the parish, the Livingston Executive Airport,
(01:07):
so we're going to give you informationon that today, talk about some
facts with you, and hopefully ifsome of you out there are not up
to speed on the advantages of thatand what's going on with it, where
are we at with it, we'llbe able to clarify those things. But
before we do, I want topat her on the back a little bit
and just give you a little bitof information on her background. She is
(01:30):
born and bred right here in LivingstonParish, lived out in Livingston area,
Big Doyle High Gride, Go DoyleTigers Fighting Tigers. Yeah, there you
go, and you left there.You went to LSU and you actually played
for the Lady Tigers. I did. I did. Yeah, And that
was from maybe four to eighty sixElite eight. Didn't they make it to
(01:52):
the elite We did, and wemade it to the Elite eight. This
was before they really structured the regionalplay like they do now. We happened.
They happened to put LSU, Georgia, Tennessee, and Iowa together in
Iowa, so basically we knocked eachother out, but we lost to Tennessee
(02:13):
by two points and missed the finalfour by two points. Had had summit,
had had summit. Gosh, shewas so good and you played for
what Coach Sue Gunner. Yeah,another again Hall of Fame, Nay Smith
Hall of Famer. You know coachGunner's statistics. Uh, if you ever
have a chance to visit that museum, they'll have an asterisk by her name
(02:37):
because they know she has more winsthan what's recorded because she coached at a
time when women's basketball was not onthe radar, if you will, it
was not recorded. So she shewas a pioneer for the sport. She
really moved it forward for a lotof young ladies to be able to play
today and man to think about whereit was then and now we have the
(02:59):
Caitlin Clark and the Angel Reesis oftoday, and it's it's we've come a
long way, baby, a longway. And so you have undertaken something
for quite a while with a board, and that is this airport. And
I guess maybe first where we canstart is how did this come to fruition?
(03:22):
When was it first kind of talkedabout? And how did it build
into what it is now? Sure? Well, the council created the Livingson
Parish Airport District in twenty sixteen andthat's when I was appointed along with the
other board members. But the conceptand the effort to bring an airport to
livings And started well beyond that.You really should back up as far as
(03:43):
maybe two thousand and four when youhad some local business guys and others who
were looking at could we bring anairport here? Where would we do it?
How could we do this? Andthey began the discussion that led eventually
into some funding around twenty ten,two thousand and eleven. Senator Dale Erdie
was at the legislature at that time. He was able to secure some money
(04:05):
then to do an initial master planand to determine if Livingson could be a
site for a general aviation airport.And so that study was done and they
actually looked at three sites. TheFAA or no one wants you to just
pick one site they want you tosee or their other alternatives. Do you
(04:25):
really have the best option here?And at the time they chose three sites
that they looked at. One wasa little farther north, closer to what
is now where Ligo is, andbecause of that research facility, that was
not a good location. The secondlocation was north of the interstate, again
just kind of north of Satsumo inthe Walker area. It was too close
(04:48):
to the waste management site to thesanitation landfill, and a lot of sanitation
landfills draw birds and bird strikes arevery serious issues in aviation. Now it's
my understanding that waste management uses sometechniques to minimize that, but you know,
the FAA was still saying, no, it's not going to work.
So then that meant the third sitethat they were looking at, and that
(05:11):
was south of the interstate in theSatsuma area, and so they determined that
that was a great location, veryrural in not a lot of houses there
and again a good location. Andat the time, Warehouser owned that property,
and a lot of us are veryfrom the area know about Warehouser.
They managed a lot of forest timberlandfor years throughout that area and that was
(05:34):
a very active site. They werecultivating it for profit at the time.
So again what I'm trying to sayis that property had value. And so
when they looked at that side andtried to determine well we could put an
airport there, it had a pricetag on it and Warehouser was not given
it away, and the Paris didnot have the money to buy the land.
(05:55):
So then twenty eleven comes, itgoes, the study comes, it
goes, it sits right until twentysixteen. What happens in twenty sixteen before
the flood, By the way,mister Gary lewis a developer, very very
wealthy, very good businessman, broughtup a lot of property in that area
(06:15):
and he began to hear the rumorsand whatnot that hey, Livingston's looking at
wanting to put an airport out there, and began talking to our leaders at
that time. Conversations sprung up,Hey, mister Gary, do you think
you might would give us some landfor that? Well he said yeah,
wow. And you know, wewere very fortunate that not only it's huge,
(06:36):
not only a developer and a businessmanand capable of giving that type of
donation, but he was an aviatorin the war and still loves to fly
today, so he had a lovefor the industry. And so then there
we are, and that's when thecouncil created the Livingston Parish Airport District and
(06:57):
said, hey, we think misterGary will give you some land, go
figure it out. And that's howwe started. There. You go and
look, no easy task. Nowyou have the land, but you've got
to implement a lot of things alongthe way, and I guess before we
go any further, maybe let's explainwhat the difference is between a general aviation
airport and Baton ridgees Metro. Sure, because most of us are not familiar
(07:21):
with general aviation airports. If wefly we're going to Baton Rouge, New
Orleans certainly going through it, Atlanta, Dallas, that sort of thing.
So we're very familiar with the largerairports. That is not what this is
going to be. It is ageneral aviation airport. The technical description would
be this that we would not havescheduled flights. Again, think about it.
(07:43):
You pull up a schedule online andyou book your flight. They have
them at ten am, at noon, whatever time it may be. You're
able to book a scheduled flight eachday of the week, however it may
work. GA airports do not havescheduled flight service. That doesn't mean they
don't have services for hire. Youcould hire a charter flight or something like
(08:03):
that, but they do not havescheduled air flights. The other thing is
we don't have the big guys.So the airports again that we're familiar with,
the Baton Rouges and the New Orleanshave the larger seven forty sevens and
those type of aircraft and large cargoaircraft and large military aircraft. We're in
the middle. We have the singleprop single engine planes, we have the
(08:26):
twin engines, and we do havesome corporate jets sixteen seaters if you will,
the King Jet King air jets.So we're in the middle, and
we obviously could reach down to theeven smaller if we needed to. But
the little guys who tend to dothe experimental type stuff, they try to
(08:46):
even get off on a grass rightaway and get away from everybody. Yeah,
there you go, and so thathopefully that'll answer some questions there.
Now, we're one of only twopair of shoes, I believe it is
that don't have an air That's right, it's just us in Sant Helena.
Not only are we one of onlytwo, we're the fastest growing parish for
(09:09):
how many years? The last twentyyears, the last twenty years, so
exactly. So it's not just thatwe're in this unfortunate category with just two
parishes, but when you look atthe fact that we have been the fastest
growing now for twenty years, it'salmost absurd to think that we do not
(09:31):
have this leg of transportation when youlook at land based multimodal transportation that we
need for commerce. First of all, roads we have to have that.
We know we don't have sufficient infrastructurethere that that needs to be proved.
Rail we have a major rail linethat runs through us that contributes tons of
(09:54):
money to our commerce, but we'remissing air and we need that. Obviously,
other communities further south of here wouldhave ports. In fact, we
do have, you know when youstart to get out toward Portmanchak, which
is actually in tangible hoe huge,huge industry, a lot of commerce for
that parish. We don't have thataccess, but we do have potential for
(10:16):
obviously road, rail and air.Yeah, and you brought up growth and
we are. We're the fastest growingparish in the state and have been for
quite a while. But let's talkabout growth for a second. Because one
thing interesting about this particular project andanother project pick your project, but may
(10:39):
have the same economic impact, isthat this doesn't have the impact on the
infrastructure or the schools that those otherprograms might have. You're exactly right.
Really, for us as a parish, this is a win win project.
We don't have the downside that whenwe bring this industry, we're not going
(11:00):
to negatively impact our school system.No impact on our school system. We're
not even going to negatively impact ourroadway. Think about what we're saying here.
When we are bringing some other businessesand industry here, we still have
to get to them via road.That's not the case here. We're talking
about air travel, so we don'thave that level of negative impact. I
(11:24):
think the other thing we need torealize is this is a clean industry.
We're not talking again about another wastemanagement or a polluter of that sort.
We're talking about a clean industry herethat does not have an impact on our
any rooftops. We're not bringing therooftops here. We're not impacting the road.
(11:45):
We do not have a noise impact. We've done noise studies and that
information has been provided through public meetings. But when you look at the bell
curve and you look at the layoutof the noise, it really doesn't leave
our property. You would have tobe standing on the edge of the airport
property to hear it, and it'sgoing to sound like a lawnmower for maybe
(12:05):
ten seconds. During takeoff of alarger plane, that's it. That's it,
and that that's really hard to beat. Now, just to get into
the economic impact, one thing thatI found interesting when I was looking at
the stats that you supplied at theLivingston Chamber meeting was that for every dollar
(12:26):
spent, you're getting back two dollarsand fifty three cents in economic impact money.
So basically that you know, peoplethink about it this way, for
every one hundred thousand dollars out,you're getting two hundred and fifty three thousand
dollars back. If anybody would wantto borrow that from me right now,
get me back two hundred and fiftythree grand, you got it. Yeah,
(12:46):
I would love those odds and thoseYes, I mean that's a great
investment. Yes, and it isa beautiful thing for our economy in my
opinion. Now, another thing withthe economic impact is obviously what is it
going to bring in the in theway of jobs and things of that nature.
The state has looked at the averagefor general aviation airports and the numbers
(13:07):
jump out pretty considerably. I thinkwe talked about it earlier as much as
of well over fifteen million dollar impacteven for some of the smaller airport.
So the jobs that we're talking about. You certainly have those direct jobs that
would be pilots themselves, instructors,aviation instructors, mechanics, any type of
(13:30):
service avionics, those that have todeal with all the instruments that are now
in planes. You know. Thenbeyond that you have delivering clients, transporting
goods, you know, moving anytype of clientele. You have that service.
But then we have the extended services, right, the indirect services that
go beyond just immediately impacting aviation.It's how others benefit from having an airport.
(13:58):
I think the best example is whenI found out the last airport that
was built in Louisiana was Louisiana Regional. That's the one in Gonzales. And
when they were building and there's goingto be almost forty years has passed before
a new airport is going to be, which will be out of course,
but one of the first people toland at that airport, mister Tanger.
(14:20):
Does that name ring about? Okay? So when mister Tanger was trying to
decide where he was going to puthis next outlet mall, he wanted to
have an area where he could flyin, check on his investment, manage
his property, manage his employees,and then get back to wherever home is.
So you and I don't need anairport to go to the Tanger Outlet
(14:43):
mall. That is an indirect impactbecause the investor wanted it, the investor
needed it. Now, think aboutthe jobs that were created there indirectly because
aviation provided an added amenity for thatarea to attract that investor, and the
(15:03):
sales tax dollars and all those thingsthat go along with it. Well,
and if you know Jim, atthat chamber meeting, you had the mayor
of livingson stand up. He hadbeen working several years with a water bottling
company. They had whittled down theirsite selection to two sites and Livingston was
one of those. Yeah, welost because we don't have an airport,
(15:24):
because they went to Robert, Louisianabecause it's near that Hammond airport. Yeah.
Yeah, that's another reason in something. I know that it's the average
person they look at that and theysay, maybe I don't have a plane
or you know, I don't havea need for that, but these executives
do. And with those executives cameopportunity and also another thing that people may
(15:46):
not be considering is the advantages todisaster response and things of that nature,
law enforcement, emergency services. Anairport makes all it could make all the
difference in the world in a lifesaving situation. Well, definitely. I
think too many of us still rememberthe flood of twenty sixteen and the town
(16:08):
of Livison in that area was anisland at the time. We were flooding
from the am, we were floodingfrom the Tangibajo. You couldn't get to
us. I mean we were stuck. That property where the airport's going to
be was above ground in twenty sixteen. That says volumes right there. But
to be able to bring in emergencyresponse in a situation like that, you
(16:29):
had delay getting goods and getting servicesand getting just foot soldiers on the ground
excuse me, yeah, in becauseyou had to wait for water to recede
in certain areas well. If youcan bring them in via air and get
them into the center of your parishand then disperse out from that, obviously
that speaks volumes. But then dayto day I don't think people realize how
much our rivers are patrolled by ourlaw enforcement, by wildlife and fisheries,
(16:56):
and how there are responses that haveto take place there. You're talking about
a thirty minute difference to get fromBaton Rouge to Lake Marpaul, say,
from Livingston to get to Lake Marpauland the waters here. You know,
we're very fortunate that our sheriff doeshave a helicopter and is able to make
those type responses, but even afixed wing airplane decreases the cost for them
(17:19):
and can be just as efficient inmonitoring again in an emergency, even monitoring
escape or a flight where you havea car chase or something. So aviation
can be used in a lot ofways for that that we certainly see as
a huge benefit down the road.Yeah, you serve on a board.
(17:41):
Tell us about the board. Howhas the process came along as far as
the challenges are concerned. I guessI'm trying to say so. The board
was created in twenty sixteen. Thereare nine members. The members are appointed
by there I think four are appointedby the council. There's one by the
(18:03):
parish president. I'm actually the parishPresident's appointee. Then there's someone from the
Sheriff's office, someone from Fire Districtfour, uh, and then our state
rep and our state senator have appointments, so those are the nine appointees.
That's who makes the appointments, andthen they serve in stagger terms. So
that's how we came to be.Are they volunteer? Oh, total,
(18:25):
totally volunteer. Nothing's paid at all. That's a lot of work. So
you got to love your parents tobe doing that. Yeah, you know
again, I think if I'd havereally known what the magnitude of this task
back in sixteen, I probably wouldn'thave signed on. Thank god you did.
But it's just one of those thingsthat, as I know, we've
(18:49):
gotten involved and we see the potentialand we see what's happening elsewhere, we're
like, we gotta have this.This, this is this is too good
not to have for Livingston. Andevery time we visit somewhere and we're like,
why not Livingston? Why not us? We deserve to have tax dollars
(19:11):
invested in our paris. We deserveto have airline fees reinvested in our parish.
We deserve to have investors come intoour parish and create good paying jobs
for our kids. We need newcareer opportunities for our kids. So why
(19:33):
not Livingston? Why not Livingston?And one hundred percent with you on that.
And you brought up career opportunities andthere are a lot in that industry.
And look shout out to Live OakHigh School who has an aviation program
at their STEM center. I believethat's right, and Walker, I know,
is planning on some opportunities. SoutheasternLivingston's what's right next to them.
(19:56):
Yeah, they're literacy technologies there,but they you also have the north Shore
Technical College right there. So youknow, that's one of the things we've
realized is when the education community isstarting to invest in certain careers, it's
because they're looking at trends and they'relooking at opportunities, and they're wanting their
students to be able to leave theircampus and start something even better. Right.
(20:18):
So, Live Oak has already openeda STEM center there and aviation is
a huge part of it. Theywould have sixty kids enrolled in the aviation
curriculum. We've been talking to Walkerabout providing an actual pilot school. Could
these kids can go through their entireground school as a course and then maybe
(20:42):
working their extra hours to take someflight time and get their pilot certification.
At the same time, we've gotnorth Shore Technical colleges talk to our legislative
leaders about adding an aviation curriculum thereas we open our airport. We know
that Batonrouge Community College has an aviationmechanics curriculum that is at the campus just
(21:07):
north of Central, closer to BakerIf you go up above Lovett Road,
that's where it's located. And I'mgoing to tell you a hidden treasure nationally
is Louising Attach. They have anoutstanding aviation engineering program that's one of the
best in the country. So wehave the educational resources within arms reach.
Yes, we just need the facilitynow to take full advantage of that.
(21:30):
I agree one hundred percent. Youknow, my dream for this parish for
as long as I can remember,was I wanted to see Livingston Parish get
away from a bedroom community and beto where you not only live in Livingston
Parish, but you work there,you sleep there, you play there,
and all those sorts of things andthese type of projects enable that to be
(21:56):
a possibility. Hey, if youwant to be in an airport mechanic,
you can work right here in theLivingston Parish at that airport and that could
be your job, and you canlive here and you can spend all your
time here and not have to crossthat bridge. That's a beautiful thing.
And another little fun fact here thatI picked up doing some research on this
(22:18):
is the number one job in theUnited States for non four year degree people.
So if you had a two yeardegree, for example, an associate's
degree is air traffic controller the entireUnited States one hundred and thirty four thousand
dollars a year starting pay. Sonot only is the aviation industry something that
(22:41):
is adventatious from a standpoint of taxdollars and things like that that you get
coming in, but it's also adventatiousas careers for people and options, you
know. And if you're in theaviation industry, it's because you love it.
You love to fly, or youlove to work on planes and things
like that. To give our peoplean opportunity to do that, and typically
(23:03):
we find that careers within that fieldare high pain. Why because it's serious.
Let's be honest. If the mechanic, not that the mechanic on your
car is not expensive as well,at least mine are. But yeah,
if the car breaks down, somebodycan come pick you up over on airline,
highway or wherever. It is thatyou are that doesn't work in airplanes.
(23:26):
Okay, we know how serious thathas to be and how good you
have to be and make sure thatyou check all the boxes there. So
it's a very high pain industry.There's a shortage in a lot of the
areas. So there's real opportunities forour kids, there really is. And
luck I've looked over this project fromtop to bottom. It is impossible for
(23:52):
me to find a negative to this. I don't think we would ever have
this opportunity again. I think it'ssomething that you know, there's certain times
in life where you have the rightpeople in the right place at the right
time, and something happens that's reallydifficult to achieve. I see that with
this project. Y'all have done justa phenomenal job on it. Now you
(24:17):
got the two hundred and forty twoacres draining studies are all done. I
would imagine by now, the layoutplans, all these sorts of things,
you've even designed the build out forit already. So what's the estimating time
to completion? I guess you couldsay, do you have an estimated time
that, hey, we're gonna haveplanes on the ground at this point.
(24:40):
Wow, that's the loaded question,right. You know, everything takes time
and that's the answer to every questionout there's time and money. I will
tell you this where we are andwhat we're anticipating, at least in the
short run. So we have begunadvertising for our our civil construction, our
clearing of the land or grubbing.We're going to be moving dirt, We're
(25:03):
going to be creating drainage, retentionand proper drainage, creating, if you
will, the foundations for the infrastructurethat we'll be there, which mainly is
a runway and an apron. Sothat is being advertised right now. We're
anticipating getting those bids in June.We're anticipating getting the state to approve.
(25:26):
Everything that we do is not justapproved at a local level, it has
to be approved at the state levelas well, because that's where our funding
is from. Sure also understand thisdotd Aviation looks over our shoulders and make
sure that all of our plans arein line with what is expected by FAA
to make sure that we're in meetingFAA specs. So we're hoping that to
(25:48):
be approved July. We're hoping tostart some construction. You're going to see
some bulldozers and such out there lateJuly early August, so that'll be the
first thing, clearing out some land. We have money that's been awarded to
us also in Priority one funding throughthe state that will become reality and just
(26:11):
you know, maybe the next thirtysix seventy two hours, whatever it may
be, when they finalize this legislativesession, that money will go through a
bonding process. We anticipate that beinga couple of months. We're already beginning
to look at the scope of workand what we can do with that money,
and we are looking at probably contractingthat out and having that done in
(26:33):
place this fall, so that whenthe dollars are there and we've done the
beginning dirt work, that we canstart on the runway, and I'm anticipating
that we would probably start early twentytwenty five. We do have some other
funding, what I call in thevending machine that the state is understands that
they're giving us money. Now it'snot enough, we're going to need more,
(26:56):
but they're spacing it out because wecan't spend it all in one year,
so they're spacing that out. Soyou know, if all that funding
comes through, and we keep workingboth with dot D Aviation and with Facility
Planning on the type of funding.You know, we're very hopeful that we
could have a runway in place bytwenty twenty six. Wow. Wow,
(27:18):
And a long time in the makingit has been. But you know,
I cannot think of a better thingfor this parish. And you said it
earlier. Why not Livingston Parish?You know, let me let me say
this, Jim. I understand theremay be people out there that you don't
care about aviation, you don't wantto fly. I got it. There's
(27:41):
nothing wrong with that. But thisis there are going to be those who
love this because they may want tobe an aviation they're an aviator, they
may want to fly, they maywant to work on planes, they may
want to be in that career field. So for them this is an immediate
and has a direct impact. Formost of us out here don't have airplanes,
(28:03):
may not never care to fly.What you have to realize is this
is an economic engine for us.Yes, it's not about it's not about
right. It's not that we're gonnahave thousands and thousands of people flying airplanes.
It's that We're gonna create thousands andthousands of dollars in our economy.
That's paying for our schools, payingfor our roads, paying for things that
(28:26):
we do need. Yes, it'soffering great opportunities, and you may never
care about those opportunities, but inthe meantime, it's a revenue generating source
that is clean industry. It's ina very rural setting. We are not
impacting the schools, we are notimpacting the roads, and our return on
(28:48):
dollars invested. Oh, it's huge. It's huge. It's huge. It's
like I've told people, you maynot have an airplane, but I bet
you don't own a railcar or trainingeither. But we have a major rail
line that runs through this parish thatcontributes millions to our economy, our local
economy. It's a huge part ofour commerce. Absolutely, same thing with
(29:11):
this airport. You may never fly, you may never step foot on that
property, but it will generate opportunitiesfor this parish for years to come,
years to come, and it's along time coming. As we said,
one more question for you, whydo you do this? Why why you
(29:33):
know this scene? This is notI'm going to help my neighbor build a
fence. I mean, this issomething that has required a lot of you
and a lot of the people thathave assisted you. Why why do it?
You know when when I was firstasked, I looked at it because
I do fly, and I've goneto several general aviation airports and I've seen
(29:57):
the positive impacts that they have onthose communities, and I've seen the commerce
that goes through in the business,and I thought, wow, we need
that, we need that. Soyeah, why we stuck with it?
Because the potential is there, thepromise is there. You know, this
may this is going to be somethingthat helps my kids stay in Livingston Parish.
(30:21):
It's gonna help so my grandkids arehere one day. And that if
your grandkids want to fly or bea mechanic, or again, if they
want to have nothing to do withaviation, but they want to get a
job. Because those involved with aviationare buying it your business. They're buying
at your restaurant, they're buying atyour gas station, They're going to your
dry cleaner, they're buying it yourlocal nap up, all the parts.
(30:47):
It doesn't matter, it's we wantthe business here. I've heard people say,
well you can go to bat andreusion. You can go to Hammon.
Yeah, and your dollars go toand your dollars go to Hammon.
And when you do, when youwhen you follow that philosophy, make sure
you buy your lawnmowers from the homedepot in Baton Rouge, or from the
hardware store in Hammond. Go buygas over on Sherwood Forest or over in
the middle of Hammond. It's thesame philosophy. You can, but your
(31:11):
dollars follow what we want. Aredollars invested in this parish. This project
really is twofold for the aviation industryand for that community. We are supporting
the state aviation system. We're bringinga new airport on board that meets the
(31:32):
demand of aviation and strengthens the aviationservice for all the things we said,
emergency response, better transportation, whateverit may be. But really for Livingson
Parish, this is not really atransportation project. This is an economic development
project because for most of us,this has more to do about dollar staying
(31:53):
here than necessarily the convenience of travel. Yeah, I love it. I
love it, and it's a greatpoint. And you know what, people,
and we'll leave you with this whenyou have infrastructure issues that you're trying
to fix and certain things about yourcommunity that you're trying to fix. Relative
(32:15):
to that, it requires money,and those money can only be generated certain
ways. And one of those waysthat to me, is almost flawless.
I mean, it's it's hard tofind a negative. Is what you're doing
right now and what is going totake take fruition here in Livingston Parish born
(32:36):
someone for singing event uh And that'sa beautiful thing. And I thank you
for your hard work on it.I cannot imagine how hard that was.
You make it look easy, ButI know better. I know that behind
the scenes, and you know,I look at something like that and there's
red tape everywhere. The wheels ofgovernment turn, but they turn very very
slow, as we all know speedof government. You know, when you
(33:00):
can see the potential gym, it'snot hard. It really isn't, because
if you just look beyond the hill, you see the horizon and that's where
we are with this project. Ido want to say this, as we
have moved forward on this project,not at any time has this project ever
taken away from any other infrastructure projectin this parish. Never so much of
(33:24):
the funding for this is uniquely foraviation. It can only be spent for
aviation. And then, as Imentioned, this is more an economic investment
project than even a transportation project.When you look at the state, the
state looks at this and says,hey, this is something that benefits Livingstone,
(33:45):
not just Livingston. It benefits theI twelve quarter, It benefits the
entire region, and it benefits theLouisiana State Aviation system. So when they
have invested in US, they've investedUS in US as part of something even
bigger than US. Yeah, youknow, about generating a stronger economy for
(34:07):
this area. So again I thinkit's very important to know that. And
I think as as people really beginto see and learn about the potential,
you do you get excited, Youget excited, you really do, and
uh and you stick with it andyou stick with it and you do it's
right, that's right. And uhSo before we get out of here,
I do have one announcement upcoming isgoing to be inside l s U Ladies
(34:32):
Basketball with Jim Chapman and Dealey Taylor. So look for that. Well,
well we'll entertain you for hours talkingabout talking about them Lady Tires but thank
you for coming on and sharing thatwith us. Thank you for your service
and your hard work on this projectand many other projects. And of course
you're married to the one and onlyJeff Taylor, who who sits in here
(34:54):
often and also serves this community well, So thank you to both y'all and
to you for this. I appreciateyou coming on. Anytime you want to
come back, feel free. That'sit, and we'll definitely talk basketball,
Yes, definitely, And until nexttime, I'm Jim Chapman reminding you love
your community, support local business,and keep leading. Thanks
Hi, This is Lorie Johnson withHancock Whitney Bank and you're listening to Local
Leaders the Podcast. Visit Local leadersthepodcastdot com for previous episodes or for information
on peering on the show. Heyeverybody, and welcome back to another edition
of Local Leaders of the Podcast.And look, I have a lot of
(00:22):
leaders on this show, as y'allknow, but the woman sitting across from
me today is someone that I wouldsay not only is born and bred right
here in Livingston Parish, but shehas done a lot for this parish.
And one of those things we're goingto talk about in detail today, and
that is the Livingston Executive Airports.So, first of all, welcome is
(00:46):
Dillia Taylor to Local Leaders of Podcast. Thank you, Jim. I appreciate
that. You know, y'all wevisited a little bit before this show just
now, and I can't believe thisis the first time we've had a good
opportunity to sit down and talk fora few minutes because I've watched as this
lady has done so many great thingsfor the parish, the Livingston Executive Airport,
(01:07):
so we're going to give you informationon that today, talk about some
facts with you, and hopefully ifsome of you out there are not up
to speed on the advantages of thatand what's going on with it, where
are we at with it, we'llbe able to clarify those things. But
before we do, I want topat her on the back a little bit
and just give you a little bitof information on her background. She is
(01:30):
born and bred right here in LivingstonParish, lived out in Livingston area,
Big Doyle High Gride, Go DoyleTigers Fighting Tigers. Yeah, there you
go, and you left there.You went to LSU and you actually played
for the Lady Tigers. I did. I did. Yeah, And that
was from maybe four to eighty sixElite eight. Didn't they make it to
(01:52):
the elite We did, and wemade it to the Elite eight. This
was before they really structured the regionalplay like they do now. We happened.
They happened to put LSU, Georgia, Tennessee, and Iowa together in
Iowa, so basically we knocked eachother out, but we lost to Tennessee
(02:13):
by two points and missed the finalfour by two points. Had had summit,
had had summit. Gosh, shewas so good and you played for
what Coach Sue Gunner. Yeah,another again Hall of Fame, Nay Smith
Hall of Famer. You know coachGunner's statistics. Uh, if you ever
have a chance to visit that museum, they'll have an asterisk by her name
(02:37):
because they know she has more winsthan what's recorded because she coached at a
time when women's basketball was not onthe radar, if you will, it
was not recorded. So she shewas a pioneer for the sport. She
really moved it forward for a lotof young ladies to be able to play
today and man to think about whereit was then and now we have the
(02:59):
Caitlin Clark and the Angel Reesis oftoday, and it's it's we've come a
long way, baby, a longway. And so you have undertaken something
for quite a while with a board, and that is this airport. And
I guess maybe first where we canstart is how did this come to fruition?
(03:22):
When was it first kind of talkedabout? And how did it build
into what it is now? Sure? Well, the council created the Livingson
Parish Airport District in twenty sixteen andthat's when I was appointed along with the
other board members. But the conceptand the effort to bring an airport to
livings And started well beyond that.You really should back up as far as
(03:43):
maybe two thousand and four when youhad some local business guys and others who
were looking at could we bring anairport here? Where would we do it?
How could we do this? Andthey began the discussion that led eventually
into some funding around twenty ten,two thousand and eleven. Senator Dale Erdie
was at the legislature at that time. He was able to secure some money
(04:05):
then to do an initial master planand to determine if Livingson could be a
site for a general aviation airport.And so that study was done and they
actually looked at three sites. TheFAA or no one wants you to just
pick one site they want you tosee or their other alternatives. Do you
(04:25):
really have the best option here?And at the time they chose three sites
that they looked at. One wasa little farther north, closer to what
is now where Ligo is, andbecause of that research facility, that was
not a good location. The secondlocation was north of the interstate, again
just kind of north of Satsumo inthe Walker area. It was too close
(04:48):
to the waste management site to thesanitation landfill, and a lot of sanitation
landfills draw birds and bird strikes arevery serious issues in aviation. Now it's
my understanding that waste management uses sometechniques to minimize that, but you know,
the FAA was still saying, no, it's not going to work.
So then that meant the third sitethat they were looking at, and that
(05:11):
was south of the interstate in theSatsuma area, and so they determined that
that was a great location, veryrural in not a lot of houses there
and again a good location. Andat the time, Warehouser owned that property,
and a lot of us are veryfrom the area know about Warehouser.
They managed a lot of forest timberlandfor years throughout that area and that was
(05:34):
a very active site. They werecultivating it for profit at the time.
So again what I'm trying to sayis that property had value. And so
when they looked at that side andtried to determine well we could put an
airport there, it had a pricetag on it and Warehouser was not given
it away, and the Paris didnot have the money to buy the land.
(05:55):
So then twenty eleven comes, itgoes, the study comes, it
goes, it sits right until twentysixteen. What happens in twenty sixteen before
the flood, By the way,mister Gary lewis a developer, very very
wealthy, very good businessman, broughtup a lot of property in that area
(06:15):
and he began to hear the rumorsand whatnot that hey, Livingston's looking at
wanting to put an airport out there, and began talking to our leaders at
that time. Conversations sprung up,Hey, mister Gary, do you think
you might would give us some landfor that? Well he said yeah,
wow. And you know, wewere very fortunate that not only it's huge,
(06:36):
not only a developer and a businessmanand capable of giving that type of
donation, but he was an aviatorin the war and still loves to fly
today, so he had a lovefor the industry. And so then there
we are, and that's when thecouncil created the Livingston Parish Airport District and
(06:57):
said, hey, we think misterGary will give you some land, go
figure it out. And that's howwe started. There. You go and
look, no easy task. Nowyou have the land, but you've got
to implement a lot of things alongthe way, and I guess before we
go any further, maybe let's explainwhat the difference is between a general aviation
airport and Baton ridgees Metro. Sure, because most of us are not familiar
(07:21):
with general aviation airports. If wefly we're going to Baton Rouge, New
Orleans certainly going through it, Atlanta, Dallas, that sort of thing.
So we're very familiar with the largerairports. That is not what this is
going to be. It is ageneral aviation airport. The technical description would
be this that we would not havescheduled flights. Again, think about it.
(07:43):
You pull up a schedule online andyou book your flight. They have
them at ten am, at noon, whatever time it may be. You're
able to book a scheduled flight eachday of the week, however it may
work. GA airports do not havescheduled flight service. That doesn't mean they
don't have services for hire. Youcould hire a charter flight or something like
(08:03):
that, but they do not havescheduled air flights. The other thing is
we don't have the big guys.So the airports again that we're familiar with,
the Baton Rouges and the New Orleanshave the larger seven forty sevens and
those type of aircraft and large cargoaircraft and large military aircraft. We're in
the middle. We have the singleprop single engine planes, we have the
(08:26):
twin engines, and we do havesome corporate jets sixteen seaters if you will,
the King Jet King air jets.So we're in the middle, and
we obviously could reach down to theeven smaller if we needed to. But
the little guys who tend to dothe experimental type stuff, they try to
(08:46):
even get off on a grass rightaway and get away from everybody. Yeah,
there you go, and so thathopefully that'll answer some questions there.
Now, we're one of only twopair of shoes, I believe it is
that don't have an air That's right, it's just us in Sant Helena.
Not only are we one of onlytwo, we're the fastest growing parish for
(09:09):
how many years? The last twentyyears, the last twenty years, so
exactly. So it's not just thatwe're in this unfortunate category with just two
parishes, but when you look atthe fact that we have been the fastest
growing now for twenty years, it'salmost absurd to think that we do not
(09:31):
have this leg of transportation when youlook at land based multimodal transportation that we
need for commerce. First of all, roads we have to have that.
We know we don't have sufficient infrastructurethere that that needs to be proved.
Rail we have a major rail linethat runs through us that contributes tons of
(09:54):
money to our commerce, but we'remissing air and we need that. Obviously,
other communities further south of here wouldhave ports. In fact, we
do have, you know when youstart to get out toward Portmanchak, which
is actually in tangible hoe huge,huge industry, a lot of commerce for
that parish. We don't have thataccess, but we do have potential for
(10:16):
obviously road, rail and air.Yeah, and you brought up growth and
we are. We're the fastest growingparish in the state and have been for
quite a while. But let's talkabout growth for a second. Because one
thing interesting about this particular project andanother project pick your project, but may
(10:39):
have the same economic impact, isthat this doesn't have the impact on the
infrastructure or the schools that those otherprograms might have. You're exactly right.
Really, for us as a parish, this is a win win project.
We don't have the downside that whenwe bring this industry, we're not going
(11:00):
to negatively impact our school system.No impact on our school system. We're
not even going to negatively impact ourroadway. Think about what we're saying here.
When we are bringing some other businessesand industry here, we still have
to get to them via road.That's not the case here. We're talking
about air travel, so we don'thave that level of negative impact. I
(11:24):
think the other thing we need torealize is this is a clean industry.
We're not talking again about another wastemanagement or a polluter of that sort.
We're talking about a clean industry herethat does not have an impact on our
any rooftops. We're not bringing therooftops here. We're not impacting the road.
(11:45):
We do not have a noise impact. We've done noise studies and that
information has been provided through public meetings. But when you look at the bell
curve and you look at the layoutof the noise, it really doesn't leave
our property. You would have tobe standing on the edge of the airport
property to hear it, and it'sgoing to sound like a lawnmower for maybe
(12:05):
ten seconds. During takeoff of alarger plane, that's it. That's it,
and that that's really hard to beat. Now, just to get into
the economic impact, one thing thatI found interesting when I was looking at
the stats that you supplied at theLivingston Chamber meeting was that for every dollar
(12:26):
spent, you're getting back two dollarsand fifty three cents in economic impact money.
So basically that you know, peoplethink about it this way, for
every one hundred thousand dollars out,you're getting two hundred and fifty three thousand
dollars back. If anybody would wantto borrow that from me right now,
get me back two hundred and fiftythree grand, you got it. Yeah,
(12:46):
I would love those odds and thoseYes, I mean that's a great
investment. Yes, and it isa beautiful thing for our economy in my
opinion. Now, another thing withthe economic impact is obviously what is it
going to bring in the in theway of jobs and things of that nature.
The state has looked at the averagefor general aviation airports and the numbers
(13:07):
jump out pretty considerably. I thinkwe talked about it earlier as much as
of well over fifteen million dollar impacteven for some of the smaller airport.
So the jobs that we're talking about. You certainly have those direct jobs that
would be pilots themselves, instructors,aviation instructors, mechanics, any type of
(13:30):
service avionics, those that have todeal with all the instruments that are now
in planes. You know. Thenbeyond that you have delivering clients, transporting
goods, you know, moving anytype of clientele. You have that service.
But then we have the extended services, right, the indirect services that
go beyond just immediately impacting aviation.It's how others benefit from having an airport.
(13:58):
I think the best example is whenI found out the last airport that
was built in Louisiana was Louisiana Regional. That's the one in Gonzales. And
when they were building and there's goingto be almost forty years has passed before
a new airport is going to be, which will be out of course,
but one of the first people toland at that airport, mister Tanger.
(14:20):
Does that name ring about? Okay? So when mister Tanger was trying to
decide where he was going to puthis next outlet mall, he wanted to
have an area where he could flyin, check on his investment, manage
his property, manage his employees,and then get back to wherever home is.
So you and I don't need anairport to go to the Tanger Outlet
(14:43):
mall. That is an indirect impactbecause the investor wanted it, the investor
needed it. Now, think aboutthe jobs that were created there indirectly because
aviation provided an added amenity for thatarea to attract that investor, and the
(15:03):
sales tax dollars and all those thingsthat go along with it. Well,
and if you know Jim, atthat chamber meeting, you had the mayor
of livingson stand up. He hadbeen working several years with a water bottling
company. They had whittled down theirsite selection to two sites and Livingston was
one of those. Yeah, welost because we don't have an airport,
(15:24):
because they went to Robert, Louisianabecause it's near that Hammond airport. Yeah.
Yeah, that's another reason in something. I know that it's the average
person they look at that and theysay, maybe I don't have a plane
or you know, I don't havea need for that, but these executives
do. And with those executives cameopportunity and also another thing that people may
(15:46):
not be considering is the advantages todisaster response and things of that nature,
law enforcement, emergency services. Anairport makes all it could make all the
difference in the world in a lifesaving situation. Well, definitely. I
think too many of us still rememberthe flood of twenty sixteen and the town
(16:08):
of Livison in that area was anisland at the time. We were flooding
from the am, we were floodingfrom the Tangibajo. You couldn't get to
us. I mean we were stuck. That property where the airport's going to
be was above ground in twenty sixteen. That says volumes right there. But
to be able to bring in emergencyresponse in a situation like that, you
(16:29):
had delay getting goods and getting servicesand getting just foot soldiers on the ground
excuse me, yeah, in becauseyou had to wait for water to recede
in certain areas well. If youcan bring them in via air and get
them into the center of your parishand then disperse out from that, obviously
that speaks volumes. But then dayto day I don't think people realize how
much our rivers are patrolled by ourlaw enforcement, by wildlife and fisheries,
(16:56):
and how there are responses that haveto take place there. You're talking about
a thirty minute difference to get fromBaton Rouge to Lake Marpaul, say,
from Livingston to get to Lake Marpauland the waters here. You know,
we're very fortunate that our sheriff doeshave a helicopter and is able to make
those type responses, but even afixed wing airplane decreases the cost for them
(17:19):
and can be just as efficient inmonitoring again in an emergency, even monitoring
escape or a flight where you havea car chase or something. So aviation
can be used in a lot ofways for that that we certainly see as
a huge benefit down the road.Yeah, you serve on a board.
(17:41):
Tell us about the board. Howhas the process came along as far as
the challenges are concerned. I guessI'm trying to say so. The board
was created in twenty sixteen. Thereare nine members. The members are appointed
by there I think four are appointedby the council. There's one by the
(18:03):
parish president. I'm actually the parishPresident's appointee. Then there's someone from the
Sheriff's office, someone from Fire Districtfour, uh, and then our state
rep and our state senator have appointments, so those are the nine appointees.
That's who makes the appointments, andthen they serve in stagger terms. So
that's how we came to be.Are they volunteer? Oh, total,
(18:25):
totally volunteer. Nothing's paid at all. That's a lot of work. So
you got to love your parents tobe doing that. Yeah, you know
again, I think if I'd havereally known what the magnitude of this task
back in sixteen, I probably wouldn'thave signed on. Thank god you did.
But it's just one of those thingsthat, as I know, we've
(18:49):
gotten involved and we see the potentialand we see what's happening elsewhere, we're
like, we gotta have this.This, this is this is too good
not to have for Livingston. Andevery time we visit somewhere and we're like,
why not Livingston? Why not us? We deserve to have tax dollars
(19:11):
invested in our paris. We deserveto have airline fees reinvested in our parish.
We deserve to have investors come intoour parish and create good paying jobs
for our kids. We need newcareer opportunities for our kids. So why
(19:33):
not Livingston? Why not Livingston?And one hundred percent with you on that.
And you brought up career opportunities andthere are a lot in that industry.
And look shout out to Live OakHigh School who has an aviation program
at their STEM center. I believethat's right, and Walker, I know,
is planning on some opportunities. SoutheasternLivingston's what's right next to them.
(19:56):
Yeah, they're literacy technologies there,but they you also have the north Shore
Technical College right there. So youknow, that's one of the things we've
realized is when the education community isstarting to invest in certain careers, it's
because they're looking at trends and they'relooking at opportunities, and they're wanting their
students to be able to leave theircampus and start something even better. Right.
(20:18):
So, Live Oak has already openeda STEM center there and aviation is
a huge part of it. Theywould have sixty kids enrolled in the aviation
curriculum. We've been talking to Walkerabout providing an actual pilot school. Could
these kids can go through their entireground school as a course and then maybe
(20:42):
working their extra hours to take someflight time and get their pilot certification.
At the same time, we've gotnorth Shore Technical colleges talk to our legislative
leaders about adding an aviation curriculum thereas we open our airport. We know
that Batonrouge Community College has an aviationmechanics curriculum that is at the campus just
(21:07):
north of Central, closer to BakerIf you go up above Lovett Road,
that's where it's located. And I'mgoing to tell you a hidden treasure nationally
is Louising Attach. They have anoutstanding aviation engineering program that's one of the
best in the country. So wehave the educational resources within arms reach.
Yes, we just need the facilitynow to take full advantage of that.
(21:30):
I agree one hundred percent. Youknow, my dream for this parish for
as long as I can remember,was I wanted to see Livingston Parish get
away from a bedroom community and beto where you not only live in Livingston
Parish, but you work there,you sleep there, you play there,
and all those sorts of things andthese type of projects enable that to be
(21:56):
a possibility. Hey, if youwant to be in an airport mechanic,
you can work right here in theLivingston Parish at that airport and that could
be your job, and you canlive here and you can spend all your
time here and not have to crossthat bridge. That's a beautiful thing.
And another little fun fact here thatI picked up doing some research on this
(22:18):
is the number one job in theUnited States for non four year degree people.
So if you had a two yeardegree, for example, an associate's
degree is air traffic controller the entireUnited States one hundred and thirty four thousand
dollars a year starting pay. Sonot only is the aviation industry something that
(22:41):
is adventatious from a standpoint of taxdollars and things like that that you get
coming in, but it's also adventatiousas careers for people and options, you
know. And if you're in theaviation industry, it's because you love it.
You love to fly, or youlove to work on planes and things
like that. To give our peoplean opportunity to do that, and typically
(23:03):
we find that careers within that fieldare high pain. Why because it's serious.
Let's be honest. If the mechanic, not that the mechanic on your
car is not expensive as well,at least mine are. But yeah,
if the car breaks down, somebodycan come pick you up over on airline,
highway or wherever. It is thatyou are that doesn't work in airplanes.
(23:26):
Okay, we know how serious thathas to be and how good you
have to be and make sure thatyou check all the boxes there. So
it's a very high pain industry.There's a shortage in a lot of the
areas. So there's real opportunities forour kids, there really is. And
luck I've looked over this project fromtop to bottom. It is impossible for
(23:52):
me to find a negative to this. I don't think we would ever have
this opportunity again. I think it'ssomething that you know, there's certain times
in life where you have the rightpeople in the right place at the right
time, and something happens that's reallydifficult to achieve. I see that with
this project. Y'all have done justa phenomenal job on it. Now you
(24:17):
got the two hundred and forty twoacres draining studies are all done. I
would imagine by now, the layoutplans, all these sorts of things,
you've even designed the build out forit already. So what's the estimating time
to completion? I guess you couldsay, do you have an estimated time
that, hey, we're gonna haveplanes on the ground at this point.
(24:40):
Wow, that's the loaded question,right. You know, everything takes time
and that's the answer to every questionout there's time and money. I will
tell you this where we are andwhat we're anticipating, at least in the
short run. So we have begunadvertising for our our civil construction, our
clearing of the land or grubbing.We're going to be moving dirt, We're
(25:03):
going to be creating drainage, retentionand proper drainage, creating, if you
will, the foundations for the infrastructurethat we'll be there, which mainly is
a runway and an apron. Sothat is being advertised right now. We're
anticipating getting those bids in June.We're anticipating getting the state to approve.
(25:26):
Everything that we do is not justapproved at a local level, it has
to be approved at the state levelas well, because that's where our funding
is from. Sure also understand thisdotd Aviation looks over our shoulders and make
sure that all of our plans arein line with what is expected by FAA
to make sure that we're in meetingFAA specs. So we're hoping that to
(25:48):
be approved July. We're hoping tostart some construction. You're going to see
some bulldozers and such out there lateJuly early August, so that'll be the
first thing, clearing out some land. We have money that's been awarded to
us also in Priority one funding throughthe state that will become reality and just
(26:11):
you know, maybe the next thirtysix seventy two hours, whatever it may
be, when they finalize this legislativesession, that money will go through a
bonding process. We anticipate that beinga couple of months. We're already beginning
to look at the scope of workand what we can do with that money,
and we are looking at probably contractingthat out and having that done in
(26:33):
place this fall, so that whenthe dollars are there and we've done the
beginning dirt work, that we canstart on the runway, and I'm anticipating
that we would probably start early twentytwenty five. We do have some other
funding, what I call in thevending machine that the state is understands that
they're giving us money. Now it'snot enough, we're going to need more,
(26:56):
but they're spacing it out because wecan't spend it all in one year,
so they're spacing that out. Soyou know, if all that funding
comes through, and we keep workingboth with dot D Aviation and with Facility
Planning on the type of funding.You know, we're very hopeful that we
could have a runway in place bytwenty twenty six. Wow. Wow,
(27:18):
And a long time in the makingit has been. But you know,
I cannot think of a better thingfor this parish. And you said it
earlier. Why not Livingston Parish?You know, let me let me say
this, Jim. I understand theremay be people out there that you don't
care about aviation, you don't wantto fly. I got it. There's
(27:41):
nothing wrong with that. But thisis there are going to be those who
love this because they may want tobe an aviation they're an aviator, they
may want to fly, they maywant to work on planes, they may
want to be in that career field. So for them this is an immediate
and has a direct impact. Formost of us out here don't have airplanes,
(28:03):
may not never care to fly.What you have to realize is this
is an economic engine for us.Yes, it's not about it's not about
right. It's not that we're gonnahave thousands and thousands of people flying airplanes.
It's that We're gonna create thousands andthousands of dollars in our economy.
That's paying for our schools, payingfor our roads, paying for things that
(28:26):
we do need. Yes, it'soffering great opportunities, and you may never
care about those opportunities, but inthe meantime, it's a revenue generating source
that is clean industry. It's ina very rural setting. We are not
impacting the schools, we are notimpacting the roads, and our return on
(28:48):
dollars invested. Oh, it's huge. It's huge. It's huge. It's
like I've told people, you maynot have an airplane, but I bet
you don't own a railcar or trainingeither. But we have a major rail
line that runs through this parish thatcontributes millions to our economy, our local
economy. It's a huge part ofour commerce. Absolutely, same thing with
(29:11):
this airport. You may never fly, you may never step foot on that
property, but it will generate opportunitiesfor this parish for years to come,
years to come, and it's along time coming. As we said,
one more question for you, whydo you do this? Why why you
(29:33):
know this scene? This is notI'm going to help my neighbor build a
fence. I mean, this issomething that has required a lot of you
and a lot of the people thathave assisted you. Why why do it?
You know when when I was firstasked, I looked at it because
I do fly, and I've goneto several general aviation airports and I've seen
(29:57):
the positive impacts that they have onthose communities, and I've seen the commerce
that goes through in the business,and I thought, wow, we need
that, we need that. Soyeah, why we stuck with it?
Because the potential is there, thepromise is there. You know, this
may this is going to be somethingthat helps my kids stay in Livingston Parish.
(30:21):
It's gonna help so my grandkids arehere one day. And that if
your grandkids want to fly or bea mechanic, or again, if they
want to have nothing to do withaviation, but they want to get a
job. Because those involved with aviationare buying it your business. They're buying
at your restaurant, they're buying atyour gas station, They're going to your
dry cleaner, they're buying it yourlocal nap up, all the parts.
(30:47):
It doesn't matter, it's we wantthe business here. I've heard people say,
well you can go to bat andreusion. You can go to Hammon.
Yeah, and your dollars go toand your dollars go to Hammon.
And when you do, when youwhen you follow that philosophy, make sure
you buy your lawnmowers from the homedepot in Baton Rouge, or from the
hardware store in Hammond. Go buygas over on Sherwood Forest or over in
the middle of Hammond. It's thesame philosophy. You can, but your
(31:11):
dollars follow what we want. Aredollars invested in this parish. This project
really is twofold for the aviation industryand for that community. We are supporting
the state aviation system. We're bringinga new airport on board that meets the
(31:32):
demand of aviation and strengthens the aviationservice for all the things we said,
emergency response, better transportation, whateverit may be. But really for Livingson
Parish, this is not really atransportation project. This is an economic development
project because for most of us,this has more to do about dollar staying
(31:53):
here than necessarily the convenience of travel. Yeah, I love it. I
love it, and it's a greatpoint. And you know what, people,
and we'll leave you with this whenyou have infrastructure issues that you're trying
to fix and certain things about yourcommunity that you're trying to fix. Relative
(32:15):
to that, it requires money,and those money can only be generated certain
ways. And one of those waysthat to me, is almost flawless.
I mean, it's it's hard tofind a negative. Is what you're doing
right now and what is going totake take fruition here in Livingston Parish born
(32:36):
someone for singing event uh And that'sa beautiful thing. And I thank you
for your hard work on it.I cannot imagine how hard that was.
You make it look easy, ButI know better. I know that behind
the scenes, and you know,I look at something like that and there's
red tape everywhere. The wheels ofgovernment turn, but they turn very very
slow, as we all know speedof government. You know, when you
(33:00):
can see the potential gym, it'snot hard. It really isn't, because
if you just look beyond the hill, you see the horizon and that's where
we are with this project. Ido want to say this, as we
have moved forward on this project,not at any time has this project ever
taken away from any other infrastructure projectin this parish. Never so much of
(33:24):
the funding for this is uniquely foraviation. It can only be spent for
aviation. And then, as Imentioned, this is more an economic investment
project than even a transportation project.When you look at the state, the
state looks at this and says,hey, this is something that benefits Livingstone,
(33:45):
not just Livingston. It benefits theI twelve quarter, It benefits the
entire region, and it benefits theLouisiana State Aviation system. So when they
have invested in US, they've investedUS in US as part of something even
bigger than US. Yeah, youknow, about generating a stronger economy for
(34:07):
this area. So again I thinkit's very important to know that. And
I think as as people really beginto see and learn about the potential,
you do you get excited, Youget excited, you really do, and
uh and you stick with it andyou stick with it and you do it's
right, that's right. And uhSo before we get out of here,
I do have one announcement upcoming isgoing to be inside l s U Ladies
(34:32):
Basketball with Jim Chapman and Dealey Taylor. So look for that. Well,
well we'll entertain you for hours talkingabout talking about them Lady Tires but thank
you for coming on and sharing thatwith us. Thank you for your service
and your hard work on this projectand many other projects. And of course
you're married to the one and onlyJeff Taylor, who who sits in here
(34:54):
often and also serves this community well, So thank you to both y'all and
to you for this. I appreciateyou coming on. Anytime you want to
come back, feel free. That'sit, and we'll definitely talk basketball,
Yes, definitely, And until nexttime, I'm Jim Chapman reminding you love
your community, support local business,and keep leading. Thanks
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