Episode 32 - Central Mayor Wade Evans Returns

Wade Evans, Mayor of the City of Central, joins Dave and Drew for his second visit to The Sadvocate Podcast. This episode covers the latest news out of Central, progress made over the last four years, the future of Main Street 2030, drainage improvements, the Sullivan widening project at Hooper, favorite Central restaurants, and the rumors only The Sadvocate would ask about.

Plus, listener texts bring the chaos with fighting for charity, Rev. Tony Spell, and library complaints.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:04

Welcome back to Savagate Podcast, Dave and Drew, episode 32. Dave Ripolo, a writer at the Savicate, is one of your hosts. I'm Drew Merle, St. George City Councilman, local attorney, and we welcome back the man, the myth, the legend.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

I survived.

SPEAKER_03 0:19

The only Tony Spinnell.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

No, that's on the wrong episode. That was the wrong evidence story. Wade Evans. I was talking about the T-bone.

SPEAKER_03 0:28

The only, the only so far, am I right? No, you're the second two-time guest. Jennifer Richard.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

Yeah, so you and Keith Tiger Town Beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

That's let me tell you, I love Jennifer, so I'm in good company.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

We had to have her here twice, as bad a shape as this place is in, but look how clean it is now.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

I am kind of impressed.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

She built this sunroom.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

We have a complete movie studio going on now. We got the green screen. I'm fixing to go do weather in just a minute.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

That's exactly right. You can do centrals only weather for. But we're still waiting on the Savague Studio at the new Central City Hall. I uh As promised.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

You know, I I do go and I have a spot for you. I have uh I like going on the TV. I do enjoy however if you ever go on the morning shows, all the weather ladies, you know, they all dress so nicely and and and and for the first few times I'm like, bro, every one of these girls had like a hurt knee because they wear this this thing on their knee. And finally I was like, hey, what what happened to your knee, man? Like every one of y'all are hurt. Oh, that's where we put our microphone batteries. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

They gotta hide it somewhere, and that's the one.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Well then we end up here in the first three minutes of the green, like the green screen brought back memories. Okay, because they're in front of a green screen.

SPEAKER_03 1:43

All right, so that's a little inside baseball. You now know. Yeah, yeah. Now it's made. She does not have a torn cartilage, she's hiding her microphone in her knee. Uh taped to her knee, probably. All right. Well, thank you, Wade. Appreciate that. So, Wade, you're back. Um, nothing going on in Central right now, peace and quiet.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Just quiet. I have, you know, we uh we we don't know what to do with ourselves.

SPEAKER_03 2:06

A lot of harmony out there.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Yeah. You know why why the harmony is there is because I got off of Facebook, man. That's why. I only go and look at the Savagate and then I get off.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

That's that's fair.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

That's me like however, your coverage of the most recent quiet events in Central has been brilliant. I uh I actually considered putting in the uh contract that we're gonna sign with the sheriff uh some language about the substation being utilized for that.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

In that way, that'd be great. I mean, you know, to to be fair, uh it's not very often that that your one of your major religious institutions uh has a fist fight in the street.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Yeah, I mean, and and and it gets videoed.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

U and and it's national news.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

And the man's form. This guy can fight. Well, I mean this dude was laying him in. Hands of God.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

I I mean, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna critique his fighting. Uh I will say uh it was a lot of licks and and both of them still walked away. But you know, uh Did we see the other guy walk away? Did he get up? Well, I mean, got away because there was photos of him at the hospital. Yeah, they yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

Once he realized he could he could go to the hospital and take some photos there, he went to the hospital and took some photos. That's a bad intersection, huh? Blackwater and Hooper.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

That's just been a rough intersection.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Now I want to thank the guy uh because of the cameras that are very good cameras. Uh we had access of those. Oh, was that his cameras? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Which showed that I, in fact, did not run the red light. Yeah. Uh and the other driver, not only did he run the red light, he never hit his brakes.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Never slowed down. No. So is there any thought from Central about blocking off that section of roadway? Bad intersection. Clearly, there's some issues.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

I I would like to put a roundabout there. Oh, I love roundabouts.

SPEAKER_02 3:52

Love roundabouts. It'd be a good location for one. Plenty of room.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Yeah, plenty of room. Yeah. Yeah. I hate to if we had to buy it, I mean, he could probably name his price because I would not want to go into him and we'll have a disagreement with him. No.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

No, it wouldn't turn out. For a lot of reasons, you wouldn't want to do that. Um, and and he's got a go fund me now, so he's gonna have an endless supply of funding. Does he? There's a go fund me for the defense, legal defense.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Look, is there a number? I will go on record for the Savagut audience. And those people who are listening who think this is real, my real statement for this is it's a very unfortunate situation. Back to our regularly scheduled program.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

The official official statement is all right. Let's start the recording now. And we're on. Good. Hey, if we were real news, he could go off the record.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Yeah. But we're not. That's right. Well, we're real fake news. Real fake news. Yeah, I'm totally not this way in real life.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

That's great. So look, honestly, you saw you saw the Reverend Pastor. What is the pastor? You saw the pastor fight, right? Do you honestly think you could take him? If he came across the street. Yes. Let's say he was standing across, let's say he was standing across Sullivan, looking at all the construction going on since like 1940, and you had words and he started running over there to where you think you could take the guy?

SPEAKER_00 5:07

I'd have probably met him halfway. Oh, fighting like are there rules for this fight? You know, uh we do it like street fight. Okay, so if we do set up a rules, you could pull an ear and we do set up a Titan Combat Championship ring at City Hall. I mean, I think we'll obviously have rules.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

One, I think that's overdue. Two, I'm not sure Tony Spell would be the person you're fighting. Well, I think Tony's fight's already lined up.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Well, there's plenty of noise on Facebook. I'm sure there are people, you know, I I would like the opportunity if they wanted to.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

I think he's gotten all the publicity he needs for the rest of the year.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Yeah, he's got some stuff he's got to deal with before he can get into anything else.

SPEAKER_03 5:44

Yeah, but it could be a good way for him to generate funds for that legal defense would be a possible.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

I mean, the chip. Speed up the mayor?

SPEAKER_03 5:52

Three rounds, five leagues.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

The police chief did an interview with Access Hollywood, so I know he's a number to a producer.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

So I mean, so now at this point, we got to figure Roger's gonna leave his role as central police chief and move to Hollywood for whatever possibilities are out there.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Consulting in the movies. I feel like he's moving in the consulting.

SPEAKER_03 6:11

Maybe if there's a smokey in the band at four or five, he could he could absolutely he likes old cars, so he it may be a thing for him. He go out there and advised, you know, this is what sheriffs in in small towns act like. This is what you gotta do.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

On the record, Chief, I'm not taking any shots at you. This is a fake news podcast.

unknown 6:29

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

He doesn't listen. All the disclaimers. He doesn't listen. But I tell you what, I did see his opponent or one of his opponents, he's only got one, right? He's got two. One of them jumped on the bandwagon and made a video um right after the Tony Spillant about what allegedly the calls or whatnot didn't get answered or not documented. And man, it got a lot of traction.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Well, look, I I'm gonna tell you, I uh it's a very unfortunate situation, is what I would say.

SPEAKER_03 7:00

Very good.

SPEAKER_00 7:01

And and that's you know, the most um I'm gonna delve into that. You know, I have I have a very strong uh belief system when it comes to uh God's word and uh also and uh how we should behave and what we should do. And I don't get it right all the time, but I think there's enough blame to go around for this situation, unfortunately. You know, and it I'm saying this in all seriousness, it's a it's a troubling situation. I'm troubled in many ways because of the response you see on social media. You know, there's those that glorify it. I mean, I've seen preachers, you know, say it's okay, and it's like, whoa, where are we at?

SPEAKER_02 7:37

We have had no shortage of pastors and men of the cloth from all over the country chiming in and messaging us for those articles we changed.

SPEAKER_03 7:47

Let's look at the positives real quick. So, in my standpoint, I think, you know, all those times where I thought I could be a preacher, I can give a sermon, but I'm not really a preacher-like person. I have a lot of flaws. I would not be able to do this job. And now, this week, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Well, you look, you can just be like me. I'm a sinner and I share the gospel, though, because God is so clear.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

You didn't say I was perfect, I'm flawed too. So wait.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Most preachers are human, and so that's why I can understand the human element of this. Uh, you know, that's that's the hard part.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

So if if what if what he alleged was said about his family, yeah. A lot of people are like, I don't care what line of work I'm in, I'm going across that street.

SPEAKER_03 8:28

Yeah. This goes back to the the guy who who shot the uh guy on Father's Day. Uh that we always see the Father's Day. Yeah. It kind of goes back to that. If that is the situation, we understand. Maybe, maybe not the reaction we might have had, maybe it is. We definitely understand it. I get it. If I hear some of that stuff, but again, and I'm not leading a church of any kind. Right. Uh, but now I know I can. Maybe Wade, that's our first collaboration with St. Georgian Central, is we could form our own church.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Well, and it's tax exempt.

SPEAKER_03 8:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

I mean I've I've been seeing shorts about the religion business on uh Instagram. I spent a lot of time on Insta and face and uh and TikTok now that I don't Facebook.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Yeah, way better. Yeah, you know some you can do some dances like well it's easier not to read comments either.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

You gotta click an extra button to read the comments. That's right. I can I like I can dance a little bit. Um I'm kind of like that old fat Joe, you know. I I I don't dance, I lean.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

Is that is that part is that part of the uh the re-election campaign of some TikTok videos?

SPEAKER_00 9:28

Well, you know, I have I do have a banjo that I play badly, and uh we may do a little strumming.

SPEAKER_03 9:34

I think I think you uh uh assinuated you might play it shirtless at a meeting at some point.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Well, I've done that for the police chief at St. George just for his own enjoyment. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 9:42

Excellent, excellent. Just you two? Or was there somebody else?

SPEAKER_00 9:44

There's multiple people there.

SPEAKER_03 9:45

I say, do we need to follow up on that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 9:47

As I was changing shirts, he was the only one that could see me. I'm like, well, you know, just grab the banjo and put on a show.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Well, straight out of deliverance. Yeah, exactly right. You don't have to be in the mountains. So you are you are rerunning right now.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

I am in fact running for mayor of Central. Uh I'd like four more years because I think it's important. You know, we we spent the first two developing systems and implementing them. And uh the last two have been wonderful. We've done more work than any administration before us. And matter of fact, all if you take the amount of road work we've done, we've done more than all administrations combined. Uh more drainage work than all administrations combined. So there's no real reason not to give us four more years. Uh, you know, some people let personalities get in the way, but I'm often reminded that at the bake sale at church, somebody says the cake's too sweet. And so I may not be everybody's cup of tea, but as as the job goes, if somebody can do it better, then they can have it, and I'll go off and make money.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

Anybody else um challenging? Any any challenges?

SPEAKER_00 10:48

I have a challenger. Do you? I have a challenger.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

And when's qualifying end?

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Uh it starts in August, and I think it's third through the fifth. Third through the fifth. So, and it's right when the LMA convention is in Monroe, and so I'll have to I'll have to do an affidavit to get somebody to go go for me because I'm on the executive board of the LMA, so I gotta be there. You gotta be there. But I think you know it's uh it's a good time. My opponent, he's already started campaigning and he's put out some push cards, and I was a bit intrigued because his first priority is education.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

And uh did you break it to him yet that the mayors don't handle education?

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Well, I was gonna let him go out and work on it a little bit and flesh it out a bit.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

Yeah, is the second priority or the interstates or is it no, it was roads and drainage.

SPEAKER_00 11:34

And and look, if you see the people in central, I mean if we fix more roads at one time, good gracious, they would be mad.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

Hey, U.S. Post Office. He can he can campaign on the post office. Yeah, fixing that'd be great.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Getting one zip code for central.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

That'd be good. You don't have oh Greenwald Spring says seven episodes.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Five zip codes.

SPEAKER_03 11:54

Okay, consolidate y'all into one happy zip code.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Yeah, yeah, one big 62.8 square mile postal area.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

So hit hit some of the highlights. What what have you tell me exactly what you've done in the last few years?

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Well, I mean we've we only have an hour here. Yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, uh that's very true. I don't know how long the show is, but you know, you can take it uh so obviously the high level is is roads drainage, uh investing our money properly, managing our assets properly, getting City Hall built. Uh but if you dive down deeper into the roads, I mean we developed a pavement management plan. Uh we've systematically gone through and changed roads without politics being involved. Uh we've become so intentional with that and working with our contractors. Uh our per mile cost is lower than anybody in the region. Well, there's now a plan for what's going on.

SPEAKER_03 12:43

I think a lot of times when I look at uh other cities in our area and I go, why why do they keep doing that? And they don't know.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Yeah, and so our plan, I mean, we have a management plan and it bases off the number of you know, number of travelers, uh potholes responded to, pavement condition analysis, all these things, these metrics, instead of I want my roads done. It doesn't work like that in central. We want to do it based on data, not feelings. Uh, we've we've done some tremendous work in public works and how we do public works. And look, St. George is going to benefit from from the things we learned.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

That's exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

And in my administration, we no longer wait on the phone to ring, we are intentional with what we do. And so that increases quality of life because it's it used to be very difficult to get in touch with your government. Now it's pretty easy, but you you still there's a mindset government's not doing their job, and we still have residents shocked when we show up to just inspect the area to create work orders to fix the area. They're like, I didn't even call.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

Well, they're used to to having to bench and complain about it repeatedly and pray someone actually shows up.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

When you're proactive, it's a little uh Yeah, so that's and so developing a proactive approach to public works is something we've done. Uh as it relates to flood mitigation and uh flooding and development in floodplains, we've we've been trendsetters uh in that area, which we've developed technology that is now being utilized across the region uh with our off-site drainage tools and the analysis we do. Uh it gives our citizens uh more comfort. You know, look the the number one things people say when you go to develop something that's flooding. I can't promise you anything in this world, but I can tell you we've we have beat uh that horse to death. And the way we structure our laws in this administration is if you improve a piece of property, you can't help but make the watershed better because the way the law is written. In other words, you it undeveloped property just does what it does. But when it's developed the way we require you to develop it, it actually catches all the water and holds the water for a longer period of time than it would have originally ran off. And so there's this misunderstanding, and I met with the team last week about creating some educational videos utilizing AI to do that to help people understand the watershed and understand what you know you can you can go and clean bayous, but if you don't increase their capacity in some form or fashion, you're gonna get water in your yard and significant rain events. It doesn't mean we're not doing our job. When you dig a ditch, it gives the the ditch more capacity, which keeps the water from being so much in your yard. But over time things change. They silt in, they have allowed culverts to be installed in ditches that shouldn't have had culverts. You've had culverts that were put in that were 12 inches when the the original ditch was three foot by three foot. You know, so all these capacity concerns, and you have to help people understand that. And so the educational part of it, we did it, we do a bi-annual drainage summit at City Hall where we showcase all the new things we've done and all the work and all the new technology. So we just try to be transparent and out in the public and accessible. I mean, I put my cell phone number on Facebook, it's 225-413-6473 for the podcast listeners.

SPEAKER_03 16:11

That's excellent.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

If they got a problem in St. George or Baton Rouge or anywhere else, I mean, look, I I can't fix it, but I know people.

SPEAKER_03 16:18

Yeah, if you have issues in St. George, please call Wade's cell phone number and let him know. That'd be correct.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

He's probably got a key card to the new headquarters.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Everybody has key cards, some of them work, some of them don't.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

That's right. I don't have anything. I don't have none. You don't have new central city hall. I never got one.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

You know, it was weren't we supposed to get one? Yeah. We were. We mailed him out. I don't know what happened. Oh man.

SPEAKER_03 16:39

I we'll check on that.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

Speaking of post office.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 16:42

I would tell you, Rapolo, I you know, I was so enamored that he was in Central at CC's on a Friday that I stopped everything to go see him.

SPEAKER_03 16:51

Well, that's the secret of being a writer for the Savicate, is you really do have infinite free time to go to Central and go travel around and do it.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

You've got to follow the story. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 17:00

I mean, you're always on the beat.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Yeah. I went up there to see if the Sullivan Road project was still going. It's still going.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Yeah, it's still going.

SPEAKER_03 17:06

It's just in the project's still going.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I look forward to doing a live remote when it's completed.

SPEAKER_02 17:12

Well, we we threatened to do one for the middle of the next is your next term gonna be 16 years?

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Well, I'm hoping. At some point, I gotta go back and make money again, guys.

SPEAKER_03 17:23

I mean how many terms can you have in Central?

SPEAKER_00 17:25

You can have three.

SPEAKER_03 17:26

Three? Okay. So you'll definitely not be done by the time that pro you'll be done before that project.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, no, look, that project is uh is as many jokes and laughs as we've had about it. It's almost finished.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

So continue to find almost.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

August.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

Of what year?

SPEAKER_00 17:41

Hopefully this year.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Really?

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Well, we need to have a party out there.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

We were gonna bring a second line up from New Orleans because similar to how they do funerals, because they're gonna retire equipment that's been on site for 15 years.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

They have antique equipment.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Yeah, they used to dig dirt pits and they'd leave the old drag line in the in the hole. Like heads, but hell, we didn't leave a ramp. We gotta go.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

But mayor, let's clarify something about Sullivan and Hooper. When you say the project will be completed, are you talking about the Sullivan Widening project?

SPEAKER_00 18:15

The Sullivan Widening project.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

I understand there's another project going on out there.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

That was one of the things that Secretary Leday and I talked about is uh staging and and and uh scoping and scheduling of projects because they're gonna complete the Sullivan Widening and the intersection improvements associated with the Sullivan Widening. But and then we're gonna come in and do some more construction.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

And it's called a traffic circle.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

I call it a statue location. Uh it's it's disguised as a traffic circle, but I'm building them everywhere to put statues in.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

See? That's why I like Wade so much. We have one. What the statue is gonna be of.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

It's gonna be me.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

It's Wade on that shirtless.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

Not the little the little cats at the Chinese restaurant, the little electric cat. It's gonna be me with my arm going in a circle.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

It's Wade on a horse.

unknown 19:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:07

Well, that meme is surely coming. But I want to ask you, is are you building a legit traffic circle?

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Yes, two lanes with bypass.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Okay. And that's gonna start when the this construction job ends.

SPEAKER_03 19:17

And you're right. People who think they have to look like crap are used to municipalities who didn't budget to maintain them properly. Yes. But you can actually make them an attractive feature whereas there's no pretty stoplight.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Oh, I have people complain because the roundabouts are landscaped, and they say, I can't see across it. That's the point. You shouldn't.

SPEAKER_02 19:36

You're you're not gonna be able to do it. You only want across, it should have anything to do.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Put it to your spot to your left. Don't worry about a cross. You're way away from them.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

That's so good. How long is that construction supposed to take?

SPEAKER_00 19:46

I would imagine it's gonna take 12 months.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Okay. You know, this is being recorded.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Yeah, 12 months. That's right. I mean, if the listeners could see me doing my hands, it's maybe six, seven.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

Put it in the calendar now for next at this time. How's that going? But then in 12 months, he's just not gonna say which months.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, uh, from start or from midpoint, I don't know. But I mean, typically it should take 12 to 14 months.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

Plenty of room there. So uh Central's got the nicest roads in the parish?

SPEAKER_00 20:15

I would tell you from a a rideability and uh pothole standard, yes. Uh you physically have to go look for potholes.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

And that's a good place to be.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

We uh we've we fix potholes on all routes, whether it's dotd, parish, or our roads, we fix them because what we've learned is uh slapping cold mix in a hole and tapping it with a shovel and walking to the next one is very unsuccessful in having repair. So we do a semi-permanent repair and it it holds.

SPEAKER_02 20:49

Gotcha. Well, that's good. They put a little quick drying cement in there.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

Yeah. You spit on that thing.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

Get you extra uh get you an extra three or four days out of it before it collapses.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Yeah, you gotta have that on in big jobs, you know.

SPEAKER_03 21:02

What do you want to accomplish in the next four years?

SPEAKER_00 21:06

I would love to get the arena built, get the Surflake under construction. Uh wait, that was a real idea? Yeah, it's real. Real stuff.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

We get we've been accused of uh that being one of our ideas.

SPEAKER_03 21:16

I think that was the most surprising part of Wade Evans interview one was we asked about Surflake, thinking we're about to tell a bunch of jokes, and he went off for like 15, 20 minutes about how important it was. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Well, I mean, look, I hope it was on us. I've had a surfboard on layaway now for two years, so it's serious. No, I and you know, we're working on getting this arena project going, uh, multi-use activity center to continue to develop out Main Street 2030, uh get our master plan updated, uh continue infrastructure improvements, build some connector roads. We've got we've got some connector road projects I want to get done. Um but the main thing is to keep steady progress. I think Four more years would give everybody involved a pretty good understanding of exactly how it needs to go. My goal has always been to create a system that no matter who steps in the role, as long as they don't mess it up, it just runs.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

And so is this uh Pep Surf Lake gonna be behind the current city hall? Is it all that property back there or is it further down?

SPEAKER_00 22:21

It's wax at who's it's uh it's part of that property, but it's across the street from the high school. And look, we're still working with the investors and and the team that wants to do it. Uh it's a $60 million project, and you know, they're trying to get their funding together. It's a viable project.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Did we decide this would also include a zip line project as well?

SPEAKER_00 22:42

I was hoping to zip line it from my office at City Hall.

SPEAKER_03 22:45

I would absolutely hope. If you could start at the top of City Hall and zip oh man, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Well, and here and look, so I gotta I had a new idea because we built this beautiful building, but we have this geese problem. Really? Yes.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Oh, I saw them. I saw them at the grand opening, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

And geese, uh they these are not the kind that fly back and forth from Canada to hear, these kind of just hang out. They these have intestinal problems, these have been domesticated, yeah. So clearly, because they it's it's almost like uh people without a home go out there and just drop loads everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 23:17

It's like San Francisco. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Yeah, it's like the old Seagan Lane, like Los Angeles, like the old Seagan Lane. Yeah, yeah, before Jennifer Richardson and her team clean some things up.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

Maybe you ought to get Jennifer over there.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Well, we have uh we we do I you know, we had an eager group of volunteers last week saying, when can we get involved? And I remind them we do litter cleanups uh, you know, whenever you're ready.

SPEAKER_03 23:38

I like the fact that Central's homeless problem is geese.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

That's the most central thing ever.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Well, and so we've got an option. Uh you can get I can get the permit and we can eradicate them. Uh but I found that my staff uh in the office that like half of them want the geese there because they love the geese, and half of them want them gone, and I'm I'm on the half that wants them gone. How many geese are we talking about? No, 50.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Oh, that's a lot of geese.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

That's a gaggle. That's a gaggle. Say gaggle, my guys.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

It's so many that you learn the term for a group of geese. He's been planning on using that word for like a week. He's like, Chad on the show, I gotta go see what a bunch of geese is.

SPEAKER_03 24:18

How many geese is a geese?

SPEAKER_02 24:20

How many geese is a gonna gaggle? It's a pride. That's so they were there like y'all inherited them with the property, or they just landed and never left.

SPEAKER_00 24:28

No, they're they're there, and uh they're there and uh they don't leave.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

Have you considered seeing if Trump can maybe help you?

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Well, uh, so we were gonna take a Trump approach, and uh, I was gonna buy the permit, let the city buy it, and we could maybe auction off geese hunts from the mayor's office.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Uh or uh relocate. That flips people out. The guy said he'll come out and do it with a 12 gauge, but I'm thinking, man, that's right in the middle of the city. This is gonna be a mess.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

You're gonna put out a press release for the day.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

Facebook's gonna come alive. Like, what in the hell's going on downtown central?

SPEAKER_03 25:04

City hall off limits for the next six hours. Uh be aware you may hear gunshots.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

You know, you can also send them on a field trip to North Baton Rouge.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

Well, they have a guy who will come out and feed them something that puts them to sleep and he relocates them. That's probably the best plan. That sounds pretty good. That's the most humane plan.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

Where does he tell you where he really looks like? I don't ask. Is this like to a farm upstate?

SPEAKER_00 25:24

And but I could care less where. I don't want to know where they go. Yeah, Drew's got a freshman. I'm not even going to check to see if they're asleep, as long as they're gone.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

Do you do you do you intend on sending them like to Baker or one of your neighboring municipalities?

SPEAKER_00 25:36

I mean, you know, I would hate to do that to any of our friends. Uh, you know, any of our friends across the aisle.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

I gotcha. I gotcha. Print them to the LSU Lakes or something. There's probably plenty of them.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

They're not good to eat either. No. That's that was my next.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

I'm assuming you've heard that.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Yeah, I haven't tried it.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

It's actually 49.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

I haven't tried it because I didn't have a permit. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

He would never have tried that.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

I don't know where those feathers came from, Your Honor. Maybe those coyotes we've got out there. Surely there's fake.

SPEAKER_03 26:03

I mean, surely a central resident has offered to we can fry that, so we'll try it.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

I mean, it's got to be worth try.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

It's just Louisiana.

SPEAKER_00 26:10

I have heard you can make tasso out of them.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

They will make a garball. Sauce peek out of them things before you can. Somebody's looking at a cookbook in the future.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Look, you mentioned garballs. It's funny. When I was a kid, we caught two gar on a trout line, and my uncle said we'll make garballs.

SPEAKER_02 26:25

So they were males.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

I said, Uncle Robson, we only had two fish. That's like, it's not enough to feed us all. No.

SPEAKER_02 26:31

It's four garballs.

SPEAKER_03 26:33

Not gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Well, I like to, you know, one of my favorite things to do at parties with people who are different than me. There we go. When they have the boudin balls, depending on the size of the boudin ball, I will I I tend to say, man, those look like they were young.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Because anybody can spot some young balls. Too early.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

Easy. It's too early for those boudin balls.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

They could have let them mature a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 27:03

Fed more people. Always a good joke when you're running for office.

SPEAKER_00 27:06

That's right. I mean, this is fake, real fake news. Real fake news. Nothing to see here.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

So you got a gackle of geese at the uh at the city hall you need to have uh relocated.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

I mean, really in the scheme of things, if that is one of your bigger problems, I think about how lucky we are in Central because the stuff people complain about, like, if they really knew what was wrong in this world, they would have how good we have it. Like we have we have some serious, like 2% of the first world problems. Like, it's really good.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

Well, you got Chuck Norris preaching, yes, and you got a gaggle of geese.

SPEAKER_00 27:42

When Chuck died, he maybe he's gone down to hell, cleaned it up, and came back and is infiltrated the past.

SPEAKER_03 27:50

Yeah, maybe he's uh he's filled with the spirit of Chuck Norris.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Channeling the spirit. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

What is the timeline for the four-laning of Hooper Road?

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Uh they're currently buying right-away, and uh they've purchased about half of it. Uh estimates are another 18 months of buying right away. I I don't understand why it takes so long to buy right away.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Because there's one or two people who don't want to sell, then that's it.

SPEAKER_03 28:13

As soon as you find out they're buying up the right-of-the-art. I want more.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

Yeah, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Yeah, and and you know, it's I I would like to, you know, me, you know, I I don't get in fights anymore, but I I would rather expose like this the reason this project's held up because of this citizen. Well, you see him at the grocery store, you remind him, but you can't do that.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Yeah, it's frowned upon. You could. You could. That's gonna be a game changer for Central, because I mean that's a bottleneck.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Hooper, you know, four lane, Hooper to four lane Sullivan to four lane wax, you know, four lane and wax is another big one. I'm trying to get an H number for that project now. We were able to, you know, before Mayor Edwards got in, Mayor Broom was in office, and I had her come to Central and took her to Stabbs to have lunch, and and I said her driver. Okay, her driver. Yeah. I'll tell you a funny story about that. She ordered lima bean soup and it had ham in it, and she asked the waiter, like, is the ham big pieces? And he said, It's cubes. I said, You know, eat ham. She said, I'm a I'm a pescatarian. I had never heard of that, and I thought she said Presbyterian. So they bring our food out, and I said, Look, I'm I'm gonna pray, I'm Catholic. I said, I'll pray for your soup. And she said, I'm Baptist. I said, I thought you said you were Presbyterian. Not Pescotarian. So I had to look up what Pescotarian was. So the the former mayor helped culture me.

SPEAKER_03 29:42

Uh help learn you something.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

At our luncheon, I said, I need to know how much money you need to put Wax Road on a priority list of Move BR.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

Oh, a bribe offer.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

That's not for yet. Little did you know. It was a bribe. I and I hadn't got a subpoena yet. I have not got a subpoena yet.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

Interesting use of the word yet in this.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Yes. Well, I'm look, I never say never.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

Because they're handing them out. When you got a key to City Hall, you do have the key to City Hall.

SPEAKER_00 30:10

I think the mayor killed it.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Changed the program.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Only persons that had it was me and Beanie. And so he he had to kill mine and his wife's card.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

That's so great.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Yeah, like I wasn't gonna steal any of them staples. They're all old. That's right. Staples anymore. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 30:23

They're all DOS-based computers and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

Yeah, dot matrix printers. That's exactly right. But but she agreed, she so she thought I was joking. I said, No, mayor, I'm serious. And so she had told me 18 million.

SPEAKER_03 30:36

So I worked with some people and make check payable to cash.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

And and got the 18 million. Actually, we got 20 million uh added from when Bodhi was in the the Senate. We added 20 million to the Highway 3034 widening project because Wax is Highway 3034, so is that little section of Sullivan. So we had a project. So I had 20 million of P5 added to it. And I called her and I said, I got the money. Whenever you get started, we need to know a cycle so we can start converting it. She thought I was crazy. I'm like, no, I'm serious. And so we started moving, now that's been two or three years, and we still don't have H number.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

Where's the 20 million?

SPEAKER_00 31:22

It's still in P5. Well, we converted five of it to geobonds for Sullivan Road because Sullivan sat for so long that the construction costs went up, and DOTD estimates were one number. Contractors were a little more hungry than DOTD thought. Came back, had 5.4 million left in the project that was cash, including those geobonds. And so when they wasn't going to build the roundabout because they didn't have the money, I'm like, hey, we got 5.4 million right here. Let's use that. And so they did some digging and found out the geobonds were for 3034. That intersection is part of 3034. Perfect. So it pays paying for the roundabout.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

It's a good fit. Maybe what you misunderstood was 3034 was the year that they planned on Project 3034.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

Depending on how the cryogenics go, I may come back for the ribbon cutting.

SPEAKER_03 32:15

Wade's next to Ted Williams.

SPEAKER_02 32:17

Now, my next question would be have you seen evidence that the money is still there? Because you know, they've been handing out subpoenas to the uh administration.

SPEAKER_00 32:24

We never gave any money to the parish. It's all in Capitol Ratley for DOTD. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

Good move. Because it may it may have been it may have been gone.

SPEAKER_00 32:33

Yeah, it may have been how they funded those raises.

SPEAKER_02 32:35

I feel like Cleve may have put a tiki bar in. Cleve might have had a little something going on if you would have, you know.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Yeah, poor Cleve, you know. I he he seemed like a nice guy. Nice guy. He attacked me over a key card.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

Yeah. No.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

You know, look, I that's why you never catch me attacking people because I know what's under my bed.

SPEAKER_03 32:51

That's really weird. I I didn't think he was a nice guy at all. I thought he was a nice, I mean, you listen, how nice.

SPEAKER_00 32:56

My interactions with him were never confrontational.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Look until then. When you get to vote on money that goes to an agency that you allegedly skimmed from, yeah, I mean, that's a dream come true job.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

You gotta support that. I mean, I don't know how you look. I guess uh ethics forms are like locks. Yeah, they only keep honest people honest.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

You know, it's interestingly enough is that he's not one of the Baton Rouge politicians on the recall list right now. That's crazy. There's three of them, and he's not one of them.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

That's so weird. He thought cat stood for uh the C stood for cash. Yeah, that was the problem. When's his trial, Andrew? I don't know. I don't pay attention to that.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

Don't you keep up with this stuff? No, I don't know. He's gotta be appearing in court soon.

SPEAKER_00 33:34

What do attorneys do like every morning? Like, I like to play my jong. Do you like look at Clerk Connect?

SPEAKER_02 33:38

Like, I do. I do look at Clerk Connect a lot. Can I borrow your password to Clerk Connect? No. I want to check a few things up.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

If you print something, it costs him money.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

I love Clerk, I love Clerk Connect.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

I'll I'll leave 20 bucks here just in case.

SPEAKER_03 33:49

I have to look up St. George lawsuits.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

Well, I I did look into Clerk Connect on some of the commenters about me on Facebook, and I put together a resume of a lot of times, you know, they they really are throwing from glass houses. Oh man, I think some of them the windows are all busted out, but they're still throwing.

SPEAKER_03 34:02

So I'll tell you, I I had a case once that involved um a homeowners association that actually restricted who could rent and required you submit like their the tenant's income information to the HOA. It's like an overreach. They would approve it.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

Sounds like a hood.

SPEAKER_03 34:18

And so they were saying they did not have enough time to review this application, so it's denied because they didn't think they had enough time. And you start looking like every person on that board had judgment, money judgments against them from all these different credit card companies, like a lot of glass houses out there.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Yeah. Well, and that's the thing about life. I mean, look, we're gonna stand before our God one day and answer for how we treated others and and what we did. He's not gonna ask us what somebody did to us, he's gonna ask us what do we do. So I I try to remember that.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

Wait, are there any good Wade Evans rumors out there that may have not made their way through Facebook or no, Dave, because anyone's worth listening to, not the regular.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Not only do I live in a glass house, I'm transparent. You could probably see what I ate, I'm so transparent. But the reality is, is I live a life of truth, so there's really no re reason for the rumors.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

The most talked about man on the fakest news uh Facebook page. That is true.

SPEAKER_03 35:12

You've gotten more run out of the Savicate than any person.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

It's been good for me. I should have been an original investor. I will tell you, Jen brought the Savocate uh tumbler with her.

SPEAKER_03 35:21

What?

SPEAKER_02 35:21

That was an accident, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 35:23

Well played, sir. Only one left, see? Which brings me to my next question.

SPEAKER_00 35:29

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 35:31

We have written a lot about you. You're a great fit for the Savocate. Have we ever accidentally given you a good idea?

SPEAKER_00 35:41

Oh, goodness.

SPEAKER_02 35:45

You know, I I would have to Is the Surflake like, is that is that like a Savagate dream that you're like, you know, this could actually be. I mean, I feel like if you wake up and go, No, you wouldn't build a surfake. You would have thought the surflake would have been our idea.

SPEAKER_03 35:59

That's what I'm saying. We didn't get credit for that.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

We didn't get credit for nothing. I feel like that might have been Savagate bait, and then he woke up and went, you know, this ain't a bad idea. He'll probably run it.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Look, I tell you, I love, you know, so there's something about comedy that makes it funny, and it's because it's true. All right. When when you when you tell stories that people can relate to, it it's funny because it's it's we should laugh at ourselves. I think what what you guys do is brilliant because it takes stuff that is plausible because of a a character of of some sort. And and look, I I'm a character. I am. I'm I'm Wade Evans, the mayor, and and I can turn that on whenever I can come in here and cut up, or I can I can be serious. You know, it's it's what we do, but I think the work you do is brilliant, and I love it. Uh and it's so good because there are those that lack critical thinking skills and discernment that think it's real. And that's even more funny to me.

SPEAKER_03 37:01

Oh, that is the best, is when he posts something and you look down at the comments and they and they are almost got you. Which was Wade's assassination attempt right now at the office.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

That's just well out there.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

Somebody's got an air air pump gun out there. Hurt you were talking about me when I was. Well, the the element of surprise for your articles works best. So if you know it's coming, it's really no fun. Right. But on that subject, when we did the uh article about you, shirtless out front the mayor's office of the city hall after the hot football coach.

SPEAKER_00 37:45

I actually did ponder going out there.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Well, I was a little heavier then, but I I mean it's something I plan on doing at anyway. It's been a running joke with City Hall. Like I tell people I'm losing weight because I want to go jog on the track and uh not have to wear a shirt and not be laughed at. But be laughed at. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:03

Well, that article I think the only sole consideration you've given to being shirtless at City Hall is based on your appearance. It has nothing to do with not wanting to do it or wanting to do it. It's just whether I feel good about it or not. I really feel good. We're gonna do it today. We're just gonna be out in a robe just hanging out.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

I've done the robe thing, okay? Me, I've I've dressed up as cousin Eddie as a favorite of my friend, the superintendent of the great school system.

SPEAKER_02 38:27

And uh we had a fair amount of people commented on that article and sent private messages about how disgusting you were to pull a stunt like that in front of that beautiful building.

SPEAKER_04 38:39

That's what and I'm like, what about the coach?

SPEAKER_03 38:42

The element of truth, he's proving the point. He's not saying he wouldn't do it.

SPEAKER_00 38:45

He just hasn't do it in the front. I'll do it back in the back where the track is.

SPEAKER_02 38:49

And of course, I replied with, I thought it was a very nice gesture, and he asked me to knock 20 pounds off of him.

SPEAKER_00 38:56

Right, you photos. You airbrushed some fake abs on me or something? Like when I'm putting me up against a chain link fence.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

Ooh, yeah, yeah, good stuff, good stuff. Um so four years ago, you promised progress when you got elected. Um, what's the accomplishment you're most proud of? Like the number one thing you I mean, obviously City Hall.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

Yeah, City Hall. Look, I I think the systems is a really big thing for us because it it pertains to how we deliver services. I mean, look, uh there's so much, but the biggest thing is City Hall because it took us 20 years. It took three administrations, three attempts.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Has it really been that long?

SPEAKER_00 39:43

Yeah, three attempts. Uh bought we bought a piece of property. The former mayor wanted us to build a city hall on none of the council. Well, two of the council members wanted to, but five of them spoke at the meeting and said, hey, we believe we need to own the property for the control of it because it's our downtown, but that's not where we're building city hall. I got elected. We were scrutinized, we were just vilified, everything else, and now it's done. The owners, the heirs of the property we bought across Sullivan Road, were at the ground grand opening and said, We're so happy you did not build a city hall over there because the building could not look like this over there.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

Oh, it's supposed to be on the opposite side of Sullivan?

SPEAKER_00 40:24

Yeah, we have nine and a half acres where the laydown yard is.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

Where the uh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

So we've been leasing that property to the construction company for five grand a month. So we've made enough money.

SPEAKER_02 40:35

That's why Sullivan could be dragging it.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

Yeah, I mean, I'm not fussing. I gotta tear it, I gotta tear those buildings down, you know. I gotta pay for those. Slow down.

SPEAKER_03 40:46

Slow down. There's Wade Evans the pay. There's Wade Evans in his bathrobe pulling out like spark plugs and stuff so they can't.

SPEAKER_00 40:51

Put sugar on the concrete to slow the curing down. Which works, by the way. If you're doing exposed aggregate, you you pour coke on it and it gives you plenty of time to rinse the concrete off. Noted, noted cream.

SPEAKER_03 41:05

A lot of knowledge we didn't know about. I have so much use of it. Today we've gotten gaggle of geese. We pour coke on it.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

Um you can pour coke on a rusty bumper. You didn't know that. That's amazing stuff. Battery.

SPEAKER_03 41:17

Pour it on your car battery.

SPEAKER_00 41:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:19

Clean terminals.

SPEAKER_00 41:20

Yeah. All right. You're in Miami. Be careful.

SPEAKER_03 41:24

Why? I might have to learn something else. I think you're talking about another kind of Coke in Miami. See, that's where I'm at in life. I don't even think about that. He's an attorney. He's trying to, you know. I would never think about it the other way.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

Wade, what is your favorite place to eat in Central? Give it to us.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

Oh, I like cilantros.

SPEAKER_02 41:45

Cilantros? Cilantros. Where's that?

SPEAKER_00 41:48

I mean, you know, uh it's hard to have a have to pick a favorite. Sure. I had walk-ons today.

unknown 41:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:54

I love walk-ons. I uh my but we love cilantros. Small business, small place, family friendly. The owner's a great dude who came up, you know, started out, grounded out, got his got himself to a place where he could buy a restaurant. And where's it located? It's uh in the Wax Point shopping center at Wax and Sullivan.

SPEAKER_02 42:19

I thought so, yeah. Yeah. In the big long shopping center across from Walmart. Yeah. Okay, he's the only one.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

Look, I I don't leave the city uh uh except to come do meeting.

SPEAKER_02 42:29

Oh well, thank you for stretching out of your comfort. Well, hopefully uh everything's under control there right now with me on.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Well, I've got two units outside because anytime I come to Baton Rouge, I have to have Couldn't agree more.

SPEAKER_03 42:39

Yeah. Securities at a premium here.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 42:42

And I apologize, my uh podcast partner who's a councilman in St. George has an office in Baton Rouge. I don't know. Yeah, sorry about that. There's only so much I can do.

SPEAKER_00 42:49

It's a great place. I mean, it if I had to be anywhere in Baton Rouge, it'd be here at Drew's office.

SPEAKER_03 42:54

Well, you've been here twice, so it's worth paying him. Are we paying him for this?

SPEAKER_00 42:59

I'm auditioning. That's why he's my favorite mayor. That's what I said. That's why he's my favorite mayor. Disclaimer, we love you, Dustin.

SPEAKER_03 43:06

You don't listen to shit. David McDavid's my favorite maybe.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

When I hosted that morning show without the guy who was supposed to be there, uh I I did take a one shot and said, I'm here auditioning because there's some people on Facebook who think I need to find another career and I'm giving a regular. Just in case.

SPEAKER_03 43:23

You gotta just in case, because you never know. You would you would be a good permanent radio guy.

SPEAKER_00 43:28

Well, uh for a day, I did I did all right for a day.

SPEAKER_03 43:31

You could fit you gonna fill it five days a week. That's not as much fun.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

Well, it was it was moist that morning, so I got to say moist on the air a lot.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

Oh my god, can you just see the cringing in the car?

SPEAKER_00 43:40

I felt it.

SPEAKER_03 43:42

I felt it. That's so good.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

Um, have you ever thought about asking Tony Spell to be your running mate for the mayors?

SPEAKER_00 43:49

No, huh? Yeah. Vice Mayor. I mean I in security detail. I was thinking I was thinking more like security detail. Yeah, I agree. You know, we have thirty five churches in Central. And that's that's a pretty big number for a a city of thirty thousand people. And uh I support Pastor Spell's mission. Um got a good following. I believe if you can you can turn people to the Lord, you know, in whatever way it takes. I just hope that that this I think there's always an opportunity to learn and uh hope that this incident becomes a teaching moment for for all involved and uh teaching moment, not a defining moment. Yeah, yeah, because you know we it's it's easy to judge people on their worst moments, and uh and I'm thankful that that God gave me grace.

SPEAKER_03 44:42

I just I just think we need to line up Central Fight Club and and really get this role in a master.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

I think that, and you know, look, since the Reformation back in the 1500s, we've gotten close to 40,000 different denominational type churches, and I think it's time to settle it once and for all.

SPEAKER_03 44:59

Hey, maybe maybe that's where the real fight is. You got 35 churches.

SPEAKER_00 45:03

Me being Catholic, I'm I don't know. Um, you know, Cleo Milano is kind of old, but he's probably the most scrappy. But there there may be uh maybe next time at the the the Feast for the Priest we do at St. Alphonsus, I'll I'll I'll check some biceps and traps. So hey Father, how you doing? St.

SPEAKER_03 45:19

Thomas More. We have uh Father Eddie, and Father Eddie is probably the most jacked priest I've ever seen. Yeah. That dude is working out. If he ain't preaching, he's working out.

SPEAKER_00 45:28

Yeah, I mean, we just need to get him on the heavy bag, you know. I think he could do it. Get him on the heavy bag. I know I look, I I think it's important, it depending on the size of your opponent. Uh that's a lot of energy was expent the other.

SPEAKER_03 45:41

I mean, you think about it what Tony did. If if y'all could each in Central, uh in your positions, take on one of your biggest adversary, you could pick somebody. I mean, what a great way to settle some issues. I would love it. Wouldn't that be great?

SPEAKER_00 45:56

I would love it. I would love it.

SPEAKER_03 45:58

Are you making a list right now?

SPEAKER_00 45:59

I mean, I've boxed. You know, I boxed back in the day. Uh I I quit boxing because of the running. Uh, I didn't realize how much running you got to do as a boxer. Good grief.

SPEAKER_03 46:08

Yeah, chase little people around. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:10

And I was like, dude, I don't, I don't, I don't think I'm gonna go 10 rounds, bro. Let me just hit on this big bag.

SPEAKER_03 46:15

You got that long, you got that long reach. You can you can sit out there and jump all day long.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

It was the running that got me out of boxing, not to get any hit.

SPEAKER_02 46:25

Um, have you started your uh re-election effort? Do you have a Facebook page or anything like that?

SPEAKER_00 46:30

And I'm I'm still well, it's kind of early, but I see there's some signs going up, so I'm fixing to start blasting some signs and some you can have a re-elect Wade Evans Facebook page, or you just could use your regular. I don't know what I'm gonna do yet. I may pay somebody to to do my my social media for my campaign. Um by I I think I'm gonna set up a website this time and uh to this day in time the fundraising, people want to just be able to to give uh online and digital. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:02

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:04

And uh I'd like to raise a little more money. We've raised about 30,000, but I'd like to raise about another 50 and uh and do some media and some some video stuff and you know work with our partners.

SPEAKER_03 47:17

I think the Savvy Kate's a good platform that you know I don't have congressional money, but I know it's uh we need we need more congressional races.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

Well, maybe Drew will contribute a little to your race. He said you're his favorite mayor.

SPEAKER_03 47:29

You are my favorite mayor.

SPEAKER_02 47:30

That's true. I mean I need He's probably good for five grand. I'll be talking with that lawyer money.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

That's well, um all right. So I'm transparent, you know. Drew, I need you to make that and check from you, check from your wife from your 27-year-old.

SPEAKER_04 47:48

Very true.

SPEAKER_02 47:50

Well, follow Wade Evans on Facebook, and maybe you'll see his campaign uh page pop up in the future. But um, if you live in Central, check him out.

SPEAKER_01 47:58

Consider him, like it or not, I'm here.

SPEAKER_03 48:00

All right, so on that note, Wade, while you're here, we got some text and emails, and most of which you know, no one pops up in our text and emails more than you as the subject. That's good. That's very good. I mean, you are the most mentioned person on this. How many Google Voice numbers do you have that you're sending these things from?

SPEAKER_02 48:17

No kidding. Oh, you got Jen doing it over there. Like a he's like a sending one right now. Right now. She's like, rep this gotta be out of here 30 minutes ago. Tell me you weren't taking me to Bat Moods more than 10 minutes. Took me to the hood to do a podcast.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

What are we doing? Or when we pulled in the driveway. That driveway.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Yes. Yes. You just gotta bring a truck. If you come in the car, you never turn it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 48:47

I almost needed the chiropractor anyway with this injury.

SPEAKER_03 48:50

You weren't injured before, you are now. Welcome to the party. That's right. We got real problems at this office. We don't have gaggles of geese. We're not that lucky. All right, so we got some text emails. If you want to uh text the show, Dave, how do you do that?

SPEAKER_02 49:05

You can text us at 225-255-2480, and we will read the text on the show provided it's not vulgar or anti-Wade Evans.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

It can be anti-Wade. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

All right, let's get one. All right, the first one is what the hell do y'all have Wade Evans on the show for? You see, we wouldn't have read that, but yeah, I'm okay with that.

SPEAKER_00 49:26

Look, I can tell you that wasn't a real thing. I was gonna say, I'll give you the damn answer. You know, Jim, stop texting. There's a reason there is one more time she wants to hear it again.

SPEAKER_02 49:36

255 245, I'm sorry, 225-255-2480. All right.

SPEAKER_00 49:43

There's a reason they have butthole free baloney, okay? It's called Bougie Baloney. It's a little expensive, but but uh not everybody have you ever heard of that? Yeah, well, and and that's how it goes.

SPEAKER_02 49:55

Butthole free baloney. I thought that was like the name of a movie that never made it to the 70s.

SPEAKER_03 50:01

Hey, you can probably check that movie out at the library.

SPEAKER_00 50:04

Yes, yeah. For now, yeah, and probably in Livingston, too. I heard there was a rookie about that.

SPEAKER_02 50:10

Um yeah, so that really wasn't a text, Mr. Evans. But we do have a text. The first one is uh Wade Evans versus Tony Spell boxing match for charity.

SPEAKER_03 50:20

I'm gonna say no, because I think Tony's already got an opponent lined up. I'm more fascinated by Wade fighting other people.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

I think it's so I think the weight class difference for me and Tony would be a very unfair advantage for him.

unknown 50:36

All right.

SPEAKER_02 50:37

Now that you're making a fight out of it, now you're Yeah, but what if you stood on the north side of Hooper Road? He was on the south side, he got to run and start.

SPEAKER_00 50:43

Well, he would have to go on that guy's property then. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:46

Apparently it doesn't phase him. I really think that's his opponent's already lined up. We need Wade to have a more weight-appropriate opponent.

SPEAKER_02 50:53

Who could Wade Evans fight to get more publicity than uh than Tony Spell? Now I need a specific answer here because I have an article I'm working on, and I need this president.

SPEAKER_00 51:02

I would tell you, you could probably get uh you could go to one of the the plethora of rants and raves pages. I think there's a new page called We Hate Wade Evans. Is it really? Yeah, uh they they don't name it that, but it's it's it's a it should be named that. It's a new Rants and Raves uncut page where they just cannot stand Wade Evans. And uh there's probably a whole list of people who would like to.

SPEAKER_02 51:23

Hey, that's why we're gonna promote this interview. Who was the politician that said any publicity is good publicity?

SPEAKER_00 51:29

That was probably me.

SPEAKER_02 51:30

Well, every politician who's ever got it. It was a very famous a long time ago said any publicity is good publicity. He's right. 25,000 people on this page.

SPEAKER_00 51:38

That's the wrong one. Only about 25 or 20,000.

SPEAKER_03 51:42

This one's 594 people.

SPEAKER_00 51:44

Uncut.

SPEAKER_02 51:46

I unsubscribe from every Ransom Rage page. I think I was subscribed to six of them, and it was relentless BS. Oh, that's Tony's spell as a Lego.

SPEAKER_03 51:54

That's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 51:55

That now that's pretty good. Lego fight. I I would like to be a Nido. You know, the new Nido. Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_03 52:02

Unfortunately, I do know what a Nito is. It's currently consuming my life like the uh what is it, the Lulu, those little dolls or whatever they have. Oh my god, yes. That's a little doll. La boo-boo. That's what it was.

SPEAKER_02 52:17

The power of marketing at some point. So they so they called you in college. Um, I just realized I have a text here that uh stole my well, I stole their thunder. Yo, Wade, are you gonna ask the pastor to be your running mate?

SPEAKER_00 52:31

I uh we don't have a vice mayor in central. Well, you could. I could. It would require an ordinance to change it. Um but hey, it's a thought.

SPEAKER_02 52:40

Who has to sign that ordinance? It's gotta go through like uh the council. Tony Spell should have put your door as like, hey, I mean the vice mayor.

SPEAKER_03 52:49

I'm Tony Spell chief of police. That's just me.

SPEAKER_02 52:51

Oh well, that's he can win it right now if the election was tomorrow. Yeah, he could win. I got a text from someone in politics, I will not mention their name, that said Tony Spell could beat out Letlow and Fleming tomorrow.

SPEAKER_03 53:04

Yeah, literally beat out he would physically and violently physically violent. Yes, yeah. Amen. Yeah. All right, what else we got?

SPEAKER_00 53:17

I like Tony. I do.

SPEAKER_03 53:19

I'm not knocking him. I wouldn't have to do that.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

Drew, this is a uh Baton Rouge uh text, actually. Oh why can't the library get rid of the people living out front? I am sick of going downtown and having them ask me for money every damn time.

SPEAKER_03 53:34

Well, they gotta count them as patrons.

SPEAKER_00 53:35

Well, yeah, those people are actually reading. They got Google eyelids, you shut your eyes, you read.

SPEAKER_02 53:41

Big readers. I have been several times downtown at every hour and every day, and it is terrible the amount of people who have taken up housing right there in front of the library.

SPEAKER_03 53:52

It's a $60 million homeless shelter. Terrible.

SPEAKER_00 53:55

It's a beautiful place. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 53:58

It's beautiful. Hey, if you go if you actually can get in the director's office, $35,000 in furniture in that office alone.

SPEAKER_00 54:05

Wow. So in my office, I have a boneless couch from uh Amazon because it was only $600, because a couch from Frost Barber was eight grand. I'm like, what? We're not buying that.

SPEAKER_02 54:16

$600 for couch. That's gonna end up on I hate Wade Evans. It'd be a hate Wade Evans tomorrow. Hope Drew fumbles this and can't get this uploaded because it's gonna go right on the table.

SPEAKER_00 54:23

It can. It can.

SPEAKER_02 54:25

All right, what else we got? Oh, Tony Spell for DA.

SPEAKER_03 54:30

Poor Hiller. Well, poor Hiller.

SPEAKER_00 54:33

Yeah, you know, Hiller Hiller, I I like Hiller. He's my friend. Um Hiller's in a bad situation right now having to sue.

SPEAKER_02 54:45

Yeah. Everybody, y'all, huh?

SPEAKER_00 54:47

Yeah, well, until he's he's he's really not suing. Yeah, he reluctantly had to add us.

SPEAKER_02 54:52

The court I saw the I saw the ruling of the court, too.

SPEAKER_00 54:54

I think ultimately what's going to happen is is this is gonna provoke something that's been needing to happen. We need to fix the damn problem. Yep. So my goal is to push legislation this upcoming session that uh we can't vote for fun stuff until you put the roof on the house. No swimming pools until the house doesn't leak.

SPEAKER_02 55:15

So true. And and we just speaking of the library who's sitting on hundred, hundred and maybe twenty million.

SPEAKER_00 55:22

How much if we had their money? We wouldn't have to do this, guys.

SPEAKER_03 55:26

If we had a quarter of their money. Well, I've suggested previously Baton Rouge police go to work for the library and now they got their raise. So what about the DA's office becomes librarians? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:37

That they know how to research.

SPEAKER_03 55:39

They research all the laws. I believe they have access to some legal databases.

SPEAKER_02 55:43

How much is the DA's um budget, or what are they trying to get from this lawsuit?

SPEAKER_00 55:47

His budget right now is about seven and a half. He wanted 22, and I told him when he did it, like Hiller, we got to come up, we got like that's a big yeah, it's a big difference.

SPEAKER_03 55:55

That's a gap that may should have been addressed previously.

SPEAKER_00 55:57

Put some stuff on paper here and see.

SPEAKER_03 56:00

Yeah. Yeah. So to your point though, $15 million a year sounds like an easy lift for the library.

SPEAKER_02 56:07

That's 10% of what they have in the banking cash that they're drawing six million a year in interest on.

SPEAKER_00 56:12

2.3 mils of property tax generates $15 million. I think really so there's no dispute that Central St. George, Zachary Baker need to pay for the constitutional offices. Uh my argument is the method at which we and our citizens pay for it. I believe there should be a parish-wide constitutional millage that covers the cost of those offices. Uh but but here's where the breakdown is. To get that number, I need some zero-based budgeting to see what that number really is.

SPEAKER_03 56:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 56:50

And I think our citizens would overwhelmingly support that and then give them a chance to vote for a logical, reasonable amount of money for the library and the council on agent and whatever else they want to vote for, but after we put the roof on the house.

SPEAKER_03 57:06

That's right. You you no point in having a Cadillac if you're homeless.

SPEAKER_00 57:09

Yeah, I mean, I don't build custom cars, but I have never seen one where the car is still a beat-up piece of crap and they go spend $14,000 on rims.

SPEAKER_02 57:17

Now hold on a second. I'm gonna have to take you on a tour. You might want to get out of Centrum and go with my high and mighty stuff.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 57:28

Yeah, you might want to take a little trip across the city. I think we're getting a text message from Florida Boulevard. Yeah, because uh that right there might be a clip we use to promote this here show.

SPEAKER_00 57:39

But maybe it's maybe it's maybe it, maybe that's a bigger example of our priorities and where our priorities are.

SPEAKER_02 57:46

100%.

SPEAKER_03 57:47

100%. And 100%.

SPEAKER_00 57:49

We have to get our priorities back where they need to be.

SPEAKER_03 57:51

Well, that's a silly part about the the the vote. We're voting on these silos of money coming up that are that are optional. I mean, at the end of the day, you can love it, you can be passionate about it, but they truly are options. Yeah. Whereas this other issue really is the health, safety, and well-being that you can't live without. And it's and it's so important. The Constitution requires it to be taken care of. But we're gonna silo all these buckets of money again.

SPEAKER_00 58:15

Yeah, and look, Marcel was slick the way she wrote her legislation where she originally had all of us in it and we were able to get it carved out of it. But she put in there the you know, some Sixth Amendment stuff from the United States Constitution because the only constitutional way to mandate the municipalities have to pay something, is it has to be a constitutional requirement, not a state constitution, but the United States Constitution. And so uh I give her a lot of credit for that. She did a she did a good job, but it was it was uh a sound solution for a problem that's not going to get fixed with that solution.

SPEAKER_03 58:57

That's right. It's just a temporary patch, a band-aid. So I guess with that being said, um are there other places we can go find money to solve this DA problem?

SPEAKER_00 59:14

I served on the mayor's transition team and we we gave him a pretty robust plan. Um unfortunately you know, everything didn't pan out as we had drawn it up, if you will, but also you know, you get in and you learn some things. Um I think there is some money available, uh there's no doubt. Uh I think it again. I think it I think the pay raise thing was kind of a jump of the gun for all parish employees. I understand the police thing. I also think there's some solutions to policing that we need to look at. Uh that's OSS, you know. Uh people who get in a wreck don't care who writes a rec, they just want the rec written.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:04

They want to get out of there.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:05

They want to get their police reported in a timely fashion and they want to get their car fixed or whatever. Um and so the idea that you have to have on a certain uniform to do that is kind of to me a fallacy. Uh just like it doesn't matter uh if who fixes your pothole. You just want a pothole fixed. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:24

I I think if you asked any police officer what the the least favorable part of their job is, I think writing accident reports is if not number one, it's number two.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:34

So I think that's you know, I think you have to look at all the different ways you can not only find money but solve the problem. And I think we're so used to looking at solving the problem the way we've always solved the problem that and you're fixing to see some stuff at Breck that's gonna shake things up even more with this new superintendent. He's gonna be amazing. And I think we have to take that approach parish-wide. But again, uh it's it's not necessarily finding the money. Part of the problem is the parish has used sales taxes for so long to make up things that should be a a millage of all the people. And when St. George broke away and said, hey, these sales taxes are gonna be used in this area that the parish could no longer function as they were. If they would fix this, they could use their sales taxes at the parish level and the city of Baton Rouge level to fix their problems. You fund the government and use the sales taxes to fix your problems.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:38

Do you think there's paralysis because of apathy? We've always done it this way. This is how it's always gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:43

I think there's there's apathy, I think there's some uh I don't want to call it ignorance, but uh not understanding. I think if you talk to dependent on party, how how we should approach it, it's it's different. I think there's no pragmatism in the solution that is being presented. I think what you're gonna see coming is probably the most common sense solution and it will fix it statewide. Batterage and East Patridge and St. Tammany Parish are the only two parishes right now that have this problem. If if the the judge and and the way they wrote this succeeds, where they can burden municipalities. You got 314 municipalities in the state, but it's that it's all gonna be a victim of a precedent that's very dangerous.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:37

Yeah, all of a sudden getting hit with uh a price tag, they they've never been required to make it.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:43

I joked about it yesterday with McDavid and said, look, I mean, let's go ahead and annex all the way to the north of the parish line and we'll just start the 65th parish. Because if I'm gonna have to pony up and write a check for something, I want control of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:56

So this just in breaking news.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:59

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:59

Central Zachary St. George intended to form a 65th parish.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:03

Yes. St. Zach and George.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:07

That's right, it's gonna be awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:09

What's your name? Zach and George. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:12

It's biblical, it's great. Don't question it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:18

Yeah, O'Neill Lane's gonna be the new downtown, baby.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:22

Exactly right. O'Neill's gonna be make O'Neal great again.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:25

Yeah, oh cookie top pot shop. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:28

So if you want to, uh Dave, if you want to find us somewhere, give us a phone number one more time to text us.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:33

Yeah, you can text us at 225-255-2480. And how else can you find us? Uh, you can find us at thesavicate.com slash podcasts or at the top of the page. There's a podcast link. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Google has a podcast, uh, Spotify Podcast. Central City Hall. We also Central City Hall. We also have a um the Savocate Podcast group on Facebook. Just type in Savagate Podcast, you'll be taken right there.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:00

Very easy to find us episodes generally every week. Go ahead, make a joke.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:05

Unless Drew doesn't get it uploaded for like a couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:08

Fair.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:08

And then I've got the guy from the United Navy, Cajun Navy, threatening to beat me up. We put the episode up eventually.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:14

We found it. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:16

So not professionals, just I mean, look, but that kind of goes in line with what they do. They're always looking for somebody.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:21

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:22

And it works. Hey, we lost your stuff. We found it. I mean, let's celebrate. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:26

Hey, can you send somebody to rescue the audio?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:29

This is uh in true United Cajun Navy form. Drew found the episode like two weeks later.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:34

This is called it to the office. Intentional irony. No charge.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:38

Yeah. That's right. If I would have had your episode uploaded timely, that would have been nothing. Right. That would not have fit the narrative. That's great.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:45

We have got a guest coming up who's gonna be a lot of fun. His name is Mark Belgard. He is the Ascension Parish Department of Memes guy.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:56

So we're leaving the parish for an episode? No.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:58

No. He's leaving his parish for an episode.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:00

Is he gonna be okay with that coming down airline highway?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:02

He is good work, too.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:04

Very good, very good work. Funny guy. I've become pretty good friends with him. He's uh he is he is who's who in Ascension Parish.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:11

Do we want to uh think about annexing any of Ascension Parish into our 65th parish?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:15

Well, you gotta be careful. Uh you know, the the whole contiguous thing is is blocked by Bayou Manshack.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:21

They're also a violent group in Gonzales. You gotta watch out. Ascension Parish will fight each other. It's like a yes, it's like a difficult. Wait a second.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:28

Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:29

Sorry. Maybe it's a good fit. That was a low-key cut, but I like it.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:33

It's a good fit.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:34

There'd never be anybody fighting over in Central, huh?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:37

No, we're docile. Even our preachers.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:41

I tell each other East Batten Reeve Parish was so dysfunctional that I thought Ascension Parish was way more functional, and they literally punch each other in meetings. More accomplished. Yeah. All right. So if you want to help out the show, like us, subscribe to us, uh, leave us a sweet review. That'd be great. Share, share it. Share it. Uh join the Facebook group. That'd be great. If you hate the show, uh just send us a text message uh so we can talk about that as well. So thank you. You can find new episodes every single week. Uh, this is Dave and Drew. It's the Savaged Podcast, episode number 32.