Town Talk Church Point
Town Talk Church Point
Town Talk Podcast: Part 3 Mayor Spanky's accomplishments since he took office
Mayor Spanky joins us for an insightful discussion on the evolving landscape of Church Point, where infrastructure and progress are at the forefront. Discover how we've been tackling the critical road maintenance issues with a significant $500,000 investment already underway and another half-million dollars committed to our efforts. As we navigate the complexities of managing state highways, Mayor Spanky shares our strategic focus on repairing the worst interior roads first, alongside a determined approach to securing government funding to lighten the town's financial load. Also, celebrate with us the exciting milestones achieved, from annexing new areas and establishing a new city hall to upgrading police department facilities and modernizing our water meter systems.
We extend heartfelt gratitude to our dedicated listeners as we wrap up this chapter of our series. Your continued support fuels our passion for bringing you more engaging content and stories that matter to our community. With the invaluable contributions of Mayor Spanky, we promise more updates and behind-the-scenes glimpses into the future trajectory of Church Point. Stay connected and be ready for more episodes packed with insights that keep you informed about the local happenings shaping our town's future.
We're here again. Another Town Talk podcast. It is Chris and Mayor Spanky. Can I bring up the R word or you want to save that for a later day?
Speaker 2:For roads, all right.
Speaker 1:I know you always any little thing you do in town, sometimes you get. Well, what about the roads? You know there's always something about that and obviously that is something that's in your plan too.
Speaker 2:That is something that every single day I'm working on. We did 500,000 already on roads. We have another 500 coming up. We're trying to get the government to pay for as much of it as we can before we go for a bond, because that's the last thing that I want to do, because that's when we owe the money that puts us back to not being paid off. So the more I can get from the government, the better I will be. But that's what we're working on and, to be honest with you, look people gonna say what they want to say. My roads, comparatively, are not that. Roads, comparatively, are not that bad. The parts that and I ask that to every single person which road Main Street Can't touch that.
Speaker 1:That's always, I think, a misconception. Is that right? Because our main arteries in Church Point for the lack of terms, our main arteries coming in and out of town, or state highways, which and they'll.
Speaker 2:They'll call and threaten to fine me for changing, uh, for putting back their sign. Let's just be honest, that's. But they won't come put it back, but that's how it works. Yeah, so interior town, we don't, we're working on the worst ones first. I mean happy was one that it was one of the newest roads but one of the worst roads, or the degolu, one of the newest roads, one of the worst roads.
Speaker 2:So that's unfortunate and I mean we're working on some spots that are the worst and getting them back on. But to say, the highway is coming in and out of town now, because you got to think about it, where Voltrose is highway, where Pizzaville highway, where the road that goes out to the cemetery highway, the one that goes by Our Mother Mercy highway, the one that goes by Rechart highway, yeah, just what it is. But, like I said, we have some things. I have a board by my office that has these big envelopes and it's projects that I want to see done in the next two years, you know.
Speaker 2:But a lot of things are just rolling on with what we already have, because when I first started we had to turn around the ship. We had to make it go the other way. Now we've got the ship rolling in the right direction. So we just got to keep the ship floating and keep it going in the right direction and we've annexed some parts of town right past St Jude Street. That's all in Church Point now. So that's a good big win. The more we grow the town, the better we are. There's a lot of things that we can be doing and we're going to be doing, but I'm not done yet, Even though that you did the eight-year plan in six done yet Even though that you did the eight year plan in six, there's still some to do's on your plan.
Speaker 2:When there's nothing on my list, that's when I won't be the mayor anymore. I just that's how I work. Anything I do, it can be better, it can run better, but you know, that's why I pretty much take the beatings. That we do is because we change all the time and the number one thing that people they want to see change but they don't want to go through it, and that's understandable. But I keep changing and I'm going to keep on getting better and make it more. I want to be in 2025. I don't want to be in the 1980s, no more.
Speaker 1:You know I love the 80s.
Speaker 2:I wish I was back there, but no, we don't want our town to run like it did. Well, we've had a lot of good things and, like I said, this list is just the list of things that we had that I had on the mind. Two years before.
Speaker 2:But I mean we've got a new city hall with a drive-thru, you know, upgraded the police department. They have brand new cars, they have a body camera. I mean when we got here, when me and Dale got in the office, that department was. When we got here, when me and Dale got in the office, that department was, you know, it wasn't updated and we went after it. I mean we got trackers on the cars.
Speaker 2:We can tell you know everything that's going on at the water plant. Now we're putting in new meters and I understand that people don't like it. Again, that change work. But when this thing is all said and done, I'm going to be able to tell you how much gallons you use. By the minute I did it, actually myself, I had a blowout for the freeze at my own home and I can tell you it works because I know it busted at 11 am and I'm the one that turned it off at 645 pm and I used 4,900 gallons. Wow, you know like. But to the minute I know what I was because I was there, you know. So these are things that are going to help us a lot with that fogginess, you know, because before it was a meter and it was just like, well, I didn't see any water or I didn't see this leak. I can tell you by the minute how much gallons you're losing, and it's a better way to figure it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say that you can almost take an average right of water usage and if it seems high for somebody, then it.
Speaker 2:there could be an issue somewhere we've had guys that, because of this has. It proves that they're leaking a tenth of a gallon a minute, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it is that's every 30 days yeah that's, that's about 900 gallons a month and that 10 of a gallon is not a whole lot.
Speaker 2:But with guys that put a valve, like at their house, okay, like right underneath their house, to isolate okay, is it in the house or is it in the ground, because it can tell you that if you could turn off the water, you know there's all these things that you can do and now we'll be able to really explain it and help people understand it. But I mean, we have to run through these hurdles right now because a lot of people don't understand it and we were hand reading. Now it's automated. So there's some bills that were 45 days, some that were 30.
Speaker 2:These things you're taking everything that you've done for 50 years, throwing it out the window and starting new. That's not an easy job and I'm going to tell you, the water meters in the six years I've been mayor is the roughest project of everyone that we've ever done. And I went through some rough, rough projects. But our town is, I think it's doing the best it's ever been. The hospital, I mean it's serious over there. They're very close to approvals and they're doing the things that they're supposed to do to get a new hospital. So I mean you're talking about look around Church Park man. Look at the park system, Look at the street system, look the. Everything's getting updated. The high school has brand new buildings, brand new parking lots. Right, you know like this town is doing a lot better than most towns. Just go and look at that, I agree.
Speaker 1:It's not just me, it's everyone you helping to get the word out to the people you know and look at that, I agree.
Speaker 2:It's not just me, it's everybody. You helping to get the word out to the people. And look you get aggravated, just like I get aggravated. Oh, you're not telling us enough. When we got here, you know it. Yeah, we didn't have a website, right? We?
Speaker 1:didn't have a.
Speaker 2:Facebook. You got your news, what was wanted you to hear every seven days in the Church Point News.
Speaker 1:And I'm not talking about the Church Point.
Speaker 2:News but.
Speaker 1:No, that was the communication right. If the town had something to say, if something shut down, if there was going to be this, whatever it was, it was once a week in the paper, or maybe they posted something at City Hall for the sake of argument.
Speaker 2:That was it.
Speaker 1:Now I know that was again something that you were heavy on getting the word out Move the technology, let's get the word out. And sometimes people still say, but we don't know, and so we put stuff on the website the.
Speaker 1:Town of Church Point Facebook page. We got the tech system now, so there's more ways. And you still use the Church Point News yeah, not dogging them by any means. You still use them weekly for things that come out or or things that happen in town, so we're still using all that and we're still gonna get the person that says well, my this one and that one don't have the internet or don't have a phone that don't have Facebook.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we could fly a plane with a banner with it on where they were inside the house when they did it you know, compared to where we were six years ago. Six years ago, you had the newspaper still have the newspaper, but now you have the website, facebook text everything that we can do, we put out there and it'll never be good enough, and I understand that, but go look at where it was six years ago.
Speaker 1:It's way more. Yeah, I mean, it's a leap in bounds.
Speaker 2:You can leave right now and go subscribe to that paper. You'll be the same way where you were six years ago. That's it.
Speaker 1:You know, another thing that we have is the podcast, where you talk about a lot of things. If there's some water issues or that, we talk about it, and obviously all that stuff we are mentioning the text group and the Facebook website, all that podcasting, all that's going to start to grow. People will come around to it. The podcast is great for stuff like this because you're pretty transparent with everything that's going on. You like to put it out there, you like to discuss it and you like to get the information out to everybody.
Speaker 2:And look in 2025, I don't care what you say, everybody got one. Yeah, that's the lifeline now. So if you're not on the texting app, that's on you. I mean, we put it out there. If you use it, good, if you don't, don't. You know, people always say why we don't tell you? Tell them beforehand.
Speaker 1:Well, first of all, we don't anticipate a mainline water line break?
Speaker 2:If we would, I wouldn't want that. You know what I'm saying. I don't want a mainline break ever. When it does, it shows. The other night they had an issue with the electricity. We warned the people two hours before the electricity went out. That texting app got that done. That's a big deal. So when you're talking about, well, you know the immediate information that goes from my lips to the texting app, that's, that's how fast that information is.
Speaker 1:Yep, now we're gonna have when the council meetings are, or no, it's gonna have emergency stuff that you need to know yeah, and if you're listening to the podcast and you're not in the text group the emergency text notification if you go to churchpointorg, we have a QR code that you can scan there, or there's a 1-800 number that you text, but the instructions are there. Either way, that'll get you in the group and you'll get the text when you know. It's one of those things, mayor, where we hope that we don't use the text notification a lot, because that's our emergency text notification you know, electricity, boil water advisories, things like that.
Speaker 1:But it's, it's there for that purpose.
Speaker 2:I agree 100%.
Speaker 1:So thanks again for for wrapping up another podcast, mayor. We'll probably do it again soon.
Speaker 1:And again, if anybody has any issues, town talk questions at gmailcom. You can email us there or, obviously, you can go to churchpointorg. That's something else real quick. You got the complaint form there. So if anybody has any complaints or you see a pothole or some long grass or whatever it is, that's a new system you implemented. You go to the website, click complaint form, fill it out. It gets to the right person and it gets done.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, and with that I have to ask you this Mayor, you had your mind set on eight years and you got this done in six. Now, again, as we mentioned in the podcast, that doesn't mean that your work stops. You have plenty more in your to-do list. Are we going to see another four years after this eight-year plan is done with you? Well, what do you think about that? Personally, me, I say absolutely. I. I say absolutely, I mean you've to. To me, mayor, you've been, and you and I have talked about this before I feel you work very hard and in the last six years Right, you got another two, two years coming up and I really think you need to give the town of Church Point a little more of your time.
Speaker 2:Well, I have to get with my better half, right, amanda, which I owe the biggest thank you to, should I?
Speaker 1:ask Amanda instead of asking you, you might?
Speaker 2:I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about it hard.
Speaker 2:I knew I needed eight years to do what I needed to do to turn the ship around. In no way was I wanting to be a mayor that goes five, six terms. I wanted to be the person that just comes in, turns the ship around and then goes away, because I'm an aggressive guy and I want the most out of everything. And sometimes you need a guy to drive the ship, and sometimes you need a guy to drive the ship and sometimes you need a guy to turn around the ship and, uh, but the ship's not all the way around. We're gonna keep on working on a lot of things and keep on hitting on grants and when I feel that, um, the time has come to let that ship just coast on down and I feel that it's in good hands, then I'll let it go, because church born is close to me and it's very important to me, so I want to leave it as best of shape as I can. You got me for two years, for sure, but my wife and I are going to mainly show women.
Speaker 1:We appreciate the deep, deep dive man. It was multiple parts. Thanks everybody for listening to each and every one of them and we'll be back with a few more podcasts and fill you in on what's going on in town.
Speaker 2:All right. Thank you so much and thank you for all you do Awesome.
Speaker 1:You got it, Mayor. We'll see you on the next one.