A Police Jury committee will get an update today from State Sen. Jay Luneau on opiod litigation.
The Personnel, Elections, Insurance and Legal Committee will hear the report behind closed doors at its 3 p.m. meeting.
Discussing of litigation response and strategy in executive session is allowable under the state’s Sunshine Law.
What might need to be talked about out of public hearing is speculative at best. Possibilities could be how much and when?
The state share of a settlement in 2021 was $600 million over 18 years. The Rapides share of that Opiod Abatement Fund was about $600,000 a year. Under the state’s formula, 20 percent of a parish’s share goes to the sheriff.
Initial payments were disbursed more than two years after the settlement.
The Memo of Understanding created under the administration of then-Atty. Gen. outlines specific manners in which the funding can be used.
Also today, the Ambulance, Fire, Health & Homeland Security Committee will be asked to recommend renewing an agreement with St. Martin and St. Mary Parishes for sheltering critical transportation needs for evacuees and their pets.
The agreement is part of those parishes’ emergency response planning. Both are located in the state’s Hurricane Alley.
Parties involved in the agreement are the jury, the Coliseum, the Sheriff’s Office and the Red Cross.
The impacted parishes pay daily rental fee plus fees for sanitation, garbage and electrical service. The renewal would extend the arrangement through May 2028.
The committee will also receive Acadian Ambulance’s monthly response report.
It notes 1,038 calls, all answered with the allowable contracted response time.
No update from the parish Ambulance Advisory Committee is on the posted agenda.
CONTINUING HIS FATHER’S LEGACY: Philip Rodgers (right), seen here with his wife Jenny, and sons Aiden (plaid shirt) and Noah, continues to build the St. Jude Dream Home. (Submitted photo)
Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person – someone who is well-known, successful, and/or influential, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”
By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
The teenager thought he was “somebody”.
After all, he was the son of a well-known, well-respected home builder.
One day on a job site, the boy and his father’s head carpenter got into an argument. The young “man” decided to give his father’s long time worker the heave-ho.
“He told my dad, ‘George, Philip fired me today, so I don’t guess I will be here tomorrow.’”
You could have heard a nail drop.
“He called all those grown men over, made me pull my britches down, and he whooped my butt with his belt. He said, ‘My son, he’s just a worker. He doesn’t fire anybody.’”
Turns out, dad was showing son some tough love.
“He didn’t want me to be in this business because it’s a hard business. He was just trying to teach me – to run me off.”
47-year-old Philip Rodgers, longtime home builder, as well as a current Bossier Parish police juror, told me that story, and his story, during lunch at a place he chose, Shane’s Seafood & BBQ (Philip and Shane are brothers). Philip had a small cheeseburger, fries, and peach tea to drink. He also had a side of pickles. “My family loves pickles. We eat ‘em like candy.” I enjoyed the two-piece catfish lunch special, and water with lemon. Philip did not offer to share is pickles.
Despite his daddy’s wishes, Philip has been building homes – or at least involved in home building – most of his life. As a kid, he would pick up trash at his father’s jobsites.
“It’s all I’ve ever done. I was a dishwasher for a couple of nights. My mom got me a job at Western Sizzlin for about three nights, but I couldn’t do that.”
But there was plenty Philip could do. He was “always a hustler.”
“By the time I was a senior in high school, I had bought three different vehicles in my name. My credit. I would just come home one day with a new truck. Daddy would say, ‘You bought you a new truck? I hope you can pay for it.’”
He could. Philip was making $3,500 a week with his lawn service. After graduating Southwood High School, Philip gave Bossier Parish Community College a try. But he soon found out time is money.
“I wasn’t going to work until one in the afternoon because I had school all morning. I had to sub out my yards to the guys who worked for me because I couldn’t be there. I said, ‘You know what? I would be better off if I went to work.’”
Philip eventually sold his lawn service and began working for his father. But Philip still didn’t get preferential treatment
“We had a Track Hoe, so I would dig out slabs for the plumber to put the plumbing in houses. Then, I would put in septic tanks in the afternoon.”
Later, Philip began laying tile floors, while continuing to install septic tanks.
“If you want to be in the building business,” Philip’s dad told him, ‘”You’re going to have to learn what a builder does.”
Philip’s father was “a bigger guy” and had health issues. Open heart surgery when he was 30. Five heart attacks. A mechanical heart the final five years of his life. So, Philip began taking on more and more responsibility. Philip got his builders’ license in the early 2000’s and eventually took over his father’s business.
“He was always a worker and taught me that you have to work to be something in your life.”
Philip’s dad built the first 20 St. Jude Dream Homes, starting in 1990. His father donated his work and got subcontractors to do the same. That’s right. They built houses for free, which were raffled off. The proceeds went to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Philip didn’t have to continue his father’s legacy. Think about that. Building a house for free? But he did. The 35th Dream Home is being built this year.
“He instilled in us that was the right thing to do. That’s why you do something – for the right reasons. He felt, and I felt, ‘Why should I quit? Because it’s hard?’ That’s not really a reason to quit. Kids with cancer are dying. If that’s my part I can do to help, that’s what I should do.”
Philip knows something about having a sick child. The youngest of two sons, Aiden was born with
Hypoplastic left heart syndrome. In terms you and I can understand, Aiden came into the world with half a heart.
“Some doctors said he would never have a normal life. They didn’t know what kind of life he would have, or how long he would live.
Aiden has had three heart surgeries (at four days old, four months old, and four years old). Philip and his wife of 15 years, Jenny, take Aiden to Houston for a checkup every six months.
“He’s doing great . . . . Nobody would look at Aiden (who is now 10) and know there was a thing wrong with him . . . . Before he was born, doctors told us he would never be able to wrestle and play with his brother (Noah).
Philip’s voice cracked. His eyes welled up with tears.
“They (Aiden and his brother) fight like cats and dogs. Every time we see them fight it makes us happy.”
But not every story in Philip’s life has had a happy ending. His other brother, who worked for 10 years at a restaurant, was mentally challenged.
“Some guys befriended him. They figured out when he was going to get his check. They robbed him and killed him over $187.”
Two men were arrested and sent to prison. The now-retired detective who worked the case wrote a book about his time in law enforcement and included the murder of Philip’s brother.
“My wife read it. She told me I could never read it. I told her I didn’t have to read it. I lived it.”
30 years after his brother’s killing, Philip continues to show amazing grace.
“I forgive those guys,” Philip told me, unable to hold back tears. “God will handle that. That’s not for me to do. Do I want them out of prison? No. But I don’t hate them. They will get what they deserve. They’re not for me to judge.”
As if homebuilding wasn’t a full-time job, Philip is in his second term as a Bossier Parish police juror. His first taste of politics came several years ago, when he and his father were denied permission to build a “high-end mobile home park” in Benton.
“I started watching and seeing what was going on. I just wanted to be involved in my community. I still feel that way.”
As a juror, Philip has a better understanding of what it’s like to make decisions which aren’t always popular with everyone.
“I don’t mind telling someone ‘No’ when I don’t agree with them.”
Assuming Philip had to oversee a foundation pour or figure a way to ease traffic on Old Palmetto Road, I asked my final question. As always, what is it about his life that might be inspiring to others? Philip thought back to a recent funeral he attended. A lot of people – a lot of people – came to pay their respects.
“You should maybe do the right thing and treat people the way you want to be treated . . . . I think that’s how you’re measured, by what you do for other people.”
If that’s true, Philip’s funeral may be standing room only.
STRONG MOVE: Calvary senior Bubba Strong was among three Cavaliers spotlighted Wednesday when the LSWA released its Class 2A All-State team. (Journal photo by GAVEN HAMMOND, landgphotos.com)
JOURNAL SPORTS
The Calvary boys basketball program reached its fifth state championship game in six seasons last month, and three of the prime reasons were in the spotlight Wednesday when the Louisiana Sports Writers Association released its Class 2A All-State roster.
Sophomore guard Tyrone “T.J.” Jamison was chosen 2A’s Most Outstanding Player while teammates Bubba Strong and Jaiden Hall received honorable mention recognition in voting by a statewide LSWA panel.
Jamison has also been named the Outstanding Player on the Shreveport-Bossier Journal All-Metro team announced today. Strong joined him on the All-Metro first team.
Jamison averaged 15.3 points, 3.9 rebounds and 6.7 assists to help the Cavaliers return to the boys Marsh Madness tournament under Vic Morris. Jamison, who is ranked as the top point guard on ESPN’s Class of 2027 recruiting ranks, scored at least 19 points in each of the semifinals and finals.
The Cavs posted a 28-4 record, playing some top-flight out-of-state opponents and a series of games against some of the state’s strongest programs from bigger classifications. Rolling through district play, Calvary earned the No. 1 seeding in the Select Division III bracket and blitzed three playoff opponents before Metairie Park-Country Day controlled the tempo and stunned the Cavs in the state finals.
