Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line with Sterling Mayor Diana Merdian

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Talk Line with Sterling Mayor Diana Merdian · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Good Morningsock Valley. You've joined the Waking crew here on
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  Speaker 1: FM ninety five one and a fourteen sixty WIXN, where
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  Speaker 1: you're never more than moments away from all the local news,
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  Speaker 1: sports and entertainment information along with the hits needed to
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  Speaker 1: start your day. It's eight fifteen on your January twelfth morning,
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  Speaker 1: and that means it's time for talk line and I'm
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  Speaker 1: joined in the booth once again by my good friend
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  Speaker 1: from Sterling, the mayor herself, Diana Merdian. Diana, how are.
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  Speaker 2: You pretty good? How are you?
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  Speaker 1: I'm very well. How was your holidays?
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  Speaker 2: Pretty good?
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  Speaker 3: I was able to make it out not getting sick,
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  Speaker 3: but a few people in my family not so much,
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  Speaker 3: but I had to take care of them, so you know,
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  Speaker 3: it was a lot of a lot of fun, a
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  Speaker 3: lot of deliveries, a lot of all of that good stuff.
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  Speaker 1: So that's okay. I'm not surprised you weren't able to
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  Speaker 1: be kept down for Christmas. It's your jam.
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  Speaker 2: Well that was last year.
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  Speaker 3: I did not survive last year, but this year I
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  Speaker 3: was able to get get away with it.
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  Speaker 1: So you kind of wanted to start off today talking
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  Speaker 1: about the East Second Street Road project.
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  Speaker 3: Right, well, yeah, and I'm I'm still kind of waiting
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  Speaker 3: for a little bit of clarification. Uh, you know, we're
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  Speaker 3: kind of breaking breaking the news here right right now,
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  Speaker 3: fresh or at least you know, I haven't been able
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  Speaker 3: to check social media, so I don't know who's breaking
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  Speaker 3: it first, but it looks like we are, you know,
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  Speaker 3: being told that from first to fourth Avenue should be open,
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  Speaker 3: and we're told next Friday. I'm just trying to get
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  Speaker 3: confirmation as to what next which next Friday that is,
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  Speaker 3: if that means the twenty third, and so so I'm
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  Speaker 3: just trying to get confirmation if that is the twenty third,
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  Speaker 3: that that'll be from First Avenue to at least fourth
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  Speaker 3: Avenue for East second Street.
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  Speaker 2: So it is. It is really nice they are doing.
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  Speaker 3: Uh they're coreing out the manhole covers right now. They're
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  Speaker 3: putting in the gosh, the stop signs and the one
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  Speaker 3: way signs and all of those things, and then they're
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  Speaker 3: putting down the striping at the temporary striping right now
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  Speaker 3: and so that people know where all of where all
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  Speaker 3: the lanes are and everything there will be.
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  Speaker 2: I believe a little bit of.
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  Speaker 3: Lane change changes over by Second Avenue where it used
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  Speaker 3: to cut into two lanes.
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  Speaker 2: Over by city over by City Hall.
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  Speaker 3: I think there will be a slight change, but other
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  Speaker 3: than that, everything else should be the same.
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  Speaker 2: The parking street parking will.
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  Speaker 3: Be a little different that people will notice, but otherwise
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  Speaker 3: it should be the all things considered for those for
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  Speaker 3: those of you know, those residents that have lived in
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  Speaker 3: the area most of their lives, they shouldn't see a
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  Speaker 3: whole lot different. But there will be handicapped parking that
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  Speaker 3: will be that will be new, and so that it
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  Speaker 3: was something that was required because of the grant. So
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  Speaker 3: there are a little bit of changes.
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  Speaker 1: Well that's that's good news. It's a big project, yes.
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  Speaker 2: Very very big. It's still not done yet, and.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody knows about wanting it to be done more than
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  Speaker 1: Sterling's mayor because you live right in the middle of
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  Speaker 1: that construction hubub so you've been patient.
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  Speaker 2: I think I don't know about patient. It's been.
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  Speaker 3: It has definitely been a lesson in patience for me
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  Speaker 3: and probably a lot of my neighbors, and and so
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  Speaker 3: we are definitely, you know, definitely getting a lesson in
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  Speaker 3: that I am also waiting. This is a little bit
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  Speaker 3: of a segue, I guess uh, waiting for word from
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  Speaker 3: Union Pacific on some permits that we're waiting for them
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  Speaker 3: so that we can do some work for the some
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  Speaker 3: electrical work with comed and then some work for the
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  Speaker 3: pedestrian Brits.
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  Speaker 2: We have a few permits.
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  Speaker 3: We have two that we're waiting on from them so
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  Speaker 3: that we can continue the work. Uh. And so that
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  Speaker 3: takes a little bit of time to get clearance from
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  Speaker 3: Union Pacific, and so waiting to get word from them.
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  Speaker 3: And then also I don't know if anybody has been
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  Speaker 3: watching Union Pacific social media, I will say they are
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  Speaker 3: doing an awful lot of teasers and they are not
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  Speaker 3: dropping the news as to the to or for Big
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  Speaker 3: Boy yet, but they are every day doing a little
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  Speaker 3: bit of a bread crumb as to we're gonna have
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  Speaker 3: the tour soon this year.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to release the tour dates soon.
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  Speaker 3: Every single day and they still have not yet released
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  Speaker 3: it on when Union Pacific will release whether they're going
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  Speaker 3: to come through Illinois or not, So we hopefully will
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  Speaker 3: be on the list of either a stop. If they
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  Speaker 3: come through Illinois, then my guess is that we will
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  Speaker 3: at least have it come through. Whether it stops or not,
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  Speaker 3: it will depend probably on how much I have been
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  Speaker 3: bothering them.
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  Speaker 1: So well, if if if there's an advocate for this
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  Speaker 1: to happen for the City of Sterling, it's it's you.
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  Speaker 1: Especially when when it comes to the trains.
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  Speaker 3: Oh yes, I have been, you know, because it's it's
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  Speaker 3: this year. So it's during twenty twenty six, and it's
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  Speaker 3: their big twenty twenty six year and it's the big
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  Speaker 3: merger between the two rail companies, and then it's the
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  Speaker 3: whole America two fifty, so it's that big event. It's
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  Speaker 3: also so we're trying to kind of do that along
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  Speaker 3: with it, and then also trying to highlight our new
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  Speaker 3: park and so really trying to make it a big,
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  Speaker 3: a big event. And as we're doing that, we're also
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  Speaker 3: trying to get ready for a lot of our summer
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  Speaker 3: events and spring events, fall events that we have going
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  Speaker 3: on with the city, and trying to work with a
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  Speaker 3: lot of the other groups within the city to try
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  Speaker 3: and kind of plan what we're going to be doing
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  Speaker 3: this this year.
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  Speaker 1: So it'll it'll be one to watch out for for sure.
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  Speaker 1: And if that happens. It seems, whether it's a holiday
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  Speaker 1: or an event, you are the only mayor at least
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  Speaker 1: around any of these areas. I know that goes full
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  Speaker 1: board with your costumes. Can we expect the train conductor
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  Speaker 1: outfit if they come through?
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  Speaker 3: Oh well, I mean I already I have my my
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  Speaker 3: overalls and I think everybody thinks that that is a
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  Speaker 3: get up. But now, granted I had to buy new ones,
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  Speaker 3: but that is not something that is new. I've had
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  Speaker 3: train conductor overalls for a long time. That is something
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  Speaker 3: that I kind of inherited from my dad, and that
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  Speaker 3: that goes back a lot longer, uh than the whole
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  Speaker 3: mayor thing. That was one of my leeve leap or
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  Speaker 3: like spring fling kind of where you wear same same
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  Speaker 3: kind of outfits to.
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  Speaker 2: My high school high school dance that was.
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  Speaker 3: That was my junior year outfit. It uh so, this
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  Speaker 3: is this goes way back.
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  Speaker 1: My goodness, you've been doing it since you were a kid.
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  Speaker 1: I just like I think it was like a pair
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  Speaker 1: of black jeans and a white shirt that matched with
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  Speaker 1: my date.
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  Speaker 2: At the time, all the way back. So this is
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  Speaker 2: not a new thing.
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  Speaker 1: Well then to finish it.
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  Speaker 3: Off, yeah, so uh so yes, and so we you know,
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  Speaker 3: I know Terry our clerks, she is working on getting
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  Speaker 3: movies for our Movies in the Park, and we are
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  Speaker 3: working with Sterling Main Street. I know they got some
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  Speaker 3: really interesting events that they're going to be doing this year.
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  Speaker 3: So it's really exciting to see what we're going to
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  Speaker 3: be uh doing this year, and you know how we
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  Speaker 3: can kind of utilize the you know, the Riverfront Park
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  Speaker 3: and and things like that. So it's it's it's going
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  Speaker 3: to be a busy year, exciting. It is going to
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  Speaker 3: be exciting year. I think, uh, it is going to
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  Speaker 3: go by very fast, sure, and so it's you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's something that we'll have to plan, but it'll also
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  Speaker 3: be something that we'll have to kind of be able
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  Speaker 3: to stop a little bit and enjoy the moment and
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  Speaker 3: kind of take it in a little bit, because otherwise
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  Speaker 3: I feel like it'll will blink and it'll be gone.
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  Speaker 1: Sure. So now if if you can't leak it out,
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  Speaker 1: you can't leak it out. But will we see some
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  Speaker 1: events at the new park this year?
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  Speaker 3: I I anticipate yes, do we I don't know any that.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know any that are planned, but I can't
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  Speaker 3: imagine that we won't you know, plan something. I know
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  Speaker 3: that the Riverfront Commission does want to have uh, ribbon
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  Speaker 3: cutting or some kind of celebration, you know, to kind
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  Speaker 3: of celebrate We've we've been wanting to do that for
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  Speaker 3: a long time. Uh, but we also want to make
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  Speaker 3: sure that we're doing it safely so that we can
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  Speaker 3: do it and you know, kind of show off the park. Well,
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  Speaker 3: and so what is that going to look like? I'm
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  Speaker 3: not entirely sure how does that look? I'm not entirely sure,
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  Speaker 3: but I know we definitely want to do something big,
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  Speaker 3: and I know we want to.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, kind of enjoy it.
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  Speaker 3: I know we also will you know, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: encourage people to come and do their own events there.
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  Speaker 1: So well, there you have it. Whether you know city,
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  Speaker 1: whether whether it's this year, I'm sure we'll see. I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure we'll see something. You can't confirm it. That's okay.
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  Speaker 2: I had to ask people have things planned. They haven't
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  Speaker 2: told me.
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  Speaker 3: They do know that I'm usually always down for stuff.
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  Speaker 2: I do know that. Uh.
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  Speaker 3: With some of our movies in the park, they often
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  Speaker 3: plug me in for some of the more crazier costume
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  Speaker 3: ideas because they know I'll probably do it, and they
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  Speaker 3: always they always tag it with no offense after they
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  Speaker 3: put my name next to it, so but I know they.
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  Speaker 1: Founded by Lydia Deeds from Beetlejuice School. Come on, people,
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  Speaker 1: you also wanted to talk about the city's rental inspection program.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, so we after gosh, almost sixteen years of you know,
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  Speaker 3: a lot of debate and you know, talk of the
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  Speaker 3: rental inspection before my time, we in May, I think
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  Speaker 3: it was May had the rental inspector maybe was April
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  Speaker 3: had the rental inspection ordinance on the agenda and we
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  Speaker 3: voted for that ordinance to go through.
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  Speaker 2: And just.
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  Speaker 3: In December we had our open house for the rental
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  Speaker 3: inspection program. Met regular with our co enforcement department, and
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  Speaker 3: he has been working pretty much ever since we passed it,
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  Speaker 3: going parcel by parcel, road by road, Sewerville by Sewerville,
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  Speaker 3: making sure that he went through everything to try and
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  Speaker 3: see what the whole like inventory of our town is,
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  Speaker 3: just to kind of see what types of you know,
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  Speaker 3: buildings we have, what types of whether it's apartments, whether
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  Speaker 3: it's single family homes, duplexes, you know, just a whole
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  Speaker 3: bunch of different you know, we have so many different
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  Speaker 3: types of buildings and just really trying to get like
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  Speaker 3: a good respect of the inventory and you know, is
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  Speaker 3: really granular and so there's a lot of work. I
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  Speaker 3: give him a lot of credit for the work that
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  Speaker 3: he put into it. He didn't just go blindly. And
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  Speaker 3: so we had the open house in December. We had
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  Speaker 3: two of them, one in the morning, one the afternoon,
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  Speaker 3: or one in the evening, and we actually had a
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  Speaker 3: lot of people show up for it. I know, the
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  Speaker 3: one the morning it was standing room only. We had
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people and I believe they said that
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  Speaker 3: they had over twelve hundred rental units registered and so
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  Speaker 3: with that registration, anybody who registered was able to get
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  Speaker 3: their rental units the fee waived. And so you know,
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  Speaker 3: we're trying to you know, hey, if you if you
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  Speaker 3: come and do this during this kind of.
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  Speaker 2: Period, we'll wave your fees.
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  Speaker 3: So we're trying to work with landlords so that it's
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  Speaker 3: not you know, a burden on them. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: we've we had landlords kind of come to us with
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  Speaker 3: some concerns and so we have made some adjustments to
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  Speaker 3: the initial ordinance. One you know, specific one was if
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  Speaker 3: they had one of the rentals but they were renting
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  Speaker 3: to a family member, we put that in the exemption.
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  Speaker 3: So so we're willing to you know, listen to landlords
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  Speaker 3: and see like, okay, is there any changes that do
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  Speaker 3: make sense and that we can make. And so you know,
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  Speaker 3: as we're as we're doing this, we got you know,
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  Speaker 3: a lot of those come in and so now we're
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  Speaker 3: able to kind of go through and start the inspection
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  Speaker 3: process and we have a new UH software system and
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  Speaker 3: so they're going through all of that, and so it
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  Speaker 3: really has been well received. And so it has been
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  Speaker 3: something that you know, it has been a long time
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  Speaker 3: coming u to say least, and you know, it's been
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  Speaker 3: so far pretty positive and you know, I've been really
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  Speaker 3: proud of the work that the Code Enforcement Department has
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  Speaker 3: been doing. Is not going to be a money maker
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  Speaker 3: by any stretch of the imaginement imagination at all.
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  Speaker 2: That the intention, No, No.
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  Speaker 1: It was about making sure that there's a minimal standard
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  Speaker 1: of living set in in in rental areas and that
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  Speaker 1: wasn't occurring in every rental unit.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and and really you know that there's accountability not
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  Speaker 3: only for the landlords but also for the tenants and
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  Speaker 3: that you know, we're we're having a standard where you know,
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  Speaker 3: also the properties and the neighbors, you know, you're not
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  Speaker 3: bringing down the property values of the neighborhood, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: where neighbors are having rodents come into their house because
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  Speaker 3: of you know, the way that their neighbors house is
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  Speaker 3: kept and things like that, and so, you know, so
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  Speaker 3: we're really we're really happy to see the actual willingness
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  Speaker 3: the landlords have shown up. We thought there was either
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  Speaker 3: going to be a lot of landlords show up or nobody,
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  Speaker 3: and we were actually really you know, surprised at the
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  Speaker 3: level of interest and the willingness that the landlords have
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  Speaker 3: been you know and rolling this out and actually working
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  Speaker 3: with us. So it has been very positive.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, like you said, it's it's a long time coming,
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  Speaker 1: it's something that that's been needed. It's it's not meant
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  Speaker 1: to punish anyone, but like you said, it's it's about
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  Speaker 1: on accountability on both sides. And uh, it is quite
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  Speaker 1: an undertaking something that that hadn't happened previously. As you
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  Speaker 1: had said, been almost going close to twenty years trying
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  Speaker 1: to get it, and so it's I think it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be a wonderful thing. You guys have been great
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  Speaker 1: about being flexible, and so all we can do is
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  Speaker 1: watch and and see how this helps. So we're out
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  Speaker 1: of time, Diana, but I want to thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much for joining me in the booth and always uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, providing us these updates and all the work
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  Speaker 1: that you guys are doing down there. It's it's great
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  Speaker 1: to see and there's gonna be more of it to come.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.