Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line 10-21-2026: Dixon Police Chief Ryan Bivins talks Halloween safety, E-bikes

Transcript

Talk Line 10-21-2026: Dixon Police Chief Ryan Bivins talks Halloween safety, E-bikes · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Sauk Valley, and welcome back to The Waking
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Crew here on FM 95.1 and AM 1460 WIXN. It's
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: 816 on your Wednesday morning, and it's time for Talk Line,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and we are joined again once more by our good
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: friends from the Dixon Police Department, the Chief himself coming
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: in here. Sir, how are you today?
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Doing well. Thanks for having me.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's good to have you in here. I know
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: you guys are real busy at the department this time
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: of year. ramping up for Halloween as all of us
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: just look forward to whether it's the kids and the
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: candy or the parents chasing after them in the costumes.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: All of you down at the department, it's an all-hands-on-deck
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: kind of thing. It never stops safety for you folks.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: So you just kind of wanted to remind the public
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: of some general things to keep in mind when they're
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: out there so that they and their little ones are
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: safe and having a good time this season.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: So Halloween kind of is one of those events, too, where,
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: you know, I think of Petunia Fest and I think
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: of the Scarecrow Fest that we just had, which was.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: A great event.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure that people understand the amount of resources
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: that we bring in, off-duty officers, you know, and bringing
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: people in on overtime, having shifts staying over late, coming
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: in early. So Halloween is one of those events. and
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: obviously our streets are filled and we love seeing that
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: we love seeing the kids out and about and so
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: yeah so this year obviously it's on a saturday we
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: anticipate it to be a busy night for us um
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: you know the kids being out we set the time
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: from 5 to 7 30 and i know i've heard
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: some kickback on that of why can't it be longer
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: um you know i'm not going to sit here and
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: say if people want to stay out longer that's right
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: that's up to them but as far as when The
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: time is officially for the town.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: That's when it will be.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: And, you know, like I said, we bring in a
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: lot of resources. So our day shift, actually, they stay
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: over almost two hours. So that's a 14-hour shift for them.
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  Speaker 3: Our night shift's coming in early. You know, a couple hours,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: that's a 14-hour shift.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a long day.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll be out and about.
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  Speaker 3: Deputy Chief Simonton will be out and about. We have
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: some investigators coming in. So we bring in the whole
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: crew and make sure that we're very visible. And it's
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: not to, you know, be, hey, don't do this and that.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: It's to make sure people are driving safely.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: To make sure nobody gets hit by vehicles.
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  Speaker 3: And obviously every now and then we have some kids
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: that want to get into some mischief, which, you know,
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: we were all kids once, right? And we remember, but
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: just as long as everyone's staying safe, that's the main goal.
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  Speaker 1: So. Yeah, and it takes those extra hands because you can't,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: you know, if you're just running with the same crew
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: that you normally have patrolling the streets, that means you
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: don't have those officers doing what they're normally doing, and
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: that's not something that you can do. Also, so you've
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: got to have those extra people in, and that's just
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: keeping in mind all the folks that it takes to
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: make happen. And as you said, it's not that you
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: couldn't stay out later if you wanted. I already gave
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: you folks a hack. Amboy starting a little earlier. So
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: start in Amboy.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: There you go.
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  Speaker 1: Finish in Dixon because they're a half hour later. See
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: how that's going to go. You get your time there. Absolutely. But, yeah,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: it's all about being safe and having fun, like you said,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: not– not being nicer, just getting everybody to slow down.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that's the biggest thing. Yeah.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: That is the biggest thing.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, for the, for the younger kids, I
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: remember being a kid and going out, you know, with
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: my friends and just going wherever. And I think we
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: would always kind of go to the Northeast side of town.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: That seems to be the, the, the best, one of
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: the best areas, or at least the most populated where
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: the streets are just filled. Um, but for the younger kids,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: make sure the parents are keeping an eye on them.
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  Speaker 2: It's easy.
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  Speaker 3: We usually get a, a call or two each year
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  Speaker 3: of a lost child or, you know, so make sure
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: they're in groups. Um, you know, we, we put on
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: there where like colored clothing, we understand that's probably not
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: super realistic because most of the costumes are.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: You know, yeah. And you get, you get a lot
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: of dark colors with Halloween. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So it's just making sure that kids are somewhat visible. Um,
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  Speaker 3: the biggest thing is only go to, to houses where there's,
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: you know, porch lights on. Um, that's, that's kind of
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  Speaker 3: one of the, the, the biggest things if, if the
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: porch light isn't on, you know, don't even, don't even
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: go up to it. They're either gone, not interested or whatever.
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  Speaker 3: So that's just kind of the.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: That's always been the universal sign. That's what I tell
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: my kids. If the lights on, I'm like, no, I
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: skipped that. Well, what I think, no, just it's, it's okay.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: There's plenty other lights on.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and one of the other things too, and just
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: so the community is aware, we always do sex offender
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: compliance checks. I know we get some concern about that
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: each year from people calling in.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: And so.
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  Speaker 3: It's actually mandated by the state that we do these,
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: but we do them twice a year to where we
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: just go around to all the offenders in the community,
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  Speaker 3: make sure they're in compliance, and make sure they understand
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  Speaker 3: that they cannot participate as well.
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  Speaker 2: So that's something, just a little.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: Extra safety step we do right before Halloween to make
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: sure everyone's on the same page with that.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Not saying they're bad people. It's just, they just can't participate.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Right. No, absolutely. That's a, that's the rules where again,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: it's all about safety, making sure everybody's having a good time. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: and following the rules is the easiest way to do that.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: It is. And speaking of rules, that's a really good
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: way to segue into the next topic because this is
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: a quite a big one. And, uh, for some of you,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: it might be your first time hearing it. And if, uh,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: you or a child has an e-bike, you're really going
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: to want to pay attention to what the chief's got
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: to say next.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So the e-bikes have been a hot topic ever since
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: I was appointed almost a year and a half ago.
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  Speaker 3: One of the council members approached me about it and
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: I immediately got with the city attorney and we've kind
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: of been waiting because we knew there was legislation kind
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: of in the back burner. And so we didn't want
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: to make all these rules just for the state to
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: override everything that we work towards. So they finally you know,
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: passed a law and that will go into effect January 1st.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: And it's a preemptive law, meaning the state supersedes anything
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: that we would do locally. So we have to go
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: by what the state says. With that being said, our
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: primary goal is not to just go around and take
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: every kid's e-bike.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: It's education and compliance.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: And so essentially there's different classes, you know, e-bikes and
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: things like that, but This tip sheet, we'll be.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: Putting something out like this that explains everything.
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  Speaker 3: And it's kind of complex because there are so many
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: different levels of electric scooters, unicycles, skateboards, all those different things.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: Really what it comes down to for like most of
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: the e-bikes that we see in town, you have to
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: be 15 or older. So we see a lot of
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: kids out there now that are very young.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Very, yeah, I've seen some very young ones. Makes me
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  Speaker 1: very nervous.
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  Speaker 2: And we get a lot of complaints on it.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: The challenge is, you know, if we have three or
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: four officers on a shift, they're responding to calls. By
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: the time we can get to those kids or whatever,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: they're gone. So what we're doing and how we're approaching
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: this is Sergeant Sharp is going to work with the
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: SRO at Reagan Middle School, because that's kind of our
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: target audience, and work with the schools in conjunction and.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Just push the education forward. to educate the students and
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: also the parents.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: So it's going to be, you know, Hey, for Christmas
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: coming up, probably not the best gift to buy. Um,
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: you know, cause there's going to be all these state
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: laws that, that we're going to enforce.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: So, yeah. And, and again, it's, I mean, it's, it's
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: not a local decision. This is something everybody has to
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: follow for one. So, I mean, that's just to put
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: that out there, but for two, this is something that, again,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: this isn't about being negative. This is really about safety.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: It is.
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  Speaker 3: And that's the thing we want. And that's why we're
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: approaching it from an education starting now. It's like, we don't,
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: we want the kids to have fun. I remember being
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: a kid out riding my bike. We didn't have e-bikes,
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: you know, growing up, but now they're everywhere. We want
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: kids to have fun, but it is about safety. In
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: the last few months, we've had some serious accidents with
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: e-bikes and a lot of these kids aren't wearing helmets
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  Speaker 3: and it's just.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: It's, And these things reach speeds that motor vehicles reach.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, 30 miles an hour. You wouldn't put your
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: 10-year-old on a motorcycle even if it could only top
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: out at 30 miles an hour. So, I mean, this
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: is the same thing. And you also can't expect 10-
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: and 12-year-olds to really be thinking in the sense of,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: you know, this is the way traffic works and people
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: drive and, you know, And I don't know if you
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: know this, you know, maybe this is a good question
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: for you or someone to find out. Do you know
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: if they are doing anything in relation with like golf carts?
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Because I see.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: I see like nine and ten year olds and I
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: seen one like they just they don't know how it works.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: So it was like last second incoming car and they like,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: you know, thankfully the car was going slow and this
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: was like inside a trailer park and they had went.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: But I was like, oh, my God, that would have
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: been that.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so golf carts aren't authorized to be in town.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: We've had a couple people try to register them, I believe,
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: as of late, and it's not something that we're authorizing
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: in town.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's an interesting thing for sure that's going on.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: And like you said, the biggest thing is safety. We
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: don't want to respond to a call where a kid
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: gets hit.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: No.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: With anybody, but especially when it involves a kid, that's
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: not something anybody needs.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah. E-bikes were like the sci-fi dream for us when
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: we were a kid, right? I'm still waiting for the
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: hoverboard from Back to the Future, right? We got Elon
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Musk flipping over a car, but I can't get a hoverboard.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: Not one that doesn't work in the water anyways. But yeah,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: it's not about curtailing anybody's fun, man. Like you said,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: you don't want those calls.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: It's not worth that yeah and the biggest approach we're
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: taking like i said is education but we're working with
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: the park district with the city we're all on the
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: same page like we want people to enjoy the paths
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: that are out there the new paths and like you
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: know you get kids flying by on these bikes and
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: almost hitting people and you know it's again we want
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: those paths to be utilized and everyone to have fun
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: but that's got to be we got to you know.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah it's it's a It's enough of a thought
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: to think of, you know, hey, somebody running into somebody
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: on a bicycle, but 30 miles an hour on an
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: e-bike is, whew. So, you know, we'll go on to
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: some happier topics.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's go.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Let's do it. You guys have a charitable event coming up.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: We do.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: So our charitable association, for those that don't know, we
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: do fundraising for that. This isn't just an event. I
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: say an account that we just have money in. So
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: we have to raise money and every dollar that we
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: raise for our charitable association goes back into the community
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: to events like shop with a cop, um, clothes for kids,
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: you know, our cops and bobbers. And we get back to,
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: you know, we get requests all the time from different,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: you know, Al Morrison from different groups within town.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: And we're, we're generous. We want to, we want.
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: To give back to the community and that's the idea
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: behind that. Um, So, yeah, November 13th from 7 to
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: 10 at the Elks, we're having a casino night. And
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: people hear casino night and they're like, oh, I'm going
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: to go win a bunch of money. Well, the flip
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: side to that is you have to be 21 to
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: attend first off. But every– there's no actual money won.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: Everything goes to the charitable.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you're having a good time.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: You're having a good time.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Be the big contributor. The big spender, be the big winner.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Be the big giver.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and so– Your entry ticket is $ 75. It gets
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: you entry, an appetizer, and playing cash. Or you can
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: buy raffle tickets. You can get $ 20 for one, $ 50
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: for three. There's cash prizes for that. And then there's
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: a live auction, a silent auction.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: So it's going to be a good event. We've got
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: a lot of good.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: Donations for different things to give away. So we're really
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: looking forward to that, and hopefully we have a good turnout.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah. No, I love a good, love a good event,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: especially when it's for a good cause. I love that
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: kind of theme that, that, that's super cool. So are
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: you going to, are you going to be dealing or anything?
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: I will be there, but we're actually, uh, we have a, uh,
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: a group coming in with like professional dealers and everything.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: So I will be there though.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, don't tell me you got
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: to work your own event. He's like, no, I'll be working.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: They wouldn't want me doing that. I'm not, uh, not
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: the best shuffler and.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Uh, Yeah, I think mine's pretty basic, though. My kids
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: think it's cool, but they have no idea how terrible
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: it is. Anything else you want to share while we
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: had a minute?
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: I think the last thing, just while we're here, we're
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: selling canine shirts now. I know Lee County's been doing
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: that for a while, and we're actually going to be
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: adding a canine.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: To our department.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: And so we've got some shirts out there, and people
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: can stop by the department and order one.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: We don't have them on hand yet. So we're selling those,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: and they look great.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah. come. Awesome. They, they come in or can they
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: go online as well?
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Uh, right now just, just stopping in.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: And then if we have events, you know, we'll be
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: out with them. Um, and, and that just helps support, uh,
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: the canine and, and having another canine, it's such a
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: force multiplier that, uh, it's, it's the benefits, uh, are,
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: are pretty awesome.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, well, I'll be looking out for those. You
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: go in and, and, uh, get yours. I love a
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: good shirt and a again with a good cause. I
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: love it. So, Chief, thanks for coming in. Really appreciate
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the updates, all the hard work you and everyone does
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: at the department to make sure everyone's safe here in Dixon.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: We really appreciate it. Thank you.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.