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Talk Line: Sterling Mayor Diana Merdian talks Hot Dog Days & other events · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's eight twenty on your Friday morning, and it's time
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for talk line and we're joined in the booth once
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: again for a bit far too long. But such a
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: busy lady, the Mayor of Sterling herself Diana or dian Diana,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: how are.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: You pretty good?
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: Pretty good?
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Busy summer?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: It has been a busy summer. It's been crazy busy
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: in a good way though, getting a getting getting a
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: lot done over on Sterling side.
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: Yes, somebody had mentioned that summers are supposed to be
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: usually easy and uneventful and relaxing, and I don't know,
• 0:36
  Speaker 4: but it's not been that way. And also as an adult,
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: I feel like summers are supposed to be slower but
• 0:46
  Speaker 4: it went by way too fast. Yeah, it's August in
• 0:50
  Speaker 4: like a minute.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: So when you're a parent, it's it's always busier. Everybody
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: imagines it's going to be easier, but it's not. It's
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: it's usually more chaotic and busier. And as mayor of
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: an entire city, you know you've got a lot more
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: kids you're trying to entertain and plan for. Uh, So
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: that's probably why it's it seems so crazy. But you've
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: been showing the kids a great time. Everybody had the
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: first ever Sterling street Fest.
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: Yes, and that was so much fun. We had so
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: many people of all ages. We don't have a head count.
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: I wish I wish we did. I don't know if
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: you've ever been to the municipal band concerts. Uh Gonzo
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: Reis has a little clicker. I don't know that he
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: would have been able to get his little clicker going
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: at the street fest because there were so many people there.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: It was the best, the best time. Way back in
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: the nineties we used to have I think they called
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: it like blues Fest or some kind of like black
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: party where the cgh Ready Clinic is or Ready Care.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: I only vaguely.
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  Speaker 4: Remember my parents dragging me to it and complaining the
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: whole time. I was probably a brat, and you know,
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: and I remember going to it and watching bands I
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: didn't know and things like that. And so I want
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: to say, maybe I was asking a few people if
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: they remembered what year that was, and the few people
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: that I asked, they're like, they weren't sure.
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  Speaker 2: We think maybe ninety one, ninety.
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: Two ish, And so that was like roughly the last
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: time we had something like that, and Sterling I don't
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: know why it stopped, like what, yeah, what led to
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: things you know kind of you know stopping in the area.
• 2:50
  Speaker 4: I don't know if it's the mill closing or just
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: lack of volunteers. It takes a lot of people to
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: get that stuff done, and so this was something that
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: Bread Trader, our direct our superintendent of public Works, wanted
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: to bring back and with a few other people before
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: COVID hit and then obviously, yeah, a pandemic slows things
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: down just a bit. And you know, when I started
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: my term, we had talked about it and there were
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: a few grants that had come up, but it just
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: wasn't the right time, and so then it was just like,
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: let's just do it. Council had approved some seed money
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: just to kind of get started, and then Brad and
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: the committee continued to fundraise just to you know, get going.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: And so we're planning to make it annually. I don't
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: think the state would allow us to do it weekly
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: because you know, closing down a state route is something
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: that takes a lot of planning and you got to get.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Approval for that.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: We did have people say they didn't know about it,
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  Speaker 4: but when it's right in the middle of downtown.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're going to know about it, so you.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: Can't get around it, you can't go through it, so
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: you're going to know about it when it's right there.
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  Speaker 4: But it was so much fun, so many people were
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: appreciative of it. One of the big things that we
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: want to make sure we can strive to do is
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: make sure that to be able to come in and
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: listen to it, it stays free and we don't have
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: to charge a cover, and so making sure we get
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: those donations and things like that, and we keep budgets
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: and stuff tight so you know, people it's affordable. Right
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  Speaker 4: now things aren't that way, and so making sure that
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  Speaker 4: it's family friendly also. So there's a lot of things
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  Speaker 4: that we are hoping to be able to keep moving forward.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Well it was fantastic, folks.
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  Speaker 1: I got to MC this thing, which again a big
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: thank you out to everybody on Sterling side for giving
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: me the honor to be able to do that. I
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: had a fantastic time doing it. But it was packed.
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  Speaker 1: I mean from early on I thought, considering this ran
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: from two to eight, I didn't expect, you know, maybe
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the two three o'clock hour to be as full as
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: it was. But it was people were there, they were
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: ready for the first bands. Couldn't have gotten a better lineup.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: You guys are going to have a heck of a
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: time trying to outdo yourselves for the next one. Just
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: fantastic bands. My first time hearing them. I've actually reached
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: out to them. I'm going to have the solution and
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Lois Hills on the show. I'm still trying to reach
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the Breakfast Club. But fantastic bands. It really was that impromptu.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: The kids on the bikes doing the tricks. This was
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: an unscripted moment that if you weren't there and you
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: missed it, you really should have been there. But the
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  Speaker 1: band got these kids to do these wheelies. They were
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: just there riding their bikes.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: It was very eighties nineties. Yeah, I mean.
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  Speaker 1: And you had kids running around playing with bubbles and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: then watching the kids do the tricks, and yeah, it
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  Speaker 1: really did have that reminiscent feel of when we were kids,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: that those block style, you know, neighborhood parties where everyone
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: was running around, everyone was having a good time.
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  Speaker 4: If it were writers like that would have that was
• 6:23
  Speaker 4: one thing we were missing.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: You know what, I think we need a low writer show.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: For for street Fest twenty seven, I really do that
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  Speaker 1: would be cool. But the location was great. It housed
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: even for such a pack crowd. How's everybody good? The
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: stage was a great size, you could have any band
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: you wanted. I think traffic was able to get routed.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: For like you said, having to close down that section
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: of the roadway, I think that was handled beautifully.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because I was.
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: Nervous about the traffic, but it didn't seem too horrible.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: No, I didn't see anything. You didn't hear honk and
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: getting held up. And if you know the landscape of Sterling,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: anyone around here, you know how that could just donut
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: around that little area was perfect. So I'm looking forward
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: to next year already.
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah, And speaking of that kind of loop is going
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: to be working on road construction there. I'm not sure
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: the exact start date, but I know since August is
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: literally right around the corner, I think they're going to
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: be starting here right around either August or September to
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: I guess if you want to call it our loop,
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: it'll roughly be right around Sbm, down Locusts to where
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: the curve is, and then up First Avenue, pretty much
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: all of downtown all of the all of the spots
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: that need to be fixed downtown. They're going to be
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: resurfacing those. That's why we were doing the the corners
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: for a da uh. You know, we had to hurry
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: up and get those done for the sidewalks so that
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: they could come in and do those. They are going
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: to do that construction. That's the state, that's not us.
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: They're going to do that construction. We're being told overnight
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: just because of the traffic and since it is a
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  Speaker 4: state route. I don't know exactly what that means or
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: how that's gonna look because we've never had anything like
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: that in Sterling before, or at least to my knowledge
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: and my awareness as a driver, and so so it'll
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: be interesting to see how that looks. I'm not sure
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: if there will be any construction noise for the few
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: residents that we have downtown. I can't imagine that it
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: would be mildly different than the trains that come through,
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: but it you know, there might be more lights the
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: normal while they're doing that construction. I also, I'm not
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  Speaker 4: sure the hours that that evening construction will be because
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure what their night means as opposed to
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: what my night would be so so yeah, so it'll
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: be interesting. I'm not sure how long that'll take. They
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: are aware of our Fiesta parade and so I do
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: know the Chamber did change up the route on both
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: the rock Falls and the Sterling side, so they are
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: aware of that and so they are trying to make
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: sure it'll be as minimal disruption as possible. So because
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  Speaker 4: they know it's a big parade that we've been doing
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: for many, many years. I think we're one of the
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: longest operating Fiesta parades in the state.
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I did not know that.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: It's it's unofficial, it's not something that is wildly known,
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: but just because we're a small community. But if you
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: if you look to try and see online, who's the oldest, Uh,
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  Speaker 4: there's very few that have anything older than ours.
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  Speaker 3: So that's very cool. Always look forward to the to
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  Speaker 3: the Fiesta parade.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: That's just a cool time, very awesome event that's been
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: going on for a while. Speaking of of awesome events,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: we got hot Dog Days coming.
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  Speaker 3: Up and this was one.
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  Speaker 1: When I first learned about it for the paper and
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: had to go write about it, I was like, what's
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: what's Hot Dog Days? I had actually never heard of
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: it and I was like, what's the big deal. I
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: came out. It's a very big deal. So much of
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the of the city and everybody from around comes up
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: to show out for this thing.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so you I mean, I know that there's hot
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: dog eating contents.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: That happen all over Sterling.
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  Speaker 4: We're a town of just shy of fifteen thousand.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: We guys are taking a more relaxed approach from that.
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: We I think Jana from Sterling Main Street says we
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: come close to just shy of eight thousand hot dogs,
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: So you know, yeah, we're pretty close to almost you know,
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: we're about half of our residents get a hot dog.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: You know, I know that there are people that you know,
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: are not from Sterling that come and get a hot dog.
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: But we have businesses that will come and you see
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: them come and get like a whole bunch of hot
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: dogs for their employees.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: But I'm not sure what the prices are this year.
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: They're usually like fifty cents a quarter or something like
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: that for a hot dog, you know, and bag of chips.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: And a drink.
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: And it is a big deal and they do sell
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: out different there's different stations and different you know, locations.
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: And I don't know where.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Do I go.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: I went to the police department and I think they
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: were sold out, so I had to walk all the
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: way to the fire department to see if I could
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: get hotdog there, because you know, yeah.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: And then those those two are always trying to see
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: who's going to outdo the other one, who's going to
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: sell out first.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: And once they're sold out, they're sold out. So you know,
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: it starts at I believe eleven o'clock and it goes
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: until they sell out. And I think they say roughly
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: like one, but if they sell out by before one,
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: it's done before one. And there have been times where
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: they're done before one.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: So yeah, a lot of people turn out for it.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: I mean it's more than just the standing in line
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: for the hot dogs and the chips.
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, there's the family, kid fair, family fun fair, whatever
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: you want to call it. Down at the Farmer's Market.
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: That's always a great time. There's so many vendors down there.
• 13:15
  Speaker 4: I can only imagine what it's going to be like
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: now that we have the river, you know, the Northwestern
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: Stalwire Park down there, so because you'll be able to
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: do that stuff at the Farmer's market and then go
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: and you know, if it's hot, go to the splash
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: pad and playground.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I love seeing the activity for the park
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: that that was able to happen while the weather was
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: still hot and everybody getting use of the water. Yeah,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: just just a lot of activity down there.
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: Yes, it's always busy. It's really being used. So I'm
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: a little nervous as to what the water bill will be, but.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, do you uh the skating ribbon is that still?
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: So obviously we've not frozen any ice yet because it's
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: been a little warm, and so, uh we we haven't
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: talked about what uh like what day we'll start, I know, uh,
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: me and scott Or City manager met with you know,
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: the park district and like the school district and some
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: of the other taxiing bodies and Larry from the park
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: district he said that when they had ice skating, you
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: know with the park district, he started making ice on
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: Thanksgiving weekend. But that was when you had to make
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: ice and you know, lay it down, freeze it like
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: you know, and yeah, it was a long time ago,
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: and so this is I think it's gonna be a
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: little different.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: U And so.
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: I think our next Riverfront meetings will probably be talking about, Okay,
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: what does winter look like? What are we like, are
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: we going to have like certain like kickoff days for
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: you know, for the season, things like that, and what
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: will our times be. I know, we have a zamboni attachment.
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: I was hoping we were going to actually have an
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: actual zamboni. I was just told it's an attachment. So
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: I'm a little disappointed on that because I wanted to
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: be the one driving the zamboni around. But we're also
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: trying to find somebody that will have rental ice skates.
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: I don't have any ice skates. I don't even know
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: how to ice skate, so I'm gonna have to learn
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: how to do that. And so we to figure out
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: some of those details sure, and and things like that,
• 16:05
  Speaker 4: and you know, like will we have some like a
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: kickoff you know, Thanksgiving weekend because sometimes like even like
• 16:14
  Speaker 4: with Christmas trees, you know that that weekend of like
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: that Friday, Saturday, Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend, that's like usually
• 16:24
  Speaker 4: like a big weekend for families to go out and
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: do stuff because kids are out of school, they need
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: stuff to do. And so I don't know if that's
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: something we haven't talked as a commission about that. But
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: after hearing what Larry was saying, I was like, that
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: might actually be a good Now, that's probably overtime, you know,
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: that's probably holiday pay and stuff like that.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: So these are all discussions that need to be had.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: So well, I mean, there's time for it. It'll lot it'll.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: Be here before we know it though.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's always how it works. But you've still
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: got some time to have these discussions. So election packets
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: are ready for pickup.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Yes, I mean it's sorry.
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: You know, it's crazy, you know, talking about Thanksgiving and
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: Christmas and winter and it's almost August and you know
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: school's going to be starting, and then election packets.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: That is for the April election.
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: So so twenty twenty seven and so election packets and
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: that will be for the spring election. It's crazy to
• 17:43
  Speaker 4: think that it has been a full term. For myself,
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: sometimes I feel like I just got started, and sometimes
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: it feels like it's been ten years. So you know,
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: you'll be seeing you know, people going around for your
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: local municipal elections, uh, collecting signatures and each town is
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: different as to who is up for you know, election
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: or re election, and so you know, different municipalities will
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: have different people, so not everybody's all on the same cycle.
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: So I think, uh in Rochelle, they're mayor's up.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: I'm up for mayors.
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: I'm not sure about I think I think Dixon too,
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: because I want to say me and Glenn are on
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: the same cycle. I think so like, but I know, uh,
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: Rock Falls is not.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: So like. Every municipality is different. So just whatever.
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: Municipality somebody's in, just encourage everybody to educate themselves and
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: uh into you know, look into it further and get information.
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: There's a lot of information on the internet on Facebook.
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: If you have questions, reach out to either your city clerk,
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: county clerk, or state Board of Elections.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: There you go, go on the official website, give them
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: a call, get informed. Most importantly, get out and vote. Diana,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: we're out of time, but thank you so much for
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: coming on the show. I will I'll do better about
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: reaching out and see if we could schedule to get
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: this in here. But of course I know you've always
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: got so much good work to do, so I appreciate
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: that and everything you're doing over in Sterling.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: Thanks again for you guys. Inviting me over.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: For Stirling Street Fest. An yeah, it's going to be
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: so cool again. Y'all got your work cut out for
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: you to to top next year, so