Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Duane Long shares Dixon Park District spring updates

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Talk Line: Duane Long shares Dixon Park District spring updates · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Good morning, Sock Valley. You've joined the waking crew here
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: on FM ninety five one and AM fourteen sixty WIX
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: And it's now eight sixteen on your Tuesday morning, and
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: you know what that means. It's time for talk line
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  Speaker 1: and I'm joined in the booth once again by our
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  Speaker 1: good friends from the Dixon Park District. It's Duane Long, sir.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: How are you, good morning, and thanks for having us
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: doing great. Weather's shaping up a little bit right now,
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: but another hour it might be different around here.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Not only is it Illinois, but it is the start
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: of spring, so we yeah, rain is just on the agenda,
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  Speaker 1: but that's okay. The farmers need it, the grass needs it,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: and I mean that's great because our parks are they're
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: always looking beautiful thanks to you folks. What's going on
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  Speaker 1: with our parks? Get if it's a status Yeah, good.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Lead right into that. The parks are greening up and
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: it's that time of year. Our maintenance crew actually mode
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: for the first time yesterday, so they're out about. All
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: parks are open. Like I just said, mowings beguns, so
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: you know, be aware of that. They're in the parks.
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  Speaker 2: Waters all getting turned on except the splash pads a
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: little early for that. The only thing that we have
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  Speaker 2: is the boat docks are removed. We had to remove
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  Speaker 2: the boat docks last week due to the high water.
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  Speaker 2: We'll get those back in. As soon as the water
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  Speaker 2: drops down and be consistently down, we'll get those back in.
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  Speaker 2: But hey, it's a good time of the year spring
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  Speaker 2: us here. The parks are greening up. We're out mowing.
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  Speaker 2: Let's get going. Let's get out there and get in
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  Speaker 2: the parks. The playground's being busy here lately too, so
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: get out there and enjoy them. I love that.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: I'm envious of the guys and they're mo. I'm gonna
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: be honest, Wayne, when I retire. If I ever retired,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: maybe it'll just be pick up a part time gig
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: because I'm busy. I will for free mo some of
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  Speaker 1: the parks on a rider. I just love cutting.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: Watch your mouth. You give me a park and I
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: will do it for free. Yeah. Our crew is very busy,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: so we mow five days a week. Yeah, with two
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: or three guys. We have a fifteen foot mower and
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  Speaker 2: then two trim mowers. We just mow mo mo. And
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: then by the time you get downe you start back
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: over and do it again. So you know, all of
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: our recreation fields get mode twice a week soccer, softball,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: and then our parks get mode once a week. So
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  Speaker 2: you know, when you're doing twenty parks, you know it
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  Speaker 2: takes a while a low park and you know the metals,
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  Speaker 2: the soccer fields, we mow a lot more than people realize.
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  Speaker 2: And it's a full time gig for three guys.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, absolutely, they keep it looking beautiful and great.
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  Speaker 2: Guys.
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  Speaker 1: I'm telling you, if you in some several years when
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: when things slowed down for me, I'll I'll give you
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: all a free day off doing can pay you, and
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  Speaker 1: I'll just hop on.
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  Speaker 2: The more because I love it.
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  Speaker 1: I love how beautiful they make it look, and they
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: gotta love that awesome. What's going on with your recreation programs?
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  Speaker 1: It's getting warmer. That means there's things to do. You
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: guys always have stuff for the community, stuff for the kids.
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  Speaker 1: What's going on with that? Yeah, we got a couple
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  Speaker 1: things coming up. We got kids table at three thirty
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  Speaker 1: to five April eleventh or April eleventh through twenty second
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  Speaker 1: paint workshop April twenty seventh, Bracelet buddies May fourteenth, and yep,
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  Speaker 1: softball's here, adult softball, co ed softball June first and
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  Speaker 1: May twenty ninth. And just to throw something out there,
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  Speaker 1: just to give everybody just a little inkling on the calendar,
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  Speaker 1: Spark Camp is coming up June sixteenth through the eighteenth
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  Speaker 1: and July fourteenth through sixteenth. And I know that sounds
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  Speaker 1: like a way way ways off, but it's not. It's
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  Speaker 1: right around the corner, So get the sign ups going.
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  Speaker 1: We have the largest water slide that we've ever had.
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  Speaker 1: It's gonna be a forty foot water slide at Spark
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  Speaker 1: Camp this year.
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  Speaker 2: That's awesome. That's that's a little out of my range.
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  Speaker 2: I can't believe our insurance is covering that. That's higher
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  Speaker 2: than our facility up there. So it's a big water slide.
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  Speaker 2: So we're expecting four hundred people, four hundred youth at
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  Speaker 2: this camp, so it's gonna be exciting.
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  Speaker 1: That's awesome. I love to hear a big water slide
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  Speaker 1: coming back. We've gotten a better about safety in our
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  Speaker 1: overall culture over the years. And I say that only
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: because you mentioned the slide. I still remember before they
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: had to tear it down over at Sinnissippi and Sterling.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: But do you remember the big I think my mom
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  Speaker 1: told me it was a toboggan slide that yeah went,
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  Speaker 1: oh yeah, from where you used to tee off for
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  Speaker 1: discof at the first Now they've had it, holds it
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  Speaker 1: but all the way down to the river. Absolutely, And
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  Speaker 1: I think insurance has dictated what we do and what
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  Speaker 1: we don't do too, Like you can't have fifteen foot steels,
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  Speaker 1: slides and parks no more unless they're already grandfathered in.
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  Speaker 1: But you don't see them anymore because kids were getting
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: burned from the sun.
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  Speaker 2: You know. It's things like that that we just did
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  Speaker 2: as kids. Sure that is not happening no more. So
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  Speaker 2: no forty foot slide. It's all safety checked and everything.
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  Speaker 2: We have staff on it and everything. But wow, that's
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  Speaker 2: gonna be up in the air. I'm excited to see this.
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  Speaker 2: The first time we've ever had this biggest slide out Chicago.
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  Speaker 2: So big attraction. The kids love the slides, they love
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  Speaker 2: spark Camp. We feed them, we take care of them.
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  Speaker 2: Seth gives a little inspiration speech every morning that I record,
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  Speaker 2: and I might even go back and listen to it
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  Speaker 2: from last year. It's pretty neat what he does with
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  Speaker 2: that spark Camp and what the kids respond to.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: I love hearing that you guys are just bringing back
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  Speaker 1: some of the things that I love so much about
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  Speaker 1: childhood but making them even better because you know, we
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: we had to go out and find our own phone
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  Speaker 1: when we were kids, Dune, and I mean, you guys
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: are just bringing it there for them.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we did you know some similar when I
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  Speaker 2: was a kid, we had individual parks and Dixon where
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  Speaker 2: the parents dropped you off at that park and there
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  Speaker 2: was two high school kids or college kids there that
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  Speaker 2: would run you know, organized stuff for three or four hours.
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  Speaker 2: So we kind of you can't do that no more.
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  Speaker 2: We can't have parents just drop kids off no more.
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  Speaker 2: You need their name, number, emergency. It's just a whole
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  Speaker 2: different boggame. Oh yeah, So this is where kind of
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  Speaker 2: spark camp came from, is we can't drop my individual parks,
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  Speaker 2: but you can bring them to us and we'll take
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  Speaker 2: care of them for two days. We'll feed them, we'll
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  Speaker 2: take care of them. We got swimsuit they got swimsuits on.
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  Speaker 2: We play kickball. It's it's just if you want a
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  Speaker 2: place to come up and smile. Just walk through Spark Camp.
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  Speaker 2: It's great. They don't give me a job to do,
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  Speaker 2: so I get to actually walk through and just be
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: myself and they get to observe. It's great. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: our whole staff. Our offices are empty because all of
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: our office staff is out there help them because they
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: want to, not because they're told to. I don't have
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: to tell them, hey, go help us. Our office is
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: just empty. So if you're looking to come into our
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: office and get some financial information, there'll be nobody there.
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  Speaker 2: On Spark Camp, they will be out back with the
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  Speaker 2: four hundred kids, feed them and just so forth. It's
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  Speaker 2: just a great week that he does there. I love that.
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  Speaker 1: Get your kids out there, have them sign up for
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  Speaker 1: Spark Camp, join Duwayne in the park district.
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  Speaker 2: Get outside.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, And if that hasn't been enough of a reason
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  Speaker 1: to get outside for you, You guys have programs at
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  Speaker 1: your nature center.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, oh the nature center. Yes, it's really going strong
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  Speaker 2: out there. I just talked to Anna yesterday. So many
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  Speaker 2: programs going on. We have Earthday Celebration at Lowell Park
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  Speaker 2: April twenty second, Bird one oh one April twenty fourth,
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  Speaker 2: Nature Fun for Little Ones, May first, Sculpting Spring Thursdays
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  Speaker 2: at ten thirty Mother's Day Art Workshop. May ninth. They're
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  Speaker 2: going to Mucoca Cave Tours Sunday May seventh, and guess
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  Speaker 2: what farmers Market? Yes? May second is their first day,
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  Speaker 2: eight to one. And just let it be known. It's
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  Speaker 2: at John Dixon Park. This year our change and we
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  Speaker 2: have sixty five vendors signed up right now and there's
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  Speaker 2: still more pending. It's gonna be exciting at John Dixon Park. Yes.
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  Speaker 2: Is there gonna be parking problems? Yes? And I use
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  Speaker 2: your thing. I use your quote there in my staff
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  Speaker 2: meeting a month or so ago where what park has
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: good parking? You know you said that to me and
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  Speaker 2: I'm like, you know what park does have good parking? Absolutely?
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  Speaker 2: So hey, you know, if you want to come to
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  Speaker 2: the Farmer's Market, it's got to be worth it to
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  Speaker 2: you to find a spot. And you know we have
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  Speaker 2: a bouncy house down there for the kids. Every week
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  Speaker 2: there'll be a bouncy house for free. It's in the park.
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  Speaker 2: We have a box in the park now store there
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  Speaker 2: so they just pulled out and use it. It's more
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  Speaker 2: of a family farmer's market now. Yeah, I like We're
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  Speaker 2: gonna have food trucks down there, coffee, music, it's gonna
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  Speaker 2: be a great time. I think it'll be worth it
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  Speaker 2: to find your parking spot and get in there and
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  Speaker 2: enjoy some time at John Dickson Park this year.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, I love that you're making this. You know, it's
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  Speaker 1: already e venting itself. A farmer's market. I mean, you've
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  Speaker 1: got you know, goods that you're not going to get
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  Speaker 1: anywhere else. It's all local. These things are handmade, handcrafted,
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  Speaker 1: had you know, home grown from the area. That's already
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  Speaker 1: a good enough thing in itself, but you guys really
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  Speaker 1: go the extra mile putting a bounce house out there
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  Speaker 1: so you don't got to worry if you've got you know,
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  Speaker 1: little ones and like, oh, I don't think I'm gonna
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  Speaker 1: be able to keep Let them go bounce, let them
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  Speaker 1: have some fun, grab a coffee. Then you've got food.
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  Speaker 1: You didn't have to miss breakfast. I mean, I agree.
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  Speaker 2: I mean when I was a kid, my mom took
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  Speaker 2: me the farmer's market and I hated my life. You know,
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  Speaker 2: it was so boring and nothing to do. Brittany and
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  Speaker 2: Jana had done such a great job with this to
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  Speaker 2: make it kid friendly, and you know, there's a little
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  Speaker 2: bit of strategy there. If your kids go, you can
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: spend more time there, which means you spend more money
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: at the farmers market, which means the vendors like coming
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: back and get more vendors. So it's just a trickle
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  Speaker 2: down effect. But you're seeing this all over you know,
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  Speaker 2: the United States. These farmers' markets are becoming more family friendly.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they're growing. Oh boy, the number of vendors
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  Speaker 1: you guys have been getting has just been growing.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: We outgrew Haymarket Park. It's just a nutshell. It's nothing
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  Speaker 2: about we wanted to move it just for the heck
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: of it, or parking or anything like that. We didn't
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: improve the parking and I'm sorry to say it's not
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: going to be improved. That's okay. We improved. We had
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: to move because of numbers. It's the bottom line and
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  Speaker 2: it's worth it. So I'll walk a few extra feet
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  Speaker 2: to get to a go to an event like well,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: then I'll hold you to that. E. C. Smith's Playground
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  Speaker 2: is on today's agenda. What's going on there? Yeah, Smith Playground.
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  Speaker 2: Believe we talked about this last month. I'm just finalizing
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  Speaker 2: things so we are going to build a new playground
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  Speaker 2: with drinking fountain and new benches at E. C. Smith Park,
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  Speaker 2: So we'll be doing that late fall. Due to our
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: other project, the MMA Hubs tennis course that we'll talk
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  Speaker 2: about in a minute, we got some extra money for
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  Speaker 2: this playground, so we're gonna put a rubber surface under
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: this instead of the wood chips. The rubber surface is
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: forty five thousand dollars just right there, but what a
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: world of difference it is. So we're gonna be able
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: to do that. We want to grant with this one.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: It'll be completed in the fall and it's one hundred
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: and twenty five thousand dollars projects. So we're gonna get
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  Speaker 2: a sign up thirty C Smith here next week or so,
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  Speaker 2: just saying future playground coming. So it's gonna be a
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: brand new playground up there. It's gonna be great. It's
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  Speaker 2: long overdue. I remember when that wooden playground was put
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: in when I was young by the Lions Club, and
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: it's just out of time. It's just, you know, we
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: like to do playgrounds because we want new playgrounds. This
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: one's a need. There's a big difference between want and need.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: This one's a need. There's some loose stuff. There was
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: some loose stuff maintenance had to fix last year. It's
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  Speaker 2: just beyond its time going to put a brand new,
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: bigger playground in there. So it's gonna be exciting at
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  Speaker 2: Ecy Smith. And that playground gets used by the Catholic school.
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  Speaker 2: There a lot people stop at lunch. It's a very
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: busy corner on Highland there. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Just and just a great addition to you know, the
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  Speaker 1: lineup of parks that you guys already have. I love
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  Speaker 1: hearing that you're you're just taking one more step to
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  Speaker 1: improve it. We were talking before on airs of the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: fact that whether you guys, you know you're you're exceeding
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: a fundraising goal, fighting and winning another grant, you guys
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  Speaker 1: just you use the money to further improve and just
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: outdo what you're already trying to do.
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  Speaker 2: Well. Yeah, and you know one of the things that
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: we did here is you know where fundraising went so
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: well in Tennis, we just didn't put that in, you know,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: go buy a new vehicle or give raises. We put
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: it into another project for the community to enjoy. You know,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: obviously we need raises, we need new trucks. We need
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: stuff like that, but for the community enjoy something. We
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: took that money right out of the other project that
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: we had a plan for and we don't need it
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: for that project, put it right back into it proved
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: this playground. So we're originally playing on doing wood chips
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: there when we did this playground early, but now we
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: can afford the wood. The rubber surface makes a big deal.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: It really does.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: If you've ever taken your kid to either one, it's
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: a big deal. Easier to keep cleaner, nice and soft,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: better traction, probably you know, longer, longer lifetime that.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: You get a little in that kind of a florin.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: So I love.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: Hearing that we've been, you know, kind of talking about
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: before we've been, you know, getting the message out about
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: the great project that you guys are going to be
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: having going on over at the Ebbaham Tennis Court. And
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: so I'm just gonna let you take this one doing
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: because you just had such great.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: News on that. I'm not stealing that. This is all
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: you appreciate that, but you're welcome to. I mean, but
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of details in this project
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: that it came up so quick. Partners for god On,
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: it won a grant within three weeks of forty eight
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: thousand dollars. But you know what, it's not about the
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: details in this in this project, to me, what one
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: detail is stixed out that's important to me is in
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: my thirty four years that the partnership is the first
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: project that will be fully funded by outside sources. So
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: our outside sources are the forty eight thousand dollars grant,
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: we won the money, the schools gave us, the money,
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: the tennis club gave us, and then we've had over
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: forty three thousand dollars in private donations for the tennis courts.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: We're real close. But this project is going to be
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: fully funded by the public, by grants, by clubs that
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: have stepped up for this project. Which what we come
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: back to is now we can put money into another project.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: It doesn't go into you know, the court fund and
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: we save it, it goes into another project. That's what
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: happens when communities step up. You get one project funded,
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: we're going to go to another project better. And that's
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: what we did. And it's the first one in history
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: that I can ever remember that at this size of projects,
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: it's one hundred and twelve thousand dollars project fully funded.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: It's exciting, it's great. It's gonna have in June sixth
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: and you know the DHS Tennis Club, private donations, the
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: Dixon High School. It's just amazing that we can do
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: a dedication after this, and there will be a dedication
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: the actual grant people are flying in to present and everything,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: so it'll be a big deal. And then two or
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: three weeks later we'll open up Page Park for Project Rock.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: So some things are happening right there, but we'll be
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: here before you know it.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: It absolutely will be here before you know it. I
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: love hearing this kind of community outreach and support and
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: if you ever had a doubt in your mind, I mean,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: this is a great thing for you to take away,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: is that you're it's just like you said, it's you know,
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: so many people do get caught up on the fact.
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, vehicles are those things are needed and you
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: guys know that and you're taking care of that, and
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: you're like, you know what, No, we're just we're putting
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: it into another project. We're giving you more. So when
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: you give to your community, you are giving to yourself
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: and everyone around you.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: And so on giving.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, we're at time, Dwayne, Just like we said, the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: summer will be here. Yes, time flies by, and I'm
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: looking forward to more updates and more good news from you, sir.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having us, and I just want to announce
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: that you did agree to be our I did, and
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: I'll be looking forward to that. You'll know it. Yes,
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: I will be there, so sounds good. Thanks for having
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: the Dixon Partnershick on this beautiful morning. Oh yeah, great, Dwayne,
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: thank you,