Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Mayor Diana Merdian shares the latest Sterling news

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Talk Line: Mayor Diana Merdian shares the latest Sterling news · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: It's eight twenty on your Monday morning, and it's now
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  Speaker 1: time for talk line, and I'm joined in the booth
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  Speaker 1: once again by our good friends from the City of Sterling,
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  Speaker 1: the mayor herself, Diana Merdon. Diana, how are you good?
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  Speaker 2: How are you?
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  Speaker 1: I'm very well, been very busy, but idle hands are
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  Speaker 1: the devil's play thing, so probably best I stay busy.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, I'm sorry, it's been so long since i've been back.
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  Speaker 3: I've also been busy and trying to get scheduled in.
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  Speaker 1: So yes, very busy, as you and I were talking before,
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  Speaker 1: and I think it would maybe help clear some things
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  Speaker 1: up for some of you. Diana has a full time
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  Speaker 1: job on top of being mayor, and on top of
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  Speaker 1: pursuing multimillion dollar economic incentives for you know, rebuilding that
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  Speaker 1: riverfront area. So yeah, you're fairly busy, I'd say.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been subbing with preschoolers and so also, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I deal with three four and five year olds and
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  Speaker 3: they also keep me busy, so you know, I'm I'm
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  Speaker 3: all over the place.
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  Speaker 1: And I you know, today we'll kind of start off
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  Speaker 1: this morning. Being all over the place a fun topic
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  Speaker 1: for everybody, and it's the right time because cities, you know,
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  Speaker 1: across the state and all over setting their budgets and
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  Speaker 1: Sterling's no different.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, So we currently have our budget and this is
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  Speaker 3: our normal fiscal schedule, fiscal calendar. Our fiscal year starts
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  Speaker 3: or sorry May first and goes until April thirtieth. And
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  Speaker 3: so currently we have our budget is on display at
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  Speaker 3: on our website, on paper, at our public library and
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  Speaker 3: then also at city Hall, and so you can go
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  Speaker 3: in and look at it kind of peruse it as
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  Speaker 3: you know, at your leisure if that is something that
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  Speaker 3: interests you. You can also come to our City Council
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  Speaker 3: meeting on Monday, I believe it's April sixth at six
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  Speaker 3: thirty and yeah, you got five minutes a total of
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  Speaker 3: six people for uh, you know, thirty minutes during our
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  Speaker 3: public comment you can talk about whatever you like, you know,
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  Speaker 3: and so you know, we have that opportunity for and
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  Speaker 3: then well and then also during the public hearing portion
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  Speaker 3: of the budget to ask questions about anything in our budget.
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  Speaker 3: And you can also reach out to city manager or
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  Speaker 3: myself if you have any questions, or even Cindy von Holton,
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  Speaker 3: our CFO, if you have any questions.
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  Speaker 2: She's amazing her.
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  Speaker 3: You know, she and her staff do a great job
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  Speaker 3: with our budget. We really couldn't do it without the
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  Speaker 3: work that she does. You know, we're really fortunate to
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  Speaker 3: have her on our staff. And oh, it's it's something
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  Speaker 3: that I know everybody loves, whether it's personal or you know, professional,
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  Speaker 3: to work on a budget, but you know, we got
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  Speaker 3: to do it, and so, uh, it's something that we
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  Speaker 3: do all the time. I know the paper had done
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  Speaker 3: an article about the annex that the police department had
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  Speaker 3: put a request in. That is not something that has
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  Speaker 3: like officially been voted on or officially been.
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  Speaker 2: You know, an action item.
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  Speaker 3: Uh, that is something that uh, you know, we had
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  Speaker 3: an access amount of money and which is great and
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  Speaker 3: so for the police department, for for anybody that was
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  Speaker 3: not able to read, uh, the the article the police
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  Speaker 3: department that annexes for the evidence, the extra evidence that
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  Speaker 3: the police department has. We have six vehicles that we
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  Speaker 3: have to keep because state law, we have to keep
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  Speaker 3: for thirty years after the sentence has been served. And
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  Speaker 3: if it's a cold case, I think we have at
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  Speaker 3: least one that the sentence has never been served, so
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  Speaker 3: we have to keep that indefinitely. And then we have
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  Speaker 3: other pieces of evidence. We have, from what I understand,
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  Speaker 3: a lot of bicycles. I don't know how many is
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  Speaker 3: a lot, but we have a lot. And we have
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  Speaker 3: other pieces of evidence that we have to store as well,
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  Speaker 3: and we just don't have space for it. And so
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  Speaker 3: we're looking at different places.
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  Speaker 2: And one of.
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  Speaker 3: The parcels of property that we found that was something
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  Speaker 3: that we were looking at. That was one option. There
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  Speaker 3: was another option for the fire department. And there was
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  Speaker 3: another option uh with public works and the Riverfront Park
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  Speaker 3: that was presented to city council. And you know, we
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  Speaker 3: heard all of those options during the study session for
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  Speaker 3: the budget, and so those options were presented and those
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  Speaker 3: will be taken into consideration and then placed into the budget.
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  Speaker 3: And during the April sixth meeting, we will we will
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  Speaker 3: vote on our well council. I don't I don't get
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  Speaker 3: to vote unless there's a tie, which is another thing
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  Speaker 3: that many people don't know about. I say, we, I
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  Speaker 3: guess I you know the royal we and so you know,
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  Speaker 3: so that'll be voted on and so you know, people please,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I asked I always invite people to come
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  Speaker 3: to the council meeting so that they can voice their
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  Speaker 3: opinion and and or you know, if you're unable to,
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  Speaker 3: we always have the zoom links. Or you can always
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  Speaker 3: reach out to your older person and you know, express
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  Speaker 3: your opinions on what we have for you know, any
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  Speaker 3: particular topic. So those are some of the I guess
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  Speaker 3: more interesting things about the budget aside from the you
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  Speaker 3: know run of the mill, you know, dump trucks that
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  Speaker 3: we have to buy and things like that.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, and I'm sure for those who either
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  Speaker 1: at least said seen the headlines, even if you didn't
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  Speaker 1: read this story yet, people were probably asking, like why
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  Speaker 1: do we need this? And that's you know, an interesting
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  Speaker 1: bit of information, quite a lengthy amount of time that
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  Speaker 1: our police are required to hold on to this evidence.
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  Speaker 3: And that's just like those items and those are just
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  Speaker 3: very large pieces of.
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  Speaker 1: Evidence, nothing you put up on a shelf.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and so you know, we have many other pieces
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  Speaker 3: of evidence that we also have to store. Some of
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  Speaker 3: those things can be stored at uh at City Hall,
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  Speaker 3: you know, and you know, because they're smaller, and but
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  Speaker 3: other ones we have to store and other locations just
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  Speaker 3: because of their size. And so we're just kind of
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  Speaker 3: looking at different options and and things, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: we need it to be a secure location, and you know,
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  Speaker 3: some pieces of evidence needs to be in a you know,
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  Speaker 3: environment that is temperature controlled, and that depends on the
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  Speaker 3: type of evidence that it is and you know, based
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  Speaker 3: off of state or federal law, and you know, and
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  Speaker 3: then then you get into the type of evidence and
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  Speaker 3: the length and then you know, for for example, I believe, uh,
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  Speaker 3: sexual assault kits have to be kept. I want to
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  Speaker 3: say if and I might be off on this, I
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  Speaker 3: want to say, it's fifteen years after it has been
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  Speaker 3: collected that has to be kept.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, so that's that's a long period of time.
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  Speaker 3: And so those are things that we can't just you know,
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  Speaker 3: we have to keep somewhere and that's something that will
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  Speaker 3: need to be kind of stored, but also kind of
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  Speaker 3: in a place that's not taking up space for the
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  Speaker 3: things that have a quicker turnover.
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  Speaker 1: So well, there you have it. No action has been
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  Speaker 1: taken yet, but if you have questions, if you have
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  Speaker 1: an opinion, go to your city council meeting. Here you
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  Speaker 1: will learn a surprising amount by attending these meetings. There's
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  Speaker 1: there's zoom links, but as you said.
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  Speaker 2: The public for the public.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they're for the public. So that you know, and
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  Speaker 1: so that you you know, you get five minutes go
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  Speaker 1: up there, ask your questions, get some interactions with your
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  Speaker 1: city leaders. Love the I don't know if it was
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  Speaker 1: just an accidental the Royal We reference fantastic song by
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  Speaker 1: the Silver Sun Pickups. If any of you don't know
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  Speaker 1: that one. It's not a classic hit, but go out
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  Speaker 1: and check out that song, fantastic love that. We also
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  Speaker 1: want to talk about public works.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so public works with our riverfront park. They I
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  Speaker 3: think I think what we're kind of debating on for
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  Speaker 3: this year for the Northwestern Stale and Wire Riverfront Park
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  Speaker 3: is whether or not to have public works do the maintenance.
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  Speaker 3: And when I say maintenance kind of the trash pickup,
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  Speaker 3: the you know, the zamboni, when we get the ice
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  Speaker 3: ribbon going, and those kind of maintenance options on the
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  Speaker 3: park and you know, the mowing and things like that.
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  Speaker 3: And so we had a discussion during the study session
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  Speaker 3: on that. We're looking at what that will look like
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  Speaker 3: and if we will look to see if we'll privatize that.
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  Speaker 3: And to our knowledge, we do not have any business
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  Speaker 3: around that, you know, does zamboni work uh and and
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  Speaker 3: or uh does.
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  Speaker 2: Work that we'll do janitorial work at a park.
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  Speaker 3: Uh.
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  Speaker 2: The park district has said things, but no things.
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  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 3: They have enough parks that they're you know, trying to
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  Speaker 3: keep you know, up keep, and so if there are
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  Speaker 3: you know, people that want to get into something like that,
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  Speaker 3: we potentially are going to be needing uh something we
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  Speaker 3: don't There's a lot of stuff we don't know yet
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  Speaker 3: on like what are the hours of the park gonna be.
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  Speaker 3: We do have a Riverfront Park or a Riverfront commit meeting.
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  Speaker 3: I believe it's the twenty fifth at one o'clock at
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  Speaker 3: City Hall, So please come to that meeting if you can,
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  Speaker 3: because that's where we are working on some of those
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  Speaker 3: details and hope to try and kind of plan some
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  Speaker 3: type of a ribbon cutting in the near future for
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  Speaker 3: the park. Believe me, it was hard to not go
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  Speaker 3: into the park when it was amazing weather. Me, me
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  Speaker 3: and my son did go down there and look at
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  Speaker 3: it because it's very enticing. And so we're looking at
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  Speaker 3: what those options are going to be. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: but those some of those details of like how how
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  Speaker 3: long is the park going to be open, what what
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  Speaker 3: needs are we going to have so that if we
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  Speaker 3: were to contract out with a business, that we'll need
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  Speaker 3: to have in that contract. So we might for this
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  Speaker 3: first year have public works do it internally and then
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  Speaker 3: see what the need is going forward so that we
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  Speaker 3: know what to ask for. But that is something that
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  Speaker 3: council was presented, and I think council was open to
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  Speaker 3: the idea of, you know, potentially seeing if there was
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  Speaker 3: you know, a company or if there was somebody that
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  Speaker 3: was interested in, you know, creating a company. I don't
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  Speaker 3: know the first thing about ice skating, and so I'm
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  Speaker 3: from what I understand, you need to have a sharpener,
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  Speaker 3: uh to ice skate, so I'm sure we'll probably need
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  Speaker 3: something like that. We don't have concessions, so we'll probably
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  Speaker 3: need some type of concession stand. We'll probably need a
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  Speaker 3: mobile ice skate rental. So I mean, you know, there's
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  Speaker 3: things like that that potentially somebody that wants a quick
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  Speaker 3: startup business, could you know, very easily approach you know,
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  Speaker 3: the city and say, hey, you know, I went on
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  Speaker 3: eBay or marketplace and bought a whole bunch of ice
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  Speaker 3: skates and a whole bunch of different sizes. Can I
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  Speaker 3: do this for you, and we'd probably pee all about it. So,
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  Speaker 3: you know, hit up their garage sales this summer and
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  Speaker 3: you know, there you go.
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  Speaker 1: So calling all entrepreneurs, start collecting some ice skates, get
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  Speaker 1: them in all the sizes, approach the city. And I
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  Speaker 1: mean these are just the little details that are probably
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  Speaker 1: a laundry list along that the hackets for the summer. Yeah. Absolutely,
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  Speaker 1: but I mean we're all looking forward to it. It's
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be fantastic. It looks beautiful. And then
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  Speaker 1: I you know, everyone's like, ah, it looks great. You
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  Speaker 1: think it's done, Like why can't we get in? Because
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  Speaker 1: it's all these little things you don't you know, most
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  Speaker 1: of us don't think of. And you guys coming, you know,
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  Speaker 1: having created this, having an ice skating work, which is
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  Speaker 1: just such a new element in one of our parks.
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  Speaker 3: As it is, I don't know where the nearest ice
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  Speaker 3: skating outdoors is to us, mainly because I've not ever
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  Speaker 3: I mean like commercially not like I mean, I know,
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  Speaker 3: at Thomas Park, when the ice is actually cold enough,
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  Speaker 3: you can, but for where you can actually manufacture the ice,
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  Speaker 3: I don't know where the nearest one is to us.
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  Speaker 3: So that I'm not sure, and so I don't know
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  Speaker 3: what you need to have to be successful when ice
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  Speaker 3: skating because I've never gone ice skating neither.
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  Speaker 2: And then I also know they have those little like
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  Speaker 2: kind of.
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  Speaker 3: Walker things for the little ones, like with PVC pipe
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  Speaker 3: so that they don't fall over you.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a little bit more enjoyable.
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  Speaker 1: Here.
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  Speaker 2: I am.
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  Speaker 3: I'm you know, people are waiting for summer and I'm
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  Speaker 3: already talking about winter and you know, but you know,
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  Speaker 3: all these things that you know, hopefully somebody can make
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  Speaker 3: a business out of and you know, make some money,
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  Speaker 3: and you know we can we can be able to
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  Speaker 3: enjoy the park.
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  Speaker 1: So we'll be looking forward to that and all the
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  Speaker 1: future updates. Unfortunately we're out of time this morning, uh,
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  Speaker 1: but we'll be looking forward to your next visit some
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  Speaker 1: updates on those and other projects happening around the city. Dinna,
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us this morning.