 My initial thoughts, probably like everyone, was that we are really embarking on something where there used to be a lot of unknowns. And so without, you know, having all of the medical data at the very early onset as to, you know, impact on individuals and communities, I was, you know, definitely going into a phase of information gathering for sure. We followed the protocols as they were being given and rapidly changing at times with the CDC. We decided that it was obviously very important to try to, you know, have a unified front with our counterparts in other local municipalities and the counties, as well as working with all elected officials to make sure that first and foremost, we had the accurate information that we were all working together to collaborate for our community and our citizens and establishing working groups together, even with, you know, intergovernmentally, making sure that we were being consistent, I think, in the message and clearly from the federal to the government on down to the local municipalities and counties, the information certainly suggested that we were approaching, you know, some period of a lockdown type scenario and that we were going to have to do what we do as leaders for the community and help reassure the public as to, you know, what needed to occur. So if that, as schools were closing and, you know, businesses, some being shuttered and people certainly needing to be tested and, you know, having all their basic needs still met as a local government, you know, our work really continued. We had to find new ways to work. Certainly, we had to create some remote work environments for our staff that, you know, worked in the office, but the vast majority of our staff, who I'm so extremely proud of all of them, whether they were, you know, in the front line or not, but those in the front line, you know, they continue to provide those basic services, whether it was through public work staff or public safety staff in particular, out with the public, even in the very early days and on through the pandemic. So we have a very great structure at the city with a very wonderful management team that works with me and we just all have to dive in and come together to help communicate to our department heads and division heads and all of the city's front line staff on what the expectations would be, how we would continue to provide services to our citizens nonstop, which we never have stopped. And that just brings me such a sense of pride because I think when a community sees that its government is still working, even the midst of a global pandemic and the uncertainties that brings from a health perspective, they at least know that all of their basic services are still in place. So clean water, you know, trash being picked up, all of the services that municipality like ours provides were in place. With that said, I was very worried about the emotional toll on our employees and our staff who provide those services and that they too were being impacted by COVID-19 sometimes in their own families, wanting to make sure that they knew that they still had a job to come to. Certainly, the pandemic has had a toll on our economy and the city is no different. We've had to push through and budget accordingly, budget very differently last fiscal year and this upcoming fiscal year as well to, you know, sustain ourselves. Fortunately, we have done that. We continue to do it without one, you know, layoff of an employee. And I think when you know that our staff are the ones out there providing the services, it's very important to have reassured them in that way that, you know, their jobs were secure. And so I think that helped along with making sure that there was certain COVID leave available to our employees as they had to, you know, work within their own family units to make sure that their children were cared for and with schools out and all the virtual learning that has occurred over the last year or more, you know, we had to flex and allow our employees to flex and work within their time and work together and find opportunities to help each other. So a lot of grace was shown throughout this period, but also a lot of grit. And again, it makes me very proud and very thankful for all the sacrifice that has been shown by our employees and our elected officials. I mean, our mayor and council have been exceptional to, I guess, allow me to help guide this effort and how we modified our operations to ensure that we could sustain service delivery over this period of time. Early on when we were just beginning to see how impactful testing was to the situation, as far as, you know, people being able to have tests readily available to determine if they were COVID-19 positive or negative, we stood up at the direction of Columbia City Council, a COVID testing center internally for the City of Columbia employees and families. And that has been in place, you know, ever since. So well over a year, we've been doing that and it is utilized. We, the partner, private partner that we dealt with has been exceptional and we basically have it where if an employee feels they've been exposed in any way or a family member, you know, they can go through our portal, get set up to be tested and that's typically done within the same day. As that has progressed, the results are even, are coming back even faster. So it really helps us from a service delivery standpoint because we know very quickly if someone is positive, so we can make the necessary adjustments with that individual but also with contact tracing of our employees as well. So that has been a real necessary tool in order for us to maintain and sustain our operations. As the pandemic has progressed, we knew that with our operations, people were still in contact with one another due to the nature of the work. And so we have maintained the ability for our employees to get masks, gloves, you know, whatever PPE has been necessary. We are so thankful that we've been able to provide that to them and really mandate that they, what they wear those things for their own protection and then that of others. So that was early on in the process. We worked with our safety and risk management director, emergency operations, direct management director and others to come up with the right protocols. For those that were still in the facilities, we have placed barriers and protective measures all throughout city facility so that people when they are in the facilities feel very safe and are using caution with that messaging pretty much everywhere you go. We, that transcended to the external public too. You know, our council early on in the process allowed us to make recommendations to them on how we could stand up a resilient Columbia campaign that included funding for our local businesses who were really struggling and needed some additional assistance. So the grants that we were able to provide to those type businesses and non-profits, which also then helped others because a lot of the non-profits were helping our seniors and other folks in need. So we were trying to constantly, you know, do what we could do to be a force multiplier in the community to help with all the myriad of unknown challenges that people, you know, had unexpectedly due to the pandemic. Since then, and as we're moving in into hopefully and thankfully turning the corner where the vaccine is now in place, we'll really begin to refocus from the mass wearing, of course, wanting to encourage people to continue to do that. But in addition to that, refocusing on people getting vaccinated. And so the idea that the city of Columbia was one of the first municipalities to establish a mass ordinance and we have extended it and maintained it to date, knowing that now with the CDC guidance, some of the guidance is changing about mass wearing still very encouraged, but also the fact that if you're vaccinated that perhaps you don't have to wear it as much, but then you still shouldn't be congregating. So there's lots of messaging out there that we want to help people decipher. We want to still encourage them wearing a mask, but we really want to strongly encourage people to be vaccinated because once we get to that point, 70% or more, I think is what the CDC is saying, the whole entire community, our country can feel safer about getting back to a sense of normalcy. Unfortunately, acknowledge that we did lose one employee to COVID and we have had several who have suffered from being COVID-19 positive or had family members as well who have suffered from that. And I think in the grand scheme of things, based off all the protocols and the way we've modified our operations, we have done our very best to minimize that as far as the exposure in the workplace, but obviously just by virtue of being in a community, you're still going to have that risk of exposure. And so unfortunately, some of our employees were exposed in that way in their normal community activities. But I think with that said, what I have seen from our employees is a greater sense of protecting, you know, my colleague, my friend, my family member, because our messaging has been very consistent about our expectations when it comes to that. I think it has allowed us now to pivot yet again. We're at the point where we're now, as of May the 3rd, reopening our parts facilities, still with some cautionary measures in place, still with COVID protocols in place. But I do think that because of several of the protocols we took along the way, it is now, along with the vaccine being in place, it's allowing us to hopefully turn the corner and hopefully our employees and our community can now begin slowly to experience and take part in some of the other additional amenities that our city had always offered. So many, you know, we have, I guess, public servant spirit that I see exhibited daily by our staff, from front-line staff, those in the field, all the way up to our senior-most managers. They've all had this notion of less work together to get through this. I want to still be able to take care of my family, but I also feel a sense of pride in community so that I'm going to do what I'm supposed to do to help us all get through this. That has transcended through our finances and how we've handled them, some creative things that we've done that we probably thought we never could do, working in different environments, utilizing technology in ways that we never have before. Even you, Justin and the public relations team, you know, on a moment's notice with our IT staff figuring out how to conduct our meetings. I mean, we have never missed a public meeting where the citizens need to be engaged, albeit very different from the time that this pandemic started over a year ago and city council meetings went virtual. We have always had or figured out a way to make sure as best we could that our public was still involved and that's so, so very important that our citizens know what actions we've been taking. They can engage if they had to call in or zoom in or whatever it might have been. We've tried to make that happen and we have made that happen. So that's a very proud moment for me. Again, maintaining our finances the way we have, making sure we've been able to help community, those in need, very proud of that. And just our frontline staff to actually never stopping work, being literally a month's citizens, not knowing if people were positive, but police and fire and EMS and 911 communications, public works, Columbia water, you know, all of them still out doing their daily tasks in the community. You know, this emergency operations center where we're filming from today is another opportunity we took with something we were always working on. We've been able to get it up and running and stood up during the pandemic. You know, being that the economy in a sense was slowed down in many ways, we also took the opportunity to go ahead and get some done throughout the city that our citizens will benefit from on the back end of this. There's another project in the works now that will really allow our citizens to, you know, have a different type payment center that will be coming online. We'll talk more about it and unveil that when the time comes. But we're trying to use this opportunity to also implement some additional things. We've got a security camera project that will be standing up here very soon. And just the opportunity, I guess, where some things were slowed down provided us an opportunity to keep working on some major infrastructure projects that we are very much so looking forward to unveil to our citizens very, very soon. Our city, as we learned during the flood of 2015 and thereafter, is certainly resilient. I mean, there's really just no better word for that. We come together as a community all the time, never fails. It's not always easy, it's not always comfortable, but our citizens are very supportive. And as we should be, we keep working for them. And so we find ways to get things done. Our employees have learned that they can pivot. Like I said earlier, we have learned to work in many different ways, many different platforms. You know, as a manager, you often hear in good normal times, well, we've always done something a certain way. We just are used to doing it that way. When you find yourself in a position like we all have over the last year, that you don't have a choice, but to figure things out, we've done that. And I think my employees have learned that they can learn to do things differently and sometimes better. There's some things that we have engaged upon during the pandemic just because of the necessity that I really want to keep in place. Some efficiencies that we've realized. Our management staff, they are truly experts in their fields. And they shine when, you know, in moments of crisis, they truly do. I have learned, and I kind of already knew this, that I really, I can go nonstop. I don't know that that's necessarily a good thing I've learned about myself, but it's true. I certainly take my job to heart. I already always have. In these times of crisis, I do feel a lot of responsibility for the community that I serve. And, you know, I wouldn't change that a bit. I need to learn how to get a little rest in between time for sure. But I'm just, I'm very thankful that our community is starting to turn the corner. Well, I hope that our citizens know, I mean, we put it out all the time, whether it's on the website or all the various platforms, who they can contact. You know, when they have any kind of questions, suggestions, concerns, we've tried to continue to work. We have continued to work since the pandemic started. We obviously had to do some things differently. And so I would just encourage our citizens to let us know when they need something. And we will try our very best. We always do to make it happen, even if it has been in a modified operations environment. I would encourage them too to look forward. Like I said earlier, for some new things on the horizon that we are trying to implement during this period of the pandemic, so that when we come out of it, there may realize some even more efficiencies in local government at the City of Columbia. We're so thankful to the City of Columbia citizens because I know it hasn't been easy to wear masks. I'm a mother. I understand managing your day to day, your families, what that all means. And learning, virtual learning and everything. So I just want to commend the citizens of Columbia for stepping up and hearing to the different protocols. I encourage them to continue to do that. I feel like we're almost there. We don't want to have any back steps. So I just encourage us all to keep working together, encouraging each other, showing grace, being thankful because we're certainly thankful for them. Very thankful for our citizens.