 Hello, Columbia, and welcome to City Views, where we bring you an inside view of the City of Columbia. I'm your host, Alicia Utsi. In our top story for City View, we take you to the Saluda River Greenway, where the City of Columbia held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to the celebrate the grand opening of one of the city's latest amenities. We talk all the time about how, when the Midlands gets together and wants to do something, if we all cooperate with each other, there's nothing we can't do. And this is one great example of the cooperation of all the people in the Midlands on creating something that will be a game changer for the Midlands as far as outdoor activity is concerned. I'm very excited about how we have put this thing together. In addition to the Saluda River Greenway, the City also celebrated another ribbon-cutting for the grand reopening of the Enter Ken House, which will be utilized by our Parks and Recreation Department. You know, this city long before I was here, many of you have been in Columbia for several decades, about a half a century ago, a little longer than that, began to finally recognize its commitment to historic preservation, recognizing the importance of preserving our past, some of the painful images of our past, but certainly those historic structures that create a sense of place in neighborhoods and if you have the wonderful opportunity to adaptively reuse those structures and put them into the public realm, into the public domain so that it helps build and sustain and edify communities is a wonderful opportunity. For more information about the Saluda River Greenway or the Enter Ken House, please visit columbiasc.gov or call Parks and Recreation at 803-545-314. Now we take you to Page Ellington Park, where Councilman Edward McDowell held a back to school supply drive with a friendly stuff-a-bus competition with Richland County Councilmember, Derek Pugh. We wanted to make sure that this partnership with the county was the kind of partnership that would engender the kind of enthusiasm so that our kids have the resources that they need for the school year and of course, to make sure this partnership, not only it doesn't just start today, but it's a continuing kind of process. Thanks to everyone who volunteered to help out for the back to school supply drive at Page Ellington Park, including our own Columbia Police Department and the Columbia Fire Department. And speaking of the fire department, City Council recognized the department during the August 17th City Council meeting for their most recent Fire Safety Community Award and to recognize CFD during a special appreciation day. Even during the pandemic, we had to rather do some things outside the box so to make sure we continue to keep our community safe through education and just making them aware of fire safety. So it means a lot to receive the recognition. The City of Columbia's Public Relations Media and Marketing Department also received an award recently for the team's effort in developing the Resilient Columbia Micro-Site. The department received an award of excellence in the 2020 Palmetto Awards. The Resilient Columbia Micro-Site serves as an online hub for economic recovery information, business resources and COVID-19 vaccination, testing and safety guidelines. The award was bestowed upon the department by the International Association of Business Communicators. To check out the Resilient Columbia Micro-Site, please visit resilient.columnsc.gov. And in more news from the Public Relations Media and Marketing Department, we're now accepting admissions for our annual Love Columbia SC Photo Challenge. Again, that's hashtag Love Columbia SC Photo Challenge. Citizens are encouraged to take photos of their favorite places in the City of Columbia. So make sure your photos are taken within the city limits. Post them to the city's Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and use the hashtag, hashtag Love Columbia SC. The winning photos will be based on the total number of likes, favorites or retweets that you receive. So make sure that you tell your friends and valid members to vote for or like or retweet your photograph. Please check out our additional information on all of our social media platforms and on our website at columbiansc.gov. The contest will end on September 13th, so get your photos in now and show us what you love about Columbia. Now we take you to Columbia Animal Services where you have the chance to adopt a four-legged forever friend. During the nationwide, clear the shelters adoption event. We tend to be pretty overcrowded this time of year. We've got a lot of cats and dogs, puppies and kittens. So this event is a great opportunity to help us move some animals along into their forever homes. Just come on out. We are at 127 Humane Lane. We're here Monday through Friday and Saturdays. You come on and browse our adoptable pets. If you're interested in one, take it out, spend some time with it. We've got a great staff upfront that can go over any adoption counseling with anyone if they have questions or concerns. We also have some great resources to hand out. Shall someone decide to adopt if they're looking into any training opportunities or pet insurance resources, things of that nature as well. The Planning and Development Services Department needs your help to count bicyclists and pedestrians for their routine traffic study to help shape the future of our city. The bicycle and pedestrian counts we do every year and they help us to prioritize areas where infrastructure is needed for pedestrian and bicyclists' safety. Public is definitely necessary for these counts. We need volunteers, as many volunteers as we can get. They can sign up on our website, ColumbiaSE.gov, and the counts begin on September 7th, and we're gonna be counting over 30 locations in the Columbia area. After a year off due to the pandemic, Parking Day is back this year in downtown Columbia. We caught up with Leader 4th, a comprehensive planner for the city to tell you how to participate in this year's event, taking place on Friday, September 17th, in downtown Columbia. If you haven't heard before, if you haven't celebrated with us before, Parking Day always occurs in the city on the third Friday of every September. This year, that's September 17th, and what it is, is really an opportunity to think about how our public space is designed and how we utilize our public space. On September 17th from 10 to four, they'll have a chance to center down Main Street and look at these parklets and participate in these parklets. For more information about the bike and pedestrian counts or Parking Day, please visit ColumbiaSE.gov or call Planning and Development Services at 803-545-3222. As coronavirus cases are still rising in our community, the city of Columbia is urging citizens to get vaccinated, if you can. The city has partnered with Prisma Health, SC DHEC, and Lexna Medical Center to host free COVID-19 vaccination clinics at city-operated facilities. These efforts go hand in hand with the Mayor's It's Your Shot Columbia campaign to inform our citizens of the free, safe, and effective COVID-19 vaccinations available in our community. To stay updated about upcoming COVID-19 vaccination clinics in the city of Columbia, please visit resilient.columbiaSE.gov. Well, Columbia, that wraps up this edition of CityView. Thank you for watching and for staying engaged in our city. To watch more of what's going on in the city of Columbia, make sure you tune in to CityTV on Spectrum, channel 1301, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and our own YouTube channel. Please continue to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and also visit our website at columbiasc.gov. For more information on a 24-hour basis, know that we're always here waiting to answer your questions and provide assistance. Thanks again, and remember, we are Columbia.