 So I want to thank everybody for coming out this afternoon. It's an exciting day in Columbia, South Carolina. I want to take a few minutes as we talk about railroad elimination and realignment here in Columbia, South Carolina. Something we've been talking about for close to 120 years. First time it was written it was in 1905. So we're finally addressing the issue. I want to thank the senator Setzler and Harpoolian for being here. Representative Finley, council members Brennan, Taylor, Deval, McDowell, and Herbert. We're all here. I also like to thank Mayor West Columbia Mayor Tim Miles, Mayor Eastover Gunther who's here. We have Alex Harrell, the student body president at the University of South Carolina. Join us Bill Kirkland. We also have Ray Tanner who's on the way to join us. I also like to thank Shaquise Newton for being here. We have several neighborhood leaders here also in attendance. Carl Blackstone from the Chamber of Commerce. Bill Ellen. Am I forgetting anybody here? Shaquise, I got Shaquise. She's representing Richland County. I know that Paul Livingston is on his way. Overture Walker sends his regards but could not be here. So with that I'm going to turn over and let a couple people speak and then we'll follow up. I'd like to start with Representative Cartman Finley. Six months ago Chairman Smith, Chairman of Ways and Means and Speaker Lucas, Speaker of the South Carolina General Assembly with the South Carolina House and the General Assembly challenged the members of the South Carolina House to think about what would transform their community and to quote Chairman Smith he said I want transformative projects that make our communities in our state better. Not small things but big things. We have the money and we have the time to do something that is truly transformative. So I've been thinking about what that was and Councilman Joe Taylor gave me a nudge or more of a slap on the top of the head and said you know the railroad tracks your dad's vision for the city is what we need to do and he's exactly right. Most of y'all don't remember 30 years ago for really 50 years ago a city bifurcated and divided by railroad tracks a vista that was really just a series of warehouses. In the early 70s my dad working with the city the county and the state and the federal government was able to get the the initial phase of the railroad track realignment and burial done. Therefore my goal in this budget is to ask for the 35 million dollars to be matched with 15 million dollars or so from the city and county so that we can reach out to the federal government again 50 years later and hopefully hopefully be able to get a matching grant for this 200 to 220 million dollar project and to lay the vision of what we're looking for on the table. Rosewood below grade assembly street UG street everybody in this crowd has been stuck at a railroad track in Columbia South Carolina. I can think of no project that would transform our community better than this and allow Southwest Columbia to grow in a way that we haven't ever seen. You know I'm going to do everything I can to push and I just want you to know that generally I am not somebody who asks for a lot of large s from the state but this is one where I'm going to go bag, borrow, and steal. I'm all in and I hope we all are because this is an asset and something that will transform our community our communities our city and our future. Thank y'all. Thank you Kirk and thank you Mary Rickman. Nikki Sessler where's Nikki? Come up here. Nikki and I represent this area and both of us have been here a long time. Longer than we want to talk about. Longer than we talk about and both of us agree that the railroads have constricted the economic development of this community and this project is a solution to that problem so that we can grow without people having to wait just you know sometimes an hour for the train to clear through so they can go about their business and you can't have a vibrant downtown if people are always constricted by these these trains so we're going to work with Representative Finley and our our compatriots in the house to try to get this money so that this project can go forward. It affects the entire Midlands it doesn't just affect the city of Columbia. So we're happy to be here and we're happy to work and this is the kind of cooperation that gets things done. It's bipartisan. It's across the river. It's you know everybody coming together to make this happen. Thank you. So I'd like to add to that Dalton Trezvan is here representing Congressman Clyburn who couldn't be here and then obviously our federal delegation who's working closely with us. Y'all the difference between what you're here and what you're seeing today is what's behind me. This is what competitive communities do. They come together collaboratively to go after a big project that absolutely, monumentally changes the outlook all the way from east over across the Midlands. Every community is affected by this. Historic communities, lower income communities, higher income companies, business community. There isn't a person who hasn't been if they're an hourly wage person to a businessman, to a lawyer, to our police office, to the fire department, to our state legislators that have not been affected by this rail. The state has made an incredible investment in the port and an inland port and the result of that is a huge increase of containerized trains coming through our community and we're feeling negative impact. This is an opportunity for the Midlands as a whole both at the federal state and local level to come together to make a difference for our community and we're extremely excited about this opportunity by funding it both at the local and state level but partnering with our federal delegation to go after four different grants to make sure that we take this monumental project and change the future of Columbia. We've waited 120 years to make this kind of difference in our community and we're excited because this isn't going to be the first project that we come together as a community from all aspects to make a difference. By eliminating these obstacles obviously we're we're growing the commerce as Senator Harpoolian said we have a dead quarter now that has the ability to live. We're affecting neighborhoods we're affecting almost 15 crossings just for here which then allow us to enhance the other. Columbia South Carolina is the only community in South Carolina that has over 55 railroad crossings in its city so this is the change and I have to tell you by looking behind me and seeing the collaboration neighborhoods business people community leaders our university Ray Tanner is here he's just slipped in the back to show support for the athletic the university is involved the students are involved you just don't see that a lot in South Carolina what you're seeing is the new start to the collaboration and I want to thank every one of y'all for being here we're excited about the opportunity it's a process that we're going through but I'm very hopeful that our state will will come to the table just like our federal partners with that I'll open it up for any questions well safety you know when we and I failed to mention it and I apologize safety is the number one issue if you look at at when you have so many crossings and so many are back and forth loading stopping causing you have more accidents and I knock on wood we've been very fortunate over the history of time but we don't want to take any more chances for the future so you know this is one of those projects that fits all the way across as we look at railroad safety across the city all at one time we thought the state paper endowment was going to write a check for that I was counting on publisher tolly to help us out with that so no seriously we're working on working on that together obviously you know the railroad realignment was one of the projects that was listed in the penny sales tax that folks voted for it didn't have a dollar amount to it so obviously looking at that and then we have engineering environmental as you'll see on Tuesday's agenda we're appropriating the cost for us to go ahead and engage with the grant writing team in junction with scdot to get this done so you know this this project wouldn't happen without that that type of collaboration but more details to come as we are getting all the numbers together but it's somewhere between 15 ground 15 million between the two entities well i'm going to tell you right now mr fast know we're going at lightning speed we're we're appropriating funds tomorrow we got an application in to four federal grants we're working with the state we've done a lot of studies so far so we've got feasibility studies so we're on the work it's not going to happen overnight but i think you'll see progress in the next three to five years anybody else have a question for any of folks here what yes ma'am so we're using a third party here and part part of the process right now if you've been watching the city we just put out for grant writing teams to help us with HUD applications uh mega christie rail realignment so we're working with third parties to make sure that that we're not missing out on all the opportunities at the federal level a lot of it's going to be application driven and so we want to be prepared to take advantage of that because with all the opportunities that are coming from the federal government that if we can leverage with our state and our money we really can monumental change columbia more than just the railroad everything from housing to the railroad so we're going to cover the gamut anybody else anybody have any parting words i see the city manager snuck in here make sure i recognize her does anybody else that i didn't recognize that's here joining us all i can say is thank you as you see collaboration it's the key thank you