 Brandy hello every one we are about to kick off the celebration of community development block grant 50th as well as the Columbia Council of Neighborhoods annual banquet where we recognize our neighborhoods and the important neighborhood leaders so I would like to welcome to the stage community development director Felicia Kilgore let's give our hand hope everyone is well today thank you Charmaine just as she mentioned I am Felicia Kilgore the director of community development and I am so excited to see all of you joining us this evening what a wonderful time to come together and celebrate the 50th anniversary of the community development block grant and House of Neighbors 17 years of providing awards to communities neighbors within the city of Columbia we're here today to celebrate a significant milestone in community development neighborhoods empowerment the community development block grant is a program that has been instrumental in fostering growth and prosperity throughout the entire nation particularly here in the city of Columbia at the same time at organizations such as the Columbia Council of Neighbors has been an inspiration to all the residents here and continue to do so for the next future years so we're here to not only celebrate the 50 years of community development block grant program but also the next 50 years of services and providing opportunities for the folks here in the city of Columbia so let's no further do you want to certainly say welcome and want to enjoy the rest of this afternoon celebration I really want to give a great big thank you to Ms. Teresa Wilson our city manager here the city of Columbia she was unable to join us this evening but certainly want to support us with this event and before I move forward do have to give a great big shout out and recognize the team with community development so I'm gonna ask if you always please stand so that you can be recognized to work hard every day to provide services to the residents of city of Columbia so I don't want to go any further than recognize them also the members of the Columbia Community Council of Neighbors if you would stand a wonderful thank you for all that you do so before I'm gonna move forward with the outline as we have on the agenda we will have an indication grace by Pastor Shane Richardson he's with the heart epic ministries and after Pastor Shane comes up to give grace we have remarks we have listed Congressman James Clobrin unfortunately Congressman was unable to join us this evening he had an unexpected occasion to come up so Mr. Dalton trespassant would be filling in his shoes this evening and so he will come up for remarks and then I'll return back to the stage with the introduction of the master ceremony God bless you today so much could we please bow father we thank you so much for this awesome time we ask that you will bless our community servants law enforcement and all of those who volunteer to make our communities great we thank you for the next 50 years of continual progress and growth in our communities and we thank you for the unity and the favor that you've given us in Jesus name can we all say amen amen God bless you good evening everyone thanks for inviting congressman Clobrin did have an unforeseen thing cropped up particularly when you're waiting on airline travel and you're not flying a plane sometimes get stuck and that's kind of what has happened to him today I would like to say that on behalf of congressman Clobrin congressman has been a very strong supporter of the community development block grant program and we can look all over Columbia and see the benefits of what that program has done you look in also into richland County you can see what it's done it's been a great program for the last 50 years as I travel around South Carolina you see some of the smaller communities one how can we get some of that money what can we do we want to do what Columbia is doing and those are great things that is a great HUD program and we'll try to make sure that funding continues so that Columbia can all you know continue to do the good work that they've done and also I did not know that the council of neighborhoods was celebrating this 17th year but I'd like to congratulate you all on the fine work that you've done because some of the strong neighborhoods have really the strong neighborhoods that we have in Columbia have really helped foster some of the community development that has occurred some of the things that we've seen by keeping I guess undesirable elements out of some of the neighborhoods while at the same time promoting business growth and making sure that our community stays safe so we want to make sure that you please continue to work together this is great we we have often referred people to the city of Columbia Community Development Office when they talk about how can we build the types of neighborhoods and community sense of community that they have in Columbia now I would like to say Felicia and community development both y'all know y'all used to be in the same building with us and we miss you all from being downstairs we really do but you still right around the corner and once again on behalf of Congressman Clyburn I would like to congratulate you on this 50th anniversary and can please continue to do the good work that you all thank you readers on pretty right next to everyone referred to Ms. G he said please don't read all that but I'm gonna give him his accolades today so I am introducing Dr. Tony G. Green Tony was born in Durham North Carolina after graduating from Durham public school system he earned his bachelor of science in radio and television from Western Carolina University in 1990 Dr. Green pursued master of theology at Shaw University Divinity School later he was called to be an urban morning show host with the radio station in Greensboro and that's where he met his wife Alicia Green and she's a student and graduate of North Carolina A&T I have to say at your pride if anyone knows what North Carolina A&T is all about so Mr. Green actually have over 30 years of experience working in radio from country station to urban station and 20 years of gospel station where he currently serve as program director and vice president of programming in 2004 Dr. Green created a radio program another level a show program specifically for young adults with the motto we are giving the youth the truth airing those stations throughout South Carolina in 2005 Dr. Green recommitted a call from God to reach young people by teaching and preaching the gospel in a way that lets them know that their dreams can come true in October of the same year God blessed Tony and his wife with their first child a son named Alan Michael Green in January 2009 Dr. Green was licensed as a minister at the Bible Way Church of Atlas Road here in Columbia in January 2014 he was a point as elder October 2017 Dr. Green received his Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award Dr. Green motto is God wants shared with me that dreams are not a figment of your imagination but windows to your future without further ado Dr. Tony G Green good evening everyone good evening everyone all right tonight we have come out to have a good time I am honored to be here there's a blessing to be with this event on tonight I am Tony G green the vice president of programming for glory communications incorporated which owns WFMV here in Columbia now I've been there 21 years and each and every year that I get the opportunity to go out I always remind you of this fact WFMV was the first 24-hour gospel station in the United States Avenue forgive us it's been up since 6 a.m. this morning so we are honored to be with you on tonight we're going to not prolong the time because we know that everyone has to get back to school or kids that don't have to get back to school about that and you feel like it's a school night but it's not actually a school night after all and after that introduction I feel like preaching but I better not do that all right so on tonight we're going to bring to you first a gentleman that really needs no introduction if you've ever been in Columbia born in Columbia passed through Columbia know anything about Columbia you know about Mr. Bob Cole we're going to bring him to our front right now he is the former mayor of the city of Columbia and as a matter of fact when I moved here via Greensboro North Carolina in 1995 he was the mayor then I spent three years at WWDM where I met the DJs for this evening good to see them on tonight went back to Raleigh Durham for a couple of years came back he was still the man I said well mayor Bob is going to be the mayor for the rest of my life but he decided not to do that so let's welcome to your front he is an attorney and of course the former city leader of the city of Columbia South Carolina I'll call him by his government name Robert D. Cobo aka Mayor Bob thank you gee you're right I did serve some people thought I was never going to leave now let me just say a couple of words of introduction first I've got to correct what Dalton said now it is true Dalton is not the congressman but for every project I ever did the city council did from 1990 or actually 1993 to when I left the first call we made was not the congressman climbing certainly we wanted to meet with congressman climbing but we wanted to call Dalton and get the lay of the land and Dalton thank you for all of those projects and I can't wait to call E.W. Cromarty on the way home and tell him you were here and he probably will ask for some CDBG money let me also recognize I know we have a lot of city council members here and some of them will be introduced Tina and Daniel Rickerman but I do see Tyler Bailey and Tina next to him that's a great team there and the council members will do an outstanding and will continue to do an outstanding job I know the other council members are very active with neighborhoods and I think that's very important now one thing and I don't know if there any Richland County council members here but having a good team with Richland County council is a critical importance to getting projects done not all the projects are in the city of Columbia most of the projects are the city and the county in many cases the city Lexington County and Richland County so you got to get along with everybody if you want to get anything done I saw so many friends here the fire chief and others just want to just say again I'm so thankful for being here and Felicia thank you for inviting me let me just briefly say the following what have been the keys or at least the keys from 1990 to 2010 when I was mayor and I was on county council before that congressman Clyburn was the key of getting federal funds you have to have someone who is your congressman or congresswoman who understands the system wants to have projects that are done that are approved but also is a is making you accountable the one thing we never would do would be having a a a project that was not accountable was not what we said it would be because congressman Clyburn demanded that at mayor recommend I was just praising you I hope the other colleagues will tell you how much I have to say this when I was on council way back when Daniel Rickman was on council so got to know him very well for all of those years and just delighted to see he and our other friends on council making progress let me talk about some of the projects very briefly that were very important now not all of them were funded entirely by CDBG but CDBG funds almost always were a catalyst in those projects now every project had the backing of the Columbia Council of Neighborhoods back then that was the most important group and I'm certain still is that we have in terms of getting support for projects getting support for identifying projects you know what are the needs in a community I think y'all continue to do a tremendous job with that but Reed Street if you remember if you go to Reed Street right now it's a beautiful part of town it is on the other end is the house of prayer there's public housing and private housing all through the area but Reed Street a number of years ago was not bad it it was a it was a tough part of town and it took that CDBG a lot of planning and everything to make sure that project occurred I will tell an EW Cromarty story and if anybody knows and please call and I can tell them I mentioned his name a couple of times if you don't mind but we were on the bulldozer trying to knock down one of the buildings to start some of the projects and low and behold the wind went the other way and EW and I were covered with dust from top to bottom but we were very proud of that project Barnabale Road to C.A. Johnson another area where CDBG was part of the solution part of the money's homes and infrastructure CDBG was always something that you could use to jumpstart a project to have the criteria to follow but housing and infrastructure was very important St. Anna's Court off McDuffie a very important project if you look now at over there you see combined with the revitalization of the Columbia Housing Authority you've got a whole new projects that you know our CDBG but hosts and others and now additional projects those have made a real change and I'll never forget we were at the first one when Drew Wellness Center and Drew Park and that made new neighborhood and Congressman Clobbin spoke there and he said that Sylvia Saxon I believe the homes there were what was needed in 1948 or 1950 that was what was needed but it's something new is needed today the modern homes single family attached those types of things so it's always a function of change of making improvements always very important and finally Drew Wellness Center Drew Wellness Center is now I think a park that is used by everybody in town my wife goes there twice a week to swim it's a it's a great facility it took a lot of work took a lot of neighborhood work now many of those neighbors are no longer with us but they were instrumental in making the case for that Drew Wellness Park and let me finally say a word about the Columbia Council neighborhoods when I was mayor that was the center of our city and I know still is but back then the Council of Neighborhoods were instrumental in identifying problems but more importantly identifying solutions and you know when your neighborhood leaders are know how the system works know what is possible but know how things have to be done but can advocate strongly but advocate and know what they're asking for that's a powerful combination you know if you just have folks who are mad it's hard to get make progress but if you know how folks to say we need to come together and form a partnership and go see our congressional delegation go talk to the state delegation and see if we can get some money to build housing you can make progress like that so ladies and gentlemen it's my bit my honor to be here I don't know I give very many of these speeches like I used to so I always have to have some notes but the city of Columbia I view the city of Columbia and certainly the development corporations and and all the staff as well as the neighborhoods I view it like like I do Carolina football I don't care who the coach is I don't care if they're when you're losing I'm for them and I'm for y'all and thank you so very much and just appreciate y'all mayor recommend you get okay all right we're gonna have comments right now from a fresh new councilwoman from the city of Columbia it's Tina Herbert is about to come right now and I was reading on Facebook I think it was several months ago and I happen to see something that she posted and found out that she knew a little something about Raleigh North Carolina so I started a concert about a month ago I said Tina do you know about Raleigh North Carolina she said Tony you don't want to know what I know about Raleigh North Carolina she gave me everything she knew that I'm not gonna tell you right now however I am wondering I think she would probably pull for the Wolfpack men but probably not the Wolfpack ladies but we'll see welcome to thank you Mr. G and I really was wondering what all he was gonna repeat and Miss Felicia thank you for allowing me to be a part of this event I did make a note in my notes that whose idea was it to live in the Dalton and nearby but that is okay we're up to the challenge it is great to be here with you today to celebrate two incredible milestones National Community Development Week and the 50th anniversary of the community development block grant program we must recognize the importance of the Columbia City Council of Neighborhoods serving as a voice for our city residents and our neighbors CCN is celebrating its 17th year of recognizing neighborhoods community servants and other critical individuals dedicated to improving our communities and I agreed with Mayor Bob when I used to work for the city CCN was an essential part of pretty much all of our decisions that involve the community and I had to admit there was sometimes that if we got a call that we needed to go to CCN it's sometimes we were excited and then sometimes we learned but what we appreciated is that we knew we would be held accountable for what decisions we were making about to make and we knew that the participants were serious about their neighborhoods they were paying attention and they wanted the best and I'm really excited to see as it's rebuilding COVID impacted so many different organizations and it's been wonderful to watch you all reveal the CDBG program stands as a testament to the transformative power of community development it has been instrumental in helping local governments and organizations address the unique needs of our communities we have witnessed neighborhoods being revitalized economies being rejuvenated and countless lives being uplifted through this program and there is no way that I could talk about CDBG without talking about one of my favorite programs from back in the day as I call it I mean it was the facade program back then the OBL used CDBG dollars to do the facade program and downtown was the first big one that we did and we spent $451,000 in CDBG dollars and we leveraged that and brought in 6.1 million in private investment and that to me is a testament of the power of what CDBG dollars can do as we look to the future we must continue to promote community development principles that support equity sustainability and resilience we must ensure that every community regardless of the size or its location has access to the sources and the opportunities necessary to thrive today let us all commit ourselves to the values that underpin community development collaboration innovation and empowerment by building on the legacy of the CDBG program we can strive towards creating vibrant resilient and inclusive communities that benefit everyone and on behalf of the community development committee which I chair with and Tyler Bailey councilman Bailey and councilman Brennan I think is on his way or coming he's our other member we have a lot of fun we have a lot of fun with community development because it does allow us to be innovative some of our other departments is state stick to the rules and in the specs but in community development we've had the flexibility to be creative and the solutions that we bring to the community so CCN community development department all of our partners our development corps are the folks that receive our warts thank you for your dedication to strengthening our communities as we celebrate national community development week let's look forward to the next 50 years of growth and prosperity with hope and optimism we know that with our collective efforts and I have to say I always tell people if a citizen if you're asking me to do something and it only takes me to do it you're not asking for much right if you really want to make change it is going to be something that is going to have to require at least four votes and support by council but if you're asking if I can do it by myself I want you to ask for more acts for bigger so with our collective efforts let us continue to make a positive difference in our citizens lives now I heard y'all say something about North Carolina A&T I'm North Carolina Central I said it North Carolina Central so but I still thank you all so much okay that's the Eagles that's Fayetteville Street my grandparents lived on both Fayetteville Street and Burlington Avenue actually one on one side they are on the other side down out of MacDougal Terrace and Plum Street I'm being from North Carolina especially Durham Raleigh Durham area you're either a Tarheel a devil or one of the Wolfpack so of course I am a UNC Tarheel although I'm not proud of that at this moment and Tina of course representing North Carolina the North Carolina State Wolfpack so we'll see how they do over the weekend now I'm going to bring to your front however a Dallas Cowboy fan let me try that again a Dallas Cowboy now before she comes up I'll let you know she's been talking about the Commanders the Panthers and she had mentioned my Steelers however I'm not getting no love up in there I mean who is your team come on you can say it out loud or the Eagles mistake who else now the cheese and well I told you she dug out the Panthers already so well anyway so let me tell you just a little about her of course she is the serving principal deputy assistant secretary for the housing a fair housing and equal opportunity at the unit US Department and of housing excuse me and urban development she is a graduate however of Howard University School of Law New York University and Brooklyn College and a member of Dallas is a Lummi chapter of Delta Sigma theta please look there you go there's a clap all right please welcome to your front Mr. Mita L. McCain first I just want to thank you for having me Ms. Kilgore such a pleasure chatting with you and and getting to know you and seeing everybody and let me tell you something I had no idea that this addition to the 50th anniversary of CDBG that you are also celebrating Neighborhood Associations and so I had a good chat with Ms. Kilgore and I got to tell you as a former Neighborhood Association president it kind of triggered me so I know all of the hard work that you do all the things you do to get your neighbors involved and let's just say that I'm a recovering Neighborhood Association president myself from Dallas Texas but seriously I actually um I'm embarrassed to say that last month was my first time coming to South Carolina but it was but it was intentional on my own free time not for work my one of my college kids my college daughters was on spring break and so we went down the road to Myrtle Beach we also had a time to really kind of take in some of the amazing rich history that South Carolina has we had an opportunity to go over to I might pronounce this incorrectly to the HopSwee plantation I think near Georgetown and there we learned a quite a bit from a believe her name was Dr. Vinnie Dee's more I don't know if anybody know know of her but she gave us some rich history about how the enslaved Africans were brought here but really have contributed to this region of our country so that was really exciting you know I was like to learn a little bit more when I visit places but I mean even even beyond those times right beyond the 1700s beyond the 1800s you all have a rich history in Miss Fleming right we heard about Rosa Parks but Miss Fleming right she sat down and would not move and when I give up her seat on that bus and so you've got that history and then we move forward and I understand you've got the rich history of Miss Semkin who we all know about Brown versus Board of Ed and not too many people know about Miss Semkin and the work she did to desegregate the schools and other things so give yourselves a hand South Carolina because that Briggs versus Elliot case was huge I mean we all know about Brown versus Board of Ed and even though Brown versus Board of Ed was decided in 1954 it took decades before people truly implemented I know at least in Texas it took a while in Dallas it took a while it's always always in the 1970s sometimes when people actually did not truly abide by Brown versus Board of Ed but let me say this while that was happening while that was happening there was this little preacher man who was from the South he moved his family up to Chicago where people actually were begging him to come visit please come visit please come help us and so he moved his entire family from the South up to Chicago to join hands with those who were trying to fight housing discrimination and segregation and that young man was called Reverend Dr. Martin maybe you've heard it right right and so it was and I was like to make sure that people understand this story because we know a lot about the education space when it comes to civil rights we know a lot about voting rights but it's the history of housing rights right sometimes we call it the last batch of the civil rights so it was April 4th what is today April 4th when he was assassinated right and so here we are this is very timely and it took that assassination to move the country to finally pass the bill that he was working on which was the Fair Housing Act as we know it today and so there's April 4th and then you have April 11th it's the actual this next week will be the 56th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 so that's last year was a big year we celebrated that 55 year anniversary but today we are here celebrating the Housing Act that has everything to do with CDBG and that's really kind of hard to get off the tongue I don't know about everybody else CDBG is kind of tough it's kind of tough and so while that was going on then you know you fast forward and you've got the 50th anniversary and hand clap to you for celebrating the 50th anniversary of that hand clap to you and so a lot of people know about the main parts of the Fair Housing Act and if you don't know I'll just say real quickly that the Fair Housing Act has seven protected classes right we've got race color national origin religion sex including gender identity and sexual orientation disability as well as familial status and familial status is just a fake a fancy way of saying people under the age of 18 because actually people do discriminate against families if they have kids in the home and so we've got those seven protected classes but a small part of the Fair Housing Act that not so many people know about that actually was part of that original 1968 Fair Housing Act is the part called the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Portion of Fair Housing Act it's hard to roll off the tongue as well but what does that mean that means in addition to not discriminating it is imperative for HUD that that would be us on all of HUD's programs and activities which include our program participants like those who receive CDBG funds and public housing agencies to affirmatively further the purpose of the Fair Housing Act right and so they had that vision way back in 1968 that we want to stop the discrimination but we want to also get over the hump right and go out our way to make sure that we are embracing all of the policies that the Fair Housing Act is about so I just wanted to share that with you today and that's really about taking kind of meaningful action now in 2021 right when the Biden-Harris administration began we received a memo HUD received a memo from President Biden saying hey I want you to make sure that we fully implement this Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing part of the act right and so what we did was we made sure that it pieces of it had been repealed in the previous administration we brought it back and so every single program participant of HUD actually certifies regularly would you say that I know this is my CDBG folks over here my staff over here right they certify every time they get funding from us that they are affirmatively furthering Fair Housing and so that's just something I wanted to share with you we're in the middle of finalizing a rule in 2021 we passed an interim final rule but right now we're trying to finalize a rule and it's my hope that that will come out in the coming weeks everybody at work keeps asking me about it just hold on join our lists serve you'll get the press release and you'll see when the final rule comes out so think about this when taking together when taking CDBG funding and then you take the power of the Fair Housing Act right these can be an amazing powerful cocktail for change for positive change okay because as was said earlier CDBG funds they create jobs right they pervert preserve affordable housing they fund disaster recovery and some of you all here know about that right they invest in critical infrastructure projects they provide vital services to those who most needed right and they serve as a framework for transformative change and we heard Mayor Bob talk about some of that transformative change earlier things that I wish I wish I could stay longer to see it I have to come back and see some of these neighborhoods you're talking about and so we know that dollars across the CDBG portfolio are critical resources that actually meet the local needs and can catalyze other activities right and so let me just share this since CDBG's exception 50 years ago folks do you know since for the last 50 years HUD has invested a hundred and seventy billion dollars in urban suburban and rural communities across the country that's probably a little more granular I am proud to say that Columbia since 2021 has been allotted 3.1 million dollars in CDBG funding and CDBG cares that funding not to say anything about the other funding that you guys get from home and hop right so kudos to you to the way you're using this money continue doing what you're doing these funds let me say you take these funds you join funds with number one Columbia Community Development Department's mission and if you don't know listen up it's mission to improve the quality of life for Columbia citizens by providing economic housing and social opportunities right and you take these funds and you join it with number two your aim your aim to increase home ownership and build neighborhood capacity while offering excellent community service now let me tell you something I want to focus right here on the next generation that is a cocktail folks to really really impact the generations to come certainly people here today but generations to come as well would you agree with me I absolutely think so I absolutely think so and let me just spend a little time here telling you a little bit about some of the work that's taking place over in the we call it CPD my colleague Marion Mulligan actually model is my colleague in the office of community planning and development so that's what we call a CPD and so they're working day in day out actually to deliver all the administration's promises and so they're doing that she's doing that with her team and what they're doing right now they are publishing proposed rules actually to strengthen HUD's programs and really kind of make them easier to use they're launching funding sources to boost housing supply and they're highlighting ways that annual grant funding can be used to mute meet the community's greatest needs all right and you should also know this know that the White House actually has launched a housing supply action plan communities all across the country and I'm going to guess that Columbia is no different than other communities are in a housing crisis would that be accurate for Columbia that would be accurate and actually not far from my hotel I saw people who appeared to my understanding to be unsheltered and so this is an issue all over the country this is a housing crisis all over the country so that's what that's all about and I will say while congressional reauthorization of the home project which home program which has it happens is 1992 while that's taking its own course it's really significant for some reform to take place but in the meantime HUD actually plans to issue proposed regulations for the home program very soon so look for that as well I just want to tell you some of the things that we've got on the table HUD also has undertaken a comprehensive review of the home statute and regulations with the purpose of identifying previously under exercise statutory flexibilities so I know that's not CDBG funding that's home funding but I think it might be something that you all might use right right and so also last fall HUD published the CDBG housing and activities notice okay and that updated and expanded notice and describes how grantees can use CDBG funding to actually support and promote the development of the decent accessible and equitable and affordable housing in our communities and that notice updated and expanded the guidance really in a wide range of housing related activities like acquisition housing counseling adaptive reuse rehabilitation reconstruction manufactured housing all of those types of things and also recently published a proposed rule to make CDBG and section 108 easier to use for economic development and really for larger transformative types of projects and just last month for those of you happen to work with tenants or are aware of tenant issues HUD issued a tenant background check know your rights webpage for folks so you might want to tell folks about that if you have some of those issues going on where you are so let me just say I could go on and on about some of the things we've got going really trying to help you all and help communities across the country I tell you let me just testify that as a single parent when my children were young if it weren't for that after-school program that they had at the public school where my kids were that allowed me to work my nine to five to support my family without that after-school program that was funded by CDBG I'm not quite sure where the answer would have been come from a small family and so using CDBG funds is a very much a local issue as you all know because you all these neighborhoods you guys know what the issues are you know what the needs are right between the staff and the neighborhood groups here you know what you need so let me just say Columbia Columbia's friends Columbia's partners you all know that HUD is celebrating the 50th anniversary of CDBG right along with you and let me say let's just imagine together imagine as we use these funds as we use other funds that we use these funds to leverage it let's imagine generations of young people who don't know what homelessness looks like generations of young people who don't know what segregation of discrimination looks like and generations of young people who don't know how it is some communities in the past we're not thriving let's all together have that as a North Star as we go forth congratulations Columbia good luck Thank you for that word for tonight right now I'm gonna have Miss Felicia come and please send us with this celebratory cake a cake for delivering such a wonderful presentation updates that HUD Action Plan is in the first of the new updates for the CDBG for age of birth without having a birthday cake so we have a nice cake that's been prepared for us for this evening I want to certainly utilize it as a symbol of all the work that CDBG has supported over years all the progress the projects activities that we have completed and also for the next 50 years that we will continue to work hard to support City of Columbia with more activities and improvements to our neighborhoods so I want to invite my co-op with me an all-ton restaurant Mr. Mitra McCain and for the cutting of the cake we spoke to the city of Columbia South Carolina Mayor Daniel Rickin I don't like podiums good evening everybody how we doing we don't get a little louder than after celebrating how we doing I love for our community to all the staff to stand up for a moment and be recognized because none of this work we heard about is happening out of this access that we have in the city or our employees I tell people all the time to see what's great about Columbia I said it's people 100% it's people and we see that every day as we go through our community and it's growing but we couldn't do a lot of things we wanted to do you know you look at it our community block ran you heard all this project we want to take it further and deeper we were asked to talk about what the vision of Columbia is plain simple we want to be the number one city in South Carolina and to be the number one city in South Carolina we have to have a strong name for this strong businesses and government that works with this community we have to rebuild if you've noticed over the last two years City Council has made a priority that's in our community to invest in our neighborhoods it's in our parks and to our employees and to the infrastructure and build up parts that are growing but the neighborhood so we just finished the middle market site and verify what we know which is we have close to 47,000 parcels in our community we have about 30,000 single-family homes but guess what less than 47% of those are home owners so when we talk about a vision to be a number one home ownership is one of our number one priorities where's my house we authority folks we all stand up to be recognized I want everybody just like everybody we have to do that but they're also helping us get qualified candidates to put into housing for home opportunity so how are we doing that we're starting off with lots that we actually own through our various groups RTN and group where's Harrison everybody we all stand up to be recognized as well working together and leveraging partnerships open private partnerships leveraging dollars going after every federal grant there is leveraging it with what we can get from the state and being creative going after it differently now we need we close to 16,000 units in our community over the next decade at every level attainable housing with a good quality attainable housing so as we're going out seeking partnerships today we're going to visit people in their hometown I want to know what they built in their house and how they maintain it and how they work together so when we're bringing partnerships here we're talking about long-term partnerships with quality housing we need workforce housing but this little market study showed us it's not just single-family housing we need we need to be able to look to figure out how we can get quadriplexes townhomes duplexes condominiums we have an aging population 85% of our needs in this study show that is baby boomers downsizing single mothers with no kids at home and millennials who choose not to take a home ownership out of our mental so we can make sure we address it one thing we have in Columbia is parcels of land so we can sit here taking our parcels and starting to build homes on that partnering with builders and mortgage companies to provide an opportunity for a local housing ownership under $200,000 so somebody can have the beginning and what we're doing with that is we're giving those people that lots of guys they're actually matching out with some of the federal programs for us down hand assistance so if we can put somebody in the house where they got an opportunity that they can have a home and be able to pass that on hopefully in the future what is the quickest way still the individual well home ownership so weird that is a priority for the city but continually that that's our infrastructure making sure that we have roads and sidewalks in every neighborhood is of high quality and that's a big challenge because you all know 72% of all of our roads are owned by the state so we have to be creative on how we address that but leveraging projects with our common our college will run and our council member who's here is the head of the car making sure that we're getting our fair share and we're leveraging that taking our section 108 money and looking at how do we leverage that can we do some more loan programs on that so that we can fill the gaps that folks need to provide housing looking at the different tax credits taking advantage of the inflation reduction act where we can get the direct pay and put solar panels to better weatherization and take advantage of the construction credit so that we can upgrade appliances so they're all energy efficient so we're thinking not only about the quality that construction but long-term the energy efficiency and lowering those bills because we do have people in our community that pay more electric bills and the winter in the summer than they do in rent we got to change that so our commitment for the future is not only to find more resources more partnerships for our community development our partners like TN and easy and others housing at every level but making sure we will read we are rebuilding our neighborhoods and that's one of our strong saying we lost about nine and a half percent of our population over the last decade we have neighborhoods that have multiple multiple empty boxes so going in there rebuilding those communities one fabric at a time how do we have the strongest and best city in the state by having strong communities and we have to build that with neighbors know each other where they're watching after each other where there's quality housing and that no matter what community you're in our city you have the same opportunities and that's what our goal is so when people ask what our vision is our vision is to make sure that everyone has quality housing everybody has an opportunity to have the job that they want the opportunity for an advancement and we look at that every day everything that we're doing is is a city is about moving the needle forward to make sure that each corner of our city no matter okay where you know we have nine gateways nine gateways so each one of those gateways all look the same each one of those gateways are filled with restaurants businesses houses opportunities people shouldn't have to go outside the city to live everyone should have the opportunity here so we continually commit our goals it's about really making sure that those opportunities are here and we're not only doing it for today but for tomorrow because let's be realistic we want this for our children our grandchildren we want our kids to go away to college or when they come back they have the same opportunities that they can have in any other city they don't have to go to Charlotte they don't have to go to Greenville they don't have to go to Atlanta they can stay here and have that job they can afford to live downtown we want our city to be connected we finish those greenways and make sure that every community has an opportunity to take advantage and access to our rivers our greenways and our parks how do we do that by creating opportunities partnerships trying different things the one thing that we will do in the city is we will try a different route and we're going to try it without the feel of failure because nobody cares about failure people only care about how you recovered from it so you know every day I just want y'all to know is our our city council goes to work our city administration every day it's how do we invent our Columbia how do we advance the ball how do we make sure that we get to be the number one city we're number fifth city in the southeast for people to move to of quality of life you know I want to be number one because I believe we're number one we have not sold ourselves and we have not believed in ourselves and now we do telling me there is a vibe in Columbia right now like I've never seen and what's so great about it is is all of you and everybody that works at the city everybody lives in the city is part of you are all part of the piece of the puzzle and that's why we're going to be successful because we're working together there's more collaboration happening in Columbia right now than we ever seen and we know it's working because Frank Ranglor came to see us and for the last decade we've been at a 2% growth folks he showed us over the last two years we've grown 4.3% we are we have doubled where we've been for a decade and you know because everybody in this room or everybody in the city this is a truly a weed tour and we're so excited are we getting everything right no we're not getting everything right are we perfect yet no but we strive every day to do that 100% our goal is to make sure that we provide the best most effective and efficient service to you our citizens at the same time leveraging every dollar we can to continue to invest in our community and in every aspect so we're going to be in your parks in your streets what we can do the one we need your help so I always have to leave a speech asking for something while I'm asking each and every one of you to look back at your neighborhoods engage your neighborhoods let's figure out help us figure out where we can improve in your neighborhood their trees are ran is their option for more lighting what can we do to make sure that we get rid of the litter we're fighting in the same house to get fines so people quit illegal dumping in our areas there's so many pockets that I visit every day where people are dumping how do we address that but we need your help we need your feedback we can't do it by ourselves we're only gonna be able to do it so my challenge to you is help us become the number one city in South Carolina show us call us email us do whatever you need to let us know what we can do to improve the quality of life in your neighborhood we're gonna do everything we can sometimes our hands are tied well we're gonna try to find a way because no it's not the first word that comes out of our mouth it is let me figure out how we can do it I do want to take the opportunity to make sure that our newest council member Kyle Bailey stand up Ms. Herbert you've heard from her stand up will stand up every day for you to make it better the countless hours the phone calls do it everything they can in a meeting sending articles if y'all can see the track of the email that we share with each other about what other communities are doing and why can't we end like that here or taking the best of what we learned from our colleagues that they've gone to nlc or the u.s. conference of matters how do we take that information and bring it back and make sure that we're doing those things in our communities but we also need you to be there so think about what we can do share information if you got ideas let us know the best ideas that we've gotten have come from employees and they were those so let's help us build every corner let's have the number one city in South Carolina and we should thank you for what y'all leave community development once again thank y'all this is your celebration thank because I won't take I'm gonna secretary fudge not one because she likes to drink water like me and we shared some drinks but being a former mayor she's so understood the challenges that we have and she knows where the gaps are the program and she just wasn't there long enough to understand what she had to do why she had to do it but we will miss her because she was an advocate for us cities directly and then you know you need to pass on this congressman cloudburn because when we go to Washington there's two people that make everything work for this city that's Jim cloudburn and Lindsey Graham they get all the fun together they call for they call FEMA they call department of transportation is we're going after grants they team up together to make sure that Columbia is getting what it should get our fair share so I appreciate that mayor cobalt that was our mayor cobalt's want to show this how to bring in the community and be part of it he also taught me how you can get out of the room very quickly if you need it to be a master of getting out even be at dinner next to know where's Bob we really appreciate we continue with your service you continue to service everybody but I just want to thank everybody for being here I want to thank you for giving us opportunity to serve our community because there's nothing I'll be honest with you I love my job every day this is the greatest experience I've ever had in my life and we have the opportunity to move the city in a direction and we see investment we see the return and in our community is embracing what's happening out there and they want they want us to be the number one city and that's what that's what we're headed we are going to be really capital city and let's not forget the worst time who's ready to win awards tonight nobody why did you come nobody wants to win awards are you sure oh we're gonna find out anyway I'm gonna I want to know who's gonna win awards tonight so mr. Harrison Greenlaw is about to come right now the president of the Columbia Council of Neighborhoods and walk us through tonight's awards come on it's a pleasure to be here tonight and be part of this celebration I can tell you as president of the Columbia Council of Neighborhoods community development and I will particularly point out Charmaine is absolutely wonderful in helping us facilitate what we need to do and helping keep us we've got all other good PR people here that she gets embarrassed when I compliment her for her work all right Columbia Council of Neighborhoods wants to first thank the awards committee which is representatives of neighborhoods across the city for their diligence in their selection of our five awards we thank the nominators from various neighborhoods that took the time to nominate their neighborhood or their representatives their event coordinator their best volunteer whatever for these awards mindful of our limited time I'm gonna read a brief highlight of each award winner announcing the neighborhood a person and after receiving excuse me after recognizing all five awards I will ask the recipients or there doesn't need to come forward be recognized and then the officers of the Columbia Council of Neighborhoods has their awards for them and we'll take some pictures over here and present those awards to them so first is the Columbia Council of Neighborhoods neighborhood of the year this neighborhood creates a sense of community through involvement by strengthening the relationships among its residents their outreach is inclusive from parents and young children to homebound senior citizens they survey members to provide for their needs they support their support includes regular food drives providing bicycles for children or providing food delivery to home brown homebound residents the 2023 2024 CCN award for neighborhood of the year is Galaxy congratulations it's also good to see some involvements from some of our neighborhoods beyond just downtown galaxies out by the VA hospital if you don't know next the neighborhood program of the year this neighborhood embraces the culture of an urban forest and advocates for tree preservation and wildlife management sounds like blue zones doesn't it mayor for two years they have hosted an annual tree giveaway approximately 20 trees are provided each year at the cost of less than $200 neighborhoods as to apply are given advice on the most suitable trees for their particular yard provide instructions for planning and care and have trees delivered on National Arbor Day participants frequently express their delight and gratitude for a program that provides routes for the future residents of that neighborhood the neighborhood has built a symbiotic partnership with the USC Belcher audit arboretum and they partner with the South Carolina native plant society to acquire native trees at low cost the CCN award for neighborhood program of the year goes to Sherwood forest neighborhood associations for their forest friends program hopefully these these awards give you an idea of things you might be able to do in your neighborhood and we cover a lot of these programs in their services in our Columbia Council of Neighborhood meetings all right number three neighborhood volunteer of the year this nominee has demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities that benefit the community in multiple ways for many years this neighbor has organized national night out programs solicited support from local businesses reaching out to neighborhood organizations gathering school supplies and food and even cooking the recipient actually actively participates in committees while encouraging others to become involved and attend monthly meetings also involved in arranging space and refreshment bringing new people into the organization and maintaining a relationship with law enforcement this person is an active member of the neighborhood community garden raising and distributing vegetables with anyone who asked and embodies the spirit of a true community leader through selfless dedication of fostering community advocating for inclusivity and ensuring the well-being of all residents the 2023-24 CCN award for neighborhood volunteer of the year is Pat Jones Myers from Hyatt Parking and Terrace neighborhood the Columbia Council of Neighborhoods neighborhood volunteer lifetime achievement award is dedicated his life for 22 years to his neighborhood board from president to chair of the traffic committee his organizational memory about Columbia and his neighborhoods serve to inspire and foster action he was instrumental in planning or hosting neighborhood events including national night out holiday events 4th of July parade and hosting artists for the art crawl championed efforts to promote commercial growth yet professionally engage in tough conversations to ensure the preservation of our historic significance so he served on the city design development review committee assisted city growth development and appropriate ways around architectural conservation districts and instrumental in forming the collie coalition of downtown neighborhoods which brought together eight downtown neighborhoods to advance and protect the neighborhoods close to the city center through his professional and civic activities the recipient deeply believes Columbia believes in Columbia and invested time and talent to all aspects in helping make our city a great place to live and work he served on various boards and collaborated with stakeholders across the city to redefine zoning codes and ordinances to help Columbia line with best practices found throughout the rest of the country advance master plan and build support but for the Bull Street district developed and continually look for ways to expand the Greenway project where the city continually sought his guidance built strong relationships with city staff and city council to advocate for and support the quality of life of all citizens of Columbia and encourage other neighborhood leaders to find their voice to speak up for the neighborhood the recipient passed away on May 19th 2023 however his legacy remains the Columbia council of neighborhood awards for neighborhood volunteer lifetime achievement awards goes to Paul Balknight from the Cotton Town Bellevue historic district neighborhood association respected individual and our last award is the Columbia council neighborhoods neighborhood friend of the year the recipient firmly believes their neighborhood that neighborhoods make Columbia unique and spend his eight years on city council advocating programs and services that strengthen neighborhoods and serves all citizens of Columbia specific meaningful initiatives touched include the landlord rental ordinance and the short-term rental ordinance by hearing the concerns of neighborhoods many times coming to Columbia council of neighborhood meetings and he steered core collaboration between landlords and neighborhood residents he helped work with the spots shot spotter alert system that chief Holbrook and the chief of police in the city have often talked about and as it covers seven miles of the city he had the vision to see the development problems of five developing problems of five point bars and working to amend the building codes there and closed unsafe bars in the area and reduced crime code enforcement a top priority was working with diverse neighborhoods and helping the city better manage constituent requests for services transitions board to improve homeless services and promote increased interaction with the city funding for neighborhood projects directing hospitality tax and other funds to neighborhoods traffic calming working on projects to calm traffic throughout the city fireworks ordinance but sponsoring this ordinance at the request of citizens the recipient made himself readily available monthly to meet with citizens to hear their concerns and an exceptional track work record of following through with citizens on their request River Alliance and Finley Park and recognizing the importance of rivers and parks in our city and continually work to advance programs and funding for both he was a main driver for the city to fund the renovation of Finley Park in 2023 like CCN this recipient encourages groups of neighborhoods to work together and he supported the founding of the coalition of downtown neighborhoods and the five points neighborhood association the Columbia council of neighborhoods presents the CCN award for friend of the year to retired city councilman Howard Duvall recipients or their designee please come forward and I'll also ask the officers of the Columbia council of neighborhoods to come forward and will be presenting their trophies to them so first of all we'll ask the recipients or their designee to please stand here and we will applaud you for your dedicated work to the city and to neighborhoods and helping our city and then if you'll step over and have your awards presented to you and we'll do pictures there so we can't we won't go over our designated time here with their awards but let me end by saying that we appreciate the work of these volunteers and as I want to thank our ushers tonight that volunteered the banquet committee and CCN awards committee for their work also want to recognize the important work of the community development to perform for Columbia and their support of the Columbia council of neighborhoods and thank neighborhoods for being here tonight to support their neighborhoods learn about different grant funding money here from leaders not only from Washington but across their city talking about the importance of neighborhoods I was particularly pleased to hear mayor cobalt talking about involvement of neighborhoods from well beyond current time so we hope to continue that that part of the award and the recognition so thank you all for being allowing us to be here with these awards tonight and we will turn it back over to the emcee thank you so let's give everybody a round of applause again thank you so much for coming out tonight this actually going to conclude tonight's program we want to thank all of our speakers all of you for coming tonight once again give yourselves a round of applause I have to hello again everyone thank everyone for coming out we want to recognize our sponsors my platinum sponsors office of business opportunities please raise your hand community development department of course shout out to our staff our goal sponsors south state bank font sirs pal metal associations of relatives where are you and just want to recognize some other neighborhoods that are here they are over there getting their awards Hollywood Rose Hill Wittemere definitely want to recognize our first responders Columbia Police Department my face from press conference their service now here shout out to my sound guys the recipient of the individual development account program it came through my program years ago and still DJing from that same equipment thank you and also we bought this beautiful backdrop please utilize it as you're going out awesome our team will be there to take some of the photos and again we want to give a special shout out to the man of the hour the master of ceremony ration and also want to recognize the committee as well