 philosophy, the thing you'll hear from this organization repeatedly is return on investment. So ROI is a very important thing to me, very important thing to the organization. So we're gonna do a lot of lead gen, a lot of opportunity to create opportunities to bring companies to the region, looking at all the individual needs our communities have, both the counties and the city of Columbia, ensuring that we're offering opportunities for the residents here to have a better quality of life. We'll do that through pretty extensive marketing, taking a different approach than the traditional marketing path. I'm not a fan of paid media. I love to tell the story through earned media, meaning we're gonna go out and really talk to companies, talk to individuals, talk to leaders about what makes this place special and then get those articles placed around the country in publications like The Journal, Forbes, Inc., you name it, to really make sure we're differentiating ourselves. On top of that, as Ryan mentioned, very inclusive on collaboration, meaning I view every single person, every resident in this community and in this region as part of the economic development team. They all contribute in some way to our success, so we're gonna be a very inclusive process in making sure that we weave in every member of this community into what we do and ensure that they again have that opportunity. And then last, we're very resource-driven, so we're very focused on deploying our resources effectively. I'm a very big fiscal conservative, so I try to make dollars stretch as far as possible. No one, we don't have a huge amount of them, so we'll be doing that through a variety of ways that we'll demonstrate again that return on investment that you guys contribute to the Alliance, which we greatly appreciate. And then lastly, two words you'll hear from me endlessly as we get to know each other is the two words of accountability and transparency. I love to make sure that we're measuring every single thing we do, so you guys will be able to see that return on investment, understand how we're deploying our resources, and certainly can share feedback at all times about what we're doing. To that end, we're gonna be hosting a lot of new outward-facing events and activities, including what we're calling investor meetings next year. They'll happen on a bi-monthly basis where we invite every stakeholder to the table to hear about how we're spending the resources provided to us by our organization and our community. It'll be a way for everybody to kind of get a look at what we're doing, understand how we're deploying those resources and the measures we put against them on an annual basis. So that'll be happening as one of many. We'll also be marketing the region and collaborating in new ways, inviting you guys and members of ours and stakeholders to join us on the lead generation opportunities around the country, around the world as we go out and look to identify companies that should be housed here in Columbia in particular, not just with the focus on manufacturing, I will share. I know we've had a lot of success, but that's not Columbia success. So we're making a point to really reevaluate strategy and how do we attract companies that can come here. And I think we're starting down a strategic path that will complement many of the great community leaders that have come here and business leaders that have come here, but certainly strengthen the small business segment, target some companies that can take occupancy in some of the buildings we have that we know are vacant and kind of look at the new economy and the new normal. So with that, that's what we're here to do. We're here to help make that community better, make the residents lives better through more economic opportunity and want to collaborate with everyone. So with that said, I'm happy to answer any questions, comments, thoughts, folks may have. Well, thank you for being here. And I really appreciate your energy and I'm glad that we brought someone in from the outside, frankly, because I think one of the biggest, and I've been pretty vocal about this with the previous leadership as well, is the biggest deterrent from, I think, Central SC Alliance being effective is kind of the fiefdoms that exist in this region, first and foremost, by even calling it Central SC, no one refers to our region that way. We are the capital city. This is the greater Columbia area, but yet to not offend people that aren't the ones that are going out and getting businesses, it was named something that I think really dilutes the importance and the opportunity that's there. And so I'd just be really interested to hear what your goals are, your first year in this role in terms of hopefully breaking some of those kind of mindsets and then also getting rid of some of these kind of fiefdoms that exist. There's several economic development groups in this area as well. Not everybody talks to each other. I feel very encouraged by what you're saying because it seems like you come from a place that really had to work through some of these things and has been very successful. Would love to hear what your thoughts are in terms of addressing. Those are the challenges. Those are often the elephant in the room. And I'm all about creating new circles, not trying to keep these clicks from keeping us from getting growth. I love the question. I love the concept. Yeah, no, I run towards issues and problems all day long. I hate to avoid them. Anything is an issue. I'm gonna call it out. We're gonna figure out a solution. So my last two months, what I'm doing through other major of the year is really listening to her, talking to everybody that's out there. Anybody that touches economic development, I will not talk about it. And the goal is to understand their vantage point and then also unite them around the effort that we're gonna be putting forward as an organization. So as that leading economic development organization for the region and the city, we wanna ensure that we're in alignment and we're bringing everybody under the tent. So opening up those words again of accountability, transparency are new terms. I hate to say it for the organization, but ones I really believe in. So by doing that, I think you take away any of the fiefdoms that could exist, right? Where we don't need the credit. I tell the team, I've told every team I've ever led, you know, we're an economic development, we're a SEAL team, meaning folks know we exist. We're really good at our job, but nobody ever knows who we are and they don't have to. That's the electives. Those are those folks that have those seats that get the credit for the work we're doing alongside us, but it's not how we operate. So by doing that, taking away some of that ego that could exist that have made a lead to what you're describing, we don't have to worry about that. That's not how we're operating. I also put forward a very team-centric approach, meaning, you know, we have several great staff that are on our organization. Every single one of them are gonna be in our community. You know, I told the group here when I took the role, I view economic development as a lifestyle, not just a career, meaning we're weaving ourselves into the fabric of the community. I've gone to the market downtown every single Saturday since I've been here to meet every single person that's sitting there as a vendor. I continue to go into every community to figure out who are those folks that are on the ground living here and hearing out what their challenges are so that we as an organization can step into areas we may not have traditionally done before. You know, even taking care of the existing businesses, something we should be doing as a regional group to help the region. So a lot of things are on the table. A lot of things are gonna be here that you probably have never seen from the organization before, but you will. And when you do, that's where we want your support even more. So. And I think you spoke to this, but one of the priorities for us has really been building that urban density, right? And that's very different than some of the rural counties that are part of this alliance. And that'll also be, I think, a challenge to balance the different needs of these counties because we are very rural, we're also very urban. And so one of the things that we talked about with this organization was potentially helping us in terms of as we streamline some of our marketing and collateral, helping us in lead generation, doing some research for us in terms of who we need to go out to get for some of that kind of density building. So I couldn't agree more. I'll give you one example that I'm deploying next year. I've already sat down with some of the larger employers. I'll use Blue Cross as an example as a leading employer. One of the strategies we're gonna employ next year is that company's innovating. We know they're innovating all the time, trying to stay ahead of the curve on that market. Well, I've sat down with them and said, let's sit down and really talk through each area of innovation. So as we go out and do lead gen around the world, let's find the companies that are providing solutions that you guys are already working on in-house, recruit them to come here knowing there's collaboration opportunity with that company, for example. They're not gonna be huge employers. They're gonna be 20, 30 person shops, but they're gonna be taking up real estate in places that we may think business would never go, but these kind of companies love those funky old spaces that we have so many of, they'll take that space, they'll revitalize it, they'll build their employer base. Guess what, a couple of years from now, Blue Cross will likely absorb them, buy them out. All that does is, okay, a bunch of new people have jobs. The folks that started that company, 99% of the time are gonna say, you know what, I don't wanna work for the big company. They'll say, I wanna start up the next opportunity. And now we're creating a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation that just breeds upon itself year after year after year. As long as we take care of it, right, and keep doing it, but I think those are the kind of strategies we're gonna do to diversify what we know in manufacturing is gonna continue to be strong. We're gonna go help our outlying communities, but for the city, it's a way that I think we can really pinpoint some resources. I tell folks, I wanna be a sharpshooter, not a shotgun shooter, right? We need to be very specific about what we go after. And for the city of Columbia, I've sat down with some folks, Ryan repeatedly, the mayor, others to really understand what the needs are and ensuring that we're deploying our resources to help the capital city be successful because the capital city is a critical function to the whole state. And if this city isn't successful, the region's not gonna be successful. Along that line, will you have like a, will you develop a pipeline? We will. I would love to have you come at least once a year and kind of present a pipeline with some stages along the way so we can see who we're looking at and see how it fits to where we're going. So that's something you're... I will come as frequently as you guys would like. I will share these investor meetings that we're talking about doing, where you all invited to, by the way, it's not just one individual, it's anybody within council, within this committee that wants to join us, city staff of course, but we'll be presenting up a presentation at these investor meetings that will literally show you exactly the funnel. That's the best way to describe it. The funnel will show what's going in, what's in the middle and what's coming out, broken up by industry, broken up by employee count, requests that we can understand the magnitude of the requests. One of the reasons I say that is because traditionally we tend to bring in companies to compete with our local companies, which, and we bring them in an unfair taxable advantage. So I don't think we want to be bringing in companies to compete against local companies. We want to bring in companies that accent our local companies. That's right, that's right. So it's fine if you have Michelin and Bridgestone, that's fine. But if you have Colite and you bring in three of my competitors to come here, that's not great for me. That's right. No, that's right. Secondly, as far as key stakeholders, and I'm sure you've already thought about most of these, but I think the airport's a key stakeholder. So if you haven't talked to Mike Gula, I think you should. I could agree more. I've been there eight weeks. I've been to the airport five times. That's how much I care about the airport. USC is obviously a tremendous stakeholder. And I think we need to embrace USC and I think they're embraceable for us. And I think part of it is we want to embrace them on the student side. Okay, not just the economic development side, but who are the students that are graduating and what are those majors and how can we try to start retaining some people here and accent that to the businesses we're trying to recruit. And then third, I would say, don't just meet with Blue Cross, meet with other companies that have 100, 150, 200. Those are traditionally the left-behind, ignored companies in Columbia. And I think they have a survey, tremendous value to the area. And I think they also have amazing customer bases that we've traditionally ignored. So, and I'm happy if you reach out to me and I'm happy to work through a list of like the top 10 businesses I think you should go visit. I'd love to know it. And from the university standpoint, 100% behind you, having worked for a four-year public institution, one of the top 25 in the country in economic development from the inside. And then most recently, the fourth largest in Texas was in my back door. And we activated every single person within the university. I would tell you top-down leadership all the way through the student groups were involved in what we did. We had everybody at the table because yeah, we needed the students just as much as we needed the innovation within the different schools and colleges. Yeah. I think innovation is a really good one. Yeah, I think, but I think there's a lot of good companies here that have mostly been not super visible to people because they don't do a lot of local work. But because they have national customers, I think that's even more important to understand their customer base and how that kind of fits in to who might we be able to recruit here. And I'll underscore that with the earned media strategy. Those are the type of companies that I want to get to know when the organization gets to know so we can go out and tell that story to the rest of the world. Because it's not the Blue Cross, right? Everybody's going to know about them already, but those small companies you're describing, not so small, 150, 200 employees. But telling that story and then telling everybody know that's happening right here in Columbia, South Carolina is transformative. I mean, that's the strategy, not paying for an ad at a back of a magazine. And a lot of times those companies, because they don't do a lot of local work, have been pretty humble in the way that they approach their business locally. They don't go around bragging about each other. They just kind of keep a low profile and don't really look for a lot of attention. Sure, no, totally get it. They're great, great, great histories and great customer bases and they do a lot for our communities. And that speaks to a little bit of the strategy around when we recruit companies. Also, is this concierge approach I use for economic development? Is those companies that when we recruited new one in that they're meeting, right? They're talking to. I mean, to go back to, as you can see, I'm a little sensitive sometimes about people who recruit businesses to compete against you. How many of those businesses are still here? I get it. Having done it 20 plus years, like totally can relate in very different environments. But no, I think that's exactly right. And those are the ones that we want as partners. Those are the ones I'd love more involved in what we're doing at Central. Just can we get more of that plugged in? We want those businesses that we don't want to rent them. We want them to be embedded in the community. No, that's right. And I think for us, we've never dabbled in working with existing business, but we need to because there's so many things happening around here that we just don't know about that we could probably be more helpful with if we did. 100% agree. So we're with you, 100% a team. We're going to help build it out right now. We're a little thin. We need a few more folks that we're trying to identify, but what you will see us as a resource in complete team, not just myself. You'll see everybody, but anything you guys need, I mean, don't hesitate. We love, I love feedback in particular, and the organization will love feedback from here on out. So please don't hesitate if there's things we should be doing or thinking about. And especially if we've never done it before, I'd love to explore it. Or if we've done it and said it didn't work, well, maybe it works now. Let's try it. No, great questions from my colleagues and thank you for some wonderful answers. No, excited to be with you guys. Thank you very much for the opportunity. Appreciate it. Staff, any questions? That's really nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. Thank you. I'm a city manager for the economic development and our CFO. Awesome. I've met Ryan and the whole EV team, but... Nope, I love it. My formal training is in public administration. So I, city manager, I get along with really wealth for a lot of reasons. So it's great. Nice to meet you guys too. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you guys. Thank you for everything. We're here. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, on to the discussion of the day. The signage. Right. This is really gonna now be kind of just a quick, probably just actually seeing some things that... I was like trying to stop. We went the whole hour when you were, after you left about that. I'll fill you in, I got you. Yeah, I mean, I think we landed where, I think you would agree, but it was... What, is it gonna affect my signs? No, no, no. As part of the marketing, we went into the policies. There were no more signs. The brand guidelines, but we touched on this a little bit, but we were more talking about like the VISTA request and all the, I think we're good. Wait, you represented me well? Absolutely. Okay. I'm in the business. Will's making a noise as if... I just put on my business hat. It was a lengthy discussion, but I think we landed where we need to be. All right, Robert, you better get going. I bet it. Let's talk about beautification efforts we've done throughout the city the year, but good afternoon. I'm gonna, Brian's here today to answer any questions I can't because he's done a lot with beautification this year, but one of the things we've done over the past several years is we've added a lot of greenways and greenery to the city, but we never added anybody to maintain it. So we really appreciate council support last year of giving us some money to start to do something. So the first thing we did is we hired a mowing contractor to mow the interstates. So the Farrell Road, Main Street, Bull Street, Harbison area, they were mowed every 10 days, I believe this year, like clockwork, which kept anybody coming into town actually starting to pay attention to what happened. With that, the other thing was is there was some interest about color. We wanted to see some color around city hall. Brian and his team actually went out and bought some pots for Main Street. Those pots are pretty special. As the city manager and I found out the other day, I'd like to have a couple of myself that they're very pricey. They're self watering pots. So Brian's thought outside the box, we do not have to come up here every day and water these pots. They actually water theirself, I believe the ones on in front of 1801 and city hall actually hold about 20 gallon of water. I think we actually watered them about once every two weeks or once every week in the summer is when we filled them. Brian also took on the Lady Street pots, which I've been here many years and never knew they were self watering. So he actually took all the soil out, revamped them and put all the internals back in. So those pots are now self watering, which gives us a little idea of thinking outside the box that we do not have to do everything the same way we've always done. The color this year out in front of Main Street is I thought was phenomenal. I thought it looked really good. The mums look nice. The mums are starting to die off. So they're switched out. Brian's I think going back to his other ones. The hard thing we have as everybody knows in the fall is there's just not great color in the fall. If anybody that drives a city vehicle and anybody wants to, especially during the summer and spring, I'd be a little bit absent if I didn't say drive through public works. We have a spot between our public works office and our police services office. That is Brian's horticulturist Amy. That is her playground. She gets to plant anything she wants there to see how it grows and see if we're gonna use it next year. See, I think we've got some good ideas for next year that will change hopefully a little bit as we go on. The one thing we also did is we wanted to engage small business. So we went down and we've got self-watering pots out North Main Street. So we've actually engaged the gardener that's in Cotton Town, the garden outpost. It's in Cotton Town. So she's actually planted stuff within the North Main Street area. Another project that we had that tied into all this was the fountain at City Hall. Over the years, the, I'm not a tree guy, but I listened to Brian and Sarah a lot, is the palm trees are a grass. They're not a tree, by the way. And they continue to grow root size. They never actually grow in size. Well, they were taking the caps over the past 15 years and they were taking the caps off the planters in front of the fountain and the driveway going through between the courthouse and here. So about once or twice a year, we'd have to take all the caps off, take a chainsaw, cut all the roots off and put all the caps back on. Brian and his staff came back in this year, dug them all out and put some smaller stuff in and then put some color in there that hopefully tie into City Hall. Another project that we worked on was Garner's Ferry Road. Not a lot of people notice it. We've worked on it for quite a few years. That is planting some juniper on the hill, just down the hill from Target. We've had that on our radar for several years, but the problem was there was a lot of stumps on it and there was no way to get water. So Brian and his team actually accomplished that this year. The one that we did for public safety and what we wanna call our infill project was the fence repairs. And the fence repairs have been really on Assembly Street and some on North Main that as people have wrecks and drive through the fence, we repair them. And those are actually true rod-iron fences. So we have to bring a contractor in, he builds them on site and comes back and welds them in place. So they are welded, but it actually keeps people from crossing the meeting, medians, and it gives Brian's chance to come in and actually infill the project so it starts to look better. The other thing that Brian and his group did this year out of forestry was they applied for a tree grant. We just briefed the city manager on it. We got awarded about a month ago. It's $290,000, it's a five-year grant. It allows us to give 1,500 trees away, so we're gonna have quarterly meetings with the luncheon, I believe. And what it'll do is let us bring speakers in and educate people on how to plant trees. And it's really targeted for the LMI districts. The MBLG projects or Midlands Business Leadership Government is actually moving forward. We got some bids on the 302 that we were working on. They were a little over $2 million. We've asked for them to be pared down. I think they're pared down to 1.6 and we're waiting on that group to, say, move ahead. But that will really be from the corridor of 302 from the interstate to the entrance to the airport. Hopefully make that ride from the airport coming down. 302, as we all know, is sometimes not a great drive a little bit better. The second plan on that and the second one will be forest drive. And it'll be a little more tricky because we may have to get the wells on forest drive. There's really no forest drive at the entrance to Fort Jackson. Is a second project of the eight. The other projects are a lot, lot bigger. The other one we have as we moved on is the city manager installed sidewalk maintenance, maintenance edging and mowing. We added a new component to that this year. So city manager funded this about three or four years ago maybe five years ago, I can't remember. But what we do is we have crews that rotate the main thoroughfares throughout town and we mow, edge and trim those areas. But what we've also started doing is apply or sending letters to all the residents saying, hey, this is your responsibility to keep up. So hopefully we'll get a little help from them. I still 100% agree with the city manager and it's nice to come in Main Street and look at something that's nicely mowed rather than this guy mowed on Monday, this guy mowed on Wednesday, this guy mowed two weeks later and it's all different. So I think that is a great project. The other one was the sign litter and the removal of signs. We've actually concentrated on a lot of signs. As we see them, we remove them. It's the signs that are attached to the pole. It's the old museum of art sign. We've worked with DOT. Anytime we see one, we've got agreements with SCDOT to actually remove them and tell them the sign number on the back. And I don't even think we take the signs back anymore. I think we just tell them where the signs are. Are they putting up any new signs? No, please. I don't understand, I'm serious. I feel like I don't think so. A lot of these were like duplicative too. I know, they're also contradictory. Yeah. And then the Columbia signs, we're gonna swap out with our new design. Yes. The interesting Columbia sign is the one that's in the bottom middle. It was the one that sits in the middle of the Jarvis-Clapman Bridge. Nobody ever knew it was there. It was interesting to take down. It'll be interesting to put back up one of these days when we finally get our signs in. The other project that I wanna talk about that's coming up, and we've just started hearing a little bit about it, I heard it was let forbid this week, is the five-points beautification project is out. We don't know what that looks like yet, but we were anxious to see that. We've actually asked for us to see the copy of the plans for that to see what it is. I know there's some planners down in the medians, we still don't know what to do with that, so I don't think that's what you asked. Who's taking this today? We can ask you something, Robert. Those are the businesses that put up these yard signs on the poles and in ride aways. Is there any role that they can be fined for that because they're technically not supposed to do that? Is that correct? I don't know if you're the one to answer that, or if... I don't know that I can answer it. It'd probably be more of a David Hatcher question, so, but we can definitely look into it. We just have to... If there's a business license tag to it in the city of Columbia, it's overwhelming on the major corridors in District 3. And Rosewood, Hardin, Garner's Ferry. Garner's Ferry is terrible. Garner's Ferry is terrible. It's really, really, really bad, and I think people aren't... Instead of us sending our team out there to do a sweep every six weeks, we can put some teeth behind it so that people know you can't put up college hump movers on the thing without knowing you're gonna get a $10. But what if you need Obamacare? That one, too. That one, too. I would like to see us just put some teeth into it so people don't take advantage of this, murking up our grade. We'll look at that. Maybe we could even start with, when we pull the signs, trying to find the company and send them a ordinance that says it's not, you know, you can't post something in the right away or you can't do that, just to give them a little head start on what we're trying to do. So with that... Obamacare business license is located, but... I got the number. I could eat it. With that, let's talk about what everybody's... What we've worked on for several months, and that is the gateway sign. So along with the help of Dr. Bussells, we've actually went out for a bit on this. We've got a sign that's got a 10-year maintenance plan on it, so it doesn't need any maintenance of 10 years. And it's a pretty simple sign. It's a brick of metal or aluminum, and it is backlit, and it is RGB, which means we can change colors of the sign anytime we want. We really don't know what that looks like yet, and how we do that. We don't know if we're gonna do it wirelessly or we're gonna have to go on site. So when we first got the design to the sign, the one thing we talked about is we made a call once they've got the contract in place and said, hey, what can we do to the sign? So the sign was when it originally came out straight across at the top, and everybody said, hey, we don't like straight across at the top. Let's see what we can do to soften the sign. And the other one was is the fonts of the sign. We wanted to make sure that it fit in with the city's, what you talked about? Branding. Yes, branding, thank you. So this font, after talking to Alicia, is the same font that we are using in We Are Columbia. And my understanding from Alicia that is probably staying the same right now is what she was told it may change, but we can change this at any time. I see you shaking your head. So, but we can change this at any time, I think that's the case. And I was thinking that because you weren't in that last discussion we just had with them. And so this call came up, but the brand guidelines pieces wrapping up mid-December. And so they'll be, Clint was in there. So they're aware, the consultant's aware that this is on the radar. But also I don't, like even if the font changes is not going to be major, so. We already changed it once. I really liked the curved. It compliments the river lines nicely. And the darker brick. We changed that too. We changed the brick, the darker brick. We did change the curve. If you look at the next sign, of course, this is what the sign would look like. Illuminated. Don't look at the blue sides. That's actually looking at the signal sign is what that would be looking at. Then the next design they came up with was with a little bit more wave. And then the sides are there. Then that sign would look a little bit like that. Illuminated. Then we have the, and I told Clint, you're going to hear a bad word in a minute. So then we had the secondary signs. Which is very good. And I am terrible at this word. So when the sign company and us met, I told them this is the third and dairy sign, which is the small signs. We actually look it up and there is a word called third and dairy, not, what'd you say? Tertiary. Tertiary. I can't say that. It's not like tertiary. It's not like tertiary. So, but that would be the signs that would go up across the river. So, what we did, and we'll go back here. And we can print that in-house, correct? We can print. The tertiary, third in-house, okay. So we have that printer on order, should be hooked up in the next few weeks. Then I picked some locations and sent some stuff out for Dr. Brussels and the group. And they just recently returned this to us. This is where the signs would house. So we've got three areas. Of course, we've got the Harveston area, which is where years ago, that's where the first sign was. We've got Bull Street in bound into town. And then of course, I think Dr. Brussels has mentioned, she maybe wanted one. Yeah, definitely want one coming in right there. Yeah, I-26 Elmwood Splint. So those are three. Not saying we can't have some more. This is where I think today, if I may, this is where we're kind of up for discussion is what do people think? Which sign do we like? Which way do we wanna move? We'll worry about that in about a month, right, Teresa? Yeah. So I think my question is then the secondary and tertiary. I know you gave us a map of like 18 gateways or locations. If the creative staff would give a recommendation about where they would want the set. Like I think we can decide on the major gateways, but some of those other, like for example, North Main is known as a gateway district. And many of them have reached out excited about this and they want some kind of smaller sign coming in. And that might be the tertiary one or the secondary one, but I think that would be helpful to see where you all would recommend. Some of those smaller signs can go. But I think generally you can comment on like, do you like the look and feel, you know, font aside, the font will change, but I don't think the design will change much based on our brand guidelines. So you say the word Columbia is facelift or backlit? Because the picture shows a facelift just for the record. I think it's backlit because I said we would actually be able to get in. The one question I asked him is how easy the LED bulbs were to change. And they said we'd have a back entrance into changing the LED bulbs. Usually what you end up with is a remote. Right. So, but just for the record, the pictures show. A front lift. That shows a facelift, not backlit. Okay. I think it's supposed to be backlit because I did ask how easy it was going to be to change the bulbs if they went out. They won't, the good news is they won't go out. I hope that's true. That's why they gave you a 10 year warranty cause. And the other thing is, so Will and I were talking about this, I don't know if the dot, dot, dot is appropriate there. It makes you feel like you're yelling. It's like, welcome to, what are you missing? Brian has been telling us that the whole time and I'm like, I don't know about this. So he said dot, dot, dot means what? Welcome to. Yeah, so. Wait for it. I would just save money on those three dots and we get those removed. That's been a very interesting conversation by the public works. You know, kind of going back to our discussion, Teresa. So, so if that's the way we want Columbia written, then that's the way we want Columbia written all the time. So, just, just for purposes of this discussion, go, go back to your presentation. Is it a bigger one? Back. Back. Back, back, back. Keep going. Keep going. Come on. Come on. One more. One more. All right. So Columbia Public Works, one day that Columbia won't be okay. You see what I'm saying? So once we embrace that Columbia is always all caps, that means we'll always want Columbia in all caps. That's not true. It is true. Exactly what you wanted. In a, in a, in a print presentation, it's very different. Absolutely. Nope. No y'all. And what you do is you're standardizing. That's another, you're standardizing outward facing. You're standardizing communication. That's what you're doing. So, so, whatever what you wish for. The sign, the sign as long as it's in the same, the same font family as the brand guidelines, it'll be fine. It'll make sense. What you have brand guidelines, you're going to have brand guidelines. Which is a good thing. You need brand guidelines. That's right. Okay. You're going to have brand guidelines. And you'll want people to follow the brand guidelines. I was thinking we'd have a lot of discussion about the wave and the curve. Are you guys, do you guys like it? Love it. Love it. Are you being sarcastic or do you actually like it? I think what you'll find out is that, that either one's fine. So, so, you know, at some point you could have three people. Yeah, I'm sarcastic. You're more alike than that. I got the wrong one. Sorry about that. Yeah. Are you all looking for that level of confirmation today? I mean, as long as you remove the dot, dot, dot, I like it and the font subject to change based on whatever we decide is the final city font. I mean, I think that Teresa, based on what we talked about today though, I mean, the answer is this has got to go through that. This has got to go through that branding process that we just talked about today. Okay. So, the answer is. I'm going to go to full council. Yeah. Well, that would be the next thing. I guess what I'm saying is this should be sent to the group that we just talked to today. What was her name? Megan and Ted Crawford. It's got to go back to Crawford and they've got to vent this as part of our branding. Okay. And it ties all into everything. So. They took a soft look at it, but that what I was explaining today when we got to that point was they really encouraged that they complete the brand guidelines process. That's what I'm saying. Finish the process, give us the guide and then we can use the guides. It'll give us the hex code for the colors. It'll give us the font and then we can decide are we only referring into as city of Columbia or Columbia? Like those things will be clear through that guide. Right. So, but again, you all like the design and feel comfortable getting it to full council. And what we're asking is do you like the wave or the? I like the wave. I like the non-wave. But again, I mean, I can support anything. So all I'm saying is when it goes through the process. It's going to go through the process. But at least we can tell them they're in the ballpark for the design, right? This is at some point we'll be arguing more right versus less right. And there is no, there's no way to determine that. What did public works, what did you all think in terms of both? First of all, I liked the, when I started, I liked the one on the right. Then I decided I liked the one on the left. And I sent several people. Brian, which one did you like? That's not helpful. You liked the one on the left, okay? But I also said that I don't want public works to pick this. This was our internal joke is because five years from now when somebody's riding down the road and says, I don't like that sign. I don't want somebody saying, public works did it. I am leaning towards the right just because I think then it makes the river stand out. Take it to the people. Take it to greater council. Yeah, I agree, I'm taking it to council. Can I ask a question about budget, not on this, but on gateway beautification? How much, you know, from our general fund discussions last year, I don't know what pools of money we pulled for, for the extra initiatives for gateway cleanup. Do you, Jeff, do you know a number or missy? Do you, do we know a number that was in that budget? I want to say it was something like $400,000 was set aside either from general fund or some sort of H tax component to take care of cutting weed eating. I don't think litter was included in it, unfortunately, but as we went through it. The media and cleaning was not included. And we kept, and we did it for, was it two years out in the sea at least? We added. It was, it was $300,000 initially added in 2223 and then supplemented what was left and brought over into this fiscal year for another 300,000. So it's a combined, I think 500 probably total between what was left from last year and then brought into this year. And when our contracts, when our mowing contracts are let, we've got about $79,000 or $80,000 left every year. And so that area, so tell me on Garner's Ferry, how far out, so was there any grass cutting and maintenance along Garner's Ferry? Are you just referring to the beautiful case? There was not on Garner's Ferry. There was not on North Main and there was not on Fairfield. We would have desires to do that because we do think. So where was grass maintenance and meat eating and meat eating? Garner's Ferry. Oh, that's right, Garner's Ferry at I-77. That's where what was. That's where we do have one of the contracts at. For wheat eating. For mowing. For mowing. How far out does that go? Just right there at the interstate intersection. Okay. So we do that intersection, we do 277. We do the Clyburn Bridge, Harbison, Graystone, I-126, Huger, Elwood Split. Huger? Where do you live? Joe. Where am I from? But let me just finish with that here. So in that beautification number, that included the keep of the beds and everything. In that 200 that was passed over now, to a half a million dollars is what you're saying? They mow, edge, and we'd eat. We actually do all the plant material and weed in all the plants and mulch all the plants. So if we were to do the level that you do right there at the intersection of Garner's Ferry on every major street, road, highway coming into Columbia, what's the ballpark figure you're talking about if we need to go find funding for it to keep up in a prideful way. Our grass cutting, our litter pickup, our weed eating at its pretty significant clip. I would have to think about that. I would go from this, I never like to compare ourself to anybody because I think we're better than anybody. But I know Greenville dedicates three to four people to the Main Street District every day. We dedicate a crew a week maybe, every 10 days. So that's the- For what, what's that rotation? So what they do is pick up litter, they weed the beds, they pick up any limbs, they weed the beds, they're ambassadors somewhat to the Greenville, is that about what they do? That's about all our- Now the entire rows are just where the beds are. The beds in Greenville on Main Street only. That's the beds. That's right. So then they don't upkeep the medians, the Christmas tree that's grown in front of publics. It's somebody's gonna put lights on here soon. There's no medians there, but- There is, there's no medians. There's no medians. There's no medians. One of our friends is gonna put lights on there soon. So, but we have never been funded to clean the true medians. And if you clean a true median, you really need to put a crew out there, but you need to put a crash truck out there. As soon as you put a crash truck out there, you double your cost. That's where this becomes, you can't put a guy in the middle of a median of a traffic that's moving 40 miles an hour. You'd actually need the proper traffic control. You need a crash truck. You'll need the cones. You'll need the- I like to see just a budget for what that looks like city-wide. So you're talking about like, not letting the intersectioner, Jervé and Hardin get to, you know, before we started maintaining it. So currently we're really only maintaining like Elmwood, right? Not really maintaining the medians. DOT right now is spraying everything in the medians. The only thing we do is maintain out curb, outside to sidewalk on both sides. So what Councilman Brennan's asking is, can we see what a budget would look like if we were to maintain- If we were to take over the maintenance that DOT's supposed to be doing. And we layer in our beautification, our wonderful beautification efforts, but also the litter pickup and the weeding and mowing of major corridors. So I'll ask one question to- Tag a number per mile. I'll ask one question to get us to the beginning again. Are we gonna paint curbs? Are we just on DOT's supposed to do? The last time we painted a curb, we was told to quit putting mustard paint on the curb. My DOT? No, by somebody else. So I didn't like the mustard color. What color would you use? You have to use mustard. So you want to use your- I think knowing this number's a- It's shading into a bigger- So how about the desire for- How about if we do, like, Elmwood from Assembly all the way down and use that as a test- Yeah, just give me a number per mile and we can apply it. Okay. Yeah, that's- And I will say that we recently got back from a conference, there's, we actually, and I've been at the fairgrounds most of the day, we actually have an equipment show tomorrow, if anybody wants to stop by and see some equipment and maybe get a hamburger, I'll get you in. But we have an equipment show, so there was at least one or two street sweepers brought in today, which are actually a little bit different street sweepers. They have a, the newer style, they're really small, they're really expensive, but they have two brooms on the front, but they also have a swing broom on the side. So the swing broom can actually reach out and actually get the median as it goes by. So it would sweep the stuff over to the broom and then it would sweep. And it's got more of a bristly broom, not a nylon broom on it. We've been looking at them, but I think they're about $270,000, $280,000, which is the price of a regular street sweep. Calculated in whatever the number is to maintain it properly, better than any city in the state. Okay, cool. I like to see that number. At least in 2025, it's coming quick for the voters to go talk about a penny tax and the pride in our roadways. I do think though that it's definitely a good exercise to at least understand what's the cost of this. And just how much the duty is not putting in to doing the maintenance that they're supposed to be going. Okay, no problem. Not actually helping our legislative priorities to bring it up about the deficit of what we're taking on and how much they need to be helping out. Are we good with that? Yes, thank you. So I think we wanna take this design to full council after the brand guidelines are finalized. One thing that someone at this table that may or may not have sign experience suggested was that the smaller sign should also model that nice curve and to cut that lighter gray at the top off so that it has like the curve as well. So I believe it does actually. Oh, okay, so that's just. If you look at your picture doesn't show what this actually does it's got a real dark curve at the top and then it went to a light gray at the top right. Can we get rid of the light gray? Yeah, what color would you want just white? No, just not have it like the shape of the sign be the curve. Can we curve the laser cut curve? Oh, yeah. Interest, yeah. Sure. So that it matches like that. Yeah. Yeah, we'll have a curve sign at the top. No, no, no. Okay. Yeah. If they can make a rectangle sign as early as we can do that. Well, you did right here. They did. All the leaves would be the one. Yeah, we ordered those blanks so we'll have to get those blanks cut and I would, yeah, I would think. I wanna make sure our new printer will actually print that that we're getting. So I think we hold until we have the stuff finalized from today. And then I think next step, have greater counsel look at it. And then we, I think we're good to go. And we'll actually get that. And the next thing I think the next meeting would be just letting us know where you guys recommend the secondary and tertiary signs. What was the other word besides tertiary? Third and dairy. Third and dairy. I like that. Which ones are the secondary versus first dairy? Smaller signs. Smaller versions of the big signs. These are not left. The what? These are not left. Secondary signs are not left. The secondary signs are not left. And where would they go? That's what we're asking for them to bring back recommendations because we know that the big ones are gonna go in the major gateways like the ones that you showed us. And then we wanna know where they would suggest these. Based on the budget that we have, yeah. And these go where again? Well, you know how you come off a Jarvis Clapman or when you cross from Fort Steakers into the city. It'll replace the, what is it? A world class? The blue signs that say a world class. Whether it's capital places to be. Or I'm sorry, capital places. Yeah, we can probably sell those, you know, for like vintage signs. I'm sure someone would actually, that'd be a really cool reaction. Yeah, we could have a big party. Don't throw those away. Keep those blue signs. I think that might be too late, okay? I think it goes straight to recycling then. Put one on Daniel's house. It lights up when you talk about this. That's what I'm gonna generate. I mean, people like this. I think we should get one of every sign and put it on one of the walls downstairs. Here's our history. That'd be cool. Oh man, Jessica. Jessica, go on. The only thing I can say is somebody needs to find another sign because I think they go in the recycling bin. All right. Thank you. Thanks, Robert. Thank you, Robert. All right. Will, do you mind taking us to executive sessions? Absolutely. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion to move into executive succession for discussion of matters relating to the proposed location expansion and provision of services, encouraging location or expansion of industries for other businesses in the area served by the public body pursuant to SE code 30-4-78-5. Second. Thank you for a second. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All right.