 Hello Columbia and welcome to City View, where we give you an inside view of the City of Columbia. I'm your host, Alicia Utsi. In our top story, recently Mayor Steve Benjamin and Police Chief William Skip Holbrook recently held a press conference to announce the use of new technology by the Police Department in order to fight crime. In addition to the Mayor and Police Chief, city council members were also in attendance. Using smart city technology, using data to help serve as a force multiplier for the great work that these men and women do every single day is a win for the city and we're looking for good things to come from this new partnership between the Columbia Police Department and ShotSpotter. Chief Aubrey D. Jenkins and the Columbia Fire Department are always busy and on the go, but even more so lately. Recently, the Columbia Fire Department hosted a push-in ceremony for a new fire truck for the Divine Street Fire Station. They also recognized a local citizen for saving a life along with some local firefighters and they hosted a graduation ceremony for brand new volunteer firefighters. This is an exciting moment for the district, also the City of Columbia and everybody that lives around here. Not only it continues to keep up our ISO rating of one, it also improves our fire safety and protection for the neighborhood in the area. It's also an advantage for all the firefighters who drive the truck, so the ability of seeing the road better or getting to the scene better, that's what this truck can provide. It's really a great tool to give the firefighters the tools they need to perform their job. Well, I would just like to thank again the firefighters and my neighbor Patrick for just saving a life. I mean, as you stated, I mean my family, he was pulling out his driveway and my son went to go get him and just because of his quick reaction and just to come over there and save a life, I'm just blessed and thankful that not only was I given an opportunity to come back and tell my testimony, but that I had people like this not just in the world, period. I mean, these are good people. I don't think people understand the things that these firefighters do on a daily basis. I'm just one story, one of many. Certain volunteers are very important to this organization as they help protect those unincorporated areas out in Russian County. So we want to just have a graduation for them. This is going to be our first graduate. We have half a volunteer. So I'm pretty excited about this. I know they are too. So we're going to be recognizing them, giving them that badge, and we're also going to be presenting them with a certificate, but also our thing unique that we're going to be doing. We have a challenge call that is just uniquely to the members of the department. We want to make sure that they feel welcome. We want to make sure that they are fully engaged, know that we need them, and we're going to continue to work with them. The City of Columbia was proud to recognize our 911 staff during National Telecommunicators Week. This is National Telecommunicators Week, and we celebrate all week to just recognize the, and we call them the first of the first responders, which is our staff. We want to make sure that they are recognized. They're not the ones that showing up in the big red fire chocolate of police sirens or the ambulance, but they're the ones that make sure that all of those first responders get to emergency. And speaking of recognition weeks, our community development staff recently hosted a series of events for National Community Development Week. They include volunteer hours at Harvest Hope for our community development staff, a bus tour for community and neighborhood leaders, and also their first ever Community Development Week luncheon. Oftentimes people don't understand what work we're doing in the community, whether it's infrastructure work, whether it's public facilities that we funded, whether we're helping with down payment assistance or providing gap funds to a developer who's doing a new housing development in the city. We take this opportunity to let folks know where their taxpayer dollars are going, so it's just a way to engage and inform the public about what the City of Columbia's Community Development Department does on an annual basis. While the National Recognition Weeks just keep on rolling for the City of Columbia. We also joined our OBO staff, which stands for Office of Business Opportunities for National Small Business Week. This is about creating an ecosystem that supports small and family-owned businesses all across Columbia, South Carolina, all across America. We're so thankful to all the partners from our Office of Business Opportunities, our Small Business Administration, incredible work that the Columbia Chamber does, partnership with the City of Richland County. It takes all of us to make sure we create an environment that continues to nurture the most talented, educating the entrepreneurial system in city and America. What the City of Columbia does, we celebrate our small businesses year around. It's not just one week that we celebrate our small businesses. We're always trying to lift up and support our small businesses. There are a number of different resources within the city that are geared directly towards our small businesses. The City of Columbia is very unique in that our leadership sees our small businesses as a priority. You don't have that in every municipality. Our city manager, Teresa Wilson, our mayor, Steve Benjamin, our city council leaders, they really want our small businesses to succeed because when they do well, our entire community as well. Mayor Steve Benjamin and his family once again hosted the Mayor's Eastern Extravaganza event, and this year they were at a new venue. This year we're so excited to be here at the Mills House in the heart of a historic district, a Robert Mills Historic District in Columbia. So it exposes so many more Colombians, both old and new, to the incredible historic treasures that are being maintained and preserved by Historic Columbia Foundation. Exciting year to be here. It's an opportunity to push on kids, some really good healthy habits, teach them the importance of exercise, of eating well, and what that means to living a whole and complete life, and spending more time with the people that we love. So it's just a wonderful opportunity to push good health, push exercise, and to celebrate in a good family-friendly environment. Mayor Steve Benjamin welcomed superstar quarterback Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers to Hyatt Park for the Panthers Place 60 event, which was a delight for our local children and the community. You know, you're always trying to find that one flip you can switch in any child's head, recognizing that part of a well-lived life is academic, it's extracurricular, it's community service, but it's all about teamwork and all about leadership. And if you can find just that one opportunity in our entertainers and our athletes have a unique ability to do this, to tap into that spirit of aspiration and hope in our children, if you can use this as an opportunity to do that so they know that it can go off and be athletes, they can be scientists, they can be police officers or soldiers or teachers or mayors, whatever they want to do, you want to use this as an opportunity to do that. And now we transition from football to baseball. Councilman Ed McDowell recently hosted a ceremony along with local leaders to break ground on a new facility that will feature a baseball field in the local Book of Washington Heights community. We wanted our children, of course, in excess of about 3,000 children in this community to enjoy the same recreational activities we offered everywhere, anywhere. Well, this year, just in time for Mother's Day, the City of Columbia's public relations, marketing and media team, along with two men on a truck partnered to host Movers to Moms, which focused on collecting donations that could be given to displaced mothers from the Allen Benedict Court apartment complex. And some exciting news coming soon to North Columbia is the veranda on North Maine. This new senior living facility will be opening soon at the end of May. While it is not open yet, a private tour was held for city council members and local stakeholders, as well as Columbia Primate Zone board members. We get a lot of negativity about low-income housing, tax credits, and not in my community, but this is an opportunity to show what quality, affordable housing looks like and how it can make a difference in the person's life. This project is having a great impact on the North Maine corridor. As you can see, it is the grandest structure on this corridor. I think it already has enhanced the community. It will probably increase tax values. We thank you for joining us for this edition of City View. Please stay tuned to City TV for the latest in city news and information, and also follow us on our social media platforms and visit our website at columbiasc.gov. Make sure you stay connected, and remember, we are Columbia.