tion course for one year at level five in that area and then walk straight in the year after obviously there are opportunities you know outside of the ceo there are opportunities you know in northern island for people in johnny gall and in the north west there are opportunities in european universities by virtue of our membership at the u there are more irish students now go to the netherlands than go to england and wells combined so effectively and you know there's full opportunities there because we're all fellow members of the u and they don't ever ask for points they don't they've never heard of points so long as you get your two h5s and four passes in most courses in european universities and all thought through english of course then obviously you can go straight in so you know there is an opportunity for everybody who has a career aspiration to find a way forward it's just a question do your best now and let's see what your options are and how do we talk to our students about it you know we don't want to compound any stress okay so we want to be there and supportive is it just let them speak if they want to speak just leave it out today after the exam this morning how did it go for you you know and listen to what they say and say okay what's up next okay any plans for the afternoon day would you like him would you like a sandwich daddy daddy dad you know questions questions open ended questions rather than tell me what you wrote for that answer it's not me rewrite it now yeah exactly rewrite it and show me what you did yeah all right and if they did leave this early one early don't say brian says you shouldn't left early just try and make sure the available all all of the time i mean it should be an exciting time it's there it's like stepping into the next stage of the life here and as you say there's never been more options we now have you know equal status on websites to courses versus you know apprenticeships you know i think we're starting to get it right brian we are and the thing is at the end of the day every leaving search student will wake up the day after the last paper and they'll have this weird feeling because since they've been four years of age everything was predetermined you finished an exam you're going back in september suddenly you wake up and oh my god there's nothing you know i'm not going back to school i've finished the leave insert what comes now that's the time to actually finalize that ceo choice and say okay everything else is out of the way i have a few days now to get myself my head sorted what do i really want to do you've maybe done all the information stuff in your head what now is the time to go to the gush and saying what is going to motivate me to go and engage with a course an apprenticeship or something next winter when it gets really nasty weather and get out of bed every morning where is that in me what's what's that driving factor and when students finish the leaving search particularly they will find that maybe they would see life very differently because for the first time in their life they're outside the education system there's no there's no roadmap it's up to you after that and you know what i'd love to see and i don't know if you'd agree i'm not going to get involved in it i haven't for for quite some time i don't recall when i did fair play to a student that gets a fantastic result but let's not make it a new story and let's the media not stand outside school saying what did you get you know like it's individual some people will have good days others will have bad i don't think it's a headline news story that someone got how many of rays is a is a maximum of full points hopefully the the change in how we've done the exam we move past that because the media does not need to be you know amplifying certain situations and making other people potentially feel bad about themselves yeah maths and english are at the core of what effectively is the second level system around the world and there are young people for whom maths and english is not the thing and they will struggle and they will get through that even certain the majors pass it and get you know six or seven ordinary level g's or the equivalent of that now and effectively that's a huge achievement for them and they will go on and they may run companies and they may employ all the accountants who got 600 points themselves you know what i mean and fair dues to them and well done and now it's time to move on yeah all right brian listen it's time for us to move on thank you so much for your patience today greatly appreciated bye bye yeah indeed you know i just don't i think we're we're past the point now where we say things like treating people as uh you know using words like unskilled i've never done it i've never done it never will i hope everyone stops doing it not that i'm setting any i'm not trying to set any rules please don't think i'm doing that but also this thing like it's fantastic if one person gets super results i don't think it's something that you know if you elevate them above other people everyone's success is individual to them and i just think it puts pressure on unnecessarily i think it's something we do that's done i haven't done it for if i have it's a long time ago and i think it's just something we need to not do because what's the point in it anymore there's so many other options and so many different ways of doing things okay okay uh it is time for a break we have kirin odonal coming in talking business news a little later that and so much more besides stay right where you are when it comes to your oral care you should have confidence in the tools you use oral be the number one brand recommended by dentists worldwide the electric toothbrushes remove up to 100 more plaque compared to a manual brush switch to an oral be electric toothbrush today and get that dentist clean feeling at home available in dun stores and your local pharmacy while stocks last oral 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hub in dairy can provide you with your own mailbox have your post and parcels delivered to space up and collected your convenience there's brand new 20 foot shipping containers now in stock ideal for all your storage needs at our spring town and komor depots find us on facebook at space of dairy dot com or call 04871 it's 7 it's 077 for more details test go club card is the power to lower prices on snacky favorites like nesley chariot is multi grain 540 gram and curiously cinnamon churros 360 gram now two euro 14 plus nesley nesquik 375 gram now one euro 99 and choose from any of the pringles 165 gram range now three for five euro i can't stop you going back for a seconds though nothing's that powerful lower the cost of your shop with your tesco club card or app the power to lower prices tesco every little helps product subject to availability excludes express doors come on down to the 30th annual finn valley show on russell brothers farm killigarden on saturday 18th of june with the usual dog home industries poultry sheep cattle horse and pony classes and fast and furious donkey derby with trade stands show and shine tractor competition live music from david james and children's entertainment it's sure to be a family fun day at the finn valley show this ad is sponsored by kill patrick brothers contracting for all your agri needs mowing raking billy gps oink slurry arm and your spreading call ray or david on<PHONE_NUMBER> okay right uh you're welcome back to the program we're talking wellness wednesday time to bring a bit of glamour to the show by way of personal stylist emma morrie hi emma hi gregg how are you doing good thanks thank you for having me it's good to have you and you're building up to your road show it's on saturday june 25th in the clannery hotel letter kenny an event features prosecco shopping reception luxurious room decor dj and saxophone player goodie bags hair demo makeover reveal fashion show i can't keep going on it sounds like it's going to be a packed night there is there is a lot that is going to be happening um this event was actually organized back in february just before covid had hit so just before the world had shut down we had all of this organized and then obviously we couldn't go through with it so it's great to be able to back do events now and i think everybody is ready just for a fantastic night out which hopefully is what it's going to be how did you get involved in this line of work emma so i suppose ever since i was a baby i've literally been interested in fashion since that and i wouldn't have gone down the traditional route in terms of college in terms of studying fashion or anything like that i studied english and spanish and n u i go away and then in my first year of college and that summer i started in river island so started in retail and it literally just had sort of spiraled from there and a lot of different positions sort of within retail and then moved on to a personal shopper in debonyms and how does that work personal shopping what's that yeah so the well whenever we were in debonyms people would have made an appointment and it literally could be that you're looking for something for any kind of an event and i think it's one of those things though people kind of think that maybe it's only for celebrities or it's only for the rich and famous but it's not like that at all you know i have people that would come to me even just maybe looking for an item for a night out or it could be just a christening or just maybe that they're feeling stuck so rather than dragging around a disinterested partner or trying to do a video call would that make that you trust their opinion on what they couldn't come with you that day you're a person that says no this would suit you yes exactly so i work virtually and then i work in person as well because i would have a lot of clients that would be um down the country and i would have had clients but you've honed away of doing it that it's effective i presume exactly well i would hope so anyway yeah in terms of the remoteness okay yeah exactly so and for personal shopping then what did you do next um so with that then i then went on to set up my social media marketing business so i've two completely separate businesses um the personal shopping and then the um social media training side of it as well so i'm the social media tutor with it i'm called etb and then i also have my own private one to one yeah clients as well so there's a great variety do you see yourself as an influencer i would have moved away try to move away anyway from the influencers is that because it kind of became a toxic not for you but that space yeah well yeah for me anyway it was more so that i wanted to establish myself with my businesses right okay no and saying that obviously i started off with a very small little blog one night in my bedroom and that's where all the opportunities came for me was from my blog so you know a lot of what i have achieved now wouldn't have come hadn't I mean for my blog um but the influencer industry i mean is huge you know it really really is there's a lot of people that are doing fantastic in that industry um you know there's a lot of people making a lot of money in that industry as well you know so it really is well may is it a lot of people i think that might be the problem in that it is you know on the widest scale of things maybe it's not that many like and you know maybe you need to bounce off another platform before you get into that position and i just think a lot of people might aspire to be that and it's difficult i mean you obviously do organically to some extent with your blog i did yeah but it's not easy to do that is it no it's not it's really really not i think i suppose i started off maybe six or seven years ago when it wasn't as popular maybe and i know a lot of people kind of thought what is this what's a log what is she doing uh but thankfully i had a lot of support locally where a lot of people i suppose supported the page and shared it and everything like that but i think it's really really important if you are looking to step into that industry that you find something that sets you apart from other people because it is quite saturated and you know i suppose if you find that one little thing that sets you apart from everybody else that's what's going to keep people on your account and on your platforms and it will help grow your following obviously as well and how long or how long has it been since you felt right this is a business now i have a business here and and reorganizing your time to be able to focus on different elements of that yeah well i suppose actually within the first couple of weeks i had you know seven six seven years ago i had businesses businesses that had approached me i'm looking to work with me which to me was just so exciting because obviously it was such a risk to do what i had done but i would say probably within the last three to four years three to four years i put a lot of work into i suppose establishing establishing the two businesses and there was a lot of training and everything involved in that but i think once you have a passion for something you don't mind putting in the work and that passion as you said was evident right from the very beginning you were just waiting for instagram to be invented and whatever else it might be exactly i started off on facebook facebook was actually the main platform and i wouldn't go near instagram i needed it i just i did not like it at all but you just have to roll with the times and and still to and and now you have to say well you know do we need a space on tiktok or whatever might work for any particular individual i think what happens is is that you know us parents and grandparents follow of people onto social media and then they migrate to another one and and on it goes like yeah exactly well tiktok obviously is huge and i suppose that would be the newest platform that has come around and definitely you know it's there to be used in the in the correct way and i know a lot of people that have got a lot of benefit i think you used a very really important word that correct yeah because spamming social media yeah is counterintuitive it's counterproductive exactly i know it's kind of can go from one extreme to the next maybe we're you aren't posting at all and then you might maybe post an overload so it's kind of finding that balance you know everybody's going to be different in terms of maybe what they're comfortable with and what their audience reacts to so it's kind of finding what works for you and yeah and i mean there is a balance and that's where people like yourself have the expertise because there's a like people don't mind being pushed an ad if they're also getting useful content all that ad is content in and of itself isn't it that's the kind of balances we're talking about are we yeah absolutely so you want to be providing as much value obviously as possible to people and i always say even to clients and everything like that i suppose on the social media and that people will buy from you when they know like and trust you and one of the best ways to do that is through your posts on social media yeah okay how many of these is this one of your first live events or if you've done many before pardon my ignorance no this is this is the first big event so this is there's no pressure i know and it feels like it's about two years in the making now because of the initial cancellation i know and there's a lot of people looking forward to it and a lot of people really really excited for it so yeah it hopefully should be good we've got a lot of the organizing done at this stage now so it's just a case of everybody turning up on the night and enjoying themselves and i have i'm around the county today with a lot of our pop-up shops doing little videos with them just to help promote them and in terms of what they're going to be doing on the night and what they'll have to offer and everything so and is it primarily targeted at women or are we seeing a change in the the the makeup of the audience of these types of events yeah no absolutely i mean it's it's open to all genders absolutely you know it's not just specifically for women i'd say i'll probably find out on the night i'd say the i suppose the ratio probably will be higher in terms of women than it will be to men but yeah no absolutely obviously everybody is is welcome and it should yeah and what's your approach in terms of how you how you present clothes because i've spoken to different people some like the sort of maybe that it's even not uncomfortable saying it but you know a model uh i think others would find maybe people with you know shapes and sizes that we all are more relatable because they know what an item of clothing might look on them what's your stance on that well i'm actually so proud of the model lineup that we do have so we're working with catwalk modeling agency in gallway so a lot of the girls are coming from gallway and jubilant and then we also have our very own um Joanna Boyle who is located here in dunny gall as well so it was really really important to me that we had a variety of heights shapes and sizes you know because no no two people are the same and it would be a very boring world if we all wear the same so there's literally going to be models ranging from five foot three to five foot nine five for ten and size ten to size eighteen you know so there really is going to be something for everybody we have our saxophone player that will be playing throughout the fashion showcase because i just i didn't want to be talking over the clothes i kind of just wanted them to be the main focus and then we'll have a segment then where it's called an ask the stylist segment so i will have we'll say somebody one of the models five foot three size eight to ten and then one of the other models maybe five foot nine five or ten size 16 18 both wearing the same thing so you know you can say that style is it's just all about what you make it you know there's i don't believe in putting people into boxes or categories and telling them what they can and can't wear no they don't want to be either sorry i mean you're you're listening to people absolutely if you're comfortable in something and if you like it wear it yeah okay you know and um are there still places available yes we still have tickets available we have a few left online um so that would be on eventmaster.ie and then the clanry hotel also have a few tickets available there as well and what do you search at eventmaster or is it just location how does that work and then if you type into the location letter kenny yeah um i think maybe there's two pretty it's okay excellent stuff so do you be excited or nervous going into this now i will breathe two weeks away i will breathe when it's over no i'm i'm so excited to put faces two names and i think the fact that everybody else is so excited obviously makes me so excited to because it would be i suppose worse if if there was nobody talking about it and nobody looking forward to it so and you've allison and clauda on your team now yes oh my god the pressure's off a wee bit at the individual pressure isn't yeah like i couldn't have i couldn't have organized everything without them it's just a there's a monstrosity of work that has to be involved you know with running an event this size but we're nearly there we're we're nearly there which is good it sounds like it's going to be great fun yeah looking forward to it yeah okay right listen brilliant stuff for emma people just remind people how they can get more information there or what's your socials and all that kind of stuff yeah so my socials so it's emma murray's stylist and then the social media marketing is elm social media and with the tickets in the clanry hotel or eventmaster.ie and you can type in letter candy to the location and that will come up brilliant fantastic it's going to be fantastic thanks emma thank you so much great great to have you in that's emma murray personal stylist and so much more of course and we'll be back with more on this program after the break the moment you got told the good news rob you made the panel when the lads added you into the group skipping nights out missing the crack we watching classics and learning new tricks being driven to the biggest game of your life by your ma'am and then you finally come on in the 51st minute it's the minor moments that last a lifetime the electric iron and gaa minor championships this is major your specialty is quality tiles bathroom suites and wooden floors who is the best range of tiles in dunigol proper ties the best wood flooring proper ties the best bathroom suites proper ties five-day bathroom refits proper ties and who's been tampering with my questions that'll be me croffatiles castle fin that'll be them 07491 43942 make this gardening season a lot easier with the great range of garden equipment at great prices in once and higher levic hemi lawnmowers strimmers and hedge cutters scarifiers power washers and much more for sale and hire a full range of fertilizers and weed killers and great deals on paint and decorating accessories all at what's in higher kill toy letter kenny for more see tick tock facebook or visit what's in higher dot ie at loitz pharmacy you'll find all skin types under the sun working here including many a freckle so we know from experience just how important it is to take care of your skin all year round but especially during the summer months which is why we have up to 50% off selected sun creams and a great range to choose from including salaro nivia ambré salaire and more available for all the family online by phone or pop in lords pharmacy say hello to the people that know walk the line once again with the multi award-winning johnny cash and june carter tribute show cash returns celebrate the music of the man in black at the millenium forum dairy on saturday 18th of june limited tickets are available now at the box office that's cash returns live at the millenium forum dairy on saturday the 18th of june business matters in association with the faculty of business and atu dunnegal the part-time level eight honors degree in business is delivered through a mix of online and face-to-face lectures email exec ed business at lyit.ie that's ex ec ed business lyit.ie or call 9186206 okay a seamless transition now from the glitz and glamour of emma moray to cure an old donnell presenter of business matters like comden veeg reggae the way i say i know no it's not good to have you and how are you keeping to enjoy the good weather while we have it quickly again you got a bit of sun yourself here well my suggestion would be to buy new sunblock every year because i think it goes out of date use bad data though yeah well i didn't check that it's worth checking it though it's all right if it was me but if i'd use the same stuff on little ones you know not all right but anyway it's not fully intentional but kind of welcome at the same time it's hard to know right okay let's get into the nitty gritties of the business news and we're talking about a new initiative launch to counter the impact of brexit another one yes greg details of the brexit blue economy enterprise development scheme have just been released the scheme is aimed at businesses within the blue economy sector directly impacted by brexit so it's being described as an excellent opportunity for innovative entrepreneurial businesses to seek funding across three key priority areas and those areas being capital investment mentoring and upskilling all right okay um plenty of banking at aib they're doing okay perhaps sweeping up those leaving other yeah the customers have got to go somewhere greg as you say aib has recorded the largest number of account openings in a single week as customers of the two departing banks seek a new institution during the last week of may around 11 000 customers customers opened an account with aib that's up 122 compared to the same week last year this brings to 61 the increase in account openings in the year to date and so far this year customers have opened around 6 160 000 accounts with aib and that's compared to 99 000 in 2021 i'd be interested to see how the likes of boi does if they release their figures in comparison so i'm sure look all the banks are going to get a bounce so i'm sure they're they're experiencing a bounce as well all right the council's back looking for people interested in providing accommodation for those in caravans and those that camp and what have you yeah just an update on an ongoing scheme greg doneigall county council has opened a second call for the caravan camping campervan and motorhome grand scheme targeting voluntary or community-based groups so this grand scheme will be open until wednesday during the 29th and will focus on supporting new and additional overnight facilities and locations currently underserved in the county yeah all right uh letter canny chamber has a new survey at what's it saying yeah the chamber is conducting a second business sentiment survey of 2022 and that is in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the challenges that local businesses are facing the chamber says the survey will help it build a picture of the economic landscape and they are stressed that all information will be anonymized treated with the strictest confidence and will never be shared with a third party yeah i just get a sense of where we're going here and in that obviously because of of the presence of multinationals in this country our economy continues to grow and it seems that will be the case because the likes of pharmaceutical tech you know may well continue to do okay but i just get a sense that we're going to have within industries a recession inside an economy that's growing you know as people nervously hold on to their money or what have you it's getting you know people everyone i think is actually thinking about do i need to make that journey because it's so expensive and i just wonder if the the the the overline figure might show that the country is really doing well but many of us most of us perhaps living in sort of effectively what is a recession uh or at least it's acting like we are well i suppose i think you can't but escape what's going on around you greg i mean the headlines every day it's very much people haven't i suppose tightened their belt for one of a different phrase and i suppose people have just been more mindful now about their money and they're going to be budgeting more yeah i mean when you go and put in petrol or diesel and 50 you're nearly afraid to lock up the seat with this car sometimes yeah i mean the needle barely moves you know it's i mean even filling a five-liter tank for a lomo or a strimmer yeah you know you're up on 12 13 you know what i mean like these are all purchases you have to say well hold on you can i you know add that to everything else kind of keep going but anyway i don't know that's just my take on how we see it how i think it's it's gonna go but i hope i'm wrong because obviously i want to be optimistic and would hate if we are in that space okay uh lastly in terms of news pandemics impact on innovation revealed what's the story here one and seven companies halted innovation projects in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that is according to the latest figures from the central statistics office total innovation expenditure by companies was 7.4 billion in 2020 which was an increase of 36 percent on the 2018 figure of 5.5 billion so large enterprises of more than 250 employees reported the highest rate of innovation due to the pandemic so it was sort of up and down yeah in terms of interest well some gained others suffered you know right great reaction to your podcast last week i think people really in enjoy that care in both you know on air and on the social so well done with that talk to me about what's coming up this week yes on this week's business matters greg i am joined by dunagall etb's tarah maguire and Sabrina robb who is the owner of dunagall hearing tarah maguire is dunagall etb's further education and training services course recruitment officer and she has this advice for anyone considering setting up for any of the new dunagall etb courses that are currently on offer there's lots of really great opportunities there's lots of things happening further education and training there really is something for everyone and whether you're learning digital skills for the first time whether you're unemployed maybe a student that's sitting to leave and start this June or perhaps you're returning to the workforce after a period of time you know maybe very ben absent because you've been caring for somebody for example or you might just be taking your career in a whole new direction we have something for everyone so i really encourage people i suppose to pick up the phone come and chat to us call into one of our training centers we've 18 of them across the county and get familiar i suppose with our websites and our social media platforms you know we have great visibility on um facebook for example instagram twitter linkedin youtube you name it there's so many different ways you can get in touch with us and as i said come and walk into one of the centers we're always happy to help and we love engaging and speaking with people in the community so that would be the main thing i would say to people all right lots in that interview i presume that's just the tip of the iceberg kieran yeah well there's so many courses on offer i think it's about 120 uh tara mentioned and i suppose falling on from your conversation with the career guidance uh and the view you had earlier Greg i suppose you know it's just an example there are so many more offerings and so many paths open to people in terms of what career or job uh that they want to pursue and don't go letb as very helpful and very accommodating in that regard yeah there's pretty much a pathway to most anything that you want to do regardless of what happens off of that fairest the agency is great they are responding to the needs and you know we are getting away and i know you were you were quite passionate about your your views on the leaving shirt and a lot of whole summer reviews i think we are getting away from the traditional mindset of leaving shirt and the way it was viewed has taken a long time but and i do think that look i'm thinking too much it was i was always perceived as a sort of a memory test yeah but you know people have have so many other skills that may not be on earth or may not be tapped into it but once they come out of the environment they will find their pathway and there are so many agencies to help and don't go letb is one of those yeah for sure and it might not be when you're 18 or 19 correct you might think you're on your path and then at 25 30 yeah and the mature student all there after 23 or 24 and so many people have gone down that route as well excellent i just like the direction we're moving in in in terms of people's education and how we view and i think particularly with the shortage in certain areas people are having to sort of reevaluate what they perceived as being important and not important areas of employment and i do think that the pandemic has actually helped fast-tracked how we view things and how we view things for the better now yeah all right it's exciting i think it's as much it might not save the way i think it's exciting times for all students over the next wee while okay so um right the second interviews with uh sabrina robb tell us about this yeah sabrina robb is a hearing aid audiologist and owner of dunagall hearing clinic she's a graduate of queen market university in edinburgh and a member of the aoe society of hearing audiologists having worked in hearing healthcare for 12 years she decided to set up her own practice just five months ago and this club sabrina explains that the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020 impacted on her plans to establish her own business i had plans i suppose i had started putting things in place yet absolutely i had been speaking to um some of the manufacturers and some of the equipment suppliers and different things like that and i had things in place and then um it was one of those ones where i suppose you were trying you were kind of trying to pick a time not knowing what was going to happen and feeling like right you know this will be the right time but then we went on to a second wave and then this will be the right time we went on to a third wave and so um i suppose it just got to the point where i just had to make that jump because we didn't know where we were going with covid and thankfully the timing actually worked out quite well and covid seemed to settle down just around the time i opened yeah that's sabrina robb and at what point in your education did you decide i want to be an audiologist you know it's an interesting line of work yeah it was it was uh i asked her if she wasn't what do what you're doing now uh what would you ask for student and she said she wanted to be a vet so it was either veterinary or audiology so they are all right uh a dog's loss is our game our ears came right okay full interviews with tara and sabrina available now in the podcast curing yeah um available on spot i kind of normally do this bit don't i should like should we stick with what you don't realize you go into patterns until you actually go outside until you stop them no so all right so if you want to hear the full interviews with tara maguire and sabrina robb they're available now on our website highland radio dot com go into the playback section there or the on demand section and also you can catch up on spotify and itunes but some people like to listen to scheduled radio in fact i say perhaps the majority of people still love to tune in at a given time on their favorite radio station how did they do so kiran yeah sunday evening break after six o'clock news all right never want anyone if anyone and probably it is everyone wants to get in contact with you about the show or any of the items featured on it how did they do so yeah just drop me an email please greg buzzersmatters at highlandradio.com oh kiddo we look forward to chatting to you next wednesday around about this time kiran thanks as always for calling in giving us the news and setting up your podcast for us it's greatly appreciated good morning thanks all right back with more on the program as we take this break joe gallagher entertainments present rock and roll legends show wadi wadi at clanry hotel letter kenny thursday ninth of june tickets on sale now from hotel reception ticketmaster.ie and joe gallagher entertainments show wadi wadi live at clanry hotel letter kenny 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quarter step into dylan's hotel using only the best local produce dylan serve an extensive menu every day from 12 perfect for a quick bite a relaxed lunch or a leisurely dinner try the renowned four course sunday lunch with full table service or if you work in town line up pre-order and have your lunch waiting great food and service seven days a week at dylan's hotel letter kenny with live music every friday and saturday night visit dylan's hyphen hotel.ie it's where you live it's where you relax it's where you make memories treat your home to a visit to coonies home interiors we have everything in store to help recreate your home choose for extensive range of suites tables beds mattresses and home furnishings for every room coonies home interiors letter kenny style and perfection at incredible value lots of you messaging in about public convenience is uh you know we have our blue flag beaches and we talk about their importance and yes that's fine uh and and access and parking and you know where it seems often we let ourselves down the basic where people go to the bathroom uh and we're getting more in on that listen it's uh june 8th today we've got time to get this right for the summer season and let's not leave locals or uh tourists or visitors leaving an area with a bitter taste in their mouth because we couldn't get one thing right and that's a clean uh usable toilet facility any uh comments on that 08 660 25 000 07 49 125 000 to give us a call right okay um joe is on with us now joe listen great to have you on the show good morning to you good morning correct uh you have uh you're calling ready for a complete ban of parking on the main street letter kenny yeah i just banged in the night convenience i i get the mangan's bus up um i'm going to call up from mr chippy up to where the old quarters and you're literally sitting there 20 minutes with a lady turning on the off because if people park and i say the post office and with them people parking and i told them so i basically i'm in the elderly disabled i have to literally get off the bus there and walk towards iceland and i'm usually up at iceland before actually the bus can actually get up there so i just with a double you know whatever the parking you know i don't think it should be any parking at all there's plenty of car parks behind the post office and there's plenty you know parks are behind iceland it's just holding all the traffic yeah it'd be interesting to know i wonder how many drive down letter kenny main street looking for a parking spot that they'll never get they drive slow maybe then try and reverse in and it holds everything up i wonder what the actual impact parking on on on letter kenny has on the flow of traffic but it has a major flaw on the bus you know because there's a lot of you know people on disability like myself and to get up to iceland and you know you're literally you know you literally sit in the damn lights for like 15 minutes or so before you can actually get through the cars parking and waiting to get a parking slot and to say the post office yeah instead of parking behind the post office yeah or even you know the way you cannot i mean there's no point fixing one problem and creating another i mean could a solution be a proper parking decent parking accessible parking on the outskirts of of letter kenny main street i don't know where that might go and regular buses that literally just do circles uh circles maybe two of them constantly hop on hop off hop on hop off i mean it'd be interesting to see how something like that might work would the football be there for them i don't know though yeah but it's actually like a parking facility at the back of the post office creek where cars can park yeah some of those can be quite fiddly to get in and out of though in and of themselves yeah but it's just holding all the buses for myself like all right but you think that for for your service that you used to be fully effective cars should be off the main street all together yeah you know bond the cars up on the main street and just have the taxi ranks yeah you know you know so that's all that's all right joe oh listen listen and it's good to hear it we'll see what others think thanks joe good man thanks a lot Joakim you too joe have a lovely day what do you think i'll wait 60 25 000 has that been looked at examined uh i mean we've talked in the past about different ways of parking maybe parking only on one side of letter kenny main street even maybe parking in at an angle so people just drive in but how would you back out and it's uh complicated or maybe it's fine the way it is what do you think i'll wait 60 25 000 i think it'll be a presumed likes of the letter kenny chamber in the past has pulled businesses to see what they think because obviously at the moment the majority of those occupying the main street are businesses jared was on to us about the situation as it relates to the public toilets in boncran he painted a picture really that i didn't want to think too much about it wasn't a pleasant one but uh call us saying jared you're 100 right 100 agree them toilets are an orci an orci an i saw greg but i do think people to blame as well whoever thinks that someone will come in and clean up the state some people are leaving these toilets and in my opinion an animal greg that's what you would think left it totally disgusting but for things like that i'm not talking about these toilets in particular you have to make sure that there's toilet paper there you have to make sure that if they need emptying they're emptied you have to make sure that people go in regularly to check there isn't blockages i mean if one person goes in and blocks the toilets uh and then other people continue to use it because there's no choice you can't blame everyone in society you know so you need them to be checked on regularly if there is a blockage or something that needs doing or toilet paper replenished then you know that's what you do that's the upkeep and maintenance i just think sometimes we don't put facilities in in places because we don't fancy the hassle of maintaining them afterwards okay uh we're talking to sharon now hi sharon hi greg good afternoon how are you i'm doing great right you and your daughter were out yesterday tell us about what you were doing where you were at and what you experienced yeah um we were over at the play park in bonkhana there greg and she was playing away and then she said she needed to use the facility so we popped down and um on pwn entrant it was just the most unsanitary place i've ever been in um it's just was really diabolical state that we found it in um she um rightly so she refused she was like no i'm not mom i'm not going in there it's really really bad um it was just it was falsely there was no toilet paper um other ladies then had come on greg as well and they were saying they just turned and left them and back out again and it's just you know the play park is really really busy particularly during the summer period and you know you expect like you know clean facilities and you know as you say the simple things like toilet paper and you know and just the cleanliness it really was like a health hazard there yesterday to be honest greg you know yeah and i feel for those that didn't have a choice Sharon do you know people that probably had to grin and bear it because they had no choice exactly and especially with young kids you know my daughter's particularly young as well you know and she had a hold on luckily i don't love too far away but she had a hold on and as you say you know there's elderly people there there's people that use that walkway um you know it's a really busy place and it's just it's really substandard at the moment and it's letting the time down and do you think is it easy to tell from the glance Sharon do you think it's that we aren't responsible and we go in and make a mess and not worry about who comes behind us or is it they're not being you know checked on every now and again we're not looking for someone to stand at the front door but someone to go in you know two or three times a day or twice a day and say right what needs doing here that would fix a lot of this stuff we're talking about wouldn't it definitely would i do you think Greg that you know there is no really routine checks you know um i don't really see anybody ever in there you know cleaning it um a lot of the time it's locked um i suppose you can understand that you know there's teenagers and stuff around too you know but like um as you say it definitely needs more routine cleaning for sure and it's a it's a shame Sharon because people listening might think that we're giving out but all of the conversation today has been positive except for the one thing that's letting it down we heard Jared talking about how he's around cleaning very proud of the place loves it the toilets let them down uh all they're saying the same thing you know let's not let's not shoot ourselves in the foot here by getting the really simple thing wrong just all we need is a relatively clean maintained toilet exactly and especially now you know Swan Park has been updated and it's absolutely beautiful yeah which brings a lot of tourists to the town um and i mean those are the only main facilities on that route you know and that's you know it really was beyond like it was a real health hazard there yesterday i would not you know i wouldn't even encounter like even using it at all you know yeah it'd be nice if someone said right you know what this is our responsibility we're gonna we're gonna try harder sometimes it's hard to find out who ultimately is responsible i think Jared mentioned the councillors earlier they might say well we've raised this at the local meeting and we've got received this assurance and you know i think the public now over the last while we're just tired of that type of response what we want really is someone to take responsibility and to tell us how they're going to best ensure it doesn't happen again we're not interested in excuses are we Sharon no definitely not Greg you know as you say coming on the summer season now you know um it should be you know it should be at least clean Greg and at least have proper you know have the like the hand dryers not hardly working you know there's only cold water um there is there's no toilet roll at all there's toilet paper anything like that available and in terms of the we won't get into much detail but i'm gonna press you a little bit on it yeah when we say it's an unhealthy sort of unsanitary type environment are we talking full toilets stuff on floors i mean what what like everywhere the toilets were on set for purpose um i say i'm not wanting too much details very good lunchtime but it was really really disgustingly bad um just the floor just was just disgusting the toilets were unusable and it's just doors are all broken it's just it's just really substandard uh yeah really not acceptable yeah if i was a local rep the first thing i would uh be asking is the council to tell me what is the cleaning regime how often did they cleaned uh you know are there any inspections that's the first question i would ask to ascertain where that would be the first point then you we could say right what are we not doing here what could we do more of all right listen we talk about the economy we talk about the benefit of tourists we can't bring them in here or even for us locally with all the taxes we pay Sharon we the basics going to the toilet going to potty i almost said going to the toilet going to the toilet it's the most basic thing anyway i hope you and your daughter had a lovely day all in that i'm sure you did all right best wishes to all take care Sharon thanks so much oh eight six sixty uh twenty five thousand just some comments to finish up here uh and i don't want to be on uh bon crana by the way um because it's beautiful and we've we've talked an awful lot positively about the area with the developments ongoing and all that it has going for it we're just highlighting our listeners are i'm not it's our listeners who have opinions on this they're just highlighting that this seems to be the one thing we need to be getting right everyone's talking about it's amazing swan park fully opened and it's all positive but the toilets are letting the thing down hello greg toilets at gnar and port new blue flag beach excellent and accessible to all for relaxing stress-free day out all right good to hear why no public toilets in kili bags it's a disgrace with all the cruise ships coming in you'd think it'd be a priority i've been there a few times now and they are badly needed i so seriously no toilets in kili bags uh on the subject of bon crana i cannot emphasize enough how about the public toilets were yesterday but i feel the public need to take responsibility for it yes but onto that earlier example i'm not contradicting you but if one person goes in and blocks that toilet uh what what happens then you know it doesn't take a lot of people for things to turn messy all right


All right, well, thank you for everybody participating here tonight. I've turned my video on just because I feel it's a little bit better to see the person who's making the presentation, you know, sort of like being in the public meeting. This is my first public meeting I've had to do virtually. I'm usually better at these in person. So we'll see how this works. I've been on countless virtual meetings, however, over the last seven months. So I've gotten this down pretty well, but this public meeting will be pretty interesting, I think. And I do know that it's Monday night and we now have two Monday night football games. So I'll make sure that I try to get us out of here pretty quick to be able to do some fun stuff after this. It looks like we've got about 12 people online now. So I'll go ahead and get started. And as more people show up, we'll get them acclimated to this. So I'll go ahead and start. Welcome to the Bellard Drive South bike lanes community meeting. My name is Chad Edwards and I'm an assistant director in the regional mobility and innovation officer in the transportation and public works department for the city of Fort Worth. And thank you very much for taking the time out of your afternoon, your evening to sit here with us to talk about this important project. This is a virtual meeting and we are using WebEx and we are recording the presentation tonight. So I just want to make sure that everybody knew that as well. And that recording will be for those who can't attend this particular meeting. So if you're unfamiliar with the virtual meetings, it's important that you make sure that your mic is muted when you're not talking so others can hear the presentation. And then the questions that are asked by others. I do have city staff assisting me and they will be monitoring any open mics that may be causing interference with the speakers and they'll mute them. It sounds like we're doing pretty well tonight. So we'll keep going. You can unmute yourself when you're ready to talk. We'll do the comments and questions at the end of the presentation as for the video. It's up to you if you'd like to have that video on or not. I have a small number of slides to present that will cover the project location, the current and proposed configurations, and then we will get into any community discussion that you'd like to have tonight. You are welcome to post questions in the chat box or ask those questions at the end of the presentation. I ask that you say your name before asking your questions or making your comments so we know who is speaking. You may also send your questions or comments to me at the address on the screen before the close of business on Monday, October 19. This is two weeks from tonight. I should give you enough time to make any comments that you wish to make on the project. So let's get into the project. The project we're discussing tonight is the extension of the bike lanes on Beller Drive south between Oakmont Boulevard and Bryant Urban Road in the southwest part of Fort Worth. The project is highlighted in yellow on the map and I'll zoom in in a moment so you can see that clearly. As you can see, the project is a little over a half mile and the concrete width of the street is approximately 48 feet curb to curb. The traffic counts are relatively low at a little over 2800 vehicles per day using this segment of Beller Drive south. The purpose of this project is besides extending the bike lanes would be to provide a safer environment for bicyclists and to also provide some traffic calming measures like the reduction of a number of lanes from two lanes to four lanes. And there would also be consideration of turn lanes as needed and I'll share some early design concepts in a moment. So I just wanted to highlight a little bit clear the project between Oakmont Boulevard and Bryant Urban Road there so you can see that project. This graph here shows the average daily traffic counts collected in 2018. You can also see the graph shows hourly distribution of vehicles. I've called out a couple of hours during the day where the most vehicles were counted the eight o'clock hour in the morning peak period with a total of both directions of 230 263 vehicles. And in the afternoon the direction is really split and you have in the northbound shown in blue had the most vehicles at 101 and at three o'clock in the afternoon. And the southbound shown there in orange had the most vehicles of 183 at five o'clock in the afternoon during that peak period. Overall this is a low volume roadway with limited or no congestion most of the day would have normally updated the traffic counts to a current year as you could tell is 2018 but we're unable to do so due to COVID. You have probably noticed that the traffic patterns have changed. You've been traveling outside the household at all so your normal peak period travel times are a little bit different now. So on the highways we've noticed that a lot of the morning and afternoon peak periods have flattened out and so it's not as high peak periods as you used to be. And we're also seeing this on the city streets as well. So the city developed the active trust transportation plan to help guide future investments in sidewalks and bike lanes throughout the city. The ATP was approved by city council in April of 2019. An excerpt of the bike lanes map is shown on the slide here. The red circle shows the location of the bike lanes being discussed. The blue line in the center there of the circle shows the proposed bike facility recommendation from the ATP. This map also demonstrates the connections to existing and future bike lanes and trails. So again, I'll kind of zoom in for you there. This is the Bel Air Drive South. This is Brian Urban. This is Oakmont. And so again, Bel Air, you can see it listed. These are existing trails, part of the Trini Trail. You can see the legend here a little bit better. So this is the proposed bike facility there in blue. So this slide, the next slide here shows is an interesting map that highlights the activity of walkers and bicycles. You can see that the section of Bel Air Drive South in that red circle has a pretty high level of activity without even the proposed dedicated bike lanes that we're talking about. Here tonight. The data shown here is from Strava and Strava is a voluntary internet service used for tracking exercise like cycling and running through GPS data and smartwatches. This helps show the connections to other facilities in the area and the pattern of travel by those informing the Strava voluntary data resource there. You can see a high level of activity on the Fort Worth Ranch or the Trini Trails really connecting through Oakmont Park there. A lot of activity, excuse me, I'll zoom in here again. You can see the activity along Bel Air Drive and then part of the Trini Trail is the Fort Worth Ranch there and then the connection to Oakmont Park as well. And then the other connections there in the area. So to help get a little perspective for everybody online here, I've put an image of the roadway that I took from Google Maps to show the corridor, just a cross section, kind of a sample of the corridor and the number of lanes that are there. It's four lanes. On the west side of the corridor, you see that there's some trees. They're planted in between the masonry wall and the curb, not a lot of space there for any additional infrastructure like sidewalks or anything like that. And then on the east side, you do have some sidewalks. This happens to be a part of the corridor that has sidewalks. There are some sections along that corridor that don't have any sidewalks. This particular stretch of road has a park entrance. It has a couple of residential neighborhood entrances. It has a few commercial businesses and driveways and then it also has a school along in this area as well. And although this is a short project, there may be a need for some turn lanes so that people can access those particular land uses a little bit easier. So I've taken this image and I've converted it into a drawing that makes it a little bit easier to compare between the proposals. So this is the current Bella Drive South, very similar with the tree on the left and the sidewalk on the right. And what I'm highlighting here is that the four lanes that are out there today in the cross section of this particular roadway. And so this is a tool that we use to help share some ideas as we plan for these projects. Once we get into the details and finalize a cross section, the engineers get to take it over and put a little bit more details to it. So this is our current setup. And so what we're proposing is very simple is just to add bike lanes on that corridor. And so the first diagram here shows the bike lanes on either side of the street with a buffer between the bike lane and the drive lanes, the vehicle lanes. You can see some notes there at the bottom of the image, noting minimums and maximums and the bike lanes should be at least six feet and the buffer should be at least two foot wide. And the vehicle lanes should be no more than 11 foot wide to help with the traffic calming and slowing of these vehicles. So I have noticed that the speed limit is 30 miles an hour out there. And in some cases, there are some drivers that are going a little bit quicker than that. And so this would be helpful to kind of help slow those folks down through that corridor. So I had mentioned turn lanes. And so this next image here really shows what it might be with the turn lane there. We still have enough space to be able to put the bike lanes and the buffer and then the two travel lanes. And then in the middle there could be a turn lane. It could be 10 to 11 foot wide depending on the actual width of the roadway as it goes through that entire corridor. And then due to the short length of the project and to simplify the lane markings, a center turn lane may be considered for the project. So I'd like to hear your thoughts on a center turn lane. If that's something that is amenable to the groove or if you guys don't necessarily like that or not. All right.  This kind of wraps up the short presentation. Before I open it up for questions, I wanted to share our next steps with you. So we'll collect the feedback from tonight's meeting. If it's a it's positive feedback and their support for the project and then we'll need to get some basic engineering on the project done to get the bike lanes, the buffers, the vehicle lanes, turn lanes, all the widths appropriately sized. We'll have to take this to city council. Since this is a reduction in travel lanes, city council has to approve that project. And then I'd like to get in front of the city council before the end of the year. And assuming that council approves the project, then the lanes could be installed as early as next year. Now, as a reminder, and I didn't highlight this on a previous slide, but we're not talking about any major construction. So the width of the road that's out there today is what we would utilize. So we're not looking at digging up anything to put in these bike lanes. So that should be helpful. This is mainly a striping project. And so it's just essentially paint on the ground and there may be some little buttons or something like that in the buffer area to help make sure people understand the difference between the travel lane and the buffer and the bike lane. So just to put anybody's mind at ease, this isn't a major reconstruction of this corridor. So this is a duplicate of the slide I had put in earlier just to make sure that you were thinking about it on the front end. And then as we get to it, if you have any comments tonight, you know, you're more than welcome to put those into the chat or you can send me an email later on. I plan on putting this presentation on our website so that you can watch this again and see the actual slides a little bit closer if you want to. That way it gives you some time to put some comments together as well. All right, so I'll ask Jeff Allen, who's helping me, who's a communications coordinator with the city. Jeff, any comments, questions? So no questions in chat yet. We do have a comment from Dean Johnson that seems more traffic information is needed before knowing if a turn lane is required. It appears that currently a separate turn lane is not necessary. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's a great comment. As I was looking through the slides and I saw the turn lane here, I wanted to make sure that people understood what that was, that it could be just a turn lane into a neighborhood or into a business. But the continuous turn lane down the middle of the corridor may end up being overkill and not necessary. So you're right. There's some additional work that needs to be done on that. So thanks, Dean. And then we have two comments, both from Karen that she supports the bike lanes and the addition of a turn lane. And then with the school, there's often a backup during arrival and dismissal. Yes, I actually spoke to somebody at the school today and they shared those comments with me as well as to make sure that we keep in mind that the school has two very busy times during the day of dropping off and picking up the kids. Yes, thank you, Karen. Does anybody have any comments that they didn't want to type in but wanted to make otherwise? Hey, Kat, good evening. This is Tim Green. How are you? Thank you very much for doing this. This is fantastic. Great. Thank you. Thanks for coming in or showing up. Well, one question I had with respect to on street parking. So I know, again, particularly around the vicinity of the school and the church that there are occasions, particularly on Sundays. Well, I think somebody else has made a comment here where people do like to park on the street. What would the situation be as to regulations for parking if there were bike lanes in place? Yeah, that's a good question. We'll have to look at how the quarter can be striped out. If there is a need for parking, is that a possibility near the school? How much space does it take, you know, those types of things before we actually settle on if that's something that we can provide for or not? Is parking allowed on bike lanes? Not officially allowed on bike lanes. That doesn't mean that people don't do it. So it would be subject to a ticket, you're saying, if people parked on a bike lane? That's a hard question, I think, to answer is that typically the people aren't going to be there very long. They're going to be there for a short time to pick up their kids if they're parking on the school. What I'm thinking about a couple of hours on a Sunday morning for church services is when there's a high incidence of on-street parking. Oh, I see. Which is also when there are a lot of cyclists around. Right. So we need to talk to the school there and see what their activities are a little bit more so that we can get a better sense of that. Okay. Yeah, that's great information. This is where we have meetings like this. Chad, we have a couple more comments and a question. Okay. Stephanie said, thank you so much for the hard work on the project. This is such a positive step towards protecting the safety of cyclists and runners. She supports the bike lane but is neutral on the turn lane and it should also be noted on Sundays there is church parking on the street. Right. We just talked about. George said he supports the turn lane where needed but possibly not the entire length of the road that we're looking at. Okay. Amy said how is this going to affect the right turning lane at the light by the children's courtyard at the bell or light and Brian Irving. So the bike lanes probably won't start until after that short medium that's there. There's kind of a divided area there between the there at the intersection with the median. And so the bike lanes would start just just a little bit north of that so that we wouldn't mess up any of the turning movements there at the intersection. We also have someone from our staff look into whether it is legal to park in a bike lane. Yeah, we can do that. I'm Amy the one in Hawthorne Park that just sent the message about the light. You know lots of cars turned down and come around that Esplanade that center section there with the grass is to come into that courtyard. So yes the bicycle lane could not start there or there will be a lot of people getting hit by cars that are on bikes and stuff. And like with the y'all we're already talking about the school the church outside of our gate to Hawthorne Park is also a school and I come and go out of our neighborhood and see the front of the school all the time and there are they use that They need that extra parking on the street a lot. I see I'm using it a lot. So they must need it. So part of our work will have to be to see how how much parking they utilize along that corridor. How far down do they have to go to park on the street. And that'll give us a sense of where the you know if there is parking that we want to put on the street you know how far down does it go. I on a on a basis I kind of on a normal basis I kind of see the cars on any other events at the school or church or whatever I usually see I don't go there anything I just kind of pay attention but I usually see cars the whole link Park a lot at the church and the whole length of the lot to the right where the basketball goal is they they use entirely in front of their property. Which will be all the way down to the creek where the right goes on the creek yeah. Yeah I've been down there a few times to make sure I'm familiar with the area so. Okay near the creek. And I'm getting a message that if if the bike lanes are blocked they can be cited. Well then that would be a big problem. So yeah well that's what we have to figure out you know is there an opportunity. Is there a way to be able to put some some parking in there. If it needs so. Okay. Okay go ahead. We do have one more question you mentioned that cars. They go a little faster than the posted speed limit is it possible to put some speed bumps as well. I don't waiting for a response from somebody but I don't think we're doing the speed bumps. Tim Green again. Is that a factually true statement that a few cars go a little faster than the speed limit. I think that's a mischaracterization of the. More than a lot of cars are going over the speed limit. Very few cars go obey the posted speed limit is what the data shows. Right. Yeah I don't know on on speed bumps I don't I don't know that the city is putting in speed bumps any longer on on roadways. I guess even in the vicinity of the park Oakmont Park where there's a lot of again foot bicycle traffic children accessing the park. Again it would be and with an advisory speed limit of 25 miles per hour as I'm sure no vehicle adheres to. Right. Again it's a particular safety issue in that stretch adjacent to the park. I did notice that there at the entrance of the park there's a raised crosswalk. Yes at the north entrance at the south parking lot it would be nice to have something similar to that if that were possible. Yes I agree with that on that situation because there is a device there that helps people slow down that other part near that other parking lot. Sometimes they just. Are going pretty fast and jump over it. By the way I know this has nothing to do with bicycle lanes but do you know who we should contact about how. We ought to do like Houston does with some of their neighborhood parks where they are said to be closed at dusk dark and there should be a sign. I do think there's a lot of fishy stuff going on in that park after dark deep into the park on the Trinity River on the clear four drug deals etc etc. Right and I don't think anybody needs to be in there in the deep dark deep into that area in those trees and their car out there. I just I drive by there. There's cars out there at two in the morning and people walking out of the park. Right. I really think in the city all all parks need to close. And cars should not be in the lot for the park at dark. But that's just me. I mean close friends of Brian Bird and city council I guess I could call Brian get him started on that but. That's always an option. The parks department would be in charge of that. I mean I just think there's a safety issue. Right. Trying to see I don't see any. I didn't know if council member bird was going to participate tonight or not. So I was just looking. Okay. Chad we do have a couple of call in people that I'm going to unmute in a second because they can't unmute themselves. Okay. We also got a couple we got a couple more questions or comments and questions that came in for someone to run through then real quick. Okay. From Karen it's a minor idea is it possible to label it multi use for running walking cycling inclusive rather than just a bike lane. All right. Well we can look into that. Okay. George says no to speed bumps. Nice short one there and then Stephanie said speeding the major problem in the section especially during rush hour. And it's exactly during these times that drivers pay no attention to cyclists and runners which is exactly why we need to get rid of the second lane of traffic and install the bike lane regardless of church school parking issues. Okay. Yeah that's that's part of the balance of doing projects like this is you know all the all the different and competing interests how do we balance all that so that's something that we'll have to look at as well. All right. Okay for the two calling two calling users if your phone number ends in eight six I'm going to unmute you in case you have any questions. So you're unmuted. Hello. I'm going to unmute. I'm going to unmute the ends in three one as well. So you're both unmuted if you have anything to share. On the phone you probably you can't see my email address and so I'll say it so you guys can capture it. If you have a pen or something like that to write it down. My email address is Chad C H A D dot. B D W A R D S Edwards at Fort Worth Texas dot gov. So you can send me an email if you had questions or comments about the presentation. Or here tonight. This is Clint from traffic transportation management. I have some insight for the speed hump issue. There was a resolution passed from council in 2009 that eliminated speed bumps from our traffic calming and speed mitigation toolbox. So we're not replacing or placing new speed bumps anywhere in the city at this time due to that 2000 resolution. Okay. I thought I had heard that and I just I couldn't give the details like you did. So I appreciate that's good for everybody to know. I can't take the credit sir but it's been provided to me. Take it take it where you can. All right. Well if if you don't have any other comments or questions like I said you know you can send me comments up until the 19th of October. We'll kind of keep it open a little bit so you guys have an opportunity to talk with your neighbors and friends there to see what kind of ideas you guys have about. About the proposals that we have here for Bella Drive South and the bike lanes. So I appreciate you guys coming tonight or participating tonight. And with that we'll go ahead and close the public meeting and you guys have a good evening. Sorry where will the slides be posted. Jeff where where will we post the slides. Well for sure they will go on our city YouTube page for everyone to watch. We don't have a project specific page for this yet so I'll have to kind of look around and see if there's another location we can put it on the website. Thank you and thanks again for a welcome. No problem. Thank you guys for coming in tonight and sharing your thoughts and comments. Thank you very much. Thank you. Bye bye.


Central Lakes College had some special visitors today as the Senate Capital Investment Committee made a stop in Brainerd. Our Sarah Winkelman was on campus to hear about the funding request from CLC. That's all part of student success. CLC President Hera Charlier led a tour of the Brainerd campus today for members of the Senate Capital Investment Committee. We're honored to have our colleagues from the Senate here to take a look at Central Lakes College and all the improvements that we'd like to make and how we plan to take care of what we have with asset preservation. Starting off with some basic information about the college and its role in Brainerd. You know, I'm always excited about Central Lakes College. It's such an intricate part of our community. Then moving on to demonstrate the higher education asset preservation request. So that we are not investing in significant repair over time and we don't have damage to our buildings. We really believe in caring for what we have. There are three project priorities on both the Brainerd and Staples campus that total just over $7.5 million. They're not very exciting but they're absolutely critical. We have a significant roofing project here in Brainerd. Another significant roofing project on Staples campus and a number of air handlers and air conditioners that we really do have to replace. Central Lakes College is requesting just under half a million dollars to help with renovations of their student services center. We can create even a more welcoming environment for students, easier to see where to go, and put our student support services both on the student side and the academic side right in the hands of the students. An idea that Senator Kerry Roode is passionate about. And we want to do better for them because our students are changing, the careers are changing and so our college needs to change too. Those ideas will be taken into consideration with other priority requests from around the state. We on the Capital Investment Committee have decisions to make. We've got three and a half billion dollars with the requests and we'll probably have somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 to $800 million in our bills. So now every project is going to be funded. The committee still has many more stops to prepare for the 2018 legislative session. Reporting in Brainerd, Sarah Winkleman, Lakeland News. CLC was granted funding for a renovation project on the Staples campus from the committee in 2014. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


Hey, this is Brett and this 2022 GMC Canyon Crew Cab Short Box 84 is stock number 24 T58A. I am here at Summit Automotive in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, you're new and used light duty truck headquarters this 2022 GMC Canyon has the 3.6-liter V6 engine. It's paired up with the 8-speed automatic transmission, puts out 269 horsepower. This truck has been fully safety and inspected by our service shop per the state of Wisconsin inspection process. It has a fresh oil and filter change on the fluid tab and check pan topped off. This truck is 100% ready to go. Super clean all the way around. This is exactly how this truck came in and I'm going to go all the way around inside underneath. Start it up, take a look under the hood and show you all the options. Just give you the most accurate representation that I can of the vehicle. Onyx Black is a color. If you like the video, consider subscribing to the YouTube channel. I'd really appreciate it. Click the bell notifications, get updates on the videos I do each and every day and stay current on our ever-changing and vast inventory here at Summit Automotive. This one comes with the painted and polished aluminum 17-inch wheels. It has Goodyear Wrangler Dura-Trak tires. These are 265, 65 R17s. I would say that they have probably about 70, 80% of the tread left on them. Frame and underbody is exceptionally clean. This is a one-owner clean title history, clean car fax from right here in Wisconsin. Front fender is in excellent shape. Does have the LED running lights, the projector lamp headlamps, and the LED fog lamps. I'll turn all those on at the end of the video so you can see just how bright they are. You do get the red tow hooks down there, part of the AT4 package and kind of this silver gray trim on the grille. GMC lettering looks good. The hood is in excellent shape, but I didn't see any dents or dings on there. Passenger side front fender, absolutely perfect. And the passenger side front wheel, no major scuffs or scrapes on there. Boy, this truck looks like my buffing guy buffed it, but this thing is, this is just how this one came in. This clean, as you go down this side of this 2022 GMC Canyon, take note of how clean the body is, how reflective and mirror-like that paint is. I take these HD videos, so if you're far away or even if you're close by and you just cannot make the trip down, but you're still interested in purchasing the vehicle, you can see the truck, hear the truck, and have confidence in the vehicle that you're looking at before you even get here. So when you do get here, there's absolutely no surprises and you can make a smart and informed buying decision from wherever you're at. And I think you could come from anywhere on this truck and be happy with it. Back wheels in excellent shape, and if this video helps you make a buying decision, let your salesmen know that you saw the video, it was helpful and that brought sense to you. Back tires have just as much tread as the front tires frame and underbody looks really good as well. You get the felt wheel well liners and frame and underbody looks really good under here. And it should, it's only a two-year-old truck from Wisconsin, but nice factory-painted step bars. You do get the 3M rock guard on the box side there to keep from rock chips and stuff. You get the kind of dark chrome trim exhaust coming around the back. Rear bumper is absolutely perfect. You get the rear bumper steps, the rear bumper parking sensors, the full towing package with increased, with the receiver hitch, four-pin and seven-pin wiring. Tailgate is in really nice condition as well. That is a locking tailgate. And this one comes with a very nice gator roll-up tonneau cover. Didn't see any rips or tears on there. Has the shock down assist tailgate. Also has a spring and bedliner. That is in very nice condition. That spring and bedliner goes on to the tailgate, which is very nice. Very easy to lift. And coming around the driver's side, just as clean as that passenger's side, does have the mud flaps on there as well. Always like when trucks got mud flaps on them. And for full disclosure, this back wheel, just as clean as the rest. This one does have the capless fuel fill, which is really nice. Never get gas on your hands. Again, and the cab and doors all look fantastic on this truck. I didn't see any dents. Didn't see any dings. Very nice. You do get the power mirrors with the driver's side blind spot mirror. Take a quick look at the back seats. Got this kind of Gore-Tex and leather material back here. Latch child safety system for any child car seats you may have. Sliding rear window with the built-in rear defrost. These headrests do fold down for better visibility if nobody's riding back here. These seats do go forward for a little bit of storage back there. And then they do fold up as well. It's a little trickier to do with one hand. There we go. You can see there is a storage area under there as well. You do get two USBs and a 12-volt power point and all-weather formats back here as well. Those seats go down nicely like so. And the back doors, very nice condition. No corrosion inside all. Looks really good. Show you the VIN sticker. No previously owned in Canada trucks here. And the tire and loading information sticker there as well. The AT4 package gives you that same kind of Gore-Tex and leather material up front. No rips, no tears on these seats. They are in very nice condition. Smells very clean inside this truck. I don't think this truck's ever been smoked in. You get the AT4 stitched into the headrest. That looks really good. And you get a power driver seat. All-weather formats up here as well. Auto headlamps turned out four-wheel drive and your factory brake controller. Power windows locks and mirrors. And child safety locks for the back doors are right there. We'll hop inside, check out the miles, the radio, and everything that this truck has to offer on the interior. You can see that this one has 20,554 miles. You get a digital speedometer, compass display as well. Instrument cluster is very nice and clean. Comes with the heated leather wrap steering wheel, Bluetooth and information center controls on the right, cruise controls and heated steering wheel controls on the left, and audio controls on the back of the steering wheel. This one comes with the Chevy Infotainment System. You get AM, FM, and Sirius and Bluetooth capabilities on here. This one has all your different apps, including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. So while this one doesn't have the factory navigation system, project your cell phone up there with Waze or Google Maps, and it's like you have nav on your screen, that's a really cool system as well. This is also where your backup camera shows up. Truck's got to be running for that to work, unless I can do it, there we go. I can do it from there, and that is working nicely. And there are your other apps, and then your radio.  You get this kind of cool, almost carbon fiber-looking trim there, and it does have the wireless cell phone charge pad, so just put your cell phone right there if it fits, and charge your phone. The passenger side floor mat and seat excellent condition as well, once again it smells very clean inside the truck, and the headliner is absolutely perfect. You do get map lights up here, and on-starring SOS buttons in the mirror. Let's start it up, take a look under the hood. Starts right up, no check engine lights or anything like that. I would personally like to thank you for checking out the video today, and hopefully from this HD video you've been able to verify the quality, condition, options, and of course, cleanliness of this truck all the way around. See the LED running lights, and the LED fog lamps are very bright, and those projector lamp headlamps are working nicely. I personally don't think you'll find a cleaner 2022 GMC Canyon than this one. Under the hood we have the 3.6-liter V6 engine, engine-based, very clean runs, very smooth. Once again, this truck has been fully-safetyed and inspected by our service shop, has a fresh oil and filter change, all the fluids have been checked and topped off. Also doing a great job holding that hood up. There is the emission sticker, let's see if I can get a good look at it. And like I said, this truck is 100% ready to go. I would highly recommend it from a quality and condition standpoint. I would ship this one to Texas, California, New York, Florida, where ever whoever is going to get this truck is going to absolutely love it, it is very, very nice. And to see more pictures of this truck or one of our other 550 new and used cars, trucks, SUVs, minivans, Wranglers, halftones, three-quarter-tons, one-tons, you name it, we got to go to the website right there, summitauto.com, full pictures and descriptions of every single vehicle, all at summitauto.com. And if you want to check out more HD videos you can go to youtube.com slash summitauto. Click the bell notifications, get updates on the videos I do each and every day, as well as having access to one of the largest catalogs of vehicle walk-arounds on YouTube and stay current on our ever-changing and vast inventory here at Summit Auto. In fact, in a second you will see a link to subscribe to my YouTube channel on the upper left, a link to all the GMC Canyon videos I've ever done in the upper right, a link to this vehicle on our website on the lower left and a link to one of our latest YouTube videos in the lower right. Click those, check us out. We're super excited to be offering this Ultra Clean 2022 GMC Canyon AT4 and Onyx Black Peer Coat. Thank you so much for checking out the video. Remember to like, subscribe, and share on the YouTube channel. I really appreciate it. Thanks, guys.


So, we're going to discuss for a few moments the concept and the idea of the Jewish skull cap. The two primary terms that are used are kippah. Kippah literally means dome, interesting term to use. And the other term that's often used for a skull cap is yarmulka. And yarmulka, many people think, comes from the two words yarei malka, which means to have fear or reverence for the king. Now, it's interesting that again in our literature, you won't find any explicit reference to the requirement of wearing such a skull cap for Jewish men anywhere in the Bible. It doesn't appear there. Although you have an interesting source, you could say a source or a reference that may be interesting for us. The source goes back to the special garments worn by the priests. The high priest wore something called a mitznefet, which was a turban. And you find that in the book of Exodus, chapter 28, verse 25. And the regular priests wore a linen headdress. It wasn't actually a full turban. And that you find in Exodus, chapter 39, verse 28. And it's interesting that the Torah describes the garments of the priests called a kavod ulotiferis, that the garments of the priests were worn as a sign of honor and beauty. So the special garments of the priesthood were to serve those purposes. It indicated the honor of the priesthood, and they were supposed to be symbols that were resonating beauty. One of the things that we can learn from this is that it's true we had a priesthood, but we are also called as Jewish people a mamlechiskonim. The Bible refers to us in Exodus, chapter 19. God says that you as an entire people are to be a nation of priests. And so it's possible to suggest that just as our priesthood wore special garments for honor and for beauty and for dignity, so a Jew as well should be dressed in such a way. As a matter of fact, the Midrash teaches us that our people were only redeemed from Egypt. One of the only reasons that God found us worthy of being redeemed from the slavery in Egypt was because we didn't change our distinctive dress, our distinctive clothing. Now whether or not in ancient times Jews covered their heads is not clear, but what we learned from this is that there is an idea that distinctive clothing of a Jew is important. And one of the things, at least that we can say symbolically, is that by wearing a skull cap in the same way that the priests wore coverings on their heads, it reminds us as a people that we are to serve as priests to the rest of the world. The idea is that throughout the Bible we see that clothing is symbolic and clothing is supposed to be a reminder. So for example, the Torah tells us that we're to attach seat-to-seat ritual fringes to the corners of our garment. If you're wearing a four-cornered garment, the purpose of these ritual fringes we're told in the Torah is to remind us as a reminder in the same way that you would tie a ribbon or string around your finger to remind you to do certain things. The Torah says by having ritual fringes on your garments, you'll be reminded to observe all the laws of the Torah. So in the same way that that garment serves as a reminder, so having a head covering as well reminds us that we play a special role in the world. In the times of the Talmud, we see that the wearing of a headgear was normally not worn by all people necessarily, but it was certainly something that we find that was worn by noble rabbis, by rabbis that were respectable in high positions. They wore a head covering, again, much like the priests did, as a sign of honor. But then we have a story in the Talmud that a mother was advised by the sages to have her son's head covered at all times. This is a mother that was warned that her son might be prone to criminal activity, and so she was advised to have her son's head covered at all times so that he would always be aware of God's presence. So we find in the Talmud that this idea that having a covering on her head is supposed to be simply a reminder that God is with us, and the idea is that it teaches humility, because the covering over our head is a way of demonstrating that there's something over your head. There's something over your intellect. Human beings' intellect is limited compared to God. Prophet Isaiah tells us in chapter 59 verse 9, God says, God says your thinking, your thoughts are not like my thoughts, God says. Don't think that as human beings you can understand everything. God says my thoughts are way above your thoughts. So in order to teach us reverence and humility, having our head covered is a way of just reminding us there's something above us. As well we see from this story that the kippah, the yamlaka, is a protection against our yaitzahara, our evil inclination, because one of the messages of the kippah is to always remind us that God is watching.  One of the terms we use in terms of having a relationship with God, the Torah speaks about yirat Hashem, having awe or fear of God. But yirat Hashem doesn't only mean fear of God, the word can also be translated as seeing God, that we are supposed to see God as being present in our lives. And also by flipping it around, yirat Hashem means God is seeing us, the seeing of God. So the kippah serves all these purposes from the times of the Talmud. It became associated as not necessarily a strict legal requirement, but as a sign of piety and as a way of reminding us that God is watching over us, that God is watching us, that there's something that's above our intellect, and it's a way of at least demonstrating a reverence for God in our lives. The practice has been, in our world at least, to train little boys to wear a kippah from a very young age, some people starting around the age of three, or at least from the time they're able to keep it on their heads.  But according to many opinions, the head covering has the force of custom. However, there is one view among our sages, which says that when non-Jews began to uncover their heads during their prayers, or when they entered their houses of worship, the uncovering of the head became associated with non-Jewish behavior, with behavior of people that were really worshiping, as far as Judaism is concerned, idolatrous worship. And therefore, the Torah teaches us, as a verse in the Bible, we're not to walk in the ways of the nations. We're not to follow the practices of the non-Jewish nations. So if the practice of the non-Jewish world is to uncover their heads, I mean, if you go into a courtroom today, that often happens. You've got to take off your hat. If you go into a church, you're supposed to take off your hat. It's the general practice, and it's been that way for many years for the non-Jewish world in which we live. So some of our sages have said that if that's the normative practice among non-Jews, we are not supposed to copy that. And therefore, the Jewish practice has to be the opposite, that we should cover our heads. And according to this point of view, this is not simply a custom or an act of piety. This has the force of the biblical requirement, that biblically we're required to cover our heads. So the common practice today is that Torah observant men will cover their heads at all times, except of course when they're showering, unless they get a waterproof kippah, or when they're swimming, or when they're sleeping, although some Jews will actually even sleep with their heads covered. We have at least some rabbinic opinions today that permit the removal of the kippah if it's going to negatively impact your livelihood. So a person that's in business and wearing a kippah is going to either prevent them from getting a job or it will destroy their livelihood at their job itself. For example, a lawyer that may have a difficult time representing clients wearing a kippah, there would be room for them to remove their kippah in those situations.


As many of you will know, I work with a wide range of charities in the mental health sector. My work, as well as my first-hand experience of mental illness, has taught me just how crucial it is that we talk about mental illness in a way that is both responsible and looks to actively reduce the stigma. So I'm really, really pleased to be supporting the mental health media charter. It's a set of simple guidelines that have been compiled in consultation with the Samaritans, Mental Health First Aid England, BEATS and others in order to enable media outlets to report responsibly, accurately and compassionately. If you want to find out more, follow them on Twitter or Instagram at mhmediacharter. Really worth checking out.