Certainly. Yes, sir. Mr. Rickman. Mr. McDowell. Mr. McDowell. Thank you. Mr. Duvall. Yeah. Mr. Vine. Mr. Davis. Here. Mayor Benjamin. Young people. Hopefully it's in the pledge. If someone's still learning their pledge, but this is a great place to learn it. Come on, young man. She's not going to come. Okay, that's all right. Yes, and young man. Please stand, everyone. All right, y'all ready? One, two, three. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with energy and justice for all. That was enthusiastic. That was a wonderful, enthusiastic pledge. Thank you, ladies. Red McDowell, would you mind bless us with a prayer please, brother? Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for these children who warmed our hearts with their allegiance. We simply ask that you might bless us now as we continue this process of discerning the will of the city, and particularly the will of God. Bless us individually and collectively. Allow us to sense and feel your presence. We ask it in your name. Amen. Thank you, Red McDowell. Madam City Manager. At this time, we would ask for your adoption of tonight's agenda. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, no move to the previous question. Card to Colorado. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Mr. Mayor, we ask for any public input related to the agenda items. We would ask Council to approve the minutes of May 15, 2018 City Council meeting. Is there a motion? Move approval. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, no move to the previous question. Card to Colorado. Mr. Rickerman. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Mr. Mayor, we would ask that Council approve the consent agenda items 3 through 32. Right. Is there a motion? Motion by Mr. Davis. Is there a second? Second. Second. Any discussion? Aye. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Are the contracts for our Government Affairs services, are they up? We always start them at the beginning of a fiscal year, Mr. Rickerman, but certainly we can hold them if that's your pleasure. I'll just have a question on the services and I'll be honest, I just have not had a chance to look at the contract. Okay. I mean, I'll do what the majority of the Council would like to do, but you might put your microphone down a little bit, Daniel. I'm fine with both of them. If you want to hold them to the next meeting, I'm fine with that. Yeah. If we could, I just got a couple of questions I need to clarify. All right. Well, hold items 3 and 4. The rest of the agenda items 5 through 32. So we're moving property second. Any discussion? Seeing none, move the previous question to Card to Colorado. Mr. Mayor, I was just looking for the item. Would you like to take something else off real quick? I don't want to take it off. One of my observations was, again, it was a contract. Well, I'm hoping that we continue to look at local participation in some of these high dollar contracts. I still kind of have some angst when I see a high dollar contract. No local participation. And that's, you know, $400, $500 million, $200 million going up the interstate. Mr. Davis, we spend, I hear you and staff, if you were a fly on the wall, would probably tell you, you're tired of hearing me ask the questions that extends our agenda review, because I spend a good bit of time asking those questions. If you're taught, I'm not sure which one you're referring to. Some of them that are flood related, we cannot do the programs that we normally do, like Menor Protégé, with the 20% mandatory participation that we have for SMWBE contractors. We still have a local business preference as well. It was still a local business preference. Some of those policies you've all established with the federal dollars, it just depends on how we can apply them. I'm not sure if that's what you're referring to. But this one was, there was some pipe work done, and I'm just wondering if, for example, we don't have maybe a small business in the area that could participate, because that's an area where we, I think, we're kind of lacking in small businesses, minority businesses, women-owned businesses that have that experience. One way we want them to get that experience is to maybe participate somehow, either as a protégé or whatever. I don't want to go back and pull it, but I'm... Is it time to reload at Menor Protégé? Is that what you're suggesting? Yeah, I don't know of any small businesses in that field. In that field locally. That would be something worth the community taking on. An opportunity to kind of take a look at those when they come through, and maybe ask that question. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Items five through 32. Move to the previous question. I have a question. All right. Mr. Rickiman. Actually, it's just a request. Madam City Manager, can you have the staff pull together all the information on the crane creek? The crane creek? Yes, sir. Sure. It seems we're once again evaluating and rehabilitating an area that seems to have millions and millions and millions of dollars pumped into it. I'd like to know how much we've spent and what we've gotten completed and what we have forecasted there as well. Yes, sir. We'll do it. Any other discussion around items five through 32? All right. Seeing none. Move to the previous question. Mr. Rickiman. Aye. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. DuVall. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Let me see the manager. Yes, sir. Moving into a period of presentations. Item 33, the recognition of Miss Mary Rowe for outstanding service and encouraging walking and biking in the city of Columbia. Miss Dana Higgins, Good evening. I have the pleasure today to recognize someone that has been amazing in the bike and walk community. Natalie Britt and Mary Rowe started working on discussions with the mayor back in 2012, started formed the bicycle pedestrian advisory committee. And ever since then, Mary has just been a dynamo, getting things done, bringing encouragement to the walk bike community. They were instrumental in having the bike walk master plan. Mary serves as the director of programs and development for Pelmena Conservation Foundation. Some things that they have first implemented was a handlebar happy hour and I've got a great little picture. I'll show everyone that kind of exemplifies her excitement on the encouragement. So what Mary did is she created a bike valet and she had her daughters actually have, you could ride your bicycle to public house and they would park it for free and you could go in and they had speakers. I know Chief Holbrook came one time and he's implemented the bicycle group and his squads and we've had a lot of different people come in and it's monthly on Wednesday. So very exciting that she added. She has done a lot with our May as bike month. I know y'all have participated in the Mayor's Bike Walk and the rides and we have so many activities. We're probably the most organized city in the state. Definitely toward a taco, three different restaurants on Cinco de Mayo to celebrate going through and to going to each restaurant. Bike to Work Day, everyone would meet at the state house and she would organize a breakfast. It's been at Michaels and Mass General and most recently was the Bank of America building. That was this year. She also would create a finale at the end of bike month with a movie and we've been at 701 this year. It was at the TAPS building so she's kind of moved it around. Something else that she has been a big part of is the open streets where we have encouraged the pedestrian and bike activities by closing Divine Street from just up from five points up to Sims and the four key values they focused on was sustainable, transportation, physical fitness and wellness, civic pride and living streets. Very active in that and single handedly organized the volunteers and it was huge success because they keep asking when can we do it again. And last year we had the first ever Mayor's Bike Summit that they organized and it was a two day event where we had mayors and council people throughout the state, all the different cities that came in and everyone who participated really enjoyed it. So I just want to recognize her tonight and give her a round of applause for all that she's done. Mary Rowe. I just want to thank everyone in the City of Columbia for all their support. I met Dana on a trip to Washington where she came along to the Bike Summit, the National Bike Summit. And it really was through Dana and John Fellows their passion and believing in what the Bike Pedestrian Advisory Committee could achieve. So it really is the city's vision. It is with the city staff and we cannot do that unless we're all partnering together. So thank you and continue doing great things for the city. Mary, absolutely. No, Mary, thank you so much. You've been incredible and it's made a real tangible difference to quality life here in the Midlands and I think we're going to continue making significant investments and connecting the entire community to a healthy, safe infrastructure. So things are good but you and Natalie early on with the rest of the team here does some great work and planted some great seeds. We're going to bear great fruit. All right? Let's take a picture. Come to the manager. Our next item, Mayor Benjamin, is an ordinance first reading item 34, ordinance number 2018-039, granting an encroachment to Jason Chastain and Samina Chastain for installation and maintenance of landscaping and irrigation within the right-of-way area. Of the 1700 block of Bannockburn Drive, adjacent to 1707 Bannockburn Drive in Richland County. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, I'll move the previous question. I'll call the roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. Mcdowell. Aye. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Item 35, ordinance number 2018-041, authorizing the city manager to execute the company BBNT for the use of 3905 Enzer Avenue, the Lutheran Survey Building. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, I'll move the previous question. I'll call the roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. Mcdowell. Aye. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Resolutions, item 36, resolution number R-2018-064, authorizing acceptance and dedication of the street known as Arsenal Hill Court, located in the courtyard at Arsenal Hill subdivision to the city of Columbia. Is there a motion? I'll move. Is there a second? Second. This one's been a long time coming. I know they hadn't it. I'll move the previous question. I'll call the roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mr. Benjamin. Aye. Item 37, resolution number R-2018-071, authorizing the city manager to execute any documents necessary to purchase certain properties affected by the 2015 flood through the property acquisition program. I'll move. Is there a second? Mr. Mayor. That's Sarah and Mr. Mcdowell. Just before we, Mr. Wilson, let me ask you a question. Those pieces of property that has already been demolished, of what? Not necessarily Reverend Mcdowell. This is more of a formality, I think. You all had 18 or so other properties that you did previously. That's right. And these would follow that same suit. I'd have to ask staff of these two like what status they're in. But the program would be to allow us to move forward with acquisition to then demolish if necessary. All remains the same though. Yes, they're the same program. I don't, if staff could come forward to answer this question to about any that are pending because these will kind of come piecemeal. Just come, you come missing. About pending more than are pending. So we have, so 18 were approved in April. This is two more. We have four more that are pending that will come forward to you. Ms. Wilson is correct. So once these are, the closings occur once they see they actually purchases the property, the properties will be demolished and turn to green space. Thank you. You're welcome. Court call roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Other matters, item 38 council is asked to approve the installation of four speed humps on Walkama Avenue as requested by the Public Works Department. We found some peace there or what's the latest? We did find Mr. Mack. I know our staff work with the neighborhood and Mr. Duvall. Everybody's good Robert? Yes. Would Ms. Devine hold that opinion as well? Yes. Okay. Is there a motion? I move we approve the speed bumps on Walkama Avenue. We, Ms. Devine and I both attended the meeting and after some discussion it was almost unanimous to approve the compromise on where the speed bumps would be located. So all minds are clear. All minds were clear. Arts too? All right. It was moving probably second with a previous question Clark Carterall. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Mr. Mayor we will move into a period of the fiscal year 2018-2019 hospitality tax accommodations tax funding recommendations. Ms. Fanning may come forward to assist I'm sure council has some comments. There's a good bit of discussion kind of if you guys don't mind I'll lay the foundation. I know Mr. Duvall has some ideas that he wants to share as well. We expect that there will be some surplus funding that we can appropriate at a later date but my motion and recommendation will be to approve the committee's recommendations both H tax and A tax and look at the surplus which should be made six figures and determine that disposition at another meeting but move to approve the committee's recommendations. Mr. Mayor. Please. You didn't get a second on that. That wasn't a motion. That wasn't a motion. That was not a motion. That was a statement. Okay. You want to take the A tax first? A tax. The A tax is different than the A tax. The history on the A tax is it has been split between Experience Columbia and Lake Murray Country 8515 and the committee did not do that this time because the request from Lake Murray Country did not reach the 15% level. I would like to make a motion that we approve the 8515 split which would be 2 million 075 to Experience Columbia and 366,300 to Lake Murray which gets the 8515 split. Second. Mr. Chairman. I was just going to say that we in taking the request the Lake Murray Country's request was 325. We would have done exactly what Councilman Deval just said and we would have no objection to Howard's motion. Questions. Mr. Davis moves a previous question. Approve the A tax recommendations with that exception. Move the previous question. Court call roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. McDowell. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. All right. Mr. Deval. Mr. Mayor on the board. It's a little bit complicated. Ginger Fanning gave us a memo. Who's Ginger? D.D.  I call her Ginger. Ginger gave us a memo today at 1115 or something like that that had a list of organizations that are normally specified in the budget by this year. There's just one figure in the budget and she wants us to approve tonight the memo that she sent which begins with Columbia Museum of Art and ends with one Columbia for Arts and History and I would like to make one change in that at the request of Historic Columbia. They are requesting that the amount for Historic Columbia at this $55,000 be reduced to $135,000 and that the $551,500 be increased to $601,500. With that addition I'd like to move that we accept the Fanning a memo and that it be what was the word I was supposed to use here for eligible expenses or of the H tax. And then we'll talk about the rectangle. Which memo is this Ginger? This one right here. It's the one she sent out today. So the purpose of today's memo is just to state what line item line item request and appropriations and the goal is to There's the committee recommendations and those were the line item council line items. They're all inclusive on the main spreadsheet that was presented. So why we need a separate memo? It allocates the money that's listed as one line item in the budget. Okay. It just breaks it down. And Historic Columbia's change was recognizing one of the Columbia SC 63 projects completed. It's only $20,000 less there for maintenance of city-owned buildings. If I remember correctly. Right. But that was the other 30 or so, if my math's right. It would add to the total. It recognizes completion of one project. I forget what it was. Maybe it was Man Simons. It was one of the projects. It was a word. It was Ward 1 project. I'll second the motion. All for the question. Question. It was it was affirming the components in DD's memo of the day laying out the amount of line items with the two changes. The money appropriated for the Columbia SC 63 project reduced by $20,000. I'd be recognizing the completion of the Man Simons project. The amount in the larger line item up by $50,000 to appropriate for the maintenance of city-owned buildings. Once you recognize those numbers. $135,000 for historic Columbia reducing the $155,000 to $135,000. And increasing the $551,500 to $601,500. And I'll give you this memo. And that is specifically for maintenance of city-owned buildings that they manage. All right. Okay. Any other redness? I'm going to move to the previous question. The buildings in their portfolio that we own that they maintain the added cost of maintaining those buildings, they've also reduced one of their line items by $20,000 recognizing the completion of one of those projects. It was an add-on. So it's net 30. It's net 30. All right. With the previous question, I'll call the roll. Mr. Rickerman. Aye. Mr. Mcdowell. Yes. Mr. DeWall. Aye. Mr. Davis. Aye. Mayor Benjamin. Aye. Thank you. All right. Next, and now this is where the Kumbaya ends, my friends. So go ahead. Go for it. Mr. Mayor, I like to move. We approve the recommendations of the H-Tax Committee following exceptions. I would like to hold until next month any allocations to city center partnership, to regional sports marketing, to U.S. Gamecock Club, and to the state agricultural and mechanical society, the state fair until Mrs. DeVine returns next month. Appreciate that. As I told you before the meeting, I support the allocation of additional surplus funds as council sees fit. I'd rather approve the H-Tax Committee recommendations and then address the excess. If in fact you want to take those up, I'm going to vote against that motion if it receives a second. If you want to take them up one by one, I think it would be a huge mistake to defund some of those organizations. If you want to hold the state fair and USC for another discussion, I'm fine with that. I think as we prepare for March Madness coming to Columbia for the first time, I don't want to slow down regional marketing and also obviously I don't want to slow down what we've been doing here in the city center. I think that's a huge mistake. But if you want to take them one by one, that might be a way to discuss it at all. If you want to take them one by one, then I would recommend let's see, how are we going to do this? Why don't you just hold those two and leave the other ones alone and we can rock and roll. I don't want to leave the other ones on. All right, let's go through it. In the H-Tax Committee recommendations, I would recommend that city center partnership be funded at 100,000 instead of 260,000. The rationale behind that is that the city center partnership is participating in a business improvement district that has been approved by the city council which creates about a million dollars a year in revenue for CCP and they should not be getting an additional funding from the H-Tax when they are funded by city center by city council. I'd say with some historical perspective I serve on the founding board of the city center partnership with no financial interest. This is a main street property owner. There is a self-imposed fee on people who have business interest in the city center that pay that additional funding to help do the things that have turned main street into what it is. So it's not some additional issue but we can take the prerogative of making each of those recommendations. That's your first one. I have made the motion that we fund them at 100,000. That's your first motion. Is there a second for that? Second it for discussion. Any other discussion on it? I think it's a bad idea and I don't want to get into tabling and a bunch of procedural things because in the parliamentarian it gets real busy. I'm going to vote against the motion and we'll take up the rest and move the previous question. Kirk, call her all. Mr. Rickerman. Mr. McDowell. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Davis. No. Thanks. I do think we need to have a discussion. I think there's some fundamental discussion. I think we need to have a discussion directly at some point at the proper time. We can talk about that and all the other issues we anticipated we would take up in a work session and this was accelerated. Next one. I would hope that conversation ensues itself at our next work session and if we could do that and make that a priority for the... Excuse me. I also look forward for a discussion on that so there could be some further clarifications and justification for understanding the motion. Sure. Mr. Mayor. I'd like to move that we reduce regional sports marketing to zero. They were in the H-tax committee recommendation for $80,000. That is an arm of Experience Columbia which has the ATACS and they are having a $276,700 increase in the ATACS which is one of the largest... I think it is the largest increase of any funded agency in the city and I think that regional sports marketing has plenty of room to use the growth of that $276,000 for marketing. I am all in favor of the Experience Columbia and I am all in favor of marketing for March Madness but they need to live in the ATACS not in the H-tax. Again, post-Confederate ballot flag, this is our very first opportunity to host the NCAA tournament in Columbia and they will have more eyes on the city than I think any event short of a Super Bowl and I think we need to make sure that we are prepared to do it and do it right and so I will be voting against that one as well. The other two, I am happy to hold as I articulated but I think that is a mistake but that is your motion, is there a second? Motion fails for lack of a second. My third motion is to reduce the USC Game Clock Club to zero. They are in the H-tax for $40,000 for security for the football games and if there is one money making event in the city of Columbia is the several games that they have at Williams-Brice stadium and I think that since USC takes money off the tax rolls of the city of Columbia at any time they breathe that we should not be funding the Alumni Association for security at football games so I make the motion and we take them to zero. Is that a pass through? Is that a pass through? Well it is in the sense that our PD officers are working out there and typically those are the funds that offset that effort. Howard can we hold the last two for the larger H-tax discussion as opposed to defunding them so how about if we approve the H-tax committee recommendations save those two recommendations for the larger H-tax discussion. We will approve the H-tax committee's recommendation with the exception of the Game Clock Club and the State Agricultural Mechanical Society which we will hold the next month. Any further discussion? And obviously we will also have discussion for those of you who are all looking for additional support of the surplus dollars we will have that opportunity to discuss that and we have a little more time to deliberate but John thank you and your committee for your hard work. If you want to say something first Mr. Chairman. I would just like to say thank you to council for acting so quickly on this rather than putting it off until next month because so many people are really counting on it. We still have to vote John so let's do that first. Move the previous question. Mr. Rickerman. Four. H-tax committee recommendations. I. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mr. Duvall. Mr. Davis. I. I. For the larger H-tax discussion and discussions around surplus spending. Again then thank you. Thank you. Mr. Mayor while we're on this discussion we you know obviously was scheduling in the summer months the request that you all made was to have a committee of the whole basically a work session of council to discuss these items is the goal still for August to do that. Yes. I think sooner the better. Yeah. Maybe if not August since we're doing the September 4th or 5th meeting that might be a possibility to whatever that. In part of our discussion truly is moving forward in the future not so much changing what there. I think there's some inequities in this to be quite honest. I don't know how you have one entertainment district gets less than another entertainment district but doesn't produce the same amount of hospitality tax collected. I think we still have to get those eligible expenses as you know I spent some time going through all of these and we have lots of questions about what's eligible and what's not. I think that we are paying for product for services and goods and so forth that aren't eligible and I'm not sure how it slipped through our thing but we're going to do a fundamental house cleaning and I think moving forward we need to set some clear designations, clear rules and what's acceptable and what's not for reimbursables because I think it's gotten a little out of whack. I also think we have to have the discussions we discussed earlier you know what's eligible what's not, what qualifies and looking at the overall you know we say every year that we're going to look at trying to figure out ways to have more inclusion but we continue to give groups more and more and not get new groups in. At some point this is not supposed to be your life line this is supposed to just be an add-on and it's becoming a life line for certain groups and we cannot do that anymore. Alright Mr. Davis and you know I don't want to be repetitive of Daniel's statement but this is my annual statement that is that I'd like to see us provide some opportunities and some kind of life line for the smaller groups one to at least get their feet in the door and two to grow such as the others that have grown these funds and I do agree that you know going back to when we was I here when we first initiated the ordinance the expectation was that an organization would not make this their life line at some point they would evolve to a point where they can either be sustainable or that they look for other resources but if that does not happen then the door does not open for other organizations period so I'd like to see smaller groups and some of the more disadvantaged groups see them see more participation using these dollars believe it or not the funds come from all parts of this city yes sir Mr. McDowell John I want to say thanks for you and the committee for doing such a good job it's I think it's to our advantage to have folks who are going to come and look at what we do with organizations as such thank you so much the other piece of that is I think we have a unique opportunity particularly when we start talking about age tags there are organizations out there that has not gotten anything and a part of that of course is I think it has to be a part of education I think it has to be a part of the folk ready to be persons who are endeavoring to expand the city of ours so of course I got an amen and an amen corner back here somewhere Mr. J it sounded like somebody from St. John Baptist back there I thought so I think we've got a unique opportunity I think to expand organizations that we sensitize ourselves to those organizations that are small and have the ability to expand themselves and of course to expand the city of ours so thank you all so much for what you do it's a time it's very timely but it's also very laborious to do this and we thank you for that absolutely John you're in the entire committee and thank you Ginger for your first year on the job this new task you did a great job I'm going to call you Ginger for now that's fine so you're glad it's over with not Ginger sir Didi's been wearing us out she wanted it done yesterday I want to thank her too Mr. Mayor thank you you've got one more item the carry forwards for fiscal year 2017 2018 I move that we approve the list of carry forwards as stated in Ginger's July the 11th 2018 memo second any discussion? Mr. Rickerman Aye Mr. McDowell Mr. Davis Aye are there other organizations that have not requested carry forward that might not have expended funds that might also go into the larger pot at some point too? there's a small amount alright we'll keep an eye on it alright thank you thank you to the committees as well I neglected to mention that Ms. Devine asked that we hold item 41 alright so that's all right with y'all I just want to just want to make a note that I want to make sure that everybody realizes we need to have a candidate from district 4 there's no representation on that board from district 4 Mr. Mayor you mean on the housing authority? that's correct so you're talking about instead of 3 you're looking at 4 now? we're not doing anything on 41 right now but he was mentioning hold on that but Mr. Rick had been wanting to make it clear that district 4 needs representation on the housing authority board alright is there a motion for the Columbia Tree and Appearance Commission Mr. Duvall Mr. Mayor I'd like to suggest that we approve the reappointment of Presley Hogue and add to that list Chris Goodman Henry Trap Charles Pippin and Carolyn Dugan is there a second? second is everyone fine with the geographical distribution of representation? it's awfully lopsided you want to hold some slots and see some applicants? nice get some more of our districts engaged thank you you got 7 from district 3 and you're going to add 2 more back to 7 you go back to 7 you got 2 coming off and you go back to 7 I'm going to put a district 4 in there on Brian is any of those 7s up? is Brian there anytime soon? we could take an Emory Trap Ms. Belton, any of those slots coming up anytime soon? that works for me we've had a compromise alright we would put Brian Allen 4 in instead of Emory Trap in district 3 Mr. Trap can reapply Elizabeth Marks she expires in August but we want to put her on this particular agenda for either to reappoint or to appoint someone else in that position she's in district 2 who was the previous question? she would be she would be tapped out right? she would be she served 2 terms she has served 2 terms it is council can reappoint her but it has to be a super vote if I'm not mistaken on the amended resolution it has to be 5 votes to vote her on the 3rd term I'm ready Mr. McDowell Mr. Duvall Mr. Davis Mayor Benjamin are there any reports community reports or referrals to committee? Mr. Duvall a point of personal privilege Mr. Mayor at 6.30 in the afternoon of July the 17th in 1965 I married my bride you look you're late here now and it's been 53 years I'm looking forward to my homegrown tomato sandwich when I get home congratulations Howard you got a proclamation for your bride somebody go buy that lady some flowers some candy and everything else congratulations Howard that's wonderful any reports or referrals to committee? seeing them we're in a period of public discussion so I'm going to go in the order in which I've received those who signed up and some issues have been addressed with the H tax discussion Mr. Blackman signed up first is he gone? has he talked to you already Daniel? Mr. Blackman I think he's gone yeah I spoke to him the beautiful little Miss Chloe Thompson and I will tell you all that I see these shirts these shirts are awesome we had the opportunity to spend some time with Miss Joy Holman this weekend recognizing her contributions as she was awarded the Palmetto by Government Master and it was a movie experience Double Dutch Forces still going strong go ahead superstar good evening to the Honorable Mayor Steve Benjamin City Council members my name is Chloe J. Thompson I reside in District 3 at 700 Woodrow Street apartment 606 I recently heard that you are considering closing Martin Luther King Jr. Park King Park on Sundays this would be a bad idea for the following reasons I am a member of the World Champion Double Dutch Forces jump rope team we practice at King Park every Sunday during this full year Double Dutch Team cannot make it to practice during the week days because they are involved in after school activities so we rely on Saturdays and Sundays during the school year to practice so that we can defend our World Champion status each year also a lot of kids go there to play basketball enjoy the company of others get a snack or play inside when the weather is cold or there is a storm what would happen if you did close the park on Sundays we would lose a Double Dutch practice day and children who play there would have no safe place to play due to all the construction on the field these are the reasons why you should not close the park on Sundays I hope that you will take this into consideration and make the decision to keep King Park open on Sundays on Sundays thank you for your time Chloe to see what engagement and voicing your opinion it really does matter we are not closing the park on Sundays all through the year it is always open on Sundays but we were trying to give our staff they worked with you really hard seven days a week and during the summer months we looked at our numbers to see who is attending and tracking attendance it is pretty low for the most part on Sundays but for you all we will make sure that we have staff there to work with you even on Sundays during the summer but the MLK park hours were changed on the summer months on Sundays because the numbers that attend on Sundays so we will make exceptions our staff already knows you all want to practice on Sundays so that is fine we will make sure you have a way to practice on Sundays so we move the park stay open on Sunday for Chloe and all these other beautiful babies who signed up to speak and some of the grown folk too is there a second discussion let's move the previous question Clark call the roll Mr. Rickerman Mr. McDowell Mr. Duvall Mr. Davis I he wants to jump rope too I and my dear thank you and I want to thank all the young people any of the young people signed up to speak on this because if so we want a young or youngish people I want to make sure all the babies speak but certainly anyone else who wants to speak the parks are going to be open on Sunday we are going to make sure that that is the case but we are always trying as Ms. Wilson mentioned also trying to recognize the fact that our staff that they have families too making sure that they are able to spend some time at home on Sundays it's so important as you young people know we got some young people over here from Rich as well it's important that you come and you tell people exactly how you feel what's important to you and the more and more you voice your opinion and when you turn 18 years old you register to vote and you register your opinion that way too at the ballot box you go to every election and you pick the man or woman of your choice and if you like them and you love them you vote for them again if you don't you try your best to send them home that's the way it works in the greatest democratic nation in the history of the world but you got to remain involved it's so important that you do so so we're proud of you all so we're so glad you're here Mr. Davis, Mr. Mayor will work with them on a specific time on Sundays Randy, okay but I see a forehead and a microphone for those that did not hear so did we hear the decision was made not to close the park on Sunday yes ma'am it was never going to be closed on Sundays during the year it was only three more Sundays anyway in the summer where it would be closed on Sundays during the summer months that was modified hours in the summer as we were talking about so a closure point would be futuristic the decision that was made to close the park during the summer was vital particularly for young people that was the main point of contention for those of us that have to listen to it every Sunday afternoon because it was closed but now that this has been reconciled we would hope that for next summer that there would be consideration not to close it on Sundays because especially with the construction hopefully it will be done by then but particularly now those three Sundays are important to many of the young people in that community and we look at the attendance so I would commit that we'll look at that attendance again because it may be that I'm sure you are hearing that a lot but attendance numbers may not reflect it so we have to work with our staff and as the mayor said obviously Sundays are important to families so our staff for seven days a week for the most part we're looking at attendance numbers to justify them being away from their families as much too but we commit to looking at a modified schedule as I said and we'll make amends for them to be there on Sundays to practice and that's not a problem at all you have the kids participating in the skillsman drills this week awesome football? alright thank you babies alright teni teni, hey brother we will allow city manager talked about staff wanting Sundays off there are so many people who work in several places who do not have every Sunday off I work for Lowe's butter and I don't get every Sunday off having an alternative to keep our parks open the only time that we can have quality family time at the park I will ask you all to keep the place open in terms of attendance ain't nobody there counting who came in the morning and who came in the afternoon and who came in the evening and I've lived in that park for 45 years so we know how in that community for 45 years we know how our folks sure we understand that Femi your experience and your priorities are the same ones that we share Ms. Wilson's response was also to make sure our employees are healthy and happy and have family lives too we appreciate your input thank you all right so Dr. Gannis spoke in the Sumter babies were up here earlier all right so I see Nahim and Chase Sumter okay all right thank you now Mama G Dr. Miller it's on you women city council city manager and Mr. Davis this evening it's very exciting to present this is the new and upcoming in concert with the department of juvenile justice team we also have media specialists here who have won incredible national awards over the last month they very quickly let's not push this over we'll give their outline to you and on a personal note I would like to say woohoo I'm 65 now so I'm really excited about that and to see the young people who are becoming to speak to you I will mention this Mr. Joard Washington to my right is leaving he's going to another city but to great things awesome as Mama G stated I am leaving but it's only an hour away and I'll still be a part of Rich so I'm not abandoning her so or any of my new members so yeah I still paint and draw for the program you're fantastic word keep doing great things wherever you are alright just to introduce myself my name is Patrick Rutledge I'm a music artist and a filmmaker I just got my bachelor's degree in media arts from the University of South Carolina with an associates in business administration seeking a master's degree in cinematography my goal is to create a platform not only for myself but for my colleagues and other aspiring creatives to expand produce and sustain themselves in the process awesome great good evening my name is Terrence Duren I am an upcoming filmmaker and entrepreneur I retrieve my studies from the Institute of Charlotte in digital film and video production and my personal goal is to create a media hub for Columbia and get us ahead in the media space and actually be up there with New York and LA in all the big cities great good evening my name is Natalie Watson I also just received my bachelor's degree from USC for media arts I also have my associates in graphic design and hopefully to get my master's over at Howard and filming my main goal is to show there's women in the field that do actually cinematography mainly were known for costume designers or makeup artists rather than actually being behind the camera and so my idea is to show a platform for young females that there are other there are other female cinematographers out there and even though it's a male dominant field so thank you good good afternoon my name is Andrew Gadjadar and I'm Faith Preach and we are the co-founders of Carolina Film Network a profit organization right here in Columbia and we also are the founders of Picture Media Group Production Company recently received accreditation with the Hollywood level producers guild of America and LA and we also just received several awards at the Rising Star Academy Awards in Philadelphia last month and we are in conjunction with the Rich Program and have an upcoming project to do a documentary on homogeneity alright that's going to be fun the creative class is alive and well and of course I would like to ask for a picture for photographs and the fact that all these young adults here are volunteers and I think it's important they're all volunteers and some of you who may be not be as familiar with the work that Dr. Milla has been doing these young men and women are mentoring young men and women all across this community some that others have given up on a long time ago and are helping them reach heights that many of them I believe never would have achieved so your commitment to community is incredible the creative class is alive and well some really creative people here and I can't wait if the movie is a documentary I want to get a word on that on the documentary I will not be a stand-in for any of her serious work the swords come out I want to be nowhere in sight I'm going to take a picture together Thank you very much Hello everybody I will only take a moment with Columbia classical ballet but I wanted to take this opportunity as you know we were physically demolished by the flood of 2015 but not psychologically demolished and we were in debt of 91,000 we have lived this for three years what you did last year for us with your surplus I cannot tell you the difference it made to us in every way and we are so close we are so close to being out of debt from the flood that we can taste it but I want to tell you about something so wonderful that has happened and Rodinco said please don't talk about me but of course I'm going to he just left Orlando sweeping the world ballet competition winning the gold winning the silver are Japanese and Chinese dancers and what it's done for us we've been kind of busy the last two and a half years keeping up with what had happened to us in the debt and now we have this new lease on life these amazing dancers that are winners in the world and we want to keep them right now if you went to DC and opened their play bill you would see that their four principles were from Columbia classical ballet and they can pay them in DC even six times what we can and we understand that and we believe in the American dream like no one else but we want to keep our dancers that are winners here in Columbia as long as we can so our mission is outreach and you know that and that's what I'm always talking about but today I'm saying is that surplus as you look at it we are fighting the fight for our dancers here in our city and we need to pay them more to do that many went to school in their countries at age three and they lived to dance and we need to help them have what they need we need to pay them fairly so we come to you just please keep us especially in your mind when you look at the surplus and just know how grateful, how appreciative and how proud we are Columbia classical ballet be your ballet in this city thank you yes ma'am, thank you Lee Rodenko, congratulations it's incredible news and just keep up the great work and we are on do notice of the other request Lee and Rodenko you're in charge of managing Lee did you want to say something say something on the record I want to make sure people can hear you I'm sorry it's not that I really want to talk but I'm really proud that Columbia classical ballet has a five gold and silver medalist which really puts us to be probably one of the few companies in southeast that has this many medalists so I think it really is amazing I'm very proud and I thank you very much for your help and I think Lee said everything thank you very much thank you Rodenko Ellen Blundy okay Katie Bolden Katie here oh there you go good evening everyone good evening I have two questions in one comment my first question is concerning blue teen washington hikes the burning of the houses over there I understand there is no infrastructure in for money for am I not right but my thing is do we have anything in place a plan for the constructions to restore the houses in the neighborhood the um the houses that have been burned or just the houses in the period the houses that's burned and the seniors that need help to restore some of the construction you may remember we established the pair program and the map program two years ago specifically for that purpose the pair program to help rehab with grant money landlord owned homes and also the map program to help folks weatherize and update their homes both grant programs I think funded to the tune of over a million dollars there was significant opposition by some people we all know and love who opposed participation specifically but I understood when I went to the um the hearing of the speaking down it drew wellness park about two years ago there was a young man and he said we have a grant I think from Washington to help the people in the neighborhood but after researching maybe we're not talking about the same grant it was a forgivable loan and they were going to put a lien against the people houses is that not the same grant there were both grant programs and I was actually right I was there speaking about the Bellefield Center both programs that were designed specifically for Boca Washington Heights and since no one applied for them there they all the money went to North Columbia I think almost all of it went to so it's important to note that we specifically designed programs for that specific purpose and people in the neighborhood were dissuaded from participating and using them so I just want to make sure that that's clear okay have we made any progress about that housing that was burnt down very well arrest has been made but also um the the neighborhood is still of course one of the target neighborhoods for utilization of CDBG and home funds and other funds coming through the city from federal funds so that has not changed it's still a priority the reason I'm asking is because there are seniors you know for a fact there they have to make determination whether they're going to pay a light bill or they're going to pay their medical bill so these are the things that we need to see and another my other question is and I've been told by Sam and Mr. McDowell and we've been talking about this over and over again we need a grocery store in our neighborhood and they said we have a plan we have a plan in what place you can have a plan great grand kids I guess going to the grocery store we would like to know more about that plan for our neighborhood and we can help you and support you in that plan please let us know because we are tired of going out of our neighborhoods going way beyond picking up the seniors taking them a lot of seniors don't have transportation not just seniors but single parents don't have transportation to get to the stores and we have to pay what they uh price I mean it says it's not just that neighborhood it's several neighborhoods so we're asking y'all please please consider getting us a grocery store in Beltline or either Fair Road neighborhood so our people can go to the store secondly and I've always come up here and I've always enjoyed coming to City Hall and you've always was very cordial and kind but I hadn't experienced it the other day when I was up here it was not pretty at all I had someone who was very disrespectful to me and she knew who I'm talking about and I hope that do not happen again because when I come up here I always speak to everyone and they always speak back thank you alright I will say this Katie a lot of good things are happening on the grocery store front we can talk a little bit more about that is just to make sure that people in the community in the interim have access to fresh foods and some of them will be physical improvements some will be mobility issues that we're going to work together to address but Mr. McDowell and I and some others have been working directly on that so we'll talk about that absolutely thank you thank you Katie Mr. Desi Fernandez did you just want to sign up you're good alright I think Ms. Akira Scott and Ms. Glennie Scott are both gone I think those were some of the beautiful young people as well who are gone Ms. Andrea Davis are you hey how are you I just would like to add good evening to the council I am Benjamin Mayor I would like to add a footnote to the MLK Park being open on Sundays if you could please consider accepting volunteers to come and participate to help in increasing that attendance on Sundays we would be more than glad to do that help with attendance or help staff the park help the staff and volunteer I was going to ask Femme to do that and I said I really didn't want Femme doing that we might actually take you guys up on it because we want I've been in that park for over 30 years and it has not just been just the advocate for inspiring the double-dutch forces but has also been an advocate in inspiring the youth outside a lot of these jumpers have siblings and they don't necessarily participate in double-dutch but they're in a safe environment and they can go to the next room over so if that's another way to help keep those doors open for the youth on Sundays volunteers are more than welcome to come out I encourage you to talk to Mr. Davis in the back probably of no relations but since you don't know him but he's right there go ahead now but thank you thank you thank you Ms. Shardae Avents plus one plus one hello I'm also going to piggyback up with Ms. Davis just said about King Park I was a student athlete here from Columbia went to Columbia High played every sport even we did things on Sundays as far as church but it allowed me to be able to commit to double-dutch I know that maybe if you had a window hour a couple of hours for the jumpers would be open I'm open to volunteering as well but those three and four hours made a big difference and I know it may not sound like it does but those practices were very intense but it allowed us to be competitive and to also be in a safe environment on Sundays and that is a really big deal down there especially at King Park so I just want to encourage you guys to know that it wouldn't just benefit the jumpers but it also would benefit the community and the children 33 world championships 33 it's amazing we recognize that our city parks are indeed a cornerstone of all of our communities across the city so Julie and I appreciate your commitment to the park and thank you for this weekend thank you for what oh that was wonderful I'm glad my daughter is not here she'd love your hair and it would drive her daddy crazy but she'd love it alright thank you and you want to say something about Joy? so I mentioned it earlier we had a chance on behalf of Governor McMaster who is staff processed the Order of the Pavmata State's highest award in record time to recognize the contributions of Joy Holman I guess has been with us 27 years or so at the city and kind of the force behind the Double Dutch forces and it's just been so if you want to say something about Joy I'll say something real quick and I know I has been in Double Dutch longer than me but you know not too much longer I started jumping Double Dutch at the age of 3 my mother and Joy played softball together and the team was the ebony ladies I begged Joy she said you have to be 4 she said every time she saw me I would just I'm almost 4 can I jump that was a running joke but my mom made me sign a contract and I actually had to finish I had to do it until I was 18 years old but the Double Dutch force and Joy taught me things that people pay thousands of dollars and go to Tony Robbins events to learn you know tenacity and fellowship and teamwork and interdependency although we are independent of one another we are interdependent on another and she exposed us you know we traveled all across the world from France to you know record breakers in Europe and there's so many things that we got exposed to and things that I could never even really express to you but the things that she taught me are so internal they're locked deep in my heart and I know that she and the Double Dutch forces have made me a better woman a better wife and I know it made me a better mom because we'll never give up you know I know a lot of people should have been here today but you see I'm here plus one so you know it doesn't matter we have to get the job done and we have to see everything through and that's something that Joy is doing from her from her I'm sorry that's something that she's doing from her death bed I hate to you know break the news that way but she's getting things done in days that it takes people years to do you know and I just hope that you hold the Double Dutch near and dear to your heart and hopefully we can get a documentary done by this crew over here you know the Netflix special we actually did a special and there's so many different opportunities that you know Double Dutch has allowed us to do and I think the city for allowing Double Dutch to be a part of the community because it also put Columbia on the map you know so I would really like to just thank the city city council for allowing Double Dutch to be around for so long absolutely I would also like to add to that if you have noticed or been throughout the city in certain areas you will see signs that have already been a part of the Columbia and Lexington areas that say Double Dutch forces the home of Double Dutch forces in this time it's it's an intimate moment for us however we are not going to let our team go down we're not going to let our team die we're going to continue to reach out and live on through the wishes that Joy would want us to continue to go in addition to that the signs if at all possible I am requesting if in the future if it is not as we wish that ribbons could please be put on those signs in honor of Joy we have a new process and I'm going to nominate that we do some street renaming or court renaming down there full participation with the neighborhood Mr. McDowell but I pledged on this weekend to start that process and we'll need your help communicating with the neighborhood that's a beautiful baby too is that a future jumper there jump or turn it doesn't matter jump or turn alright no one else has signed up to speak I have a non-debatable motion to adjourn I'm sorry you you want to walk out and walk back in John I called on you earlier Mr. Counsel I moved to Columbia in 1958 but y'all don't want to hear the long story I'm truly concerned with how hard it is I've been in the real estate business since 1975 and I'm concerned about how hard it is for homeowners to maintain their properties in certain neighborhoods I understand preservation I understand historical properties I have a hard time understanding why you won't let somebody replace their windows with modern technology initiated windows Jacksonville Florida has three historical neighborhoods Columbia has 15 and they all run by different rules I love Columbia I've been here since 1958 spent eight years on the city planning commission but our rules for maintaining properties Columbia is an old town we got a lot of properties that need renovations and unfortunately because city policies have created this cloud the owners can't do them reasonably and I think you all know this and I appreciate your time thank you thank you, John Daniel, were you guys prepared to talk about historic preservation or economic and community development I know that's something Mr. Rickim has been talking about which one that's part of it because it has to deal with the DDRC which of those two okay, so it's going to be on the subcommittee agenda to talk about this specific issue John, obviously those historic districts are all established by the people who live in those districts but it's proven to be very difficult and cumbersome and that's something that Mr. Rickim raises at every meeting so let's make sure we're plugged into when the committee discusses it and see if we can hammer something out that makes some sense but thank you John John, I think you're talking specifically about DDRC and the issues surrounding it I'm talking about the rules that govern he's talking about the subjectiveness done at a staff level not also at a committee which is a clear problem with the subjectiveness which is a fantastic reason for a subcommittee discussion which is what we're going to have how soon July 31st, we'll have a meeting here at City Hall to discuss it thank you John there's been a motion to adjourn discussion third, all right Mr. Rickiman Mr. McDowell Mr. Duvall good evening


Hi, I'm Charlie Comstock, Superintendent of Trackwork on the HO Scale Bear Creek and South Jackson Railroad. You're witnessing a historic event, the first train to pass through the junction at the top of the helix. This junction has three turnouts, a Walther's number 8Y, a FastTracks number 8, and a ScratchBuild number 6. I'd like to show you how I scratch build turnouts using only homemade jigs. I used Microengineering Code 83 rail and PC ties from Cloverhouse for this turnout. Other materials used include solder and non-acid flux. I use a simple jig to place the ties and rails. It's just a paper template taped to a 1x6 piece of pine. I photocopied my paper templates from my copy of Paul Mallory's Trackwork Handbook for model railroads, but any accurate turnout diagram will work. PC ties come in different thicknesses. For HO Scale, I like the Cloverhouse's 62,000 thick ties. These also work in a FastTracks turnout jig. I start by prepping the PC ties using some 400 grit sandpaper to smooth rough edges. Rough edges are especially bad near the points as they can prevent the points from moving smoothly. Watch out for slivers of PC foil on the edges of the ties. They can cause hard to find shorts or become a fire hazard. I use flush cutting nippers to cut ties to length for each PC tie location on the template. I use a couple of Microengineering Small Spikes to hold each PC tie in place. The spikes slip over the ends of the PC ties, like this. With the ties secured in place, it's time to start adding the rails. First, I cut the two stock rails to length. Before continuing, be sure to file the ends of the rails smooth. Burrs will be a problem. They can cause derailments and will make it much more difficult to slip on rail joiners. Mark the inside surfaces of the stock rails where the points will nestle up to them. The rail base will need to be ground away here to give clearance. I use a black felt tip marker. When I'm building a standard straight leg turnout, I use a simple jig to hold the frog and closure rails at the correct angle. For a number 6 frog, I draw a straight line on a piece of 1 by 4 pine. Then I mark the frog point location and measure 6 inches along the line, then over 1 inch, and draw another line forming a 1 and 6 angle. 4 strip wood guides are spiked and glued to the pine to hold the frog and closure rails in place. I cut two pieces of rail to form the V of the frog. Then I hold some rail over the turnout template and cut pieces for the closure rails. I cut the closure rails longer than needed. I'll trim them later. Here's my universal turnout rail shaping tool. It works for almost any size rail in any scale. Remember the black marks on the stock rails? Let's use the 1 inch belt sander to grind the rail base off the stock rails where the points will mate with them. Once the rail base is ground down, use some more 400 grit sandpaper to remove roughness from the bottom of the stock rails. The frog rails need to be beveled to make a nice frog point. I'll use the 1 inch belt sander to do the beveling. Since there are no moving parts in the frog, these rails don't need sanding with the 400 grit paper. Let's place the frog rails in the frog jig. The frog rails go inside the strip wood guides. I use a couple of spikes to hold the rails in place. I use pliers to bend wing rails into the frog end of the closure rails. The closure rails go on the outside of the strip wood guides. Again, I use a couple of spikes to hold them in place. Slide the closure rails left or right to adjust the flangeway width between the frog and wing rails. Don't bend the closure rails to do this. That will wreck the rail alignment. Hold the frog jig up to a light. Use the light's reflection to sight long the tops of the rails and check their alignment. If you see one continuous path without any dipsy doodles, you've got it right. I prefer to solder my frogs. This will hold all the rails right where you put them. It can take a lot of solder to fill a frog. I press down on the rails to keep them level as I finish soldering. A few passes with a file flattens the bottom of the frog so it will sit flat on the ties. I use a 2-inch long piece of a hacksaw blade to mill the solder out of the frog's flangeways. Then I wire brush the frog to clean it up. I use the flangeway end of the enamerate gauge to check the width of the frog's flangeways. The flangeway nub should fit precisely. Time to install the rails. I use a piece of wire to put a tiny dab of flux on the PC ties where the straight stock rail will be located. Placing the first rail is a little tricky. Line it up over the template and tack solder it to a PC tie. I need to hold a metal straight edge to the stock rail to ensure it's actually straight. Without using the straight edge the rail will probably curve, especially where the rail base was ground away next to where the points will be installed. With the straight edge in place, solder the stock rail to all the PC ties. Now it's time to finish and install the frog enclosure rail assembly. I hold the assembly in place using the frog point to locate it. Then I cut the ends of the closure rails to length. Preparing the points is a multi-step process. Make a slight bend in the last 3 1⁄8 of an inch of the point. It should only bend as far as the overhang of the rail head over the rail's web. File away the overhanging rail head. The rail head's inner edge should be straight and the bend removed. I use the 5-inch disc sander to grind the side of the points flat so they can mate with the stock rails. Be sure to clean up the points with 400 grit sandpaper after grinding them. Burrs or roughness will interfere with the smooth operation of the points. Place the frog closure and point assembly on the PC ties, paying attention to locating the end of the switch points and the frog point correctly. I use several track gauges to hold the frog assembly in gauge with the straight stock rail. These gauges are rolly holders from Railway Engineering. Once the frog assembly is in place, solder it to the PC ties. Remember, the points do NOT get soldered to the head block ties next to the throwbar. Put a little bend, actually more like a gentle kink, in the curved stock rail where it meets the straight point. Using the rolly holders, I locate the curved stock rail and solder it in place. When soldering the points to a PC tie throwbar, I put a small piece of paper between the point and the stock rail, threading it under the stock rail. This helps prevent soldering the points to the stock rail. I applied a tiny dab of soldering flux to the point and throwbar. This will make the soldering operation nearly instantaneous. I use silver bearing solder to attach points to throwbars. It's much stronger than electronic solder. I grab a small amount of solder with the tip of my soldering iron and touch it to the throwbar and point, presto, instant joint. Be sure the gauge between the inside of each point and the opposing stock rail is correct. Also make sure there is at least a flangeway width of gap between an open point and its stock rail. Guard rails are relatively easy to make and install. Cut them out, bend the ends, and solder them in place. Gauge at the frog is extremely important. I use the flangeway end of my NMRA gauge to check it. If there's a problem, heat up the solder joint involved and nudge the rails into proper position. Go over the turnout with a wire brush to clean it up and use a jeweler's file to remove any excess solder from the rails. I use a truck with intermountain semi-scale wheels to test the turnout. Looks like it's working pretty well. I use a small triangular cross-section jeweler's file to make insulating gaps in the PC ties foil. I make DCC friendly turnouts. In these, the point and closure rails are electrically connected to the adjacent stock rails. The points are not used to route power to the closure rails or frog. In a DCC friendly turnout, the frog needs to be isolated electrically. Frogs can be either unpowered or dead, or they can be powered through switch machine contacts or with a frog juicer from Tam Valley Depot. Because this turnout is in and under the bench work location, I didn't use a full set of ties to support it. I spiked it in place after drilling tiny pilot holes for the spikes, then used a moto tool with cut-off disc to cut gaps surrounding the frog. It's a good idea to fill these gaps by gluing a small piece of styrene in them. This will keep rail expansion from closing them and causing short circuits. I hope this video has been useful as you work at scratch building your own turnouts. Goodbye now!


Today I have the distinct pleasure of speaking with Ian Chalmers about your most recent, well one of your most recent pieces of news, your investment in clean metal processing technology news release that was put out in June. How are you today? Hi, Tracy. Good to talk to you again, actually. I have to tell you, this is one of those news releases that I am so delighted that one of our writers drew my attention to it again because this could be one of the most disruptive pieces of technology in the technology metals sector that I have seen all year. So congratulations. Yeah, absolutely. No, thank you. We view it the same way and have been trying very hard to get the message out about it. Well, I think maybe the message is too big. So anyone out there listening to this interview right now, you're going to be very excited by this news release. So let's just start with the basics. You started with a news with South Korea's or Cognum Technology or you call it Xerontech. Is that correct? That's correct. Xerontech's the name. Xerontech. And I think that the big, hard-hitting message in this deal is that you're going to be able to reduce metalization costs in excess of 50% for not only alkane but just all technology metals pretty much in the future. Is that correct? Absolutely. That's what we believe and the test work today has demonstrated that. So the next step now is the pilot plant to prove that once and for all. Yeah, it's a big breakthrough. I mean, all of us get a bit nervous about using the words disruptive technology, but that in reality, that's what it is. Trust me, Ian. I see the term overutilized so many times. So it is a pleasure to be actually doing an interview on what I personally deemed to be disruptive. So if you don't mind, could you just back us up on how this deal was made? Because this is obviously a long-term relationship where you've made this announcement. Yes, it is. It does go back a long way, probably 10 years. We've been in and out of Korea for 10 years and basically got to work and talk with a number of very, very smart people there. And about 2014, I think it was, one of the guys introduced us to Prof Lee at Cheung Nam National University. And I guess the first meeting we had there, I mean, I got blown away. I thought, wow, these guys are dealing on a new level, well truly above what we're used to. And it just went from that. So a lot of discussion, a lot of test work, I guess the key thing for us that helped the relationship midway through that process, we were able to demonstrate we could produce high-purity zirconia and high-purity hafnia from a separate stream. And that's a big innovative step that we've done ourselves. But then being able to feed that material to Prof Lee's test work was a big bonus. And it really developed very quickly from that. And of course, this Cheung Nam University was basically providing a new process that competed with, and this is where you're going to be correcting it, the crawl process. Is that correct? And can you tell me now about the actual process? OK, yes, you're right about the crawl process. It's been around for 70 years. It was developed probably pre the Second World War, and it's a major industrial process. The detail of the process, the CNU process, is basically subject to patents and subject to intellectual property. So I can give you a broad overview, but what it is, it's an electrolysis process. So it uses standard electrolysis, but through a solid oxide membrane rather than a carbon electrolyte, electrode rather. And that's a big step because it takes that carbon out of the equation. And the really exciting thing from us was initially was that the solid oxide membrane that they use is a yttria stabilizer conure. So here's two products that we'll produce from Dubbo, and we can actually produce yttria stabilizer conures in their process. So there was an added bonus to us. So this process, which is an electrolysis process using the solid oxide membrane. And the big thing about it is that it just generates oxygen. Oxygen is the only waste material that comes off and it produces high purity metals from from that process. So it's a it's a big step forward. I'm sure everybody out there listening to this interview right now is going, OK, we have a lot of questions. So just to just start with what one of the things that's very exciting about this news release, I read it several times was the timeline to actually being able to do this. You'll be able to do this as early as 2020. Yes, yeah, basically you've got to understand this five years with us and probably a lot longer than that for profit profit. Basically, the next 12 months are a demonstration pilot plan, a pilot plant stage operation, and we're very confident that's going to work given the amount of work we've seen that properly is done in the laboratory over the last several years. So yeah, by this time next year, we would hope that we've got a commercial process and then we go from there. It'll go very, very rapidly from there. And of course, I'd like to draw everybody's attention to page three of this news release. This is one of the most compact, intense news releases I've ever had the pleasure of chewing through in. Thank you. You have a suitability of Xerontech electrolysis process table. And I think this is very exciting. I don't know if anybody can see. I think we're going to drop this slide in for this interview. But, you know, basically you have five that are suitable and experimentally verified. And those will be the five you're going after initially. But I'd love for you just to talk about how large this is in per scope.  Yes, sure. Yes, look, the driver, the driver for Chongnam National University was to produce nuclear grade zirconium metal and nuclear grade hafnium metal for the for the Korean nuclear industry. But it became apparent to them very quickly that that can that process can be used. And the initial target after zirconium and hafnium was titanium. There's a big industry in titanium metal. And then back into the rare earths themselves, so it can actually produce on all rare earths. And then very quickly became, well, yes, we can produce neodymium, prasodymium, terbium and dysprosium metals from it as well. So with all of those, and then you look at the other things that double can produce like niobium. It can also produce niobium metal. It can produce magnesium metal. And there's a vast range of other metals that it can be used to produce. So it's a it's a game and innovative and very new process that will have a big impact in the metallization world. The key driver apart from the zirconium happening for us was the ability to produce those magnet rare earth metals, particularly neodymium and prasodymium, because one of the big things we found in the last five years of all of our marketing exercises that we were always one or two steps back from where the end customer wanted. The end customer wants magnets. Effectively wants permanent magnets. So we can provide high purity oxide metals, but we couldn't provide the metal and we couldn't provide the magnet. This is it takes one of those steps out and gets us much closer to the end users. So we can now give you the metal. If you can provide the magnet manufacturing facility, then we've got a very good combined effort to go forward with. And that's been a big driver and a big positive for us. Well, it also must be a huge positive for you for when you're, you know, speaking with your shareholders about the capitalization of revenue that you can project now coming off of the Dubbo project. Absolutely. And we've always felt, you know, in the last again, the last four or five years, given the complexities of the market and the rare earth market and the difficulty of getting off take agreements because of the competitive nature of the Chinese, that we can see how we can go to the end users. So well, we now can look at value rather than volume. So rather than just producing volume of our products, we can actually take you a fair way down the value chain and go to the end users and say, here we have a high value material. That obviously helps our economic, our financial model when we when we put that together. And the good thing about this metallization step, it doesn't add very much in capital and operating cost to our existing project that we plan. Well, if you don't mind, we would love to do another interview with you here very shortly, where if you wouldn't mind whiteboarding this for us, I think there's a lot of us out there that would like to know a great deal. And because this is going to impact a number of industries in addition to the rare earth that you touched on, everything from the nuclear industry on anything using, utilizing basically critical materials. Correct. And I think the titanium industry is the one really big one. Obviously, we're not involved in titanium, but it's certainly a big industry. And this metallization process could have a big impact in the titanium industry. Definitely. I'm not sure if you're ready to answer this question yet. But, you know, when will you be able to take the commercialization of this extraction technique to the market? Certainly before the end of next year, we believe it'll be in a form where we can go out to the market. And one of the things we've been discussing internally is could we put up, could we establish a stand-alone business inside the Dubbo Zirconia Dubbo project as to can we take that further without developing the main Dubbo project in the short term? Obviously, still very much want to get the Dubbo project up and running. But there's a possibility of a second stand-alone business in there which takes this process and uses it commercially. Well, Ann, I have to say congratulations. And we look forward to getting an update on this sooner than later. Thank you. OK, thanks, Tracey. Nice to talk to you.