Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Think Tech Hawaii studio. We've got a probably interesting, perhaps insightful, perhaps I meant that with the C-I-T-E site, like insight, but anyway, we're gonna talk about COVID-19 in the industry and Lewis Boogheriz is joining me today. We had a little bit of a LinkedIn chat and decided to put this episode out. So looking forward to your comments, looking forward to your thoughts and looking forward to your ideas for keeping us a lot safer. Lewis is with me from Olivier Corporation and he's the CEO president there. Lewis, I know you're a popular guy in the industry, but go ahead and give for our viewers who may not know you. Take a few minutes there and give us your background, your history and brag about Olivier because I love what you guys are doing over there. Awesome, okay. Well, I've been in the industry longer than I'd like to admit. I think we're at 31 years or something like that. I started out as a security guard, worked my way up in the industry. I worked on the guarding side of the business for about 20 years and then transitioned to the system side. So I'm kind of a rare breed of guarding and systems combined together. So at Olivier, what we focus on is providing holistic security solutions to our customers. So we're in Southern California, which means we have a lot of Class A high-rises, office, properties, large medical facilities. And so what we really focus on is bringing that security system and the personnel piece together so that the customer gets the best value for their buck. So that's what we're trying to do. People seem to like it and we're enjoying ourselves. Yeah, I've always been a fan of the human component. You know, coming out of systems background and weapon systems, right? Which were fairly well automated, but someone still had to tell us when it was okay to pull the trigger, right? And the security industry can get too techy sometimes and leave the people equation out, which you really need them at that moment of command and control or the moment of making a decision about what to do next. And I don't see how those two marriages haven't happened quicker. I know there's a lot of large global companies that are trying to marry those pieces up, but what you guys have done from it, like a forethought, like this is the package you roll in the door with, I think it's super valuable. And I'm sure that the success you're having, there's helping you grow the business. Yeah, I mean, the bottom line is people spend a lot of money on people and they spend a lot of money on systems. And a lot of times they don't get the most value out of either one of those, right? And the people component a lot of times is the most expensive part of a program. And especially in our industry on the system side is completely left out of the equation, right? Big, beautiful screens, fancy stuff and nobody knows how to use it effectively, right? So being able to bring those things together is for me, super important as somebody who used to sit in front of that stuff. And well, we changed the VHS tapes back when I was doing, but a little bit different. I love it, I love it. Well, let's say, this will flip us into our show. So do your customers, do you take customers or do they go out to the trade shows typically? And you take them around, maybe show them some newer things that they haven't seen before. Is that part of the business trades that you folks have? Yeah, so I mean, the way this whole thing started is when I was at Allied Universal running their systems division, we would take clients to ISE because we would talk about technology with them, but being able to allow them to touch and feel it, completely change the experience. And oh, by the way, they got to go to Vegas, right? Which they enjoyed. So we did, at Olivier, I continued the tradition. This is our fifth year of taking people. So we had a total of 25 people that went. 12 of those were my people and 13 of them were clients. We had a client advisory board meeting. We had a private room where we were hosted some vendors because not all the vendors were on the floor. And then the second day we went out on the floor and everybody was very optimistic. We told everyone that if they were vaccinated, they didn't need to wear a mask. And if they were not vaccinated, we asked that they wear a mask. We had one person out of our group wear a mask. So knowing that 50% of the population is vaccinated, we can see even within our group how that was received. But the show was great. Everybody was really happy to get out. You were there, right? Everybody was having a great time. And really the only check and balance that I saw while we were there were the little thermal screeners, right? When you walked in, you put your wrist on it and you got a dot. Other than that, I did not see 50% of the population of IAC wearing masks. I mean, maybe you saw something different, but I didn't see a lot of masks at the show. So... No. Yeah. There was utter, I think, freedom. I think PSA, we held PSA Tech six weeks ago or whenever that was kind of the first event. I thought sort of the industry tester, it was a little bit different environment, a lot smaller, maybe a little bit of a bubble there in the hotel and it was still masks required to be worn except like when you sat down to eat or whatever. And so that was adhered to quite a bit. There was a few times when I was sitting upstairs in the lounge and noticed that there was large groups of people and all of them had their masks dangling off their face and so we weren't really, really good. But the outcome of that event was that everyone was so happy to see each other. And we had a really unique thing there that I hadn't seen before, but there were different colored lanyards. So green was like, I'm vaccinated, you can hug me because I haven't seen you into a year and a half. I think yellow was fist bump, but keep your distance and red was like, no, stay back for me, keep your mask on. So that was kind of a nice visual indicator of people as I think comfortability with themselves and with being there. I come from Hawaii, so we hug a lot. So I was hunting down everybody with a green lanyard and I hugged them, that's what I do. And then afterwards we didn't, I didn't hear of any cases. So I was like, all right, it seems like maybe this is gonna be possible and ISC is gonna be a go. Now, we knew that the event was gonna happen. We didn't know how many people would show up. A lot of vendors had pulled out. But Christine had to speak. So we knew we'd be there that morning. So we decided to go arriving in Vegas. It was real obvious there weren't gonna be any masks born in Nevada anywhere, right? So that totally different environment from when we arrived in Denver for a PSA. So, you know, the next morning, the hand scanners, right? So nobody wearing masks but getting tested. So I'm like, well, I guess that's good. You know, I didn't, I thought it was odd. Anyway, I thought it was okay. I mean, it's nice to have some sort of scanning going on, but what were they going to do if you had a temperature? Do you know? I don't know. I didn't see anybody not passing a thing. No, I didn't see it either, you know, and there are various impressions of, you know, how effective those were anyway, right? Which we know. So, but, you know, look, we were all very positive when we were there. We felt, you know, we were, it was a very positive event. Really, I didn't have any negative feelings about the entire thing until I got home. And so, you know, we were home for two days and my phone rings and it's, I don't wanna call anybody out. It's somebody that was at the show and they said, hey, I got COVID. And my heart just went, oh God, like, you know, just stuff we didn't really think about because like you said, Andrew, at PSA, it was great. Like we didn't hear about any cases, right? I kind of assumed we had this thing figured out. And then I'm like, okay. And then the phone rings again. I have COVID. And so we had of the group we took, we had three people that got it. And so then I go into, well, okay. My, you know, anybody that works for me has to quarantine for two weeks. So, you know, we go into that process, you know, we'll let other folks deal with it the way they deal with it. But then we had to, you know, I felt the responsibility to notify people. So any vendors that we met with at the show, we notify, right? But that was us of our own volition, making phone calls and sending emails and letting people know. I sent then my entire crew that went, you know, at 150 bucks a pop to get rapid tested, right? Immediately. So everybody got tested, everybody, everybody came back negative, which was great. And then the probably the part, the part where I started to feel like, well, first of all, I heard other people had gotten it. So I'm thinking, okay, other people have gotten it, but nobody's notified me. And then, and look, I'm not, you know, we'll talk a little bit from an after action standpoint. Andrew, you know, as well as me, the number one thing in an after action review is you don't want to assess blame, right? We're just trying to learn. But when we notified, you know, when we notified Reed, you know, we got kind of the canned response of, you know, if you weren't close contact with anyone, please let them know. And we're following CDC protocols, which they were, you know what I mean? And that was it. But, you know, if I weren't in the situation I was in and one of my employees had been around somebody else who had had COVID and I bring them home and then they infect everybody. And now I've got 10 people out for two weeks, right? I mean, it could be crippling to a business. And so when we're bringing all these people together, I just thought if my folks weren't the only people there and if three of my 25 that went got it, so say 10%, 7%, whatever. I mean, how many thousands of people were there? That means there were literally hundreds of cases of COVID as a result of that event. And I heard nothing. And so that's really at the point where I went on LinkedIn and I went, you know what? We need to talk about this because we have to do better. We're security and safety industry leaders. And we just went to a event where nobody was wearing masks. We're using this little wrist scanner and we're calling it good. And we're supposed to be setting the example, right? For the rest of the country. And so that's why I really put it up there. Not that I know exactly what the solution should be. I know that it could have been catastrophic to my business. I could have had multiple people come back and I had to quarantine them. I was very fortunate. And I just, I don't know. I mean, it just seemed to me like there should have been the opportunity for there to be more communication. And, you know, I don't know. Contract tracing used to be a thing, right? And I don't, does that even exist? Because, you know, there was no opportunity to do that at the show. So, you know, I don't know. I just, for me, it was a situation where it just seemed like a lot more should have been done.  We can't put this on Reed because us as industry leaders, right? Deciding what it's gonna look like going forward. And the last time we want to create like a super spreader event, right? Because of something that we're doing, right?  So, so that's what happened. And that's kind of what started the dialogue. So, I mean, you know, I obviously you saw a lot of people had a lot of opinions on this. And, you know, I just think we, you know, I just think we can do better, I guess, is the bottom line from my standpoint. And I think we're gonna have to, I'm not sure why. So, I had that Apple contact tracing, you know, on my phone and I didn't get any alerts from that. And so, I'm guessing that the people that I know that got it, that I was near, very near didn't have it turned on or didn't report it to the app that they had come up positive. You know what I mean? So, there's some sort of universal tools baked into some of our technology that could be used to alert us. It isn't like we need to, as an industry, build another one or per event, have one or register for it. But maybe that would be a good idea. To your point, if there were 9,000 at the event and at ISC West and 10% or so were infected, you know, that's nearly 1,000 people that went home. And like in Hawaii's fairly well vaccinated, like 60%, but our, the current spread rate is like almost 7%. So, if those 1,000 people, whoever they came around, let's just say it was 500, in that next week, if they were infected and say they're vaccinated and didn't even know they had it, you know, 7% of the people that they came around, vaccinated or not, potentially are infected. And so, you know, to your point, there's no way for us, if we're gonna be leaders, we need to be able to somehow follow that data or alert people or maybe have an institutional practice or a per company practice of sort of isolation upon return or something like that, right? Not, maybe you don't have to quarantine at home, but home office, you know, wear a mask for the next two weeks, get tested, you know, three days later, seven days later. In Hawaii, it's still free for a resident as long as you're not traveling. It's not for travel, so it's no good for travel, but it is good if you live here and you just wanna go get tested. And it's, you know, you get the results back in about a day. So, but still, to your point, we could lose our people for that whole day because, you know, obviously, you'd like to have them tested before they come back to the office, right? Yeah, and for us, it's $150 a pop, right? So, you know, I drop a couple grand testing people, which, you know, is the right thing to do, but, you know, yeah, it's just one of the situations where, you know, even if it were informally notifying, you know, even if it were just like, hey, we're not trying to track anyone, we're not trying to invade anyone's privacy, but if your company has a positive, send a note, right? Just so that they, you know, just to get some general, just some general information, because again, if I hadn't been told by these people, I wouldn't have tested anybody and I wouldn't have known, but I think it's, I don't think we're being unreasonable, Andrew, and assuming 10% of the folks there got COVID. I mean, somewhere, but you know, I'm not trying to create history, you know, between five and 10%, I think is a reasonable amount, which means, and other than you and I getting personal phone calls from people, there were no notifications. So 600 people at a trade show got COVID and we have no idea if we were around them or anyone else was around them or anything happened. And so, you know, when we even sell contract trade, contact tracing in our industry, right? As a product. I think so. We don't even, you know, so it was just one of these things where I'm like, you know, we were fortunate because we were notified and we could react to it, but there were a lot of people that went home from that show and they weren't notified.   And other than person, you know, people taking personal responsibility for this, I didn't get any other notifications from any other companies either, right? It was all person to person individual notification. So that just felt odd to me, you know, that there was a level of responsibility, I guess ultimately, you know. Yeah, we could definitely do better with our leadership. I'll tell you what, we're gonna pay some bills, I'll lose and I'll be back in just one minute. So stick around. Hi, I'm Rusty Kamori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. I was the head coach for the Punahou Boys Varsity Tennis Team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. My show is based on my book also titled Beyond the Lines, and it's about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence and finding greatness. I feature a wide range of amazing guests who share valuable insights about how going beyond the lines leads to success in everything you do in life. I'm looking forward to you joining me every Monday at 11 a.m. Aloha. Hey, we're back. Thanks for joining us on Security Matters. Again, Luis Bogariz is here with me, and we are a little concerned about how we're leading as a security industry through these times of COVID.  You know, we were getting comfortable with our shows. We were getting comfortable with our mandates. We're wearing masks. We're getting vaccinated. We had a PSA tech show that went well. Then we had an ISC West show that went well. I mean, everyone loved the show. I haven't heard anybody, everybody's glad to get back together as an industry, but we know there were a lot of cases that came out of that, both vaccinated people and unvaccinated people who got COVID. And I've had some friends that were vaccinated that got sick from this new variant that they caught. So this is not something we should take lightly. And you know, Luis brought up the point already that we've got an impact to our workforce that comes back if they're infected, they've got a quarantine for a couple of weeks. You might lose those people in their productivity. You've also got to maybe pay for their tests depending on where you're at. In Hawaii, we can get that done for free, but not in Los Angeles. So if you know, depending on the size of your workforce, there's a bit of risk now that you have to look at. There's an impact to having them go to these future events. And I don't think the events are stopping. I'm glad, I guess. I guess I'm glad they're not stopping, but maybe we can do better to lower this impact or potential impact of this Delta variant that seems across an awful lot of boundaries awful quickly in comparison to the earlier version that we seem to be able to crush with vaccination and masking and social distancing. That maybe is not gonna be enough now. So what could we do next that was going forward? I mean, how stringent you think we need to be upon arrival, compared to just the temperature check that we did at IC West? Yeah, I think so. We have a lot of large medical providers as you do too, that we do business with. And we just got to notice today that they will require the vaccine for everyone or a recent negative test, one or the other. So why wouldn't we as an industry require the same thing, right? And really, this isn't a, hey, I'm trying to take your personal freedoms out, I'm not, we're not politicizing what's going on and we're not trying to do any of that. But if we take personnel to these shows, we don't wanna have to come home and quarantine our staff for two weeks. So really this is a business decision, right? We want everybody there, everybody there healthy and then get everybody home healthy. Now there's a plane ride home, there's a plane ride there, there's, if we were in Vegas, there's all the time people spent, I don't even wanna think about where people spent their time in Vegas, but there's a lot of other stuff going on, but we have to do our part. So I think, so if you think about that, if you're not vaccinated, you're wearing a mask, if you're, or maybe where are we requiring masks for everyone, or we're requiring a recent negative test, just as a starting point. And I know, Andrew, you were talking about folks that are putting shows on that are requiring vaccinations, right? For everyone that's attending them. So, I just, there was a lot of optimism. We had just, we were like crushing this thing. And then we went to the show and everything changed really while we were there. A lot of the guidance changed, right? And so I get it. I mean, I get that there was a ton of optimism, but our jobs as security leaders and health leaders is to stay in contact with the times and what's going on and react to it. And that's what's happening right now. So, I think at a minimum, it would be nice to see those. And again, we talked about it, but what happened to contact tracing? I mean, is that just a theory? I mean, does it, is it really happen? I don't know. I just, those are some basic things, I think that could be done that would completely change. I think it would take a lot of risk out of the show in general. And the impact of contact tracing is fairly minimal. I mean, this isn't absolute. That way, and it's fairly good. It's gonna be post-event, right? So, all we would find out is after the fact, if someone reported that they had a positive test and then you would find out that you were around them, at least you could go get tested and not unintentionally be spreading the virus that you may have because you're asymptomatic. So, I think there's value in that idea 100%. I know there's a, there's people protesting down at Hawaii's state buildings or start County Hall this morning about going back to mandating masks. But maybe for sure, obviously it's always a voluntary thing that you can wear a mask at the show. Maybe that advice needs to be pushed a little bit. That seems to help with the spread. We know social distancing isn't going to happen, right? Because we're at a show. Everybody wants to get together. So, they're gonna be standing close. I mean, through a mask, you gotta stand in close. I don't know about your experience, but it's harder to hear, right? So, it's a little bit of an anti-distancing sort of a problem there. But maybe that has to happen. Maybe it'd be nice to know like the way PSA did, people who are vaccinated or who aren't or who want to be the red, yellow, green, lanyard type idea, right? Who aren't afraid to be contacted or who are, like stay away. Maybe that would give some more comfort to everyone and be an additional level of assurance that the people who do go there could have for maintaining some boundaries. I don't know, I'm not sure what else we can do. I'm not a fan of kind of going backwards. I like that the industry is cranking back up again. Business is strong. It was strong through COVID security industries, one of those kind of industries. It's very resilient. What are your thoughts? Do you, what do you think the impact would be if we asked the industry to not show up if they weren't vaccinated? Just that, or if they weren't willing to wear a mask the whole time? What do you think would happen?  So if that was just the policy, right? And a lot of the hospitals out here are kind of leading the way around what should happen, right?  That's what's gonna happen. You know, we're leaders in this industry, right? We, you know, we have this obligation to set the example in my opinion. So, you know, I don't have an issue with people being at a show that aren't vaccinated if they're willing to mask up. I just think then we should see 50% of the show wearing masks, right? Yeah. And, you know, I think the other thing, you know, Andrew, that's interesting, we talked about it when we first started talking is we were doing thermal screening at that show. And we know that's not an effective screening method. Now Reed's doing it because it meets the requirement but for us as industry leaders to have a show that says whatever ISE says, you know, security industry, global, this, that, GSX, the global thing and be doing thermal screening because, you know, regardless of how anybody feels about how the actual thermal screeners work, it is not an effective tool to provide a healthy environment. We know that, right? So I think those are the things where we look at this and we just go, you know, we don't put the shows on but we have leadership in roles that support these shows and I just think that that conversation about how we role model what we're doing and the dialogue over on what we're doing needs to be stepped up and regardless of where we end up. And it was just, you know, ISE was one of those things where I think everybody felt like we were on the down, you know, we were over the hump and they're like, all right, over half the people are gonna be vaccinated, we're gonna tell everyone we're wearing masks, we're gonna screen them and we're all good. And it didn't work. And now the numbers are worse, right? We're at 70% capacity over 70% capacity in our ICUs here in LA and it's getting worse. And so we don't wanna contribute to the problem.  I mean, it doesn't sound unreasonably, I know some people might have an issue, it might affect attendance a little bit but I mean, isn't the priority really getting everybody there and home safely? I mean, that really should be ultimately the priority, right? So... Yeah. And especially for a security industry, you know, and we're going to Florida, right? Florida is not doing well. Their cases are skyrocketing. We've got, what, six weeks, maybe six weeks till the show, five weeks.  It just seems like this thing, you know, vaccinated people tend to carry it as well. So keep that in mind.  If you had thought about it that way, how would you act? Maybe there's a different sort of way to think about it. We've got about a minute left, and I'm talking too much, Lewis. What's your heartfelt plea for our industry, man? You're a leader amongst men out here. So what, give us your, give us your ask. Well, no, I would just ask that as is, and you know, the other folks putting on GSX, because that's the next big show, put their thinking caps on, look at some industry best practices and make some really, you know, effective recommendations and suggestions for the show. It's an opportunity for us to show leadership, to role model the right way to do this. If we want to stay open, we have to do this the right way. So I would challenge them to do that. And, you know, have a spirited dialogue around this and then let's figure it out. Yeah, I love it. Thank you so much. I hope we get it figured out. I hope we continue to lead and our industry has that opportunity sitting in front of us. Thanks for joining us today, Lewis. Thanks for taking the time. And I will hopefully see you soon, sir, in the flesh with a mask. That was great. Thank you. Aloha.


The president's budget proposal eliminates public media funding. Learn how you can help at lptv.org slash action. A new study at Central Lakes College Staples campus on edible bean production now has the green light thanks to a grant from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. The $36,000 specialty crop block grant will help fund a study to explore increasing efficiency in edible bean production. The study is a quote two-fold experience that determines the effect of varying furrow applications as well as varying top dress application of fertilizers and its effect on yield. So it focuses on inferrow applications so that is a furrow fertilizer treatment that goes right on top or it can be fungicides you include right in with your seed when you plant it and then as the beans come up we also wanted to look at different top dress applications of fertilizer so there's zero 30 and 60 units all of different nitrogen applications. The study will begin this summer and last about two years. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


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Hello everyone, welcome to NPTEL course on groundwater hydrology and management. This is week nine lecture one. In this week, we have been noticing some groundwater concepts and how to construct a groundwater aquifer layer understanding. In the previous weeks, we have been looking at the concepts of groundwater hydrology, the parameters that are important and most importantly, we were looking at the access and recharge discharge. What will we be doing this week? Let's see in a more constructed manner. First let's do a recap of week eight and how it's linked to week nine. In week eight, we looked at groundwater access as a problem. How does groundwater being access? Everyone knows by now that India is the key groundwater extractor in the world, extracting about 245 to 265 kilometer cube water annually. And there is tremendous stress on the aquifer. How are the water access? It is access through the groundwater pumps. So we looked at each concept of where the groundwater access is mostly happening. What are the key uses through wells, dug wells, driven wells or drilled wells? And then we looked at the different pumps that are used, low suction pump, high suction pump and manual or treadle pumps kind of things. We noticed that as per the use, as per the demand, the well type and the pump type differs. Then we looked at the source of energy for the pump and most importantly, we noticed the pump energy is unsustainable because it uses lot of diesel or electricity. These are not from renewable sources and that's why I'm saying it is not sustainable for long term. Also, they need pollution to the environment because diesel pumping has a lot of issues. So what has happened is there has been considerable action on the ground in converting these pumps to more eco-friendly pumps. Example, sustainable resources like solar, windmill, manual and livestock. You would see cows in villages which would go around and round and then they would churn a gear which pulls up water and solar pumps is very common nowadays along with wind-powered pumps. On the whole, we noticed that the access is increasing, the type of pumps are increasing and there's also some renewable sources coming in. So now we're going to leave this phase of the course where we looked at the components, the recharge, discharge and access to the water and now we're going to construct the aquifer itself. How is the aquifer constructed? How do we know what layers are there? How do you know which water we're going to use? That we're going to look at in this week onwards. So from this week onwards, we'd be looking at the aquifer layers. How you estimate these aquifer layers? What is the data that is needed? How do you get the data? Where do you get the data? And what are the steps in creating your first kind of conceptual model? So we'll be looking at boreholes and borelocks and data associated with it. Where in borehole we already saw in the groundwater access slides where I was talking about drilling wells, drilled wells where there is a motor which comes and drills and then you have a borehole which becomes a well. So from the data you correct from point one, we will be establishing the layers of the aquifer which is called stratification of aquifer and we'll be using central groundwater board data and the state water board data to understand the ground water level fluctuations where the data is available. So it is more about where is the data available because establishing the water level in the head, everything has been taught in class. Then we'll also look at WRIS data. Where do you get this data? What data is available? How do you access this data? Then I'll explain one satellite which is very unique, very special satellite called GRACE. This is the only satellite that actually monitors ground water from space. So I'll show you how, what is the principle it works. And those who have knowledge of GIS and remote sensing can easily download it. Now with all these data you can understand how this map is created by the central groundwater board which is an aquifer map because it is not only created by the layerings which is happening but also the data which is taken at different depths and the dominant aquifer is mapped for India. So let's move on to today's lecture which is the boreholes and borelocks. As I said in the groundwater access slides, we looked at this truck coming in and putting a drill into the ground and then adding columns to it and digging very deep, mostly the deep aquifers. It goes to a couple of meters and this method was called the drilling method. So while you're drilling, I told that there's a lot of debris that come out, the rocks, the sediment, the water, you can see here it comes out. But what do you do that is it doesn't come out by itself. You have to pull it out, right? You pull it through the auger, you put it through the drill bit. So here at this bottom, you have a drill bit which is looking something like this. It looks like an X mark or a very irregular shape like a blade of your mixie. Take a mixie, just visualize it, that you attach it at the bottom and it spins. When it spins, it eats out the rock, the layers on the side and then you take it out. Now, if you take it in regular samples, the depth of this rock type by the motors, etc., you can establish what layers are present in the aquifers. We are not able to do that now. Why? Because most of the time what happens is when a farmer needs a well, he calls this truck, the people go there, they put down the instrument, they add the columns, drill, take the debris out and go. There is no documentation at regular intervals what soil is coming out, what rock type is coming out and what water is coming out because the water may be salty. They just take it and drink and say, oh, it is bad, it is good and then they do some test and then they give it. But most probably you should also take the rock samples and understand what is the property and that is like your soil analysis. So just for the sake of how soil is done, I am going to show you some slides so that you can now relate between the soil and how the deep aquifer rocks aquifer types are done. So how is soil study? How do you take a soil sample? You take an auger method. You have this drilling method and then the top you have a drill which is you just rotate and it goes in and you pick the depths at which the instrument should go in. In the inside the instrument, there is a column, a steel column, a steel pipe. It is basically a steel pipe which is cylindrical and it collects soil. So when you drill, this cylinder will be pushed inside and then it takes the sample out. And then the sample is then taken to the lab and analyzed for chemical and physical properties. But then here what happens is you have at different depths also you can take. Can this be done for deep aquifers? For aquifer mapping? No, because you cannot hand drill it to that deep. So this is one way of doing the sample. What is the other way? They use an excavator. They dig a big hole.  You can see the scientist here. He goes in with the ladder and then he pushes a small auger or cylinder inside. So you can see the cylinder, it goes inside, takes a sample out. So at different depths they will measure. So you can see a pipe which is being used to measure different depths. He will go inside different depths and take the sample and come out. Now the sample is then tested for chemical and physical properties. The idea is can you do this for aquifers? No, you cannot. But you need it. So why do they need to do different steps, different depths, is because they want to understand how the material changes. Similarly, you need to do it for aquifers, especially for aquifers, to understand where the water is and where the water is held in the aquifer. So that is where you need heavy artillery or heavy machinery. Samplings at regular intervals is very much needed and at varying depths. What you see here is the same drilling machine which has to be parked and instead of drilling for water, now you are going to drill for the sample, the soil at the top and the different rock and other materials at the bottom. Then each sample is taken to the lab as you can see here for physical and chemical property assessments. They take the sample, push it inside the lab containers and they do the experiments. So what happens is when you push this rod and then take a sample out, you will have different depths of rods. So the rod is taken like this. First you push one rod in, take the sample and then you attach another rod, push it in, take the sample because the depth is going to increase. The thickness is almost the same, what you take out, what you can take out because sometimes the rocks won't go in, so you'll see less samples in it. But our idea is from A to B what is the dominant rock type, what is the dominant soil type, I'll take it out and then I do a visual inspection. The visual inspection can be used to understand the texture which is the combination of sand, silt and clay or individual items, is it sandy, is it silty or clay. Then it is used to understand the structure. Just looking at it, they'll know is it platy, is it prismatic, is it like grainy or bulky, those kind of things. These data are important first visually to understand how deep one should go because if you're going to see all very hard rocks like this, there's no point in going more and more deep because your instrument will face technical problems and there will not be any water. So at the end of the day, you're mapping for water not for oil or not for rock. This is purely for aquifer mapping. If you go to a geology course, you'll have different depths, you'll go very, very deep, even kilometers deep. Here we go 600 meters, those kind of things. So then some of the samples from here are taken to the lab for lab tests wherein nutrients are analyzed, nutrients as in chemicals. For example, if this material has a lot of arsenic, then you should be understanding that arsenic can mix in the water. Same way if it has fluorides or iron content, then the water is mixed with this content because of geogenic contamination. It's unfortunate you'll see this is the water people drink in villages because they don't have other resources. So that is why groundwater management is an important course. If you understand these layers of soil and rock, if you understand that chemical properties of it, you can tell the people like don't drink the water. So the lab tests should be done. Then the porosity, the physical parameters of porosity, bulk density, specific yield, specific retention, hydraulic conductivity, everything is estimated. All these have already been taught in class. All you have to do is go back to your notes, check what these properties are and now I'm going to show how these samples are taken for these tests. Because now slowly we're coming to the end where we're going to look at data, construct an aquifer and then say how to read an aquifer map. Then we'll go to case studies because we have only three more weeks. So moving on, you can take these samples to the lab and get it tested for nutrients and porosity, physical parameters, chemical parameters, and you can establish a record of what is happening at each drill spot. Is this happening in this when you do the water level analysis? No, it should happen. But however, they don't have time. As I was mentioning, if you give them a sheet and say, okay, document every five meters, what is the rock? What is the water? Take a sample, put it in a bag. They don't have time. They said, no, sir, I have to go to another well to put another well. They'll come to that location. Either you give a location or they look at the surrounding and say, okay, here's where the water could be. They put and then take the sample out, drill, drill, and then go to the next drill and go on. There is no data available. It's not only here, but most countries, they should be having a log, but they only have a log of where they put the wells, but not what type of rock, what water came, etc. They should maintain it regularly. So moving on, let's now see what we can do. How do you enter it in a base of paper or a data sheet? So this is called a board log sheet wherein you enter the data of the samples that you took. Let's go through what the columns read. The first column is your drilling method. There is only one machine, but the drill bit, what you attach at the bottom may be different depending on the depth and depending on the rock. So initially you start with the ADB, which is a auger drilling. V is a bit. So bit is that mixie component, as I said, the blade. So that blade and auger type of blade with a drilling bit is sent in. And mostly that auger type is only for the shallow aquifers or unconfined aquifers. Then when you go deeper and deeper, you use the WT method where W is the washboard and T is TC bit. The bit changes. It's not the V bit, not the V shape bit, but maybe TC bit. I'm not getting into the engineering of the designs and stuff. All you have to know is when you have a mixie and when you put, for example, tomatoes and fruits, you use one blade.  So that blade differs not because of the mixie, but what you have to put in. Same here, the bit will differ based on the rock type. If you want a carpentry, if you're using it on wood, you use one bit. If you're using it on a steel drill, a steel drill, you will use a different bit. Basically, the bit is maybe I can draw it just for understanding. So this is your drill, the thick thing that you have. The instrument like your drill, we had a drive point. You have to hit it. So the nail kind of, this is the nail part. Maybe I can draw it again. This is the nail part. And then here you can have different types of sharp mixie components, as I said, the blades. And that is what is changing here, the drilling method. Moving on, then we go to the sample type. Here, all these samples are taken in an undisturbed 50 millimeter diameter cylinder. It's called U50. So basically, you slowly push this cylindrical container, which is 50 millimeters in diameter. And then you take a sample out, keep it separately.  So you could see here, almost they took one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, nine samples in 11.8 meter depth. So almost one meter once they would take a sample. Now think, does the person who comes for water for putting a well, bore well, do they have this time? They don't. But they should be documenting it. Because the data is missing now. Throughout India, you have so many bore wells, but we do not have bore wells. There's no data about what these wells are. Okay. So every meter, you take a sample and keep it separately like this. So this is every meter one, one sample. Then you go and see where the water depth is. So here the water depth was just one meter below the surface. So that is good. Okay. So the water is set, but still you drill and see what the material is. And this is the depth, as I said, and as I was initiating in the previous slide and here, it was stopped at 11.8 meters. So after 11.8 meters depth, the machine would not have gone in or you were constrained for power or depth of the tomb. And or you found something very straightforward that it is not going to change. Like for here, the graphic of the log, the visual, the visual interpretation, the physical interpretation, lab interpretation is now drawn in the sheet of paper saying, from the top to zero, maybe half a meter, you have silt clay, low, medium plastic thing. And you can see a legend is used. Then a crossbar diagram legend is used to say from about 50, not 50 meters, sorry, it is 0.5 meters. So zero to 0.5 meters is silt clay. Then from 0.5 meters to around 10 meters, it is silt clay high plasticity with the trace of lime, grain, sand, some organic matter. Why is organic matter present? Because it is the top. At the top, you should understand that there is some decay happening, the plants, the trees, the leaves and sunlight and water are acting. So there is some decay and that decay of organic matter is on the top soil. When you go down from around 9.5 meters to 11 meters, it is only sandy silt clay, medium plasticity, gray color, 25% fine gray. So after that, maybe the person drilling the scientist would say, no, it's enough because it won't change. It's only bedrock going to come and the water is enough. So this depth, 11 meters water is enough. So let's stop here and then take the sample. Take enough with the sampling. So that is the two, three columns that we saw. Then what happens is the material description as we went, every description, the visual, the texture, the chemical properties can be put here. It can be left some space so that you can add after your lab visit. Then the moisture, you take a sample and then say, is the water having, is the soil or the material having water. And that is given as M for moist and W for wet. So why is the top moist and below wet? Because the top might be evaporated. Plants and animals act on it also, the grays and then stuff. But most importantly, wind is acting, sunlight is there. So it dries, evaporates. Whereas the bottom right below the bottom of the top soil, the top soil, which is only a couple of centimeters deep, you have a wet soil and rock type. Then when you go down, again, it becomes moist. It's not wet, not fully water, but moist. Again, why is also wet? Because the water table is there. Once the water table is there, all the pores are filled with water. There is no vacant space for air to be present. So it's not moist, it is wet. And again, please see that at this depth, it is the water table. But why are we having wet here? Because dominant layer is what we have to say. Every meter, you take a sample, not every centimeter. So every meter, you take a sample and throughout it, you can say it is dominant species because you cannot afford to do sampling at every centimeter or every millimeter. So you have to take one chunk and say this is the dominant species. The next column gives you the consistency of the material. Is it ST, which is stiff or VS, which is very soft. And then FST, which is firm and stiff. Stiff means very hard. And with this firm, it is extra hard, more like it is the parent material. So you don't want to go deeper than that. So the borehole is the hole that you dig for the well. And the sample you take out can be called a borehole sample or a borelock sample. So additional observations and observations can be also taken like PP, which is the pocket penetrometer to understand what is the pressure, how much pressure you should be exerting to get in. I have another slide to show what exactly these mean and how it is useful. Because for here, you can see the pressure to go in is very less than 20 kilopascals. But when you go down further and further, the penetration is going to be very tough. And that is where you stop. Otherwise your drill bits will break, your instruments will break, your technical issues will come and it's better to stop because the physical understanding is also you are good now, you know the water. Here we're not drilling for petrol. Here we're not drilling for rock types. Here we're drilling for aquifer types, which is a mix of rock type and the water availability. So this is a one well. One well you take and you put a sample of the sheet. So now let's look at comparison between wells. Each one is one one site, but in the same area, same boundary of the study site. What they have done is, for example, Nick et al, they have taken a sample and categorized the material at each depth. So the zero is the same and from zero, they found that the first sample has a lot of clay on the top. And then when you move down, there is some sandy clay, followed by thick sand and then some sand with gravel or gravelly sand. And then we go down more clay, silty clay. Whereas some meters apart, you have only clay and then you have sandy clay. Again, pure clay on top of it is silty clay and then silty clay. Then you feel almost homogeneously it is clay. So what is happening here is there is variations. So what do you read from a single borehole analysis? That is what is important. And also tell about what is the standard penetration test. So this study for each well, they've also measured the standard penetration test along with the water table. So what does the standard penetration test give you? It gives you the resistance of penetration, which means higher the resistance, if it is higher resistance, you cannot penetrate in. If it is low, then you can penetrate through and the drill can work. So it is a very standard test. So what they have done is, when they moved down, you could see in the first, let's go each sample by sample. When the first sample they went down, after 10 meters depth, they could see a sudden jump in the penetration resistance. And then it becomes stable. So once you hit a stable rock, a stable penetration, most probably you will give up because you say that it doesn't change and also it is very high, 50. The penetration test is at 50, they'll normally stop because after that you won't have much differences, you won't have much water. The same is happening for the second. Here the depth is much less. Here they drill for 73 meters. But here you could see that they drilled and then suddenly it rises to 30, 40 and then 50. When it goes above 50, they stop. It's like a metric they have. If you go above 50, don't drill it, it will break or there's no water going to be there because if it is going to be hard for penetrating, how is water going to go there and still? So that is the part, but they try. They try to see maybe it is an aquitag because an impervious layer and then when you go into the impervious layer, there's water. They try, they go a couple of 10 meters deep but then if they see no changes, they stop. Same thing here, from a clay layer, they go and suddenly there is an aquitag or an impervious layer. So suddenly the penetration jumps. But below the penetration test also or below the aquitag also, there is a very thick solid rock and so it just keeps on increasing. After 50, they stop. So what you see interesting here is that the depth is changing. The depth from which on the top they dig is changing. They stop. The stopping point is changing because they now understand that it is maybe an undulating surface like this and the bedrock is reached. No more water is going to be there. Let's stop. So from the surface, it might be the same. On the top, it all looks the same but when you go down, there is variations. So what does these analysis show you? It shows you that the single bore hole analysis, the single bore, variations between the layers, between the depths. So as the depth changes, there is some variations. It also shows homogeneity. So for example, from 15 meters to 73 meters, it is the same. So the same log shows you variations and homogeneity, isotropy and anisotropy, which is all discussed in the previous lectures. Isotropy means it changes the direction. Along the direction, it doesn't change or change the property. X, Y, Z, we discussed. And then the key layers. The key layers are also identified because the dominant layers are taken and mapped in this gold log graphics. So all this is important. But how does it tie with other logs is also important. So each log will have potential reasons why this particular layer is there and why water is there. Because of the porosity, the nutrient property, the physical properties, hydraulic conductivity, specific yield, etc. There is also limitations. Let's quickly look at what are the limitations. Selection of sites. How do you pick this point is a limitation. What signs have you used to say, okay, this point we are going to drill and take. A lot of people don't have that understanding. They just randomly dig and then say, okay, I'm going to take a sample. How do you relate between sites is also missing. The depth, how deep you go can be limited by your understanding or by your technical measurement device. But maybe there is water underneath. We don't know. So that depth is also limiting. How does it vary between sites? There is less understanding of it. So why does clay come here? Whereas less clay is here, they don't understand when they drill. So that is a limitation why they don't do these drill log experiments. But we will see this in the next class. How do these individual single layers talk to each other and a beautiful aquifer map can be done, will be analyzed in the next lecture. I will see you with that in the next lecture. Thank you.


Most people associate Moulashik with lighthouse. However, there is more to this hill than meets the eye. This peninsula, situated on the southernmost tip of St. Lucia, faces the Caribbean Sea on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. Moulashik is a hill with multiple uses. The historical, geological, and socio-economic facets of Moulashik all come together to make the hill the fascinating place that it is. At Moulashik, it stands out 800 feet out of the water. That rock, if you were to date it, and rocks can be dated because of the carbon content, that rock dates so many millions of years older than the rest of the middle of St. Lucia. It's as old as the northern part of St. Lucia, which means it must have been separated at some point. Now, the theory is that this lava flow actually joined up with Moulashik and created an extension of the land when previously it was part of an island. Moulashik rises from swampy or poorly drained plains and levels out to a sharp cliff face at the extreme south. The hill is volcanic and the annual rainfall at Moulashik is low. These factors contribute to the interesting and rich biodiversity that exists there. Well, in Moulashik, there are several vegetational types. You have, for the most part, dry, zero-fatic forest. But you also have dry secondary forest and to some degree, literal woodland with grassland and stuff. This area has a variety of plants. I think there are over 100 plant species that can be found in the Moulashik area. And you will see many types of cactus species. As a matter of fact, we have the most abundant species there is this one here called the organ pipe cactus. You also have a very small dwarf variety called the opuntia, or opuntia wentiana. And these are very dangerous. You shouldn't get in contact with them. But they help protect the landscape in some degree because they don't have leaves, they store water and they spread over the area and prevent the area from being trampled by livestock. As I know, you have livestock free-gaining in this area. In addition to having a diversity of flora, Moulashik also boasts a wide range of bird species since this peninsula provides a nesting ground for birds. Okay, because Moulashik is virtually untouched in many parts, birds would nest there and it's a very important nesting area. Not only for the land birds, the common land birds, but also for the sea birds that come to nest on the cliffs. Because those areas are remote, they have very little disturbance and the birds need that kind of peace and tranquility to raise the young in peace. That's the one over there. The richness and diversity of Moulashik is also enhanced by its rich history. The history of Moulashik extends as far back as the days of slavery to the presence of Americans in Vufrot. At Moulashik, there are a number of historical remnants. They reoccupied both Moulashik and Monally Blanc in their laboratory. For the purpose of tracking missiles being tested from Cape Canaveral in Florida, and as they went across the Atlantic, they used tremendous communication facilities and so on, especially on Moulashik, very complicated, all sorts of wiring and stuff. Unfortunately, I suppose it was discovered that it was not effective because it should be too far off the trajectory track because these things would end up in the Atlantic in safe, unused waters. If they were to be too far away, they eventually scrapped it and I think went to Ascension Island in the Southern Atlantic, which is more strategically located. I actually discovered a possible clue to hide away. Just on the, I think it's the northeast side of Moulashik, of the lighthouse, there's a series of water-worn caves which could easily accommodate one or two people or even more to give them shelter. I also found another one on the little trail I was working on going down to the middle of Moulashik where there's a lovely savannah and a wonderful view of St. Vincent to the south. It's indicative of what the brigands would have used with a covering between the rocks, like a shelter, so it sheltered them from the rain. So there's no doubt in my mind that they most likely were there and used this as a lookout to communication stations. Quite apart from the fact that Moulashik provides a sonic view, it's also a beautiful place for people to live. Moulashik also serves as a telecommunications base. As a result of its geographical location, the hill houses a number of repeaters and satellites for all radio and television stations. Higher up the telecommunications section can be found the lighthouse, which was built in 1911. This lighthouse provides 30 miles of light. It also acts as a landmark for heavy traffic between St. Lucia and St. Vincent. Major studies have been conducted to determine the tourism potential of Moulashik. Moulashik does present that beautiful landscape. However, when you look at the fact that visitors without coming to Moulashik are very happy with the landscape that they see. Without coming to the south, it means that you need to do a little more to get visitors to make that drive down to Moulashik. Which takes us to the point that what you need, you need accommodation, you need to increase your accommodation badly in the south if you want to take advantage of the scenery and the landscape that Moulashik offers. Moulashik is a peninsula which is easily identifiable but not very well known. The many functions it performs is virtually a mystery to many people. It is a place well worth exploring. So in your free time, come and see all that Moulashik has to offer.


Our final speaker for the big talk from Small Library 24 is going to talk about Farmer's Day fundraising. Sounds like fun. Amber Sweetland from another Nebraska speaker. Yay. And in Kimball, they have population surfed about 2,500. Is that still as accurate? Yep. All right. So, Amber, tell us all about what you've been doing in Kimball. So, Farmer's Day is our annual fundraising, or it's our annual Farmers Day, Founders Day celebrations. So, to start, let's just talk about Kimball a little bit. We are a, hold on, my slides are not working correctly.  We're relatively easy to not know where we are. So, we are 20 miles from the Colorado border and 20 miles from the Wyoming border, right there in the corner. We're right off to 80. So, we get a decent amount of people going through, but it were a small community. So, we needed to fundraise because we ended up losing $30,000 in projected revenue. So, how that ended up happening, there was a half-cent tax reduction. That half-cent tax on sales tax had been in place forever and it was up for renewal to be voted on. Well, there wasn't great communication as to where that money was actually going to the citizens in the community to the extent that I didn't even realize that we were getting a portion of that funding. So, because no one knew where the money was going, nobody wanted to pay it. So, it did not go through. So, when it came time for budget season, that's when I found out that we were losing a whole lot of money.  I hate spending more than I actually have. So, thankfully, though, the city council didn't actually reduce my budget. So, that was good, but I still didn't want to spend more than I was going to have. So, we knew that we needed to start fundraising. So, Farmers' Day, like I said, it's our founder's day celebration. So, it's a three-day celebration that is always the last weekend in September. There's activities and community events and things like that throughout the entire weekend. We knew we needed to get involved in the actual planning process for Farmers' Day because in years past, there had been just a lack of communication, some not great advertising some confusions in the actual scheduling. There was a lot of issues that we knew we could help out with. And because we wanted to really do a fundraising push during this weekend, we wanted to make sure that there wasn't any conflicts going on. So, my assistant director and myself both ended up on the Farmers' Day committee, and we were able to really help out with a lot of the aesthetics with the flyers, the actual scheduling, just all kinds of different things that it was helpful for the committee and the events and us. So, everybody has a book sale. This is something we've always done. It's annual. It's always a hit. We have to do it. It clears space, but it's tons of work. We all know this, but we don't have a choice in the matter. You have a captive audience when people are coming in to look at these books. So, we knew we could take advantage of all of those people being here and run the other fundraising events. So, during the year we have, all year long, we have friends of the library gift shop. So, everything that's in the gift shop is a local crafter or creator in some fashion. It's all handmade products. So, what we decided to do is expand that during Farmers' Day. So, we cleared off all of our computer tables, our displays for new books, and we had these vendors that are normally here plus a lot more bring in their wares. We have it set up so that the vendor or the crafter ends up with 80% of the sale, and the friends of the library gets 20% of the sale. So, we don't get a huge amount of this, but it brings people in for all of the other events that we're also working on. So, it worked out really well, and it's a good way to support the local businesses as well. So, a bake sale. Everybody has bake sales. They're always a hit, but we do it a little bit differently. We nickel and dime things to death. We know that a child who's walking by who's asking for 20 bucks from their parents for a whole cake, they're not going to get that $20, but if they have, they see a prepackaged, you know, a couple of brownies or some cookies for a dollar, parents are going to give them a dollar. So, that's how we end up making most of our money on the bake sale. It's something that we integrate right into the middle of the library, so people are walking by, it smells great, and it looks good, so it's easy to do. So, our salsa contest is a really fun one. This is an event that had been going on for many, many years, eight years ago during Farmer's Day, and then it kind of fizzled out. It was a very special thing to my heart because I just thoroughly enjoyed participating in the salsa contest, so I wanted to bring it back. So, I checked with all the people who had run it initially. They had no issue with it, so this was the second year that we reintegrated it into Farmer's Day. We have two different categories, the red and the green salsa. The participants can bring in their salsa ahead of time, and it's free for them to compete. Where we make the money is the tasting and the voting. So, it's two dollars. To be able to do that, they get a vote from each category. It's a completely blind taste test, so the only person who actually knows who belongs to each salsa is me, and I don't get to participate. It's a huge hit, and people love it, and it's just a tasty thing that we put on right after the parade is complete, and since we're pretty close to the parade route, we get all of these people walking by, they see us outside, and it works really well. Here's a picture of the salsa contest. You can see all of the people there milling around, getting their salsa, and our very stern looking advertising dude who very adamantly told people they needed to come and taste salsa and buy baked goods. He's taking it very seriously with that tie, and yes, this is a very hardcore. So, hi, City Guy. This was a new one that we did this year. It was so fun. So, this came from a brainstorming session when we really should have been doing other things. I had just found out that we were losing $30,000, and I knew that we needed to get more fundraisers going, something that would be fun that would get people involved. There was a lot of drama going on at the time. There had been some issue with some city departments, and a lot of the people in the community were very irritated about it, and so we were like, okay, let's give them a fun, light way to vent some frustrations that will make us some money, and this is what came from it. I was able to get somebody from every single department, including the mayor, the city administrator, one of the police officers to participate. So, we sold raffle tickets. There was three tickets that were going to be pulled from the pot, and those three people got to buy the city employee of their choosing. The big thing with this is, don't ask people to do something you're not willing to do yourself. So, I was the representative for the library. No one chose to pie me, yay. But there was definitely some stuff that we learned from this that we're going to change next year. You have to constantly be willing to adapt things. We didn't have a good sound system set up. We did have the local DJ doing the announcing for me, but he's not quite that loud. So, we'll definitely fix that next year. But it was such a huge hit. This is not something that people really buy ahead of time. I did have a few individuals come in, and like they dropped 50 bucks on enough raffle tickets so that they had a chance to pie the mayor because they were annoyed. And that's great. And I'm totally happy with that. But most of the tickets were sold right there on the spot. Right after the parade completed, I sent some of my very loud friends downtown, and they very loudly announced that they were selling raffle tickets and they sold tons of tickets. While that was going on, I was here at the library and I'm pretty loud too. So, while we had hundreds of people in here, I was really loudly talking about how I was selling raffle tickets and to buy them from me. Be a little obnoxious. It definitely helps to sell things.  I'm okay with that. But it was super fun, and we will definitely be doing this for years to come. Here's some pictures of the actual pieing. Everybody who ended up pieed were super good natured about it, and it was fun. So, some other stuff that we ended up doing, we got involved with some events that Farmers Day was, you know, some of the Farmers Day events that weren't fundraising events, so that we could raise awareness for what we were doing. So, we walked in the parade. We have six different book characters represented there. We've got Hunger Games, Outlander, the Magic School Bus, Little House on the Prairie, Winnie the Pooh, and the Great Gadsby. I didn't even fully realize that there was a competition, but we ended up winning second place. Another event that we participated in, or we actually put on, was a Mario Kart tournament. It was totally free. It was mostly children that participated in this, and the Farmers Day Committee purchased the prizes for each of the leagues, a pro league and an amateur league. My son-in-law and his brother ended up dressing as Mario and Luigi, and they put this on. You can see a very happy kid there with her gift card to the ice cream shop. It went really well, and it gave us the opportunity to kind of remind people of what was going on at the library at the same time, and kind of hopefully get some people to wander over to us too. So, advertising is the most important thing with all of this stuff, and you can't just go one or two different avenues. You have to really blanket the whole community. So, we had maps and flyers on sandwich boards in a bunch of different businesses and locations throughout the community, not just for our stuff, but for everything that was going on during Farmers Day. We went nuts on our social medias, and we had everything that we were doing up on those. I write a column in the paper, so we, I think three weeks in a row, I listed pretty much everything that was going on, and I wrote a couple of different columns about why it was so important for us to do these things. I did a radio interview, and then they recorded it, and they replayed it like the day of, I think it was the Friday of Farmers Day. But the most important thing is word of mouth. If you're enthusiastic, and you really love what you're doing, and you're passionate about it, then talk about it to anyone who will listen to you until they want you to go away. It really helps, and it got people in here. So, the key takeaways. It's not possible if you don't have the most amazing staff in the world, and I think that they're right there to say hello. Hi, everybody. And I lost my place. It's tons of work, but it's super, super fun. You have to create events that you are passionate about, and that you are excited about. You have to plan ahead of time. We started all of this planning probably three months in advance, but it worked, and it was very successful for us. You have to really communicate with the different groups in your community, your staff, all of the planning committees for all the things that are going on during events like this, and patrons love to help. They don't want to just give you money all the time. They want to participate in things, so make sure that there's an opportunity for them to bake some cookies and bring them in or whatever you need. Help out with the book sale organization. That's always tons of work, and people love helping out with that, too. One thing that I have noticed more than anything else is if you can possibly be charming, do so. If people like you, they're more willing to give you money, so be likable. And that's it. Any questions? All right. Thank you, Amber. That looks like a lot of fun, and like I said, a lot of work, but a couple of months of planning is not bad.  Yeah. So being able to be creative or on the fly, do things like that is great. So does anybody have any questions for Amber? She mentioned a lot of things that they did. So if you have any questions about anyone and no more detail, we have a couple of minutes. You can answer questions. And all right, just double checking things here. Good. So the first question I have wants to know, funny. Who was hit with a pie? Okay. Pied or? I mean, where did I go? I have to go back to that one. I forgot there who, what departments they were. The people got to pick who they wanted to hit with a pie? Yes. So, so our DJ, he's the real tall guy there. He was the one who actually pulled the names because I didn't want anyone to say that I was, you know, picking people that wouldn't pie me. So the guy with the hat on, he is from our electric department. No, he's from streets. The second guy is from the electric department. And he's also one of our volunteer firefighters. And then the last guy with the towel being thrown in his face, that was actually really awesome. He, the lady whose name was pulled, she's just like the super sweet lady. And he asked if she would mind if his granddaughter was able to do it. And so, of course, she gave up her opportunity to pie somebody.  It was awesome. What was great about this is, after we were all done and the official pieing was done, all of these workers, they were prepared to get pieed. And they didn't, or most of them didn't. So they were like, well, let's get some more supplies and let the kids pie whoever they want to just for fun. And so we all stood there getting pieed for like half an hour. The very, very last one, I was like, okay, I can't, because nobody had pieed me at this point. And I'm like, okay, I can't not be pieed when I made you guys do this. So this four-year-old came and she just barely touched my face with the pie. It was really sweet. All right. All right. So we got a bunch of the questions coming in and we'll get them answered here. So here's a good important, when doing the bake sale or food contest type thing, how do you handle the liability with food allergies or contamination? So anyone who asks, we let them clearly know that there was absolutely no protections of any kind. We didn't accommodate for gluten-free or nut allergies or anything like that. In our community, people aren't, I mean, there's plenty of people who can't have these things, but they're happy to cover their own basis. If there's even a chance that they don't participate, we never had a problem. I think this is the kind of the opposite of making something that everyone can eat or use and doing the opposite of saying, this is all homemade. It's going to be what it's going to be and don't come over here if you're worried. We have plans. They could buy it. Yeah. So many other options too. Yeah. A lot of questions about how much you made. What was your biggest profit? How much did you make? What was your biggest profit maker? And then I hope this was not what happened, but did the money you raised get specifically set aside for the library or did it get deposited into the city coffers? Hmm. So we have, I mean, we're integrated into the city, but we have all of our own line items. So yes, it was put into the city coffers, but it was in our portion of it. So it was definitely not something like that. Sophia allotted to, this is the library's money. It was the library's events. Yes. We made about $4,000 on these events, which I know for a lot of people isn't huge, but for us it was massive. And the biggest money maker was the pie. The DJ, it was funny, a lot of the guys were giving him grief because he wasn't up for being pied and he hadn't bought any raffle tickets at that point. And so he whips out $100 bill and he's like, okay, give me 50 tickets. And I'm like, I didn't even have the tickets with me. So I had to send a young person running back to the library to get them because a whole bunch of people bought some right before we actually started it, which was fine with me. All right, great. So for more info about activities, someone's asking, we'll have the presentation, the slides here. I didn't notice if you had your contact info on there or not or the website in your slides. I know we have a link to the Kimball Library website on the BigDoc page.  There we go, questions. I'm happy to share Flyers or anything about, well, anything we did. It was fun and it's really fun to talk about. It sounds like it was a great thing. Yeah, it's a great day. All right, yeah. So if you have any other questions or anything you want to know more about what they did in Kimball, reach out to Amber. She'd be happy to share. We're always happy to share what we're doing here in Nebraska. All right, thank you so much.


After battling numerous outages and leaks, Mountain Water District and Pike County finally has all of its customers back online. Numerous water customers in Pike County lost service during and following last week's Bidder Cold Snap. Officials said, however, that over the weekend, Mountain Water District restored service to all of its customers. We had all our main lines back in service as far as Friday, no issues at all. We had all our residents back on throughout the weekend, the latest part was sometime during the weekend that if anybody was off, so we got everybody back in full service. Mountain Water District Manager Roy Sawyer said the response to last week's widespread outage is not over. We're still going around, probably going to address some issues with just replacing some of these areas back, totally either install them or fix the jumpers. We did do some jumpers in some areas, we got to go back and fix those. Sawyer said his staff worked hard to restore service to affected customers. Our staff worked around a clock through the cold weather and also after the thaw hit, we had several days there through the thaw, thaw that things really turned loose on us in regards to the meter side because everything was melting out. But we battled it and fought, keeping our system stabilized in certain areas. Like I said, staffed an extremely well job. If you still probably look, notice somewhere throughout the eastern Kentucky, other utility districts are still having a few issues or outages and I want to commend my staff once again what a great job they did through the extremely cold weather event and the freezing thaw. Sawyer said customers of Mountain Water should continue to keep an eye on their water infrastructure and report leaks to Mountain Water District immediately. In Pike County, Chris Anderson, EKB News.


What's up everybody? Ricky Truth here. Welcome back. I'm coming to you today from my office. So I want to show you guys my pending board and kind of go through the little stories behind each deal that I have pending right now. I've got 19 deals pending, and it's over $10 million worth of property. So I had a goal earlier this year. Maybe three months ago I announced it that I wanted to close $10 million worth of sales in one month. And right now I literally have $10 million worth of property under contract. Now this is all set to close over the next three months. Okay, so it's not all going to close within 30 days. So the properties I have under contract right this second won't actually get me to the goal of closing $10 million in one month, but I'm still selling properties. I'm still trying to get to that goal. But it's good to have $10 million worth of stuff under contract. I can tell you that right now. Before showing my board, I want to introduce you to the ladies in my office. Christy working away. She's got the double screen going here. And Brianna. Hello. Brianna works part-time writing some letters and also kind of watches the Facebook group and a few things there. Here's the view from my office. We're right across the street from the beach. So it's a really nice view. We also have a view back here looking at the bayou. And then to the left's just another office over there. Here's my awards. My number one in the state award. That was 2018. That's the one for 2017. And this is the one for 2014. And this was the diamond award I got in Vegas last year. Also have a couple of number fives in the state and a little cooperative spirit award and all that good stuff. So here is my pending board. Now I don't have the prices here because you know ethically you cannot share the pending prices of properties. So I'm not going to show you that but I can tell you that I have 19 properties under contract totaling well over $10 million in sales. Okay let me start from the top here. At the very top I've got Phoenix 51404 under contract. We sold that property before it even hit the market. And this this particular this is my listing and this particular seller came to me because they've been getting my weekly email for years. Many years. She called me she said I just loved your weekly email and you know that's why I'm calling you. You've done such a good job with that keeping me informed and that's why we decided to go with you. I met with them we had an initial meeting with the daughter and the mom the mom owns it. And we really connected and then maybe a day later they called me and we wrapped it up. Really when I left the appointment they pretty much told me that they were going to move forward. So it was a really good easy quick transaction but it came from those years and years of emails. The second deal is a development deal. I represent a developer and we have this property is four acres under contract and we're trying to build a subdivision there. It's in the middle of Gulf Shores it's going to be a really neat place. So we're still going through the due diligence period on that. So still working on that one. This one is actually closing in about a month. It's another development deal but I'm representing the sellers and it's actually eight sellers total. It was a condo that got washed away in the storm. Eight people there were eight units and I represent all eight people selling this property to the developer. So I won't be involved in the development when they build the houses there but I am involved on the sale from the seller to the developer. So it's still over a million dollars you know in sales on that one and I'm really excited to be able to put that one together. The next one, Enclave at Oak Hill F-201. This one is someone who has done multiple deals with me. They own vacation properties they rent out and they wanted this. This property is off the beach a little maybe three miles or so and they wanted something away from the beach to stay in their self while they're here working on their condos. They have four or five condos so they wanted something off the beach so that they could stay there while they're cleaning their condos and fixing their condos and doing all that stuff. The next one here is another development piece that I'm representing and we're going through the due diligence. I do represent the developer on that and it's going to be really nice developments. Waterfront and Gulf Shores so still working through that one. This one, Phoenix All-Sweets 906. We listed it last week and sold it within three days. It was a quick cash deal and you know what can I say I sold this seller actually I sold his condo in another building that was in the six hundred thousand range maybe four years ago. Four years ago I sold his condo and he's been getting my weekly email and all that and then boom he calls me. Haven't talked to him since. Haven't talked to him at all. He calls me out of blue and says hey you sold my condo for me you know back in the day four years ago and I'm thinking about selling this condo and so we had the conversation and started asking him more about the condo and what's going on and they have other condos here as well but they just wanted to get rid of this one so we listed it and coincidentally I had just sold one in the same building that we priced at the same price you priced this one and sold it in a day so I told him what happened with that one and next thing I know I haven't listed and have it sold under contract. The Moorings 413 this is my listing as well I'm representing the sellers but I represented those owners when they bought it and actually got on both sides of that deal I represented the buyer and the seller when they bought it and then now I'm representing them again as they sell it and I'm not representing the buyer on this one just a seller but there again it's a repeat customer and you know I love those because they already know what you're about they already know what your processes are they know how you operate and they love how you operate that's why they're coming back to you. This one 4613 Spinnaker Way this is my buyer this is a house in Orange Beach and this is going to be his retirement home he's going to move from another area to this area I sold him a condo five years ago on the beach it's a one bedroom I sold it to him five years ago he came back he's been looking for a house somewhere around here to retire for a while we had one that he really liked but it sold too quickly that was maybe four or five months ago he's been watching I've been watching and then boom this one came on the market he wrote a full-price offer the day it came on the market we got it under contract this was just a couple days ago so he's really excited and of course I'm really excited the next one actually signed the paperwork on this deal today with the sellers a little early it's going to close next Friday but the sellers are in town so we wanted to close it early Worcester Bay Village 701 I sold them this unit and they they wanted to retire here so they came down and they lived there for a while but they couldn't stand being away from their grandkids so they moved back to Tennessee and then here they are and they need to sell the condo so we listed it and it actually took a while to sell because it's a 55 and up community and it's kind of older so but it isn't upshore so it's not in a bad location but it did take us a while to sell it but I'm glad it's finally done C Pines 2001 this is my development C Pines this is actually this was the old model unit C Pines is a development I represent the developer it's going to be 84 units total or maybe 50 units in so we got about 30 more to go but this was our old model unit we made a new model unit because we've changed a few things since the beginning and so this was just us selling the old model unit and that's going to close at the end of the month this one this one is a vacant piece of property in Florida I sell in Alabama in Florida right on the Alabama Florida line and this property is on the beach and it's on the river okay it's it's a piece on the beach and then across the streets river it has property on both sides vacant land it was a condo that got blown away and this ladies and gentlemen is going to be the largest deal that I've ever done in my real estate career and so I'm gonna hold off on the story for this one because I want to wait till it closes and then I'm gonna break down the entire story of this deal because it's been a straight roller coaster there's ten owners I've had the listing for four years I've been working on it for seven years so I'm gonna hold off on that one for now I'm gonna make one video just on that one because it's gonna be my largest deal ever six-figure paycheck and I'm really excited about it Peninsula Boulevard three of three Peninsula Boulevard I am representing both sides of this it's gonna close by the end of the month I've had the listing for a long time it was under contract before it fell through and these buyers just found it online called me I showed it to them just all of a sudden and boom they wrote a contract we worked it out and here we are really excited about that one it's it's a it's a big one both sides of it really excited breakers number 12 this guy was referred to me by an on-site handyman if you will of a condo complex called the breakers and he referred this fire to me this fire lives in the building and wants to buy another unit in the building for a rental unit so the the handyman guy the complex told him to call me he called me we went looked at it read off for right then and there kind of a spur-the-moment thing and now have a client for life because this guy will sell that unit later buy another unit buy more units and so on and so forth so really excited about that one this one Phoenix 10 506 this is gonna close at the end of the month it's in Phoenix 10 the last building in Alabama before you hit Florida it's a three bedroom and the client is actually an agent in the Atlanta area and we've done numerous transactions I sold to form at Phoenix 9 I sold another another one in his at Phoenix 10 this is the fourth deal that I've sold for him I'm listing them and then he's gonna buy one somewhere around here he's got the building picked out I don't want to say too much about it right now but he's got his building picked out and he's when he comes down after we close on this one we'll go look and see if we can't get him just the perfect one and then another one at Enclave at Oak Hill this actually came from some of the letters that Brianna writes and he called and he wanted to buy another one he wanted to buy something on the beach because he already owns one at Enclave at Oak Hill he wanted to buy one at the beach but this two bedroom came up and he has a one bedroom so he said I'm gonna upgrade to this two bedroom so he called me went looked at it wrote the offer and then I listed as one bedroom that's listed right now so I'm really excited about that and then we've got three more at C Pines that are under contract that are on this board we've got another board down here that we kind of keep track of all the new construction at C Pines so C Pines is going really well and we're really excited about the direction of that and the other developments that are coming out of that there are also really exciting but the market has changed a lot in the last year and has gotten tougher and we just got to keep pushing okay guys so that's my pending board I hope you got something out of that or gives you some kind of idea of the volume that I'm doing so I'm just happy to share it with you thanks for stopping by the office saying hello and all that good stuff we'll talk to you soon leave me a comment let me know what you think hit the like button and let me know what the world I can do for you let's go