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Speaker 1: Hi, Billy cunning in the Great American Happy Thanksgiving to all.

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Speaker 1: In fact, tomorrow we've scheduled Western Southern CEO John Barrett

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Speaker 1: to talk about his race on Thanksgiving morning, and also

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Speaker 1: Governor Mike DeWine will be here, I think, expressing regret

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Speaker 1: about allowing gambling casino in the state of Ohio and

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Speaker 1: sports betting, and also what's happening with marijuana. But until then,

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Speaker 1: Denise tree House is head of the Hamley County Commissioners.

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Speaker 1: She runs the county with an iron grip. And Denise

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Speaker 1: tree House, welcome again to the Bill Cunningham Show. And Denise,

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Speaker 1: how are you?

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Speaker 2: I'm good? Did you just say the governor's coming down

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Speaker 2: to run the turkey trot?

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Speaker 1: Actually, John Barrett's going to invite him to run with him.

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Speaker 1: But if that happens, I want pictures of that.

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Speaker 3: Would you agree?

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Speaker 2: I do too. I'm coming down if that's the case.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk about since first I want to

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Speaker 1: issue thanks to the Drea House family.

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Speaker 3: Are you ready for this?

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Speaker 2: I'm with baited.

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Speaker 1: Breath because you know, things occur for a reason, I think,

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Speaker 1: and there were many years ago you may not recall

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Speaker 1: in the late nineteen seventies early nineteen eighties, when I

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Speaker 1: was coming into Cincinnati back from Toledo Law School. I

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Speaker 1: grew up here, but I got Toledo Law School. I

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Speaker 1: had a good time there. I wanted to come back home.

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Speaker 1: So I go and B Larson hires me in the

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Speaker 1: Hamlet County Public Defender's office to be an assistant public defender.

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Speaker 1: And from that I went to see Jerry Springer and

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Speaker 1: I said I wanted to get into politics. And at

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Speaker 1: that point, Jerry Springer was the mayor for the second Ideation,

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Speaker 1: and he said, well, I'll tell you what I'll do.

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Speaker 1: I'll call Saco Weathy and let's see if we can

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Speaker 1: help you out. So I spoke to Jerry, I met

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Speaker 1: Sacho Weeathy, and from that I met Don Dreehouse, and

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Speaker 1: I met Carol Grow and I met PAMs and Dusty Rose.

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Speaker 1: In other words, those are the head Democrats in the county,

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Speaker 1: would you agree?

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, the old Guard, the old Guard.

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Speaker 1: And they put me in the AG's office with Anthony J.

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Speaker 1: Celebreezy and then William Brown and I tried cases on

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Speaker 1: behalf of the age and from that I ran for

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Speaker 1: political office two times, lost each time as a Democrat.

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Speaker 1: But when I think about Thanksgiving coming up, I'm thinking

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Speaker 1: about your dad. I'm thinking about SOCCO, I'm thinking about Pam,

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Speaker 1: and I'm thinking about Carol. And now their daughter is

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Speaker 1: running Hamley County Commission. So I want to say thank

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Speaker 1: you to the Treehouse family. Without all that being involved,

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Speaker 1: I would not be here today.

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Speaker 2: That is a lovely sentiment. Two things, though, I do

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Speaker 2: not run the county on my own, just to be clear,

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Speaker 2: there are three of us. And the other thing I'm

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Speaker 2: treated about, what did you run for?

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Speaker 3: Well?

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Speaker 1: I ran for state representative in the House twenty six

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Speaker 1: House district and Saco says, look, if I put you

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Speaker 1: in the AG's office, we want you to run for something.

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Speaker 3: I said, Well, I live in Madeira.

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Speaker 1: I'm a Democrat in Madeira and at the time that

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Speaker 1: wasn't the most popular place to be and so I

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Speaker 1: ran against Helen Helen Fix. You recall a state rep

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Speaker 1: named Helen Fix. She was there for like fifteen or

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Speaker 1: twenty years. And I came up with this motto, and

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Speaker 1: the motto was the Fix is in, get the Fix out,

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Speaker 1: vote the man, vote Cunningham.

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Speaker 2: And how did you lose that race?

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Speaker 1: I lost like seventy two to twenty eight, and.

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Speaker 3: So on that point.

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Speaker 1: Years decades go by, about five or six years ago,

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Speaker 1: you know, I had a hard Voul replaced by Carriacus

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Speaker 1: at Christ and so he changed offices on the second

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Speaker 1: floor the building there, and so I go up there

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Speaker 1: and I'm looking for Dean Carriacus's new office on the

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Speaker 1: second floor of the Christ Hospital building. And I walk

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Speaker 1: up to the to the administration desk. This little woman

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Speaker 1: is sitting there. She had to be in the nineties.

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Speaker 1: And I said, ma'am, can you tell me where doctor

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Speaker 1: Dean carry Outs's new offices. She looked up and said,

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Speaker 1: the fix is in, get the fix out. Both the

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Speaker 1: man Voth Cunningham and I looked it and I said, amazing,

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Speaker 1: I said, are you Helen, Yes, I am, he said.

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Speaker 3: She said that had that slogan.

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Speaker 2: Go oh my gosh, that's amazing like her that, I said.

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Speaker 3: I said, this is wonderful. What have you been doing well?

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Speaker 1: I retired and then I ran for the County Commission

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Speaker 1: and I didn't do well, and so I just went

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Speaker 1: into I voluntary. I said, can I get a picture

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Speaker 1: taken with you? She said, I would love it, So

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Speaker 1: I I got, I run around the desk, put my

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Speaker 1: my phone up, got a picture of me and Helen Fix,

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Speaker 1: and sadly she died about two years later. So then

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Speaker 1: I get a call from Bill Site. You know Bill

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Speaker 1: Sites stay represented.

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Speaker 2: But this is what politics does, right, It's just I

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Speaker 2: got to tell you it brings people together.

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Speaker 1: Go ahead.

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Speaker 3: So I get a call from him.

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Speaker 1: But two or three years ago, said did you run

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Speaker 1: against Helen Fix in like nineteen seventy eight? I said, wow,

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Speaker 1: I said, how I did? She said, well, he said, well,

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Speaker 1: she died and I have to do a remembrance on

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Speaker 1: the floor of the House in Columbus about Helen Fix.

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Speaker 1: And I gave him some you know some things I did.

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Speaker 1: And and you talk about how secute his life is

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Speaker 1: that there's Helen Fix, the fixes in, get the Fix out,

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Speaker 1: vote the man, vote Countingham.

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Speaker 3: Do you remember?

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Speaker 2: Think that's a pretty clever slogan. I think that's very clever.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure it would work today, but you know,

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Speaker 1: I thought, you know, I'll play the gender card a

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Speaker 1: little bit. You know, women in seventy eight weren't exactly.

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Speaker 3: Like today. You ladies control everything, the county cap I.

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Speaker 2: Can't condone that I mean, Lily, if you were sexispect,

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Speaker 2: then you know I can't. But here we are, here,

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Speaker 2: we are in a new day.

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Speaker 1: You're telling me. I mean, men, we had our time,

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Speaker 1: but it's over. And whenever I think about you, I

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Speaker 1: think about don I think about Socco and Pam, I

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Speaker 1: think about Dusty and anyway, let's go on to current events,

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Speaker 1: so to speak.

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Speaker 2: Oh but listen, they were such a tight knit group

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Speaker 2: and they loved what they did. They just they were

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Speaker 2: at the Board of Elections making sure everybody got to vote,

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Speaker 2: and they just were so committed to what they were doing.

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Speaker 2: That was really those were good days for the Democrats,

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Speaker 2: and now they're better.

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Speaker 1: But you were just a little girl then, weren't you,

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Speaker 1: Like you were like five or ten years old.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, when my dad ran in sixty eight,

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Speaker 2: I was five and so but I remember that campaign.

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Speaker 2: I mean, we drove around the neighborhood with a bullhorn

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Speaker 2: on the top of the station wagon and we sang

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Speaker 2: songs treehouse songs to German music. I mean, it was crazy,

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Speaker 2: and we all dressed up in red, white and blue

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Speaker 2: and took photos with styrochrome you know, hats on and

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Speaker 2: with the bumper stickers on the front. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 2: we love that stuff and we still love it. I

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Speaker 2: mean it's it's in our blood. And we do really

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Speaker 2: enjoy getting out and meeting people and campaigning. I mean

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Speaker 2: it's it's fun.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I like to think you're the old guard, but not really,

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Speaker 1: but not compared to getting there.

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Speaker 3: You're getting there.

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Speaker 2: I'm getting there.

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Speaker 1: The Democratic Party used to be in the Veneyards, You're

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Speaker 1: now you're in the mansion House. And and now now

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Speaker 1: the Republicans. The Republicans are on your lips. Yeah, let's

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Speaker 1: talk about issues number one. What happened Friday night was

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Speaker 1: just unbelievable between you were there and I think, what

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Speaker 1: can we do that more often? And you know, my

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Speaker 1: running mate Rocky Boyman controls high school sports with an

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Speaker 1: iron grip. We do the games here at thirteen sixty.

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Speaker 1: If there could be some union or some understanding that

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Speaker 1: contact high school sports with as Rocky been in touch

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Speaker 1: with you about it, making this an annual event.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I've talked to Rocky and that's the expectation is

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Speaker 2: that Friday will serve as a model for what we

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Speaker 2: can do next year in years beyond. Katie Blackburn was

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Speaker 2: down there as well, and so I've touch based with

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Speaker 2: her also and said, you know, that was just such

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Speaker 2: a great night for this community. The kids were fired up,

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Speaker 2: the adults were fired up. I mean, it was just

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Speaker 2: a great night. And it was terrible weather by the way,

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Speaker 2: but but boy did they put a show on with

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Speaker 2: the jumbo tron and the ticker tape with Saint X

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Speaker 2: and Elder on it. So I'm super excited that we

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Speaker 2: could get that done. And a lot of credit goes

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Speaker 2: to the Bengals for reaching out the OHSAA and making

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Speaker 2: sure that they were on board and then getting everybody

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Speaker 2: down there. Willie. It's a huge operation when you think

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Speaker 2: about the concessions and the parking and the security and

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Speaker 2: all the things, and all those people down there working

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Speaker 2: on that Friday night. It was just amazing.

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Speaker 1: Why did come together so quickly? Because and I guess

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Speaker 1: why why didn't OHSA think about it ahead of time?

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Speaker 1: And why because when I spoke to you on Monday,

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Speaker 1: you and Katie got it done like Tuesday morning, right,

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Speaker 1: it was done.

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Speaker 2: It was quick, and I and credit where credits do?

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Speaker 2: You're the one that brought it to my attention, So

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Speaker 2: I'm grateful for that. And then I brought it to

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Speaker 2: Katie's attention and then we all work together to get

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Speaker 2: it done.

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Speaker 3: Well, well, I'm making a nanda.

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure Elder's ever going to be undefeated, untied,

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Speaker 1: unscored on ever again at that point, and say next

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Speaker 1: is always going to be there. But I bet there's

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Speaker 1: always going to be a GCL school. I almost bet

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Speaker 1: you that, or maybe Lakota West, Lakota East something, maybe

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Speaker 1: Cole Raine will arrive again. Unlikely, but nonetheless, thank you.

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Speaker 1: And you have more control over the stadium now than

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Speaker 1: you had before. Correct, after the new lease was signed.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right, yeah, and it's all part of the

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Speaker 2: new lease where we said we want to use the

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Speaker 2: county asset, which belongs to the taxpayers, for more than

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Speaker 2: just football games for the Bengals, and so these high

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Speaker 2: school football games are part of it. Concerts are part

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Speaker 2: of it. You know, there's a lot that we've been

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Speaker 2: thinking through, but one other thing related to football. So

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Speaker 2: you know, I was contacted then after we got this

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Speaker 2: all worked out, then the folks from Anderson were contacting

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Speaker 2: my office. Let me take like a hundred an eighty

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Speaker 2: email because they wanted their game to be played at

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Speaker 2: pay Corps, and it was too late to get that done.

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Speaker 2: But we need to think next year about teams that

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Speaker 2: you know, are from all over the county, from every community,

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Speaker 2: having an opportunity to play there. And so maybe you know,

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Speaker 2: it's a Saturday with more than one game, the logistics

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Speaker 2: would be a little bit easier in that case. Or

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Speaker 2: you know, we got to we got to think more

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Speaker 2: broadly than just you know, I was thrilled that Division

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Speaker 2: one was there, uh and the champion, you know, the

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Speaker 2: regional championships were played there. But we're going to have

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Speaker 2: to make sure that others have an opportunity to So

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Speaker 2: I'm super excited about next year and years beyond.

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Speaker 1: Could you imagine starting like at one o'clock and having

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Speaker 1: having four games. I got a hold of Beechwood and Covcat.

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Speaker 1: They would love to play at pay Course Stadium. Let's

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Speaker 1: not forget one third of the market. I would think

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Speaker 1: one third of the business to the Bengals come from

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Speaker 1: northern Kentucky. And why not have a Kentucky game, an

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Speaker 1: Indiana game, and two Ohio games or three Ohio games

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Speaker 1: in one Kentucky game. Rob Sanders and that group would

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Speaker 1: love to play at pay court. And let's face the

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Speaker 1: sales tax revenues generated from Northern Kentuckians as millions of

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Speaker 1: dollars every year. They want to be invested. And that's

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Speaker 1: even though it's not direct. Would you be open to

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Speaker 1: the idea of love allowing one game to be played

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Speaker 1: by maybe Cuvkath against speech Wood something like that.

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Speaker 2: Well, at this point, I'm open to all ideas, but

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Speaker 2: I to be clear, my focus, of course is going

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Speaker 2: to be a Hamilton County and making sure Hamilton County

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Speaker 2: teams get I mean, yeah it is. It is their

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Speaker 2: stadium after all. But you know, open to anything. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it could be more than one weekend. I mean, we

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Speaker 2: need to think through this and figure out what we

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Speaker 2: can do by way of Bengal schedule, concert schedules and

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Speaker 2: high school football games because when people think about that stadium,

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Speaker 2: they want high school football games played in that stadium

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Speaker 2: and so and we wrote it into the least for

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Speaker 2: a reason, right, and so now we're this is our

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Speaker 2: response so far, but we need to use this as

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Speaker 2: a model moving forward, and the Bengals are obviously open

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Speaker 2: to it. So it's a new day when it comes

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Speaker 2: to some of these different kind of events down the stadium.

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Speaker 1: Now, there's several big plots between pay Corps and the

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Speaker 1: Great American Ballpark that are vacant and open. I've seen

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Speaker 1: the inchoir, the city in the county go back and forth.

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Speaker 1: Can you tell us the status of those large plots

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Speaker 1: between the two stadiums that are at this point vacant

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Speaker 1: and what is your plan?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So the Urban Design Review Committee presented to both

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Speaker 2: the county and the city last week to give us

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Speaker 2: their best ideas. And this is a group that's city,

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Speaker 2: the county or at the table the Bengals, the Red

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Speaker 2: but we have the other retailers down there weighing in

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Speaker 2: music venues, some of the retailers the Freedom Center, and

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Speaker 2: so we need to take a look at this. It

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Speaker 2: was our first time seeing it. So it's got a

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Speaker 2: lot of residential in it. It's got some retail, commercial,

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Speaker 2: it's got a hotel which I thought was interesting on it.

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Speaker 2: It's got a little bit of office which I'm not

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Speaker 2: sure that comes to fruition. But anyway, we've got a

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Speaker 2: plan in front of us now, and so it's exciting.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I'm anxious to get this done right, to

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Speaker 2: finish out the banks. So Lot twenty four, the biggest,

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Speaker 2: has the infrastructure already built. So this is the infrastructure

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Speaker 2: that lifts it out of the floodplain and creates that

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Speaker 2: parking underneath. And then we need to do similar to

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Speaker 2: the other lots that are still vacant, do that under

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Speaker 2: build and then make sure that we've got some appropriate

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Speaker 2: development on top.

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Speaker 1: What is a brand new twenty thousand seat arena fit

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Speaker 1: in that plan? Does it fit more at TQL or

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Speaker 1: does it fit more on the riverfront which already has

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Speaker 1: the infrastructure.

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Speaker 2: Well, I have said all along that if we're going

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Speaker 2: to build a new arena, we should take advantage of

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Speaker 2: our built infrastructure, and so that is parking, and that

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Speaker 2: is other assets that belong to the taxpayers, to the public.

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Speaker 2: And so obviously the location down on the riverfront allows

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Speaker 2: for us to use all the parking that's already built

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Speaker 2: down there. I mean it's being used now by the arena,

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Speaker 2: so we know it can accommodate that. And I've seen

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Speaker 2: some renderings where they have taken down the old arena

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Speaker 2: and then built new on that same footprint. It moves

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Speaker 2: a little bit and expands a little bit, but it's

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Speaker 2: down in that area. And then, of course the other

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Speaker 2: two options are the space up by the Convention Center

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Speaker 2: that will be made available through the reconfiguration of the

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Speaker 2: Brent Spence Bridge. There's about eight acres to the west

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Speaker 2: of the Convention Center that's going to be freed up,

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Speaker 2: so that's something to think about. And then the other

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Speaker 2: location is up by FC in the west end.

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Speaker 1: And who's going to make that decision at the arena?

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Speaker 1: Because I call them the masters of the universe. On

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Speaker 1: one hand, you got John Barrett, You've got Casteline, you

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Speaker 1: got the Brown Family, you have the banks. On the

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Speaker 1: other hand, you have Carl Linder, you have the farmers,

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Speaker 1: you have Jeff Birding, you have TQL the masters of

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Speaker 1: the universe.

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Speaker 3: Are those two going to fight with each other?

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Speaker 2: Well, I hope not. I mean I hope that we

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Speaker 2: can come together. And then the other you know, you

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Speaker 2: left out the taxpayers. I mean, I know what you're saying,

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Speaker 2: but the public, you know, should have a say in

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Speaker 2: this too as to what they think. And then the

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Speaker 2: other piece of this, by the way, is that we

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Speaker 2: have not figured out a financial stack for this. I mean,

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Speaker 2: you know, in the end we need to have the

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Speaker 2: financing together. We are nowhere near having that completed. And so,

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Speaker 2: you know, while I think it's important to talk about

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Speaker 2: the sighting of a new arena, I think it's secondary

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Speaker 2: to who's going to pay for it.

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Speaker 1: So if somebody with deep pockets walks up and says,

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Speaker 1: if it's seven eight hundred million, I'll put in five

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Speaker 1: hundred million. Whoever pays for the band calls the music.

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Speaker 2: Oh well, that would that would be something to think about.

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Speaker 2: That has not happened. But but you know, we we

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Speaker 2: need to bring all the partners together for sure, and

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Speaker 2: I've talked to both you know, Phil Castellini and Jeff

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Speaker 2: Birding about these locations, and so there is a desire

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Speaker 2: to do this together. And so I don't know that

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Speaker 2: people will be antagonistic about it. I think we need

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Speaker 2: to sort it out. But there are real positives and

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Speaker 2: negatives to all of these sites, and we need to

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Speaker 2: think it through as a community.

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Speaker 1: You know, Charlie Lucan told me at the time that

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Speaker 1: we ought to cover the Fort Washington way, we should

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Speaker 1: cover that in seventy one that would gather ten to

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Speaker 1: twenty acres.

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Speaker 3: Is that in your plan too, to put.

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Speaker 1: A cover on the top of that, which would recover

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Speaker 1: a bunch of acreage.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So those are called the Fort Washington Waite Caps.

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Speaker 2: That's been on the drawing board for a while. I

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Speaker 2: remember coming here when I did in twenty seventeen, and

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Speaker 2: Fortune was talking about it back then. It's expensive, but

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Speaker 2: it has been built to do it, so all the

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Speaker 2: infrastructure is there. We just need the money to do

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Speaker 2: the caps themselves. And so in the last couple of years,

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Speaker 2: the Chamber of Commerce, the city, and the county have

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Speaker 2: all advocated to the federal government to say, hey, this

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Speaker 2: would be a real benefit to the businesses that are

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Speaker 2: already there, and we eate more energy down there, and

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Speaker 2: we asked them to help pay for that that I

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Speaker 2: can't remember. I think it was a Tiger Fund. I

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Speaker 2: can't remember exactly, but we did not win that bid.

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Speaker 2: But we continue to advocate to the Fed to help

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Speaker 2: us pay for those caps.

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Speaker 1: Oh and I got JD. Vance and we have Bernie

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Speaker 1: Marina who we got John Houston. How about how about that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, No, you know, we've we've reached out and we've

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Speaker 2: we've advocated for this. You know, it's hard, Willie, because

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Speaker 2: there's so many things going on right now that are

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Speaker 2: really exciting by way of economic development. But you know,

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Speaker 2: the one we just completed is the Convention Center, and

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Speaker 2: that was the city county collaboration. And now we've got

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Speaker 2: a headquarter hotel going in across the street to the south.

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Speaker 2: And I don't know if you've seen the site to

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Speaker 2: the east where the Millennium used to stand, but man,

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Speaker 2: oh man, it is amazing. The landscaping is beautiful. They've

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Speaker 2: got an ice rink down there right now, there's a

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Speaker 2: dog park, so it's going to be active year round.

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Speaker 2: But it is just amazing some of the investments that

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Speaker 2: have been made very recently by the city in the

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Speaker 2: county to bring economic development to this region. So you know,

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Speaker 2: we can't do it all at once because we don't

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Speaker 2: have the revenue to do that. But I do think

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Speaker 2: we're forging forward in a way that we haven't, you know,

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Speaker 2: in the last maybe decade or so, with the city

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Speaker 2: and the county in lockstep.

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Speaker 3: Anise tree house. Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Maybe one day I'll be a Democrat again. With Soacco

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Speaker 1: and Pam and Carroll and Don and Jerry and Dusty Rhodes,

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Speaker 1: wouldn't that be something?

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Speaker 2: It was fun with their love for what they were

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Speaker 2: doing really translated out right, and you knew they loved

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Speaker 2: what they were doing, and we all love that they

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Speaker 2: loved doing it right. They were great for this.

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Speaker 3: Community, wonderful people.

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Speaker 1: All right, Denise tree House, thanks for coming on the

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Speaker 1: Bill Cunningham Show. We'll do it again and thank you.

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Speaker 2: All right.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Willy, God bless you.

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Speaker 1: Let's continue with more memories like the Corners of My mind.

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Speaker 1: A News Radio seven hundred WLW