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Speaker 1: But look, you might recall we spoke to the Nightcliff

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Speaker 1: Dragons rugby league club last month as well as Sanderson

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Speaker 1: Middle School about the damage to Sanderson Middle School Oval,

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Speaker 1: who's had done circle work on that oval. They'd ripped

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Speaker 1: up the grounds, rendering it unusable and unsafe for hundreds

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Speaker 1: of kids to play and hundreds of kids at the

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Speaker 1: school to be able to access it. But in addition

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Speaker 1: to that, though, the footy club then unable to train

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Speaker 1: on there. Now it's not the first time that this

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Speaker 1: has happened. In fact, it's happened on numerous occasions, and

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Speaker 1: the club and the school have been working with the

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Speaker 1: Education Department and the Minister for Sport to get ballards

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Speaker 1: installed as quickly as possible to stop this from happening.

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Speaker 1: But we are now of the understanding that there is

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Speaker 1: quite a delay to these bollards going up. Now, joining

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Speaker 1: me for an update on the situation is Sanderson Middle

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Speaker 1: School chairperson Mark Ferguson. Good morning, Mark.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, and you listen now, Mark.

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Speaker 1: I understand you wrote to the department to get an

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Speaker 1: date on the time frames for these ballards to be installed.

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Speaker 1: What if they told you.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Katie, I did write to the Education Department to

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Speaker 2: actually get a timeline, and I've got a response saying

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Speaker 2: that it will be considered in the twenty twenty five

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty six minor work programs. What yes, so, as

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Speaker 2: the chairperson of Sanator Middle School in our constitution says

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Speaker 2: that we have to help and fight for the well

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Speaker 2: being of our students, teachers and staff. Having someone drive

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Speaker 2: over the oval in recess or lunch is not workplace

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Speaker 2: safety at all. It's going to hit one of our students,

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Speaker 2: It's going to hit one of our staff, and what

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Speaker 2: we will find is that they will be either be

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Speaker 2: permanently injured or even death. But not only that, Katie,

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Speaker 2: after school, as we know the Lions have been using

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Speaker 2: the oval, They've actually had a lot of vehicles run

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Speaker 2: through their training session as well.

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Speaker 1: What so has that happened recently?

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Speaker 2: Live at Risk? Oh?

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Speaker 1: Mate, this is making me furious, Mark, and I know

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Speaker 1: you and I have spoken about this before. I've had

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Speaker 1: the Nightcliff Dragons on the show about this. This is

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Speaker 1: something that I feel very passionately needs to get sorted out.

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Speaker 1: And to be really frank about it, I cannot understand

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Speaker 1: why ballards can't be put up until twenty twenty five,

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 2: So I know for a fact they've got the money

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Speaker 2: because Kate has worked hard as well. The local member

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Speaker 2: came arden, she's actually been as short that we've got

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Speaker 2: the money we had. It came out of one of

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Speaker 2: their meetings that we actually have the money and they

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Speaker 2: were able to put up They've still been approved. Now

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Speaker 2: we're getting told that in twenty twenty five is only

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Speaker 2: going to be considered for a minor work program. They said,

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Speaker 2: if we want it any faster, then we will end

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Speaker 2: up taking some money away from other school activities to

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Speaker 2: be able to put into it.

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Speaker 1: So is this luck Mark. Are you getting this feedback

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Speaker 1: from the Education Department or from the Department of Infrastructure,

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Speaker 1: Planning and Logistics or is it just across the board.

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Speaker 2: I believe we've written to the Education Department, who's written

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Speaker 2: to Dipple. Yep, Dipple's replied by this to the Education

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Speaker 2: Apartment and they reply back to ours. But I actually

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Speaker 2: think that it's both the Education Apartment and DIPPLES that

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Speaker 2: they really need to push for the safety of our students.

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Speaker 2: I agree with you as well as the Unity.

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Speaker 1: I one hundred percent agree with you mark to those

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Speaker 1: that maybe didn't hear you and I talk last time,

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Speaker 1: or haven't heard those conversations with the Nightcliff Dragon's footy club,

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Speaker 1: how often would you say that you've had situations where

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Speaker 1: hooons have driven on to that oval and really breached

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Speaker 1: the safety of the school.

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Speaker 2: So I am pretty sure that there was two times

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Speaker 2: this year during recess and lunch where our teachers did

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Speaker 2: an amazing job at taking all the students off the

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Speaker 2: ovals so that they would not get hit or even killed.

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Speaker 2: And I know for a fact that it's happened a

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Speaker 2: couple of times with the nightclif Dragons this year. But

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Speaker 2: as you saw the damage on our ovals last month,

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Speaker 2: it was absolutely horrendous. Now, why do we need to

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Speaker 2: keep spending a lot of money to keep repairing our

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Speaker 2: ovals when we've got a very simple solution of putting

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Speaker 2: the ball as up to save us a bit of

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Speaker 2: money as well?

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Speaker 1: One hundred percent agree with you. Like to me, it

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Speaker 1: seems like commons sense, absolute common sense, and you wonder

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Speaker 1: where it eats in this situation. As you've said, like

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Speaker 1: there's a duty of care, you know, to keep kids safe,

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Speaker 1: and the school certainly you know, you as the chair.

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Speaker 1: You know, like you pointed out right from the get go,

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Speaker 1: as party or charter that is, you know, what you're

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Speaker 1: advocating for is to keep the kids safe.

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Speaker 2: So I have a daughter that goes to the school, yep,

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Speaker 2: and I don't want her injured. I want her kept safe.

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Speaker 2: The teachers, the principal and all the staff are doing

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Speaker 2: an amazing job at Anderson in trying to keep our

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Speaker 2: students as well as everyone else safe. But we can

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Speaker 2: go further. We can actually stop and mitigate this risk.

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Speaker 1: This is the thing. And then you know, like you

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Speaker 1: look at even what it means for football training, people

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Speaker 1: not being able to get out on the oval to

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Speaker 1: feel safe. I mean, the least we can do is

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Speaker 1: have ballards around that school, and I just think it's

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Speaker 1: a no brainer, particularly if that money is there. Look,

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Speaker 1: I've never installed a ballard, but I can't imagine that

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Speaker 1: it's going to take or that they'd need a year

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Speaker 1: to do it. I would imagine that if they're able

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Speaker 1: to get things process, that surely there's somebody out there

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Speaker 1: able to get that work happening or able to be

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Speaker 1: engaged to complete that.

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Speaker 2: Work's o Katie to put in perspective. The Darwen City

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Speaker 2: Council has installed ballards through all the parklands because there

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Speaker 2: was a lot of hoooning and all that that was

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Speaker 2: happening within the parklands and they were able to install

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Speaker 2: that very very fast because they wanted to mitigate the

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Speaker 2: risk of anyone getting run over, any child, anyone sleeping

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Speaker 2: rough anyone that's you know, even playing on the playground.

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Speaker 2: So that was done very very far. So why can't

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Speaker 2: we have it done for our opal at a school?

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Speaker 2: Mark like?

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Speaker 1: This is the thing? It's a PARTTI school Like I

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Speaker 1: just I feel like I'm banging my head against the

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Speaker 1: wall and I can't even begin to imagine how you

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Speaker 1: guys feel, you know. It just this is like a

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Speaker 1: highlight to me of everything that is wrong with bureaucracy.

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Speaker 1: It needs to get is.

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Speaker 2: We've got so much red tape to go through. We've

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Speaker 2: got so much bureaucracy and it's not getting any better.

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Speaker 1: No, it truly isn't, mate. I mean, just like just

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Speaker 1: to sort of to finish things off this morning. I

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Speaker 1: know you've expressed your concerns for safety of children the

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Speaker 1: staff sporting groups. What has been the response when you've

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Speaker 1: raised that as your major concern.

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Speaker 2: From a school council sort of thing is that it's

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Speaker 2: actually right on the top of that list, and we

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Speaker 2: speak about it nearly every day that we go to

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Speaker 2: our council meetings. What's an update? How can we get

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Speaker 2: it done? How can we mitigate this risk? How can

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Speaker 2: we how can we go further and try and get

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Speaker 2: it all done? The biggest, other big problem is is

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Speaker 2: I'm hearing from a lot of our parents that they

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Speaker 2: would love to be able to see the billiards around.

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Speaker 2: I actually had four or actually five parents actually email

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Speaker 2: me and said, Mark, is there any way that we

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Speaker 2: could help? Is there any way that we could lobby?

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Speaker 2: Is there any way that we were able to mitigate

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Speaker 2: this risk? And we're trying our hardest. We just need

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Speaker 2: the ballards. It's going to protect everyone.

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Speaker 1: Oh goodness mate. Well, Mark, look, we'll follow up with

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Speaker 1: the department to find out what is the hold up here,

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Speaker 1: why this is going on. I know Crystal will already

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Speaker 1: be onto it out there, so we'll follow that up.

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Speaker 1: But please keep us up to day as well. From

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Speaker 1: your perspective, I mean, we are in an election week,

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Speaker 1: Like I would have thought that this would be the

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Speaker 1: last thing anybody would want to be highlighted. And I

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Speaker 1: know you're not making it political in any way, shape

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Speaker 1: or form. You are thinking about it from the children's perspective.

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Speaker 1: But for me, I think, goodness gracious me, whoever is

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Speaker 1: in government needs to get this issue sorted.

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Speaker 2: All I ask, Katie is that we re look at

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Speaker 2: this funding, this program, we get the ballers up, just

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Speaker 2: to keep not only our students, teachers, and our staff safe,

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Speaker 2: for the community as well. This is now getting to

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Speaker 2: the point where we actually need to have some action done,

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Speaker 2: be able to mitigate any risk and save some lives

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Speaker 2: because if someone gets killed, it's going to be tragic,

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Speaker 2: not only for us, but it's also going to be

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Speaker 2: for the family and the community.

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Speaker 1: That's exactly right, Mark Ferguson, the sandersm Middle School chairperson,

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Speaker 1: really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much for

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Speaker 1: keeping us up to date with what's going on.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie, Thank you.