Community, Connections, & Commerce Bonus Epsode with Brandon Ludwig

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Welcome to Mentions and Commerce. I'm Drake wattson a long
with Wendy Anderson.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Wendy, good morning, Good morning. How are you.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
I'm doing well. It's a great morning and we have
a great guest on this morning, Brendon Ludwig Luddy. Thank
you for coming on this morning and giving us your
time and your your your insight on a couple of
different things.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
You're the you're.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
The village administrator of Caddis, some some things involved with
the Caddis Business Association, uh sally Buffalo Park Board, a
bunch of different things. Uh So we're certainly thrilled to
have you on and and are gonna appreciate the conversation
that we have this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Good morning, Good morning, Wendy, Good morning, Drake. Thank you
guys for having me on. I've heard about this in
the early stages. I think this is a great thing,
and I'm just excited to be asked kind of in
the first season. You guess you'd call.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
It, sure, Yeah, it is the first season, so I
guess to start off, we know about the you know,
you're the village administrator. I want to know kind of
your your backstory and how you got started in that
and you know how your beginnings have led you to
where you are now.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah. So I'm a graduate of Harrison Central back way
back in two thousand and five. I know it's not
way back, I guess, but.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
To me, Oh, are you're talking to me? It's not
way back.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
To me, it's way back. Drake probably has a different
opinion on that. Yeah, But I graduated from Harris Central
twousand and five. I went and got my Criminal Justice
associate's degree in criminal justice and then went to the
Police Academy and I was fortunate enough to get a
job working in my local Talent Caddus. Worked there for
about a year and then then had an opportunity to

(01:56):
go work for the Department of Rebilitation and Corrections for
the State of a High did that for about four years,
and one of the part time jobs I had, you know,
in summer going through college, was working for the village,
working at the street department, working at the parks department,
And I just always had a knack an itch to
work there and I really enjoyed my time working there.

(02:17):
Had an opportunity come back full time work for the village,
I took that opportunity kind of took a leap of faith,
leaving us a really good state job, but coming back
and working in the town that I live in. I
was fortunate enough to work ten years in the Streets Department,
and then back in two thousand, I'm going to say
twenty fourteen fifteen, we had a chance to put a

(02:43):
committee together to pass the school levy at Harrison Central,
and I did that with my closest friends who've most
of them have gone on to be successful in the
private sector and in the government as well. We passed
that school levy. We were able to build a sixty
million dollar facility that has just kept growing and you know,

(03:03):
expanding and getting better and better every every year. I
really was passionate about that. It felt good. It was
one of them feel good stories, and it was one
of those things that how can you keep doing that?
So CATUS at the time was also transitioning from a
council and border Public Affairs which handles their water and sewer,

(03:23):
and they eliminated that Border Public Affairs and they implemented
a village administrator. We had two. They had very short stints.
They were more big city minded. They came from larger areas.
I just honestly feel that it didn't mesh with a
small community like Caddus. When the second one left, I
basically sat down with my best friend Dan Millison, and

(03:47):
we wrote. I wrote a letter from the heart basically
why I felt like I wanted to be in that
position and a lot of key points on basically somebody
from the community that that cares and wants to take
the job seriously, just not not just as a job,
but for the betterment of the communiy and how can
we make Caddis better. I got an interview from that standpoint,
got offered the job. I just today is my three

(04:12):
year mark at the anniversary, I just now realized that
I started this job three years ago and here I
am today, and I take every opportunity to promote Caddus
and promote the things that we're doing. That's why I
jumped on this opportunity.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Cool.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
I wish we could say that we knew that and
we had that planned. That would have been neat to do.
But I'm glad that that works out that way. And
of course, you know, congratulations, but as village administrator, you
kind of touched on a few of the things that
you are involved with. But could you go into a
little more detail on kind of what a day to

(04:48):
day is like for you and your role.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
Yeah, so I oversee the village municipal building and the
operations up there, the street department, the water and sewer
of apartment, in the parks department, the way a village
is structured, the police department is ever seen by the mayor.
So I work. I work for the mayor, and I
work for six councilmen. I basically run day to day operations.

(05:13):
I implement procede policy and procedures. I work with our
fiscal loster, and we set the budget every year. And
basically I take every opportunity I can to to let
Cattis be heard.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Is there anything that you could point to that would
be I guess this is too prong question that would
be your your favorite part of your job, and I'm
sure promoting the community and and and helping that out
is a is one of those. But then also what
a what a challenges in your role?

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Yeah, I think katus is in a unique position and
to answer that question kind of I can answer that directly.
Cattis face to along with I'm learning every year every
small community in the High Valley struggling with this is
our infrastructure. Everything's you know, water and sewer upgrades, electric upgrades.

(06:06):
You know, we've noticed that a lot of companies come
in and upgraded their internet and fiber, but Catus, our
biggest thing has been water and sewer. We just now
are in our phase two of our sewer infrastructure upgrade,
where our collection system is going to be completely rehabilitated.
Along that journey and that process, we've been able to

(06:26):
get a lot of funding through state agencies, Army corps,
engineers and things like that. The biggest challenge with that
is a lot of people don't like seeing their town
tour up every day and driving through detours and things
like that. And I think every small community's facing that
challenge right now. So be able to balance the good

(06:47):
on that side of you know, a lot of people
don't notice the stuff underground that's being repaired and you
don't have to mess with for thirty forty years once
it's done, and dealing with it right as it's going on,
and and a lot of the complaints that come in
every day, and you know, people don't like that their
water bill's got to go up to pay for that.
But it's nobody's fault. But it's when you put those

(07:09):
things off for the amount of years that a lot
of communities did a lot of times. It's all got
to be done at once. Being able to balance that
has been something that I try to learn something new
every day about.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
So I hear you. I live in Bridgeport or Brookside,
so we're right now in the middle of some kind
of construction. And I'm also a councilwoman for a Brookside council,
so I know it's that double edged sword. You have
to have it done, but you also have to make
it inconvenient for the residents and the people that come through.

(07:40):
Now the Blame Bridge is closed, so it's only one
way in and out, so you deal with traffic, and
in Bridgeport you never had traffic, you know, So I
get it. And then the residents they don't understand it,
and you're right, they don't see what they can't understand

(08:00):
what they don't see. I can't understand what I can't see,
so I know it's it's a tough situation.

Speaker 1 (08:06):
We talked about that with with wheeling here just not
too long ago, and how it was torn up and
everything obviously for different reasons, but how it's so important
for the residents and the people of the community to
see that that long term goal and to see that
and to understand that this is a short term sacrifice.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yes, it is for a long term reward.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
And I think a lot of a lot of citizens,
you know, I think it's a it's a battle that
you can go back and forth, and I see both
sides of it, but I think what Wheeling did in
the long term was it was a great idea.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
I thought it's a great idea.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
I know businesses were impacted, yeah, but when they're done,
like they won't have to worry about their downtown for
a very very.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Long time, and at least they shouldn't know.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
And a lot of times, you know, you see these
you'll come in, you'll repair a water line, and then
then six months to a year you're tearing the roadback
up for something else. You know. To see what Wheeling
did where they just they tackled it all at once,
I mean, I wish I could do that in my community.
We don't have the funds. But I really see a
lot of value in the route that they went with that.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
See, I get that. I totally understand that. So you're
the purpose of the Cattis Business Association. What is the
purpose of that?

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, so way back when there's a Harrison County Chamber,
but there's also a Catas Business Association. I've never took
the time to figure out why. Yeah, that's but I'm
also I just took over as president of the Cattas
Business Association. Our current president had some health issues had
to step down, but as vice president, I took over that.

(09:42):
But I've never really I guess I've never really thought
if I spend more time focusing on promoting both, why
go back and try to see why they separated. But
I'm also a big, a big advocate of like don't
compete against each other. So I as president and working
with the executive director for the chain where I try
to always like, let's do things together, let's be on

(10:03):
the same page. And it's worked, It's worked a lot.
But for the cast Businesssociation, our big main goal is
promoting the businesses in Caddus, providing opportunities for businesses to
succeed with different events. One of the things we had
a new business coming to town last year, calgaryl and me.
She came to a business CBA meeting, and she wanted

(10:25):
to do these uptown events, you know, kind of like
First Fridays, Second Saturdays, where communities set up you know,
vendors and everything. One of the biggest things I've always
stressed is a lot of people don't like change, so
trying to get people to understand it. You know, sometimes
change is good. You know, a lot of people didn't

(10:47):
like that idea of a bunch of you know, vendors
and stuff uptown. But I would say after the second event,
it kind of just took off on its own and
it's kind of a monster. That's it's succeeding every month.
So that's one of the positive things that we've been
able to do. We try to sponsor as many things
as we can. We have a monthly luncheon every month,

(11:09):
and we try to always have a speaker. You know.
We've had new businesses come in and speak when they've
opened up. We've had a lady from Ohio Southeast kind
of partners with Jobs Ohio coming and talk about small
business gran opportunities and things like that. So I will
say that during COVID it kind of disbanded a little

(11:30):
bit just because people couldn't get together the way they
wanted to, and a lot of people that were involved
kind of stepped away and a lot of new people
came in. So we are continuously growing and trying to
get back to that where we were, you know, pre COVID.
And one of the things that the biggest things we
pride ourselves on is our Christmas Parade, which is the
first weekend in December. I remember working back when I

(11:53):
worked at the Streets Department, we'd have to close the
roads down. It seemed like the amount of time it
took to shut the roads down, the parade didn't lie
as long. But I will say this, in the last
two to three years, Janet, who's in charge of the
tourism for the county, and Chief McCann, they've kind of
took that parade by the horns, and I think last

(12:16):
year we had a forty minute parade. So like to
see those numbers increase in such a short time is
a really good thing to see.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
That's a great parade amount of time, that's great.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yep, absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
I know we have ours is sixty minutes. This year's
going to be ninety minutes, but for years it's always
been just sixty minutes. So for you guys a small
community to have it for forty minutes, that's huge.

Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah, and kind of letting people know that, you know,
a Saturday, typically a Saturday in the evenings, you don't
see a lot of those uptown businesses open, the normal businesses,
but to let them kind of know that that weekend
is going to be the streets are going to be filled.
You know, you're going to have an hour you know,
between the time that people are getting there and hanging
around afterwards, and we have Santa Santa makes a visit

(13:05):
at the fire department and it sits with the kids,
so it kind of lasts more than forty minutes, you know,
it's probably a two hour ordeal and start to finish.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
That's awesome. That's awesome. Now, we did talk before that
some of the businesses in Catus are not necessary necessarily retail, right,
they're just regular title companies, lawyers, insurance companies, whatever. But
how do you get them to buy into what you're

(13:35):
trying to do.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
Yeah, I think that's the biggest struggle, the biggest struggle
I see. And I try to balance it out. You know,
I got a full plate every day with just operations.
But I also feel that my position with the village,
you know, I also need to be involved, even if
I wasn't the CBA president, be involved with businesses and

(14:00):
and helping them understand that. You know, you might not
benefit like a retail place would with a couple hundred
people for uptown catus, but the long term effect of
your business being involved and having recognition and you know people,
you know, I come from an atmosphere if you really
enjoy where you're at, you're going to remember that and

(14:21):
you're going to take that with you. And when the
time does come where you need a business like that,
you know hopefully that that business stuck in your head
because they were involved and you know, they were opened,
had their doors open, welcomed you in, treated you great,
and made an impression on you.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah, because you need that support from everybody in the town.
And you're going to get some naysayers, but you're going
to get I mean, the benefit is going to outweigh
some of those people who have the naysayers.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, And I think I think, you know, learning from
your own mistakes and not making the same but also
having the networking and I hope I just made a
network here with with you.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
Yeah you did.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
To be able to understand, understand and see what other
communities are doing and also share what we're doing. Yeah,
you know, I've never been about you know, Caddis is
number one, but but number two right behind that is
is Harrison County in the High Valley. Like I love
this valley and I want to see the whole valley succeeds.
So to be able to work with other communities and
you know, not just draw our people to their community

(15:26):
and they're people to our community, but seeing people come
from outside the valley to travel to see these things
because they're growing and they're successful, and you know, we've
we've seen that a lot with with our stage.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
So it's not about just Caddis and it's like it's
not about Saint Clairso that's why we call ourselves the
Area Chamber, because we we encompass the whole community, the
whole area. So we are the Ohio Valley. So it's
not just Wheeling or Moundsville or Caddis or Jefferson County,

(15:58):
it's it's all of us because we are the Ohio Valley.
So together, I mean, can you imagine if we all
got together on the same page and had like, you
go here for this event, you go here for this event,
you go here for this event. We all bring it together, Man,
we would be one amazing valley.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
Yeah. And a lot of times, you know, when we
reach out to businesses, one of the things that we
promote is we might be a small community of thirty
five hundred people, but you'll go ten miles outside. What
do you drawling go twenty miles? Go thirty miles? And
I have this conversation all the time. Like people in Columbus,
they'll drive from one side of the city to the other,
which is a thirty minute drive to go somewhere. Caddis

(16:45):
is Saint Clair's, well's twenty minutes. Yeah, So to be
able to promote, you know, things to do, you know,
just it doesn't have to happen in Caddus, it does
doesn't happen to happen anywhere. Is as long as we're
promoting the valley together, it's a positive thing and I
think I think everyone can benefit from it.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, as opposed to as opposed to competing against one another,
you're almost like, you know, we know we're all kind
of together in this thing, and you just hope you're
doing enough to kind of pull your weight. I guess.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
Yeah. One of the things every day I'm diving into
is the community calendar and we try to plan something
something extra what it's already going on. And the biggest
thing I can promote is, you know, this has been
an event that's been going on for ten years. Let's
let's not go the same weekend as them. You know,
everyone everyone goes to that, everyone supports it. Let's let's

(17:33):
find an off weekend.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Give them their space and we'll have hours.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
Yeah, let's support them and then turn around and get
the support from from them as well for our event.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
I think you brought up a good point a little
bit ago, and you kind of answered halfway answered one
of our questions about, you know, how you attract people
from outside of the area, and you brought up the park.
If you could speak to us about Sally Buffalo and
even the new stage and kind of what impact you've
seen that have on the community in the last couple
of years.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
Yeah, so so, Sally Buffalo Park to me, is probably
one of the most valuable assets that the not only
the village has, but the county has. You know, we
have a unique camp campsite, campground community park that's made
up of about two hundred and twenty five campsites roughly,

(18:24):
but also a community park area with shelters, playgrounds, swing sets,
things like that. We also have a lodge that we
can rent as long as as well as a barn.
But about ten twelve years ago we had a gentleman
by the name of Mark Pushcarriage came in and started
a Blues for a Cure event to raise money to help,
you know, support cancer research and all that good stuff.

(18:48):
We had a little rinky dink stage right behind the
lodge that they did not complain about, you know, they
played on every year. All the campers supported, the local
community support it tremendous support from from local businesses. The
cast Oil Boom came the current mayrior at the time,
you know, Mayor Zi Coo approached Mark and said, you know,

(19:11):
I think we can I think we can do something more.
We can do something bigger. And it was as a collective,
you know, partnership with a lot of hands in it
at the time. But I was fortunate enough to come
in right when the bidding process went out to build
it and Mark. Mark spent so much time with between
private donations and state grants and local businesses supporting it

(19:32):
every year that right now we're probably looking at a
million dollar facility that sits inside Sally Buffalo that we've
been fortunate enough to have by the local sponsors every
year support our concert series. The last two years, we've had,
you know, an average of like ten to fifteen events,
and we're seeing that expand not just musical events. Our

(19:54):
local church had a movie night for kids out there,
had some food trucks. Our First Responder nine to eleven
event has utilized that facility. We've had Deersville Theater come
in and use it for open mic night one night,
so we actually had a high State game on on
the video board after the game. So like we've seen

(20:14):
that thing not just become a music venue place, but
also just a community event space for everyone to kind
of utilize. And and we're able to bring food trucks
in for all of our events, local food trucks. We've
had some some really decent sized concerts. We opened up
with Neil McCoy. We had about three thousand people, And

(20:35):
that's one of the things I try to tell you know,
when I work with the commissioners, and I work with
other local communities. I know that when they're coming from
and we're hoping to draw from Pittsburgh, we're hoping to
draw from Campton, New Philadelphia, tuss County and all that
they're driving through these communities that come to us, Like
I want them to stop and fill their car up
and get their beverages before they come. Maybe stop. You know,

(20:58):
we don't have, you know, all the restaurant that we want,
but other local communities do. Like, yeah, I hope people
get in their mindset like let's stop outside of Caddis
and eat before we go, or you know, we know
the food truck's going to be there, let's come support that.
So that's when I talk about the stage. I don't
talk about it benefiting Caddis. I talk about benefiting Harrison
County in the communities that surround it.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
I think we did have at some point, just a
few months ago, somebody from a couple from I want
to say Heath Newark area that was a huge fan
of one of the one of the acts. I think
it might have been Britney Kellogg, whoever it was. There's
a ton a ton of good ones out there and
they said they just couldn't say enough things about how
much they loved it, and they loved, you know, their
journey out to Caddis and being in Harrison County and

(21:40):
at Sally Buffalo and then of course the show, and
you know, it's kind of a it shines a nice
spotlight on the positive aspects of this community.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
Yeah. That that was a very unique and special weekend.
We called it girl Power Weekend. Friday night we had
Britney Kellogg, who's got about a couple million TikTok followers.
She promoted the state every chance she could. And then
Saturday we had two girls from Nashville that came up
as part of our food truck festival. And then Sunday
we had a church service led by a woman pastor.

(22:09):
So we kind of you know, we had a nice
girl prier weekend and that they came from Heath. One
of our councilmen who's always out there helping set the
stage up and run the events, ran into them to
start a conversation. They absolutely loved her. We were able
to take them backstage and meet her. They loved the
park so much that they stayed tonight. They ran a hotel.

(22:31):
They came back the next day and supported the Food
Truck Festival and was able to watch music all day
again before they left. And you know, we've seen that
numerous times. We actually ran into a couple from Indianapolis
that came in for the Donnie Iris concert. They stayed
at They stayed out on two point fifty on tapping
at one of the lakeside cabins. So you know that

(22:53):
goes back to you know, they're coming and supporting us,
but they're also staying in Harrison County and supporting other businesses.
And to hear those stories every time I hear a story,
and my memory is not the greatest with this job
because I feel like I got one hundred things, but
I always try to take notes on that stuff and
I always try to pass that on the council during
our meetings and let them know the impact. You know,

(23:16):
it's not only providing these free concerts for local residents,
but we're also seeing a lot of people come into
the community and praise the things that we have, and
it makes you appreciate what we have.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
So I think when I hear what you say, I
understand exactly what you're saying. Take notes, you take it
back to the people that you really are the decision
makers and you need to keep telling them, you need
to keep filling them up with these are the good
things that's going on. We understand there's bad things, we
understand that, but the good will outweigh the bad. And

(23:52):
to have that many people come in enjoy what you
have there at Sally Buffalo is amazing because you can
keep that up and now it'll just keep growing. And
who what do you have and planned for? Do you
have anything planned next year? Like do you have any
any secrets that you could give or anybody that you

(24:13):
know is coming.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
We don't have a We have our We have our
locals that we that we love and we always want
them to come back every year. We're starting to see
that certain bands draw just those those local crowds and
they get great support and we tell them a ninety
minute set and they end up playing for two two
and a half hours, which which we don't turn them
away from that. You know, we think it's great. The

(24:36):
stage committee we've sat down this year and one of
the things that you know, the big conversation is is
you know, can less be more? You know, I think
two years ago the first year, we had sixteen eighteen events,
you know, and every week, every week, you know, it's
it's it's it's great bands, great artists. But you know,
do we downsize the events and get better events, you know,

(25:00):
and have three three acts maybe in one day. And
we haven't decided anything yet. And I think the biggest
push right now is, you know, do we get away
from that opening concert at the beginning of the year
and maybe go end of year and build it up
the whole year. And we're looking at a way to

(25:20):
bring in a really big artist. We haven't decided what
level yet, but and actually what capacity we could even
hold because we've never really filled that place up. You know,
we've estimated three to four thousand people for Neil McCoy
and it looked there was still room and I know
Drake was there that night and there's still room, uh
back behind that for the venue, and you know, what

(25:43):
level can we handle? And we want to take that
leap and try to make something happen. I do know
that I love it. I know.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
One of the conversations that was had is, you know,
if you're doing a show every Friday and Saturday throughout
the summer, you get a lot of shows there. Then
you get folks that think, well, you know, I'm kind
of busy this weekend, so I'll go next weekend.

Speaker 3 (26:05):
Yeah, I know it's going to be there next weekend, right.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Yeah. It's kind of a commodity at that point, and
you want to, you know, just increase the value of
each show by having less And I think when I
first heard about that, I thought that was a brilliant idea.
And it makes for a more special occasion. Every time
there's a show, leave.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Them wanting more, yes, and that's what they They are
excited for the next event.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
And we haven't really narrowed down, you know. The first
year we tried everything. We had bluegrass, we had you know, eighties,
we had a lot of country. I think we're we're
find out that the valley and Harrison County likes, you know,
that older eighties music and country, so we've kind of
geared our concerts to that. But we've seen a lot

(26:49):
of success with our bigger concerts being being more country
themed and geared. You know, when you have the jambourine
and the hills in the valley for so long, I mean,
and I know people will miss that and and I
know that the Duttons are are doing a great, same,
great thing, and I completely support that. And that's one
of those things where you know, we had our opening

(27:10):
concert the same night they had theirs. And that was
the biggest conversation of is we don't want to compete
with them. We want them to succeed because we know
that they want us to succeed, and both of us
doing well is good for both.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
Of us for the valley.

Speaker 1 (27:25):
Yeah, I want to talk just touch on real briefly
Bloody Lawn and how that kind of came to be
and and just what your involvement is. And I guess
your reason for getting that started.

Speaker 3 (27:38):
Yeah, I mean I guess I kind of started in
high school. I had a teacher that asked if I
could monograss for the summer. That led to her neighbor
wanting their grass mode and kind of developed into just
that that summer high school job that I could kind
of control my own hours and things like that, and

(28:00):
I always kept, you know, so many I went through
a wave where I kind of in college I built
up to twenty thirty accounts, and then when I took
the job with the state, I kind of backed that down.
But when I really you know, went all in, all goes.
When I took that leap of faith and left the
state and took a job with the village, I was

(28:22):
able to finally have day shifting weekends off probably the
first time ever, you know, almost thirty years old and
you know, just getting weekends off and evenings. So I
took that opportunity and just created branded a branded a
name and just kind of ran with it. And you know,
I did a lot of work for the baseball Little

(28:44):
League softball associations, had their accounts, was able to work
a deal out to where it wasn't you know, beating
down their check books, but I was also able to
provide them a service that was affordable to me. Built
that up great. And then you know, I can always
bring up COVID, but kind of COVID, you know, yeah,

(29:05):
made me realize, you know, what I want to do.
And and I was able to kind of have some
some young kids work for me that were able to
go start their own businesses with in long care, and
I support that they were great at what they did,
and they've taken that opportunity and they've kind of been
successful on their end. But what I noticed and I like,

(29:27):
I value my time more than than money. That's when
I kind of started to downsize and and things always
line up the way they should. And at the same
time I did that, uh, I was able to get
this job as village administrator. So everything kind of worked
out the way it was supposed to.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
And it's wonderful we are.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, well, it was a pleasure having you on. Absolutely
really appreciate the conversation. I think a lot of what
was covered today is important for just what it means
to be involved in the community and to promote the community.
And uh, it's in our name. It's literally it's you know,
just all about the community and the connections that you
can make and everything else like that. So if there's

(30:05):
nothing else anybody has to add.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
I just I think this is a great thing you
guys are doing. My biggest things transparency. I learned that
from the school Levy. Uh, you know, being upfront with people.
They might not like to hear what you say, but
communicating everybody and getting your message across but also listening
to them at the same time. At the end of it,
I think it's a good thing and I really hope

(30:28):
that this continues, and you guys keep doing what you're doing.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
Yeah, we're on tap to do a second.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
Second season from what I hear, so we don't bring.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
You back, and we'll see how things have transpired since
your first vision.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
I don't take any invitation you guys offered.

Speaker 1 (30:45):
This has been great, all right, sounds good. Thank you
for coming on, Luddy, Thank you Wendy, and thanks to
the listener. And we hope everyone enjoyed and have a
good rest of your day.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
Don't