May 6, 2024 • 30 mins
This week’s show featured Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert responding to recent widespread storm damages in the community with details on assistance, Farmers Insurance agent Doug Blasing answering questions related to insurance claims after a storm, the Florentine Players’ Derek Kowal promoting the latest show from this local nonprofit group, and Marcos Mora inviting the public to the annual Cindo de Mayo celebrations in South Omaha.
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(00:04):
This is Community Matters, a weeklypublic affairs program to inform and entertain you
with some of the great people,organizations, and events in and around Omaha.
Now here's the host of the programfrom news radio eleven ten kfab It's
Scott for Heats, and thank youso much for being a part of our
program. This week. We've gota lot to discuss, including a brand
(00:27):
new show in Florence from the FlorentinePlayers. And even though this is Cinco
to Mayo weekend, as you listento this program, the Cinco de Mayo
celebration in South Omaha is coming upnext weekend. We'll talk a little bit
later in the show with the organizerof that great annual event. But so
many people across the area know thatthe past week or so has been a
(00:49):
rough one for the communities of Waverley, of Elcorn, Bennington, Blair,
Mindon, Iowa, and other spotsthat not only saw the tornadic activity,
but flooding and hailstones. So wewanted to vote at least the first part
of this week's program, Community Mattersto that conversation, starting with how the
(01:10):
past work week started. Omaha MayorJean Stothard gave a review of what the
city was doing and has since donefor the community of Elcorn and Omaha as
she was a guest on kfab's MorningNews with Gary Sadelemeyer. First of all,
I have to say, we giveour message a support and concern for
all of those experiencing loss, andI really wanted to think and emphasize that
(01:33):
all of our partners in government,like the governor, like our federal delegation,
city council members, and nonprofit wecontinue to work together to provide resources
and support and that's really really important. I also will sign a declarare era
proclamation of emergency a disaster or emergencytoday that was arranged a day or so
(01:55):
ago with Paul Johnson with Douglas County. Hey, what does that? What
does that do? Mayor? Whatthat does is it just allows us then
to be able to get reimbursed fromthe state and FEMA federal government for disaster
relief and the costs that it willcost us. And it also lets the
people know that, you know,we had this great, big, unexpected
(02:17):
expense that the city. There's alot of expenses the city will have to
and is more than willing to cover. So that's what that means. It
makes you eligible to get state infederal FEMA funding for reimbursements for the cleanup
efforts. Okay, good, butalmaha did I mean? I was just
I got to say I was amazed. First of all, our first responders,
(02:38):
fire and police. They mobilized very, very quickly. They were out
on the ground before the storm finished. They set up command centers out in
Elkhorn. Our fire department started atfour on Friday doing search and rescue and
went through every single structure that hadbeen damaged. They were done by about
nine thirty that night. You know, thank goodness, no one was killed.
(03:00):
We're all talking about that, butyou know, there's things that we
are still doing. It's still aneffort of assessing the situation, and really,
once we know what the task is, the city will act immediately to
help everyone in need of our assistanceand get Our goal is to get people
back in their homes as soon aspossible. So you know, I had
(03:20):
already asked Councilman Brinker Harding, becauseit's mostly in his district. There is
something in city code that this councilwill vote to wave tomorrow, which I'm
sure they will to waive any kindof building permits. We do have a
meeting today with Douglas County briefing atten am, and all of our chief
inspectors will be there to see whatwe can do to expediate the help that
(03:47):
everyone is needing to get people theirpermits and to get them back in their
homes. The building permits will beprioritized and expedited. We're going to do
all of that that we possibly canto help people get back in their homes.
Just to clarify what you're doing withbuilding permits, mayor what you're doing
is you're prioritizing building permits for reconstructionof homes lost to storms. You're not
(04:11):
waiving requirements for getting a building permit, right, well, not waving the
requirement, but because that's about safetyexactly. You know, to have a
building permit is all about safety andto make sure that that house is either
going to be demoed and rebuilt orreconstructed if they're able to. What I
am saying is that number one,we're not going to charge for those building
(04:33):
permits, and number two, themeeting today will discuss what we can do
working with Douglas County to expedite thosepermits and get them prioritized and get them
done as quick as they can.Whatever it takes to get these people back
in their houses as soon as theycan, because what happens a lot of
them, Yeah, a lot oftimes guys roll into town after disasters,
(04:56):
and these are people to knock ondoors and say, I'll rebuild your house
for fraction of what the other guydoes. People are vulnerable to these kinds
of very unfortunate individuals and they capitalizeon communities A do Way building code requires
absolutely they do, and we warnpeople and we want to continue to warn
people about that. You know,everybody wants to help right now. My
(05:16):
job was mostly in the last coupleof days to organize and to make sure
everything was being done that we canand you know, coordinate with all of
these different entities we had wanting tohelp. But like for donations, everybody's
wanting to know what they can do. Give to those those nonprofits that you
are familiar with and you're comfortable with, you know, a law, Community
(05:40):
Foundation, United Way came out rightaway. You can call two one one,
Salvation Army, Red Cross. Thoseare all organizations that people are familiar
with. But do be cautious ofthese construction companies that come into town after
a big storm say that they're goingto do this without a building permit and
get it done quickly, and thenpeople give them money and then that's the
last they see of them. SoI think to continue to have a building
(06:03):
permit is really critical, just quickly, mayor do the emergency declarations allow for
any direct financial support for families whomaybe living months to month and all of
a sudden they got them home,you know, not directly to families.
It's mostly about clean up in thearea and getting you back the way you
(06:24):
were before, which is a hugeamount of dollars. But these foundations that
we have that I just mentioned,I mean, I was amazed by Saturday.
This happened on Friday. By Saturday, the amount of money that had
already come in in the huge amountof money from some of our big companies
in Omaha was just it was unbelievable. And so people are really giving money
(06:46):
for those things that you just saidthat, especially United Way and Oma Community
Foundation. You know, they helpedus with our ARPA funding and they know
how to get that money out andto make sure it's being used for the
right purpose. Okay, and mayorthank you. Let us know any more
information that needs to get out willbe here. That was Gary Sadelemayer talking
with Omaha Mayor Jean stouther Ton kfab'sMorning News this past Monday. He had
(07:10):
another conversation specifically for those who haveexperienced storm damage. Now, even if
you didn't, this is helpful informationto stow away in the back of your
brain for the future in case Godforbid, you should be impacted by some
of the storms we've seen across thearea here recently. This is Gary Sadlemayer
talking about the insurance questions that comeup in the wake of a storm.
(07:32):
I reached out to Doug Blazing,my agent Rosie at Loophole, Ryder and
Clause. Actually he's with Farmer's Insuranceand joins us for a few minutes this
morning. Doug, good morning,Good morning. You've been through these issues
before. What kind of pitfalls arethere relative to insurance when you have a
major disaster like this. Well,first off, my heart goes out to
(07:54):
everybody's lost their homes. I mean, this is this is a generational storm,
obvious. You know. A bigthing is to document everything. I
want people to take pictures and ifthey can, you know, try to
keep in regular contact with their claimsrepresentative obviously, and you know, additional
living expense is offered on you know, ninety five percent of all policies.
(08:16):
So that doesn't just mean you know, oh, I get a place to
stay in a hotel. Let's sayyou know you live farther away from work
because of the place you have tostay, keep track of everything, keep
all of your receipts, keep everythingand turning them into the claims adjuster.
And that is all reimbursible or doesit depend on the specific policy. I
would say more times than not,it's going to be reimbursable. Now,
(08:37):
obviously, if you're you know,nobody's going to take advantage of the situation.
But if it's costing you more becauseyou're living outside your home, that's
what's you know, it's all additionalliving expense. Doug, what can you
And I know you can speak toFarmers Insurance specifically, but the major companies
that we're familiar with are those policiesupdated on a regular basis to cover and
(09:00):
inflation and increased costs and so on. More times than not, yes,
you're going to have an inflation guardincrease on your policy. So in other
words, you know, as theprice of material and things begin to skyrocket,
we're going to try to keep upwith that. You know, as
you know, everything has gone up, labor and material as we go year
by year, everything is just skyrocketing. So in the insurance industry has to
keep up with that as well well. But only if you have a comprehensive
(09:22):
policy though, because some folks areconfused, it's an eighty five page policy
and it's not for your benefit,it's for the insurance companies benefit. And
if you don't have comprehensive coverage,aren't you going to get value based on
depreciation? Well, and now thisall goes back to how the policy is
written, right, I mean,there's going to be so many different kinds
(09:43):
of policies out there, and Ireally recommend contacting your agent making sure you
know you have the right coverage forwhat you have. But you know,
comprehensive policy is going to cover allof that. You know, That's that's
pretty much all I sell. Soif you're going to you know it's all
written within the policy, talk toyour agent, make sure that you're covered
properly. What about roofs, becausein the last five years, a lot
(10:07):
of insurance companies have said, becausepeople have cashed in on hail damage for
their roofs, what is the currentposition involving somebody's roof to be replaced full
replacement value or is there a largedeductible? Does the homeowner have to pay
for a percentage of it? Nowa lot of times Again that goes back
to the policy. Every policy isdifferent, right, Some companies have higher
(10:28):
deductibles than others. Some are goingto what's called actual cash value rather than
replacement cost. You know, Ialways recommend try to get as much replacement
cost on your roof as possible.If you haven't made a claim claim on
your roof in the last you know, fifteen or twenty years, it's probably
time to just pay for it outof pocket and get a newer roof and
get it upgraded. And I dorecommend if you can try to get you
(10:50):
know, some impact resistant shingles ratherthan just you know, the straightforward shingles
that everybody sells. They're not thatmuch more expensive and they sure hold up
to hail a lot better. DOUG. When you have a massive like you
say, a generational event like this. Are most companies, most agents proactive
or up to the homeowner? Well, obviously we're going to try to find
(11:13):
our zip codes that are affected andreach out to them. Ultimately, you
should contact your claims adjuster or youragent and let the let the ball get
rolling. Right. The more claimswe can get in, the more people
we can get in town and takecare of these things. Now that we're
bringing in claims adjusters that work forfarmers from all over the place to take
care of this, right, we'renot just relying on a few that we
(11:35):
have here in town. And wehave quite a few here in town,
but not enough to handle something likethis. So the sooner you get that
claim in, the sooner we canget enough people here to handle it.
Right. Final thing before we runhere, Doug, and I appreciate your
time this morning. What about homeowners? Okay, I've contracted with this company
or I want this company to dothis, in this company to do that?
(11:56):
What are what would you recommend thepeople? Well, do they need
to check with their agent or withtheir insurance company before they sign anything.
The biggest thing is, and Ithink that everybody knows this now, don't
go with the fly by night companythat's from out of town knocking on your
door saying, hey, I'm hereto do it, you know, go
with somebody trusted here in town.That was Gary Sadlemayer talking insurance issues on
(12:18):
his program this past week. Thatwould be kfab's Morning News weekday Mornings on
news Radio eleven ten KFAB. I'mScott Vorhees switching gears now on this week's
edition of Community Matters. The FlorentinePlayers, a wonderful local nonprofit community theater
group, are bringing their fifty ninthproduction to the stage later this week.
(12:41):
It's called The Great Kowalski Road Trip. All Roads lead to Florence, and
we've got not only the show's codirector, but also the writer of this
production here in the studio with us, Derek Kowall. Welcome to Community Matters.
Thank you, Scott, thanks forhaving us. So it's your cowal
This is the Great Kowalski Road Trip. Is there no tie in there?
(13:03):
There's some element of biography involved here? Yeah. The the dad is very
much like myself. He's stuck inthe past movies in the eighties and nineties,
and all his references are related tothose shows back then as well,
trying to have one last memory withhis kids before they go off to college.
(13:24):
I try and be fluent in moviequotes. Hit me with a quote.
I'll see if I can give youthe the movie A Knife that's not
a knife, that's a noise Crocodile, Dundee, a movie I haven't actually
seen. Oh so, I don'tknow if I can call myself a big
eighties movie aficionado. I thought Ithought you were prepared. No, I
well, I know. I tryand go a deep cut on my movie
quotes. I like stuff like,where do these stairs go? They go
(13:46):
up from? No ghostbusters? Ohthat's they go up? They go upright?
They subtle ones? Do I?Yes? Have some? Yes,
have some ghostbusters. I like stufflike that. So all right, So
any big twinkie, that's right,tell me about the Great Kowalski road Trip.
So yeah, again, we havebeen doing melodramas for fifty nine years
(14:11):
down in Florence, and the lastfew of them, the last maybe a
dozen years or so, we broughtin a live band. So it's a
really really fun experience of the audience. I mean, not only are we
doing a melodrama where you get tocheer boo his root for the heroine,
awe to the hair, aw tothe heroin root for the hero But also
(14:33):
we have the catch of we havea live band that as that to perform
as well, and it is everythingyou think nice immersives experience. You will
find our players are in the audiencewith you at times, walking amongst you,
but up on stage as well.The band is up on the stage.
You'll recognize a lot of the musicthat we have. Again, we
(14:54):
like to do parody songs from therock of the eighties and that is where
we fill lot of our musical repertoirefrom excellent right up my alley here.
The plot of this production is iswell, okay, yeah again you are
You're a family on its last tripbefore the kids go off to college.
You have a father and his wifeand children. They are trying to take
(15:16):
one last one last trip for thekids go away and they get stuck back
in time. They get shocked backin They end up are supposed to be
renting a Catllac Escalade, but geta Volkswagen VW bus and flip the radio.
It flips them back in time.They get stuck in Florence of eighteen
seventy. I love it. I'msaying themes borrowed from vacation, Yes,
(15:41):
from Back to the Future future,from Hot Tub time Machine. Yes,
yes, our salesperson is very yeah. The guy that sells them the car
very much, hot time Machine.Yes, you didn't order the metallic pee,
distinctly ordered all it's great, greatstuff. So that they go back
in time to wear Florence of eighteenseventy Florence, Omaha, Yes, area
(16:03):
eighteen seventy. What things look likearound here exactly. So the first thing
is when they when they stop onthe side of the road, they realize,
wait, there's no lights anymore.What's going on? We are here,
We're stuck on the side of theroad. Okay, we remembered seeing
a sign for Historic Florence, solet's try and find our way to that
and see what's happening. They happento walk in on Historic Florence right in
(16:26):
the middle of we'll just call ita robbery. Basically, the town of
Florence is stuck in a loop whereevery two weeks the same things happened.
They villains come in, they robthem, they kidnapped the heroine, and
they run away and the hero comesand saves them. So I mean there's
in a loop, perpetual loop thathappens. They disrupt this because Chuck the
father decides, Hey, I'm gonnaI'm gonna play with these guys a little
(16:48):
bit. They're actors. Let's goahead and let's let's have some fun to
them. So he starts taunting thema little bit, calls them son of
a motherless goats, you know fromthree Rego. He goes, yes,
you know, and it's that's notanot, that's not you know. He
starts messing with them, and thenthey decide, well, this guy's kind
of crazy, let's get out ofhere. But they do come back and
kidnap him because he disrupted them stealingtheir their heroin. And and when I
(17:12):
say heroin, I mean of coursea female not yes, yes, And
then the money that is normally partof the bank that they rob as well.
So so they decide they're going tokidnap him. He must be a
part of a rival gang because whywould he have thwarted their plans? So
that's why they kidnap him for interrogationpurposes. I love it, and you
(17:33):
know, What else I love aboutthis is that you know, I your
plot of a family trying to getone last summer vacation in before the oldest
kid goes off to college. Youhave no idea how accurate that is from
my family. My daughter's a junior, and I've been saying for a few
years, you know, we onlyhave a few of these summer vacations left.
Well, we might only have two. Maybe we squeeze a third one.
(17:55):
I don't know what happens when shegoes to college. I mean,
the we're right down to it.But I also this about this because my
kids were raised right. They knoweighties movies, they know and appreciate eighties
music. I mean, my daughter'splaylist has got Journey in it and Michael
Jackson as well as Taylor Swift andTaylor Swift and Taylor Swift. So I
(18:15):
think about this all the time becausewhat our kids are their references are like,
they get some of the references tothe eighties of the nineties, But
when we were growing up in theeighties, what were your reference Did you
have a lot of songs you listenedto from the thirties and forties, Because
for us it would have been likethe forties, you know, we were
(18:36):
listening to like, I'm not watchingthose movies. I'm not listening to that
music. It's not cool, it'sweird. But for our kids, these
are the classics and they're into it. And it just goes to show you
we grew up in the greatest time. There you go, of all the
best era of all time. Allright, we'll take that. So you've
got a live band, you've gotthe audience that is expected to participate paid
(19:00):
not in a weird, heckling way, but just to be a part of,
you know, doing something like this. That's what a melodrama is all
about. Here. We want youto boo our villain. We we want
people to come out and see thisshow. How do they get tickets?
What's the schedule of performances because you'restarting this thing on stage here in just
a few days. Yeah. Yeah. We we run two weekends May ninth
(19:22):
through eleventh, and then May sixteenthrough eighteen, So Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, both up upcoming weekends.If you want to get tickets, you
can go to Florentine Players dot comagain Florentine Players dot com or our ticket
line four five five sixty three fortyone. That's four five five six three
four one. Talking here with theco director and writer of this piece.
It's called the Great Kowalski Road Trip. All Roads Lead to Florence. Derek
(19:47):
Kowall with us for a few moreminutes here on community matters. Is this
your first production writing directing? No, not at all. It's funny you
mentioned it. One of the thereally cool things I love about this show
is when I started in Florence nineteenyears ago, I went to the group,
you know, I'd done a commurder mystery with him, and I'm
(20:08):
like, I'm not going to comeback. You know, they don't need
me. They have their own littlething going. And then I got begged
to come back. Buddy of minesaid come back. I need to be
my hero. And I'm like,well, okay, fine, he says,
I need I need somebody to comedo it. So my son was
one month old at the time,so in order to participate, I said,
well, I'll do it, butI got to bring him with me,
(20:30):
so I wore him on a pack. So the first month of his
life he spent on that stage andhe got to do a show a year
ago one of our shows that wasactually nominated for an OEA Arts and Entertainment
Award for Best Comedy. But he'sin the show too now, so again
for me, it's coming full circleon it. Twenty years ago he was
on there, I was wearing him, and now he's on this stage participating.
(20:52):
He's still in the baby Bjorn,which is weird. Yes, you're
going to have to it's getting harderto carry. Yeah, you're going to
have to do something about that.But no, that's that's so cool.
And you're already is it hard todo the show when in your mind you're
already thinking about like, all right, what's the next show going to be?
I already know what the next showis too. But yeah, we're
(21:14):
doing a parody of Airplane as well. But no, this fifty nine years
of doing metal dramas. We doit because we have historic properties in the
city of Florence, and the moneywe raise keeps those in place. We
have the bank, which is oneof the oldest buildings in the city of
Omaha. We have our depot,we have the firehouse which is actually our
(21:34):
green room. All of those thatwe we fundraise for to keep them together
and keep them historically accurate, soyou can visit them anytime. Actually see
some history of the town of Omahonand Florence in particular. You have to
do a big one next year forsixty years. I know, Scar,
what's going to top this one?This is too good? Yeah, airplane
(21:56):
is a great source of inspiration.A hospital, what is it? So
you can go to Florentine Players dotcom or again called four oh two,
four five, five sixty three fortyone. Tickets are only fifteen bucks.
It's a great deal. Bring thefamily for this. Or is there a
lot of gratuitous nudity and cursing?Only by me? But I'm not in
a stage, so don't worry aboutthat. The director backstage completely I'm kidd
(22:19):
four oh two, four five,five sixty three forty one or Florentine Players
dot Com. It's called the GreatKowalski road Trip. If you're a fan
of the if you're a gen Xperson and therefore a fan of seventies,
eighties nineties pop culture references, theGreat Kowalski road Trip is for you.
Even if you're not, it's stilla great family production. This is the
(22:42):
co director as well as the writerof this Derek Coowall, great to see
you again. You and I workedradio together a billion years ago when you
were carrying me around in a babybe or and I was just a teenager,
yes at the time here and somehowneither of us of age. This
is great. I'm so glad you'redoing this. Great to see you have
(23:02):
fun with this. Good luck onthe show, and thanks for telling us
about it on Community. Thank you, Scott. We appreciate you. Thank
you very much. You're listening toCommunity Matters. I was talking with a
friend of mine the other day andhe said, hey, I hope you
can get Marcos Mora back on theshow this week to talk about Sinco to
Mayo. And I thought, yeah, I'll have to do that, but
that's not until May. Then Irealized, oh my gosh, it's already.
It is May, and it's atSinko to Mayo weekend, and the
(23:26):
annual celebration here in Omaha is comingup next weekend. We welcome back to
the program, Marcos morow welcome backto Community Matters. Well, thank you
for having me, and I hopeyou're having a wonderful Sinko to Mayo weekend
here. Of course, the celebrationin South Omaha is coming up this coming
weekend. Tell me what's going onand win. Yeah, you know,
it's going to be May tenth throughthe twelfth in historic South twenty fourth Street.
(23:48):
You know here in South Omaha lotsof activities. You know, Friday,
May tenth, we kick off witha concert and you know the carnival
rides and all that, But thebig day is really Saturday. Are paraded
starts at nine thirty am on twentyfourth Street from D Street to al and
we'll get lots of people and thenthey'll all flood into the festival where you'll
(24:10):
get live music and lots of goodfood. Oh nice, the food is
so great in some instances. It'sso much easier to find fun and food
and festivities down there than it isto find a parking place in some instances.
So tell me, if people wantto come down there, what is
the best place to go and findsome place to park so they can join
the revelry. You know, parkingis definitely a challenge. One is I
(24:34):
would suggest going on our website atcdmlmall dot com and that'll give you some
parking instructures of where you can parkand where you can't park. But we're
also going to have a shuttle atMetro Community College on the South campus,
which is right off a queue liketwenty seventh and Q parking lot. You
see a couple of shuttles on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and they'll drive you
right up to the festival, dropyou off, but then later you can
(24:56):
catch a shuttle back. Great,that is such a handy thing here.
I know people love to be apart of this, and the fact they're
running shuttles from Metro there on theSouth Omaha campus just makes it so much
easier. So once you found thatplace to park, once you've taken the
shuttle into South Omaha, tell meabout some of the timeline of events this
weekend. Well, you know,it's just going to be it's a big
(25:18):
area. You know when you lookat especially Saturday, you know you got
to come prepared for parking everything becauseyou got about three miles of production going
on. You're going to have aboutthirty forty thousand people down there during that
Saturday during the day. So butthat Friday kind of it's a kind of
a soft opening, right, We'vegot some music, some music and food
and carnival rides. But Saturday isreally that big day with when the carnival,
(25:41):
you know, the I'm sorry,the parade picks up. And then
from there it was to be blocksand blocks of you know, exhibitor boots
and you know, have some littlepony rides, you know, carnival rides
and all the different you know vendors, and two stages of live music with
all different styles of live music.We have our Santana Trivia ban on Saturday
at three o'clock, which I knowwill be a big highlight. And then
(26:03):
Sunday again, our last day.We start off with the Madiecchi Mass and
that's really cool. And then fromthere we go into zoom Bamania if you
want to come down and do somezoom but in the morning or Rune's at
twelve o'clock, and then from therewe just have the festivities continue. Then
we close out with our last concertthat evening. Great lots of food,
lots of great music, lots offestivities. Carnival rides too are part of
(26:26):
this. Yeah, definitely. Youknow you can bring the family down,
the kids and get on some ridesand get some tasty food for them.
So yeah, family fun and fieldevent for everybody. Yeah, the details
are online at cd m as inCinco de Mayo, cdmomaha dot com.
Talking here with Marcos Mora. Marcos, who's responsible for putting all this together?
(26:48):
How does it all come together?You need a team of probably dozens
of individuals to pull this off.Well, our organization is called de La
in the House of Culture, andthis event really is just a fundraiser event
for everything that we do. Wehave three full time staff people, we
have about five our time and thenof course all of our contractors. So
(27:10):
we work all year long on thisand we're just working right now. We're
working around the clock until we cometo this big event. You know,
we're recently just got the Henry Fondof Tourism Award as the number one largest
diverse event in Nebraska. So youknow, we have people come from four
different states, so there'll be alot of people coming in. So but
we're working. We have a wholeteam of people. We've been working all
weekend and all well really all yearlong. We're working on this. And
(27:34):
of course there's the number one questionI'm sure you get all the time,
is well, wait a second,how come the Cinco de Mayo celebration is
not on the weekend of Sinco toMayo. You know, I wanted to
get a hold of warm Buffet andasco about that. Ah. Yeah,
So you know, burt Shire Hathawayis a huge event, and we can't
really run both events on the sameweekend because you know, when we look
(27:56):
at security police, seeing rentals,hotels, because we both have people coming
from all over, you know,out of town, so we really have
to upset that. So it justmakes a little bit easier. So we
just go to second week Yeah.Hey, you know, any time for
a celebration, let's not argue aboutit. Talking here with Marcos Mora,
I got to ask here, tellme about the twenty twenty three Henry Ford
(28:17):
our pardon me, Henry Fonda Award. Different Henry the twenty twenty three Henry
Fonda Award. Yeah, that wasa great honor by the State of Nebraska,
the Governor's office to you know,recognize Sink of Tomaa with the highest
Tourism Award, really recognizing our contributions, you know, to Nebraska to have
you know, one of the topthree largest events in Nebraska. Because people
(28:38):
are coming from all over, Sowe're really excited about that, and it's
it's a great honor. So weyou know, we're grading tourism and this
is bringing millions of dollars and touriststo Nebraska to them all. So it's
just, you know, nice tobe recognized for this. And really the
Mexican Festival is this is our onehundred and fourth year and we're going to
go into next year with a bigcity wide celebration of a hundred and five
(29:00):
years of Mexico festivals at Omaha,Nebraska. Excellent. Well, we'll have
you back on the program because Iknow that Omaha Sinko to Myo celebration.
It's one of the biggest in thecountry, isn't it. Oh yeah,
you know as far as Latin festivals, you're gonna not Yeah, it's probably
the top five in the country.So you won't find anything bigger unt you
get to Chicago, Denver, Dallas. Yeah. It's a great website to
(29:21):
check first about all the details regardingthe tie inline of events, where to
park, how to take the shuttle, all of that stuff is at cdm
Omaha dot com. C DM isin Sinco, Demayo. Cdmomaha dot com
Marcos Mora, thank you very muchfor what you're doing, and thanks for
telling us about it here on CommunityMatters. Well, thank you ver much.
We appreciate it. This has beenCommunity Matters, a weekly public affairs
(29:45):
special on Cat one O three Omaha'sGreatest Hits ninety nine point nine, kg
R News Radio eleven ten KFAB Country'sGreatest Hits ninety three three The Wolf In
ninety six to one Kiss FM.Thank you so much for listening, and
enjoy the rest of your day.
This is Community Matters, a weeklypublic affairs program to inform and entertain you
with some of the great people,organizations, and events in and around Omaha.
Now here's the host of the programfrom news radio eleven ten kfab It's
Scott for Heats, and thank youso much for being a part of our
program. This week. We've gota lot to discuss, including a brand
(00:27):
new show in Florence from the FlorentinePlayers. And even though this is Cinco
to Mayo weekend, as you listento this program, the Cinco de Mayo
celebration in South Omaha is coming upnext weekend. We'll talk a little bit
later in the show with the organizerof that great annual event. But so
many people across the area know thatthe past week or so has been a
(00:49):
rough one for the communities of Waverley, of Elcorn, Bennington, Blair,
Mindon, Iowa, and other spotsthat not only saw the tornadic activity,
but flooding and hailstones. So wewanted to vote at least the first part
of this week's program, Community Mattersto that conversation, starting with how the
(01:10):
past work week started. Omaha MayorJean Stothard gave a review of what the
city was doing and has since donefor the community of Elcorn and Omaha as
she was a guest on kfab's MorningNews with Gary Sadelemeyer. First of all,
I have to say, we giveour message a support and concern for
all of those experiencing loss, andI really wanted to think and emphasize that
(01:33):
all of our partners in government,like the governor, like our federal delegation,
city council members, and nonprofit wecontinue to work together to provide resources
and support and that's really really important. I also will sign a declarare era
proclamation of emergency a disaster or emergencytoday that was arranged a day or so
(01:55):
ago with Paul Johnson with Douglas County. Hey, what does that? What
does that do? Mayor? Whatthat does is it just allows us then
to be able to get reimbursed fromthe state and FEMA federal government for disaster
relief and the costs that it willcost us. And it also lets the
people know that, you know,we had this great, big, unexpected
(02:17):
expense that the city. There's alot of expenses the city will have to
and is more than willing to cover. So that's what that means. It
makes you eligible to get state infederal FEMA funding for reimbursements for the cleanup
efforts. Okay, good, butalmaha did I mean? I was just
I got to say I was amazed. First of all, our first responders,
(02:38):
fire and police. They mobilized very, very quickly. They were out
on the ground before the storm finished. They set up command centers out in
Elkhorn. Our fire department started atfour on Friday doing search and rescue and
went through every single structure that hadbeen damaged. They were done by about
nine thirty that night. You know, thank goodness, no one was killed.
(03:00):
We're all talking about that, butyou know, there's things that we
are still doing. It's still aneffort of assessing the situation, and really,
once we know what the task is, the city will act immediately to
help everyone in need of our assistanceand get Our goal is to get people
back in their homes as soon aspossible. So you know, I had
(03:20):
already asked Councilman Brinker Harding, becauseit's mostly in his district. There is
something in city code that this councilwill vote to wave tomorrow, which I'm
sure they will to waive any kindof building permits. We do have a
meeting today with Douglas County briefing atten am, and all of our chief
inspectors will be there to see whatwe can do to expediate the help that
(03:47):
everyone is needing to get people theirpermits and to get them back in their
homes. The building permits will beprioritized and expedited. We're going to do
all of that that we possibly canto help people get back in their homes.
Just to clarify what you're doing withbuilding permits, mayor what you're doing
is you're prioritizing building permits for reconstructionof homes lost to storms. You're not
(04:11):
waiving requirements for getting a building permit, right, well, not waving the
requirement, but because that's about safetyexactly. You know, to have a
building permit is all about safety andto make sure that that house is either
going to be demoed and rebuilt orreconstructed if they're able to. What I
am saying is that number one,we're not going to charge for those building
(04:33):
permits, and number two, themeeting today will discuss what we can do
working with Douglas County to expedite thosepermits and get them prioritized and get them
done as quick as they can.Whatever it takes to get these people back
in their houses as soon as theycan, because what happens a lot of
them, Yeah, a lot oftimes guys roll into town after disasters,
(04:56):
and these are people to knock ondoors and say, I'll rebuild your house
for fraction of what the other guydoes. People are vulnerable to these kinds
of very unfortunate individuals and they capitalizeon communities A do Way building code requires
absolutely they do, and we warnpeople and we want to continue to warn
people about that. You know,everybody wants to help right now. My
(05:16):
job was mostly in the last coupleof days to organize and to make sure
everything was being done that we canand you know, coordinate with all of
these different entities we had wanting tohelp. But like for donations, everybody's
wanting to know what they can do. Give to those those nonprofits that you
are familiar with and you're comfortable with, you know, a law, Community
(05:40):
Foundation, United Way came out rightaway. You can call two one one,
Salvation Army, Red Cross. Thoseare all organizations that people are familiar
with. But do be cautious ofthese construction companies that come into town after
a big storm say that they're goingto do this without a building permit and
get it done quickly, and thenpeople give them money and then that's the
last they see of them. SoI think to continue to have a building
(06:03):
permit is really critical, just quickly, mayor do the emergency declarations allow for
any direct financial support for families whomaybe living months to month and all of
a sudden they got them home,you know, not directly to families.
It's mostly about clean up in thearea and getting you back the way you
(06:24):
were before, which is a hugeamount of dollars. But these foundations that
we have that I just mentioned,I mean, I was amazed by Saturday.
This happened on Friday. By Saturday, the amount of money that had
already come in in the huge amountof money from some of our big companies
in Omaha was just it was unbelievable. And so people are really giving money
(06:46):
for those things that you just saidthat, especially United Way and Oma Community
Foundation. You know, they helpedus with our ARPA funding and they know
how to get that money out andto make sure it's being used for the
right purpose. Okay, and mayorthank you. Let us know any more
information that needs to get out willbe here. That was Gary Sadelemayer talking
with Omaha Mayor Jean stouther Ton kfab'sMorning News this past Monday. He had
(07:10):
another conversation specifically for those who haveexperienced storm damage. Now, even if
you didn't, this is helpful informationto stow away in the back of your
brain for the future in case Godforbid, you should be impacted by some
of the storms we've seen across thearea here recently. This is Gary Sadlemayer
talking about the insurance questions that comeup in the wake of a storm.
(07:32):
I reached out to Doug Blazing,my agent Rosie at Loophole, Ryder and
Clause. Actually he's with Farmer's Insuranceand joins us for a few minutes this
morning. Doug, good morning,Good morning. You've been through these issues
before. What kind of pitfalls arethere relative to insurance when you have a
major disaster like this. Well,first off, my heart goes out to
(07:54):
everybody's lost their homes. I mean, this is this is a generational storm,
obvious. You know. A bigthing is to document everything. I
want people to take pictures and ifthey can, you know, try to
keep in regular contact with their claimsrepresentative obviously, and you know, additional
living expense is offered on you know, ninety five percent of all policies.
(08:16):
So that doesn't just mean you know, oh, I get a place to
stay in a hotel. Let's sayyou know you live farther away from work
because of the place you have tostay, keep track of everything, keep
all of your receipts, keep everythingand turning them into the claims adjuster.
And that is all reimbursible or doesit depend on the specific policy. I
would say more times than not,it's going to be reimbursable. Now,
(08:37):
obviously, if you're you know,nobody's going to take advantage of the situation.
But if it's costing you more becauseyou're living outside your home, that's
what's you know, it's all additionalliving expense. Doug, what can you
And I know you can speak toFarmers Insurance specifically, but the major companies
that we're familiar with are those policiesupdated on a regular basis to cover and
(09:00):
inflation and increased costs and so on. More times than not, yes,
you're going to have an inflation guardincrease on your policy. So in other
words, you know, as theprice of material and things begin to skyrocket,
we're going to try to keep upwith that. You know, as
you know, everything has gone up, labor and material as we go year
by year, everything is just skyrocketing. So in the insurance industry has to
keep up with that as well well. But only if you have a comprehensive
(09:22):
policy though, because some folks areconfused, it's an eighty five page policy
and it's not for your benefit,it's for the insurance companies benefit. And
if you don't have comprehensive coverage,aren't you going to get value based on
depreciation? Well, and now thisall goes back to how the policy is
written, right, I mean,there's going to be so many different kinds
(09:43):
of policies out there, and Ireally recommend contacting your agent making sure you
know you have the right coverage forwhat you have. But you know,
comprehensive policy is going to cover allof that. You know, That's that's
pretty much all I sell. Soif you're going to you know it's all
written within the policy, talk toyour agent, make sure that you're covered
properly. What about roofs, becausein the last five years, a lot
(10:07):
of insurance companies have said, becausepeople have cashed in on hail damage for
their roofs, what is the currentposition involving somebody's roof to be replaced full
replacement value or is there a largedeductible? Does the homeowner have to pay
for a percentage of it? Nowa lot of times Again that goes back
to the policy. Every policy isdifferent, right, Some companies have higher
(10:28):
deductibles than others. Some are goingto what's called actual cash value rather than
replacement cost. You know, Ialways recommend try to get as much replacement
cost on your roof as possible.If you haven't made a claim claim on
your roof in the last you know, fifteen or twenty years, it's probably
time to just pay for it outof pocket and get a newer roof and
get it upgraded. And I dorecommend if you can try to get you
(10:50):
know, some impact resistant shingles ratherthan just you know, the straightforward shingles
that everybody sells. They're not thatmuch more expensive and they sure hold up
to hail a lot better. DOUG. When you have a massive like you
say, a generational event like this. Are most companies, most agents proactive
or up to the homeowner? Well, obviously we're going to try to find
(11:13):
our zip codes that are affected andreach out to them. Ultimately, you
should contact your claims adjuster or youragent and let the let the ball get
rolling. Right. The more claimswe can get in, the more people
we can get in town and takecare of these things. Now that we're
bringing in claims adjusters that work forfarmers from all over the place to take
care of this, right, we'renot just relying on a few that we
(11:35):
have here in town. And wehave quite a few here in town,
but not enough to handle something likethis. So the sooner you get that
claim in, the sooner we canget enough people here to handle it.
Right. Final thing before we runhere, Doug, and I appreciate your
time this morning. What about homeowners? Okay, I've contracted with this company
or I want this company to dothis, in this company to do that?
(11:56):
What are what would you recommend thepeople? Well, do they need
to check with their agent or withtheir insurance company before they sign anything.
The biggest thing is, and Ithink that everybody knows this now, don't
go with the fly by night companythat's from out of town knocking on your
door saying, hey, I'm hereto do it, you know, go
with somebody trusted here in town.That was Gary Sadlemayer talking insurance issues on
(12:18):
his program this past week. Thatwould be kfab's Morning News weekday Mornings on
news Radio eleven ten KFAB. I'mScott Vorhees switching gears now on this week's
edition of Community Matters. The FlorentinePlayers, a wonderful local nonprofit community theater
group, are bringing their fifty ninthproduction to the stage later this week.
(12:41):
It's called The Great Kowalski Road Trip. All Roads lead to Florence, and
we've got not only the show's codirector, but also the writer of this
production here in the studio with us, Derek Kowall. Welcome to Community Matters.
Thank you, Scott, thanks forhaving us. So it's your cowal
This is the Great Kowalski Road Trip. Is there no tie in there?
(13:03):
There's some element of biography involved here? Yeah. The the dad is very
much like myself. He's stuck inthe past movies in the eighties and nineties,
and all his references are related tothose shows back then as well,
trying to have one last memory withhis kids before they go off to college.
(13:24):
I try and be fluent in moviequotes. Hit me with a quote.
I'll see if I can give youthe the movie A Knife that's not
a knife, that's a noise Crocodile, Dundee, a movie I haven't actually
seen. Oh so, I don'tknow if I can call myself a big
eighties movie aficionado. I thought Ithought you were prepared. No, I
well, I know. I tryand go a deep cut on my movie
quotes. I like stuff like,where do these stairs go? They go
(13:46):
up from? No ghostbusters? Ohthat's they go up? They go upright?
They subtle ones? Do I?Yes? Have some? Yes,
have some ghostbusters. I like stufflike that. So all right, So
any big twinkie, that's right,tell me about the Great Kowalski road Trip.
So yeah, again, we havebeen doing melodramas for fifty nine years
(14:11):
down in Florence, and the lastfew of them, the last maybe a
dozen years or so, we broughtin a live band. So it's a
really really fun experience of the audience. I mean, not only are we
doing a melodrama where you get tocheer boo his root for the heroine,
awe to the hair, aw tothe heroin root for the hero But also
(14:33):
we have the catch of we havea live band that as that to perform
as well, and it is everythingyou think nice immersives experience. You will
find our players are in the audiencewith you at times, walking amongst you,
but up on stage as well.The band is up on the stage.
You'll recognize a lot of the musicthat we have. Again, we
(14:54):
like to do parody songs from therock of the eighties and that is where
we fill lot of our musical repertoirefrom excellent right up my alley here.
The plot of this production is iswell, okay, yeah again you are
You're a family on its last tripbefore the kids go off to college.
You have a father and his wifeand children. They are trying to take
(15:16):
one last one last trip for thekids go away and they get stuck back
in time. They get shocked backin They end up are supposed to be
renting a Catllac Escalade, but geta Volkswagen VW bus and flip the radio.
It flips them back in time.They get stuck in Florence of eighteen
seventy. I love it. I'msaying themes borrowed from vacation, Yes,
(15:41):
from Back to the Future future,from Hot Tub time Machine. Yes,
yes, our salesperson is very yeah. The guy that sells them the car
very much, hot time Machine.Yes, you didn't order the metallic pee,
distinctly ordered all it's great, greatstuff. So that they go back
in time to wear Florence of eighteenseventy Florence, Omaha, Yes, area
(16:03):
eighteen seventy. What things look likearound here exactly. So the first thing
is when they when they stop onthe side of the road, they realize,
wait, there's no lights anymore.What's going on? We are here,
We're stuck on the side of theroad. Okay, we remembered seeing
a sign for Historic Florence, solet's try and find our way to that
and see what's happening. They happento walk in on Historic Florence right in
(16:26):
the middle of we'll just call ita robbery. Basically, the town of
Florence is stuck in a loop whereevery two weeks the same things happened.
They villains come in, they robthem, they kidnapped the heroine, and
they run away and the hero comesand saves them. So I mean there's
in a loop, perpetual loop thathappens. They disrupt this because Chuck the
father decides, Hey, I'm gonnaI'm gonna play with these guys a little
(16:48):
bit. They're actors. Let's goahead and let's let's have some fun to
them. So he starts taunting thema little bit, calls them son of
a motherless goats, you know fromthree Rego. He goes, yes,
you know, and it's that's notanot, that's not you know. He
starts messing with them, and thenthey decide, well, this guy's kind
of crazy, let's get out ofhere. But they do come back and
kidnap him because he disrupted them stealingtheir their heroin. And and when I
(17:12):
say heroin, I mean of coursea female not yes, yes, And
then the money that is normally partof the bank that they rob as well.
So so they decide they're going tokidnap him. He must be a
part of a rival gang because whywould he have thwarted their plans? So
that's why they kidnap him for interrogationpurposes. I love it, and you
(17:33):
know, What else I love aboutthis is that you know, I your
plot of a family trying to getone last summer vacation in before the oldest
kid goes off to college. Youhave no idea how accurate that is from
my family. My daughter's a junior, and I've been saying for a few
years, you know, we onlyhave a few of these summer vacations left.
Well, we might only have two. Maybe we squeeze a third one.
(17:55):
I don't know what happens when shegoes to college. I mean,
the we're right down to it.But I also this about this because my
kids were raised right. They knoweighties movies, they know and appreciate eighties
music. I mean, my daughter'splaylist has got Journey in it and Michael
Jackson as well as Taylor Swift andTaylor Swift and Taylor Swift. So I
(18:15):
think about this all the time becausewhat our kids are their references are like,
they get some of the references tothe eighties of the nineties, But
when we were growing up in theeighties, what were your reference Did you
have a lot of songs you listenedto from the thirties and forties, Because
for us it would have been likethe forties, you know, we were
(18:36):
listening to like, I'm not watchingthose movies. I'm not listening to that
music. It's not cool, it'sweird. But for our kids, these
are the classics and they're into it. And it just goes to show you
we grew up in the greatest time. There you go, of all the
best era of all time. Allright, we'll take that. So you've
got a live band, you've gotthe audience that is expected to participate paid
(19:00):
not in a weird, heckling way, but just to be a part of,
you know, doing something like this. That's what a melodrama is all
about. Here. We want youto boo our villain. We we want
people to come out and see thisshow. How do they get tickets?
What's the schedule of performances because you'restarting this thing on stage here in just
a few days. Yeah. Yeah. We we run two weekends May ninth
(19:22):
through eleventh, and then May sixteenthrough eighteen, So Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, both up upcoming weekends.If you want to get tickets, you
can go to Florentine Players dot comagain Florentine Players dot com or our ticket
line four five five sixty three fortyone. That's four five five six three
four one. Talking here with theco director and writer of this piece.
It's called the Great Kowalski Road Trip. All Roads Lead to Florence. Derek
(19:47):
Kowall with us for a few moreminutes here on community matters. Is this
your first production writing directing? No, not at all. It's funny you
mentioned it. One of the thereally cool things I love about this show
is when I started in Florence nineteenyears ago, I went to the group,
you know, I'd done a commurder mystery with him, and I'm
(20:08):
like, I'm not going to comeback. You know, they don't need
me. They have their own littlething going. And then I got begged
to come back. Buddy of minesaid come back. I need to be
my hero. And I'm like,well, okay, fine, he says,
I need I need somebody to comedo it. So my son was
one month old at the time,so in order to participate, I said,
well, I'll do it, butI got to bring him with me,
(20:30):
so I wore him on a pack. So the first month of his
life he spent on that stage andhe got to do a show a year
ago one of our shows that wasactually nominated for an OEA Arts and Entertainment
Award for Best Comedy. But he'sin the show too now, so again
for me, it's coming full circleon it. Twenty years ago he was
on there, I was wearing him, and now he's on this stage participating.
(20:52):
He's still in the baby Bjorn,which is weird. Yes, you're
going to have to it's getting harderto carry. Yeah, you're going to
have to do something about that.But no, that's that's so cool.
And you're already is it hard todo the show when in your mind you're
already thinking about like, all right, what's the next show going to be?
I already know what the next showis too. But yeah, we're
(21:14):
doing a parody of Airplane as well. But no, this fifty nine years
of doing metal dramas. We doit because we have historic properties in the
city of Florence, and the moneywe raise keeps those in place. We
have the bank, which is oneof the oldest buildings in the city of
Omaha. We have our depot,we have the firehouse which is actually our
(21:34):
green room. All of those thatwe we fundraise for to keep them together
and keep them historically accurate, soyou can visit them anytime. Actually see
some history of the town of Omahonand Florence in particular. You have to
do a big one next year forsixty years. I know, Scar,
what's going to top this one?This is too good? Yeah, airplane
(21:56):
is a great source of inspiration.A hospital, what is it? So
you can go to Florentine Players dotcom or again called four oh two,
four five, five sixty three fortyone. Tickets are only fifteen bucks.
It's a great deal. Bring thefamily for this. Or is there a
lot of gratuitous nudity and cursing?Only by me? But I'm not in
a stage, so don't worry aboutthat. The director backstage completely I'm kidd
(22:19):
four oh two, four five,five sixty three forty one or Florentine Players
dot Com. It's called the GreatKowalski road Trip. If you're a fan
of the if you're a gen Xperson and therefore a fan of seventies,
eighties nineties pop culture references, theGreat Kowalski road Trip is for you.
Even if you're not, it's stilla great family production. This is the
(22:42):
co director as well as the writerof this Derek Coowall, great to see
you again. You and I workedradio together a billion years ago when you
were carrying me around in a babybe or and I was just a teenager,
yes at the time here and somehowneither of us of age. This
is great. I'm so glad you'redoing this. Great to see you have
(23:02):
fun with this. Good luck onthe show, and thanks for telling us
about it on Community. Thank you, Scott. We appreciate you. Thank
you very much. You're listening toCommunity Matters. I was talking with a
friend of mine the other day andhe said, hey, I hope you
can get Marcos Mora back on theshow this week to talk about Sinco to
Mayo. And I thought, yeah, I'll have to do that, but
that's not until May. Then Irealized, oh my gosh, it's already.
It is May, and it's atSinko to Mayo weekend, and the
(23:26):
annual celebration here in Omaha is comingup next weekend. We welcome back to
the program, Marcos morow welcome backto Community Matters. Well, thank you
for having me, and I hopeyou're having a wonderful Sinko to Mayo weekend
here. Of course, the celebrationin South Omaha is coming up this coming
weekend. Tell me what's going onand win. Yeah, you know,
it's going to be May tenth throughthe twelfth in historic South twenty fourth Street.
(23:48):
You know here in South Omaha lotsof activities. You know, Friday,
May tenth, we kick off witha concert and you know the carnival
rides and all that, But thebig day is really Saturday. Are paraded
starts at nine thirty am on twentyfourth Street from D Street to al and
we'll get lots of people and thenthey'll all flood into the festival where you'll
(24:10):
get live music and lots of goodfood. Oh nice, the food is
so great in some instances. It'sso much easier to find fun and food
and festivities down there than it isto find a parking place in some instances.
So tell me, if people wantto come down there, what is
the best place to go and findsome place to park so they can join
the revelry. You know, parkingis definitely a challenge. One is I
(24:34):
would suggest going on our website atcdmlmall dot com and that'll give you some
parking instructures of where you can parkand where you can't park. But we're
also going to have a shuttle atMetro Community College on the South campus,
which is right off a queue liketwenty seventh and Q parking lot. You
see a couple of shuttles on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and they'll drive you
right up to the festival, dropyou off, but then later you can
(24:56):
catch a shuttle back. Great,that is such a handy thing here.
I know people love to be apart of this, and the fact they're
running shuttles from Metro there on theSouth Omaha campus just makes it so much
easier. So once you found thatplace to park, once you've taken the
shuttle into South Omaha, tell meabout some of the timeline of events this
weekend. Well, you know,it's just going to be it's a big
(25:18):
area. You know when you lookat especially Saturday, you know you got
to come prepared for parking everything becauseyou got about three miles of production going
on. You're going to have aboutthirty forty thousand people down there during that
Saturday during the day. So butthat Friday kind of it's a kind of
a soft opening, right, We'vegot some music, some music and food
and carnival rides. But Saturday isreally that big day with when the carnival,
(25:41):
you know, the I'm sorry,the parade picks up. And then
from there it was to be blocksand blocks of you know, exhibitor boots
and you know, have some littlepony rides, you know, carnival rides
and all the different you know vendors, and two stages of live music with
all different styles of live music.We have our Santana Trivia ban on Saturday
at three o'clock, which I knowwill be a big highlight. And then
(26:03):
Sunday again, our last day.We start off with the Madiecchi Mass and
that's really cool. And then fromthere we go into zoom Bamania if you
want to come down and do somezoom but in the morning or Rune's at
twelve o'clock, and then from therewe just have the festivities continue. Then
we close out with our last concertthat evening. Great lots of food,
lots of great music, lots offestivities. Carnival rides too are part of
(26:26):
this. Yeah, definitely. Youknow you can bring the family down,
the kids and get on some ridesand get some tasty food for them.
So yeah, family fun and fieldevent for everybody. Yeah, the details
are online at cd m as inCinco de Mayo, cdmomaha dot com.
Talking here with Marcos Mora. Marcos, who's responsible for putting all this together?
(26:48):
How does it all come together?You need a team of probably dozens
of individuals to pull this off.Well, our organization is called de La
in the House of Culture, andthis event really is just a fundraiser event
for everything that we do. Wehave three full time staff people, we
have about five our time and thenof course all of our contractors. So
(27:10):
we work all year long on thisand we're just working right now. We're
working around the clock until we cometo this big event. You know,
we're recently just got the Henry Fondof Tourism Award as the number one largest
diverse event in Nebraska. So youknow, we have people come from four
different states, so there'll be alot of people coming in. So but
we're working. We have a wholeteam of people. We've been working all
weekend and all well really all yearlong. We're working on this. And
(27:34):
of course there's the number one questionI'm sure you get all the time,
is well, wait a second,how come the Cinco de Mayo celebration is
not on the weekend of Sinco toMayo. You know, I wanted to
get a hold of warm Buffet andasco about that. Ah. Yeah,
So you know, burt Shire Hathawayis a huge event, and we can't
really run both events on the sameweekend because you know, when we look
(27:56):
at security police, seeing rentals,hotels, because we both have people coming
from all over, you know,out of town, so we really have
to upset that. So it justmakes a little bit easier. So we
just go to second week Yeah.Hey, you know, any time for
a celebration, let's not argue aboutit. Talking here with Marcos Mora,
I got to ask here, tellme about the twenty twenty three Henry Ford
(28:17):
our pardon me, Henry Fonda Award. Different Henry the twenty twenty three Henry
Fonda Award. Yeah, that wasa great honor by the State of Nebraska,
the Governor's office to you know,recognize Sink of Tomaa with the highest
Tourism Award, really recognizing our contributions, you know, to Nebraska to have
you know, one of the topthree largest events in Nebraska. Because people
(28:38):
are coming from all over, Sowe're really excited about that, and it's
it's a great honor. So weyou know, we're grading tourism and this
is bringing millions of dollars and touriststo Nebraska to them all. So it's
just, you know, nice tobe recognized for this. And really the
Mexican Festival is this is our onehundred and fourth year and we're going to
go into next year with a bigcity wide celebration of a hundred and five
(29:00):
years of Mexico festivals at Omaha,Nebraska. Excellent. Well, we'll have
you back on the program because Iknow that Omaha Sinko to Myo celebration.
It's one of the biggest in thecountry, isn't it. Oh yeah,
you know as far as Latin festivals, you're gonna not Yeah, it's probably
the top five in the country.So you won't find anything bigger unt you
get to Chicago, Denver, Dallas. Yeah. It's a great website to
(29:21):
check first about all the details regardingthe tie inline of events, where to
park, how to take the shuttle, all of that stuff is at cdm
Omaha dot com. C DM isin Sinco, Demayo. Cdmomaha dot com
Marcos Mora, thank you very muchfor what you're doing, and thanks for
telling us about it here on CommunityMatters. Well, thank you ver much.
We appreciate it. This has beenCommunity Matters, a weekly public affairs
(29:45):
special on Cat one O three Omaha'sGreatest Hits ninety nine point nine, kg
R News Radio eleven ten KFAB Country'sGreatest Hits ninety three three The Wolf In
ninety six to one Kiss FM.Thank you so much for listening, and
enjoy the rest of your day.
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