WEBVTT

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Good morning, good morning morning.
Welcome, welcome, welcoming. It's time

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for our community connection right here on
K one. The one you trustmas Cynthia

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Blanchard is in with us today.
We're blessed to have you here. How

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are you doing, young lady.
I am doing great. Thank you for

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asking. Well, yeah, it's
always a pleasure to have you here.

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You know, you and your group. Are you have the Price Tower?

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Yes? And boy, that thing
is just taking on kind of a cool

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swagger. There's a lot of cool
things going on down there. Oh,

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thank you for saying that. We're
trying. I mean we you know,

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we have been the stewards of the
Price Town for ten months now and it

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has been a labor of love.
It's been this kind of path. But

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coming into twenty twenty four, I
couldn't be more excited about where we're going.

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Oh, you should be excited.
There are a lot of things around

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the corner. Thank you, Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I mean

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it's listen, it's been hard.
I mean there's no doubt about it.

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It's been a challenge. You know, the tower has has it's never really

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had to support itself. It's either
been part of a major corporation or a

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nonprofit, but it has the bones
and the foundation with the businesses and all

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the potential and what we have discovered
and what we're working toward and heading our

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path with our business plan and to
do that, and we just need to

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help teach it how and we're hopefully
going to get that done. Oh goodness

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shakes. You know, I'm excited. You got the restaurants kind of going

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there. We did, I mean, we you know, we've had to

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do some pivot, but that's okay, because that's what it's like to own

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a business. Yeah, you've got
to be able to change with the changes.

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Yeah, you got to be able
to change with the changes. And

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it has to support itself and if
it doesn't, then it has to shift.

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And so we've we've we've learned a
lot, and what's most important is

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that we now have numbers and data
which we didn't have when we stepped in

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blind. Yeah yeah, yeah,
somewhat. Nobody's to nobody's fault, but

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but it has taken this long to
not only kind of unwind and kind of

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figure out what needs to be reset, and but now we actually have realistic

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numbers that we can put in our
performance and build that businessman. We have

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great ideas and and and they work
and they're going to work. So I

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really am very excited for the next
twelve months and then onward. And but

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it's been hard. Not gonna lie, but that's okay, that's part of

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the gig, you know. And
we walk in today. What what is

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operating at the app right down?
Well, I tell you one of the

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things I wanted to to mention is
that we have a new art exhibit next

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Friday. It's John Limb Bloom Bartlesvild's
own and this is an I think this

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is maybe his first local exhibit anyway, And of course he's just amazing and

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we've been honored to have some of
his work in the in the building already

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and I got a sneak peek at
the the art and it's it's stunning.

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So I wanted to invite everybody.
Six pm to eight pm next Friday is

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the opening reception. And you know, the thing that we've been excited about

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with the art gallery is that we've
been able to bring the local artist in

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and the regional artist. I mean, we had And Pollard from Tulsa,

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Aaron Rayner from Austin who grew up
here. We had a great, a

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great exhibit from Handy Dawset in May
that was very cool because he actually was

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is his photographic work, but he
took other local artists and highlighted and you

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know, elevated them. So that's
what it's about. But we also want

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to help our local artists and elevate
them to a region, hopefully national level.

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So that's kind of in our in
our strategy as we move forward,

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because it's they're deserving. Doctor Limblow, I got to tell you is work.

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You go to just about any kind
of a fundraiser and that's the that's

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the big piece. That's the big
piece that the auction off and they're big

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waw. Now you can kind of
do that right here at the reception and

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you can look at it at the
exhibit because there's more to see you than

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just one or two pieces. Oh
yeah, I think Well, I would

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like to say there's thirty and I
could be wrong, it could be more,

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but there's a lot, and there's
a whole theme for both the gallery

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and then in the plaza area and
and so it's it's pretty excited. Well

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you should be. Yeah, yeah, we are and and so you know,

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we have other music music, lots
of it. Yeah, a lot

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of variety too, Yes, and
that you know, I mean that's of

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course, that's my wheelhouse. And
so and actually, the brilliant and amazing

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Dona Keffer has kind of as our
executive director. She's led the troops and

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the and the and the efforts,
and she's done an incredible The whole team

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has done an incredible job. I
mean, the team that we inherited and

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then the team that we have now
built, I couldn't be more proud of.

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But these music nights and the listening
rooms, that's on the agenda too.

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For folks who are not so sure
about that. It's kind of a

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new term. It's been around for
about a year or two, but in

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the larger cities more than five or
ten. But this is really an intimate

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presentation, yes, yeah, And
it kind of reminds me of my Nashville

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days, because I don't know how
many of you all have been to Nashville.

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We always had writers' nights there and
so we'd have three or four singer

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songwriters and many artists that become that
had written their own songs, and you

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just get to sit in this very
intimate setting and they play their guitars or

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their pianos or their instrument and they
just sing acoustically and it's an amazing experience.

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And the times that we've done it
there so far, it has been

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well received, well received, and
and you know, but we had a

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great New Year's Eve party and ye
we brought it back. Yes, but

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it's being very well received and we're
going to do more of it. I

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am a lot more of it and
really trying to make that as stable one

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of the stables that we get to
offer. And you know, I do

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want to I do want to do
a shout out to the community because this

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community has been incredible and it has
shown so much support because this has been

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a heavy lift and it's been and
we're you know, closer every day,

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but I mean even right now,
the College High and Sooner Alumni Club led

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by Hans Schmoltz is in the building
right now and they're doing painting and repair

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work just just to help. And
I shout out to you guys. They

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came over yesterday and they it just
makes me want to cry because of that

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support. And the city has been
amazing fans well I'm their biggest fans because

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they have they have just given us
a foundation that we've we've just really appreciated.

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And and oh yes, Buffalo Rome. We got to interact with Jeff

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Smith and his wife Monica, and
we went and looked at their their facilities

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and what they were doing. And
we've talked about a lot of interaction with

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each other, like we could see
some cross promotion there. Oh yeah,

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Like we talked about they want to
do a film festival, we want to

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do a music festival. Let's be
the new south By Southwest. Why not

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go right between them? Well exactly. And we've got this beautiful downtown.

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This is people. Yeah, yeah, so I there's just a lot to

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be excited about. So so just
hanging there with this and that we'll get

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over our homes, but we're all
over them. And so I just wanted

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to thank everybody and please come.
You know, this is my my dream

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when we first we first became Stewards, was you know, the idea of

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this community coming together and being the
foundation to lift the tower back up into

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it's it's it's glory and then having
it helped be a beacon for the community

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to not only the region, in
the state, but the nation and the

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world, you know, and I
truly believe that we can do it.

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We've got some history and that's been
made and some history to be made and

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that would be beautifully said. Yeah, and I you know, I'm going

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to say this because I've I've had
to operate with the three p's, patience,

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persistence, and prayer and sometimes they're
in different orders. But you know,

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that's kind of my message for the
day. Aw and so thank you

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for giving us your blessings. Oh
well, this is something that's really pretty

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cool. And ever since we heard
that some things were going to be taking

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place, a lot of people have
just been kind of curious that, you

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know, kind of watching what's going
on. You've been seeing a few of

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the things, you know, tough
social media and word of mouth and everything,

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and like you said, there's that
there's that essence of cool er,

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is that essence of flagger there that
you know that excites me. And I

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come from the arts community, so
you know, I'm really kind of attuned

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to it. But there are other
folks who might not be on the same

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frequency, but they're still saying,
Wow, that's exciting pop over there.

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And yeah, it is. That's
exciting because you know it's kind of hard

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to know what's gauging, you know, gauging what's what's out there. But

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you know, we just we just
are going to do keep going, you

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know, and and you know we
have to get you over there. It

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may be too expensive for us,
No, trust me. Around home,

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it's it's easy to keep doing.
That would be amazing that we get we

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get we have to talk people and
maybe maybe I'll maybe I'll get to see

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harmony on something. You get to
see harmony. I think, what that's

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my That's like I was saying,
that's my wheel. That's where I like,

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I'm much more comfortable being the support
team, you know, being the

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harmony singer and the background singer.
But well, get you out there in

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front of the music, Well do
you belong? Yeah, thank you.

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We'll work on that. I'll work
on that. This is going to be

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this is really going to be a
great twenty twenty four. I know that

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you had some restaurant plans. We
did. We we had we did launch

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something that that that wasn't It didn't
for you know, just for a number

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of reasons. Wasn't it wasn't the
right fit. We we are pivoting.

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So we and again you know that's
what it's all about. Well, it's

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about Yeah, it's about making it
work and having it support itself. And

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if you're losing money, it's not
supporting it, it's not supporting yourself.

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And how far? How long can
you do that? And that wasn't the

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only reason that we had of it. Of course, there there's some other

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reasons. But but with Donna's leadership, we're like, okay, let's just

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start from ground zero and let's see
what works. And so we've been doing

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special events. You know, you
can you can lease out the space.

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We've you know, we're doing pop
up chef dinners and and yeah, I

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mean it is and you know,
I mean we we have had just I

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mean, it's it's a business model
that we're we're looking at. We're doing

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let's see where how far we can
take it and if we can start to

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implement some foundation food foundations that actually
we can support and and we then then

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that's the next step. So we're
exploring, but we're doing it step by

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step, just like we're doing everything
step by step to make sure Now,

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because there was a lot of chaos
in the beginning. Part of the get

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is, you know, and that's
part of the deal. Yeah, So

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it slowing it down, getting more
organized, getting getting some some some more

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calm, and getting strategy and business
plans in place. And that's that's what

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we're doing. So, like I
said, if you all are patient enough,

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just hang in there with us and
we get over our our challenges,

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which I feel like we're very very
very close. Yeah. You know,

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this town is great for cheering people
on for their success. They really are.

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It's been unbelievable. So you know, this patients thing. I think

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in prayer and everything else, you
might be a little bit more in that

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we all have. But the folks
run here. They believe in you,

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They believe in what's going on and
have a good outlook. That makes me

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want to cry seriously, so thank
you, But no, I mean that's

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the polls of the community right now. They really want to see that.

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I am here to invite the community
to come in, you know. I

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mean, we have obviously art gallery, We we have a hotel, stay

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there, bring your friends, bring
your family, let them experience, you

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know, staying in a piece of
art which is Price Tower. We we

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have our music nights we have you
know, we're doing some cool things upstairs

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and I can't say it yet,
just there with us. Yeah, yeah,

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not quite. Not quiet. And
again I'm not going to jump the

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gun. And we've done that accidentally
before. We're not going to do that

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again. But the museum we have, we have maintained, and we're planning

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and we will maintain the museum and
and that's part of the legacy of Price

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Tower. And so there's just so
many things to experience. So come visit

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the shop. Well, yeah,
we have it. It's not open because

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in fact, we just got I
just got an email from the Frank Lordwright

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Foundation this week. They're doing a
new program where we could actually be affiliated.

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So now they just launched it.
So we'll be kicking that in and

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doing some of our own creation too
for merchandising. Cool, but again,

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step by step, don't want to
jump the gun too much so we don't

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make a mistake. But because we've
made mistakes, you know, but that's

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part of the gig too. I'm
just wondering because the socks go fast.

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Yeah no, I've heard, I
know, I know, But Sweet Angela

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Box gave me these Christmas ornaments there
were two of them that she had that.

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I mean, they are so cool. They may they probably come from

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the foundation, but they were on
our Christmas tree. And those are just

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things that you can and the and
the coasters and things of that nature.

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It's gonna be really fun to get
that going again. Already. Hey you've

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got a website. Where can people
check you out? Yes, that's pricetower

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dot org. It is easy.
We're going to be updating it again.

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Had to get you know, right, everything in place, but it will

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it will be a work in progress
too, but yes, right now that

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is the easiest way to find is
that's you know, the team does a

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great job of keeping it updated with
upcoming events. And alrighty well, I

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want to thank you very much for
coming in braving the cold. It's really

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cool. When I have a hat
out I've got. Donna gave me these.

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I think these are like so cool, so I had to wear them

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and I'm ready. Oh no,
don't be a stranger. Okay, thank

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you, And anytime I can come
back, I would be honored to do

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so. All right, Cynthia,
we're trying to make you a regular appen

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Thank you. That would be great. I'd love it Cynthia Blanchard with the

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Price Tower right here on k Y