I think we need to find the other.

Good evening, and welcome to Hampton City Council legislative session.

Uh Madame Clerk, will you call a roll, please?

Councilman Bowman.

Present.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Here.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Present.

Councilwoman Theraby.

Present.

Councilwoman Harper.

Present.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Present.

Mayor Gray.

Present.

Uh the invitation this evening will be given by Councilwoman Martha Muggler, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

So will you uh please stand and join us for both.

Heavenly Father, we come before you this evening with grateful hearts, thankful for the opportunity to serve the citizens of our great city of Hampton.

We ask for your wisdom and guidance as we gather to make decisions that affect the lives of our residents, families, businesses, and neighborhoods.

Grant us the wisdom to listen with open mind, the courage to make difficult decisions with the compassion to always remember those whose voices may not be heard.

Help us to lead with integrity, humility, and a spirit of unity, recognizing that while we may not always agree, we share a common purpose to make Hampton a stronger, safer, and more vibrant community for all.

Bless our city employees, our first responders, our educators, and all those who work each day to improve the lives of others.

May our decisions reflect fairness, thoughtful stewardship, and a commitment to the well-being of both present and future generations.

Lord remind us that as our public service is not simply a responsibility, but a privilege and an opportunity to make a meaningful difference, guide our words, direct our actions, and help us always to put the people of Hampton first.

In your holy name we pray.

Amen.

One nation, under God, indivisible with

liberty,

Justice

Starr.

So I'm sure that many of you know this year we celebrated the 250th anniversary of American independence this year.

And so you know, all across the country there were commemorative events, and you know, Hampton was not left out of that.

We uh we spent a considerable amount of time not only working regionally but here uh right here in our own city to uh add some special events for our community to participate in that commemoration.

Uh some of the special events that occurred was you know commemorating the Battle of Hampton, which occurred October 27, 26th and 27th of 1775.

Um we had stars over Hampton on July 4th, uh downtown Waterfront, which was one of the best uh fireworks and drone shows we've ever had, and that kind of set the stage uh or at least the expectation that we were now going to have a similar fireworks and drone show every year.

Uh so uh but it was a great time and uh and then we had various community events and tourism uh commemorating uh history with historic interpretations, educational programs, cultural events, and volunteer opportunities.

Now, most of those events that we had here in the city of Hampton uh were planned by Hampton's 250th committee, and uh so this evening I like to uh recognize the members of our community that were part of the council appointed committee first.

We had a number of staff members uh who were involved, and I'm gonna acknowledge you too.

But first, for those who are part of the uh Hampton VA 250 committee that uh the city council appointed, I'd like to call you out and uh ask you to please come up front.

So let's see Samantha Sneed, Dr.

Martha Tonille, Gaeline Conoynton, Dr.

Jennifer Oliver, Amy Jordan, Demetrius Sweat, Asa Jinrett, John Golden Jr.

And Tim Receiver was on our committee as well.

Uh Tim was very active in our community doing the SCA Festival that also participated in this, but he passed away this summer, and so we uh you know deeply uh saddened by his the loss.

Uh but his wife is here this evening, uh, April receiver.

Um let's see, Vice Mayor Stephen Brown was on the committee.

Uh Melvin Faraby, uh Steve Mallon, uh Dr.

Vanessa Thaxton Ward, Ryan Taylor Fontes, and Aaron Whittington.

And uh so not everybody's here this evening, but for those who are, we want you to come up front, and uh we'd like to come down and just present you with uh just a little token of our appreciation for your work on this.

Close as we can get in.

There we go, much better.

Right here first, please, right here.

And those were members of the community who participated on the committee, but we also had just a wonderful staff who just did so much behind the scenes work and some outfront work to uh to uh pull off all the different events that we had as we commemorated the two fifties.

So I'm going to call those members of city staff who were who were involved in in that effort and ask them to please come up.

We have uh Mary Fugier and Eurith Milligan from Convention and Visitors Bureau.

We have Lucy Cochrane and Mariah Rodera and Beth Austin from the Hampton History Museum.

We had Gabe Diaz and Jennifer Elizabeth Harris from the Citizens Unity Unity Commission.

Jody Medeiros from the American Theater, Maggie Sosey from Hampton City Schools, April Receiver and Phyllis Terrell, Fort Moreau Authority, JC Wells from the National Park Service, and Leonard Sledge from the city manager's office.