And to the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under God.

Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

In accordance with section eighty-four fourteen twelve of the Nebraska Revised Statutes, the current copy of the Open Meetings Act is available for review and is posted on the wall of the council chambers.

Peggy, please take role.

Mayor Nicolas.

Here.

Josh Cutter.

Schmidt.

Here.

Stratman.

Here.

At this time, we have a couple presentations we're going to make.

And the first involves our fire department.

So we'd like to invite those in attendance for the pinning ceremony up to the front, which is our newly elected officers.

So I'm going to ask Jason Wheel and Deputy Chief to come forward to you and assist me with it.

But good evening, members of the council city staff, and members of the public in attendance.

My name is Aaron Jameson, and I'm honored to serve the Carney Volunteer Fire Department in the city of Kearney as its fire chief.

Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to conduct our badge pinning ceremony tonight at your tonight at your meeting tonight.

Annual elections in our department governance each year on the first Thursday in April.

We hold elections at our monthly department meeting.

In accordance with our bylaws, these elections fill various leadership roles across our department.

The Carney Volunteer Fire Department is governed jointly by the city and the suburban fire district number one of Buffalo and Kearney Counties.

In addition, our corporate officers include the vice president, secretary, and treasurer.

This year we have one elected newly elected corporate officer, and that's our board member Kent Hergott, and he's a seven-year member.

To ensure efficiency and effectiveness, our leadership structure includes Chief, Deputy Chief, Battalion Chiefs, Captains, and Lieutenants.

This structure allows for balanced distribution of responsibilities and proper span and control throughout the fire department.

I'd now like to welcome to the podium battalion chief John Ceto and his wife Stephanie.

John is a 30-year member of the Kearney Volunteer Fire Department and has previously served as captain and battalion chief.

Okay.

Next we have two newly elected uh captains.

One is a captain of Company One, or one of our fire companies, Kevin Royal.

Kevin is a fourteen-year member of the fire department, has previously served as fire captain and rescue captain.

And with him tonight is his wife Jessica.

Next up is our rescue captain, Captain Mike Treadway.

Mike is an 11th-year member of the Carney Volunteer Fire Department, was previously a member of the Gibbon Volunteer Fire Department and has previously served the Carney Volunteer Fire Department as its rescue captain and rescue lieutenant.

And he's joined by his wife with his wife Nelly tonight.

And finally, we have two lieutenants.

Our lieutenants are not elected positions by the body of the fire department.

The lieutenants are nominated by the membership, the body of the membership, and then our chief officer corps looks at their individual resumes and selects our lieutenants based on qualifications and just the work that they've done pretty much through the last year and just their time with the fire department.

So I'd like to welcome up uh Lieutenant Lucas Fry, who's a six-year member of the Carney Volunteer Fire Department.

And he is joined by his wife, Megan.

And last but not least is Lieutenant Dylan Davis.

Dylan's a seven-year member of the Carney Volunteer Fire Department, joined by his girlfriend Allie.

In closing, the continued success of our volunteer fire department relies on the selfless dedication of the individuals who serve not only as firefighters, but as leaders in our organization.

Their commitment and leadership are deeply appreciated.

This concludes our badge pinning and recognition of elected and appointed officers on behalf of our entire department.

Thank you for your continued support.

Well, I think we all know how time consuming it is just to be a volunteer firefighter.

I can't imagine the responsibilities in addition to that and being in leadership, but congratulations for for you all being recognized by your colleagues as leaders and thank you for your service.

Thank you.

Much appreciated.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you to someone else, or someone else we need to thank for their service.

Um, Chief Wah, we need you to come to the podium for a second.

Okay.

Uh so we have something we'd like to read and present to you.

Obviously, it's a sad day for us to think about you moving on, but again, I've said this multiple times, but now you get to be everyone's police chief.

So we're happy to share you with the state.