Call to order the special called Finance and Investment Committee meeting.

I think I supposed to call it.

Yeah, he's supposed to do that's okay.

I know you're taking a call the special order.

Good afternoon, everybody.

I like to call the uh order the finance and investment committee meeting.

To order the first item on the agenda is Ms.

Patina with a financial performance update.

Good afternoon, everyone.

Um I just want to kind of talk through real briefly what um I'll be presenting, and then we can walk through the presentations briefly.

So the special call committee um serves as a sneak peek for where we are thus far for the FY26 budget, and it gives an overall um account of um where we anticipate the budget to be for FY27.

We are still in the final stages of completing that, but for the most part, we're um we're finished, and we want to just kind of show you in preparation for the finance committee meetings later on this month what we're looking like thus far, where we're anticipated to go, if there's any major hurdles that we're having to overcome currently and in the future, and also highlight areas that um we're also doing well in.

So as I mentioned previously, we'll have the recommended budget book that'll be coming out in advance of the finance committee meetings in um later on in May, and so you have an opportunity to have the full um budget by account, and that is for all funds.

So that'll account for all funds within the city, including BLW and other funds such as the museums.

Okay, and you um these should be included for the most part.

I'll get to the graphs once I get past the budget assumptions, you'll have this also included in your packets.

So there are a few um major uh assumptions that I included in the budget.

The first ones account for across all funds.

So as we have in the past years, we assume or will try to provide a mid-year increase, salary increase for all employees that are eligible.

When I say eligible, those that um were hired um on or before July 1st of this year, they have to be here for six months in order to be included in that four percent.

And um, there are a couple of other qualifications that go into it for um longer term employees, but for the most part it would be a four percent.

Um as far as our health care, our health care costs.

Um, I'm happy to say that um the city has been able to maintain no health care um cost increases for the employee side since um 2018.

So that has been um eight years consistent for the employees where their health care has um their cost of payouts has been the same.

Now that is not true on the employer side, um, as you can imagine, health care costs like everyone else, market-wise, has been increasing, and but the city has um absorbed those costs so that it would not be passed on to the employees.

Um also taking a look at um the self-insurance fund as we're talking about health care costs.

Uh, this year was the first time that we had to kind of go into our reserves in order to um cover our um self-insurance costs, and that includes our property and casualty as well as our health care.

That um had to do primarily with our property and casualty side, and I'll get into that in more depth in depth later on.

But with our property and casualty, we saw a dramatic increase um over a three-year period, and instead of um burdening our general fund and our BLW funds, which were already um experiencing a number of constraints.

We pulled from our reserve funds out of our self-insurance in order in order to cover those costs until we could find a bridge that would allow us to have a pathway forward because we understand that we cannot use reserves as a long-term plan.

So I'll get into that um a little bit more in depth in just a moment.

And then finally, for across the board, there were no full-time employee increases.

We did not decrease our headcount in any way, but we did not add to it.

So there are salary increases that are built in, but no additional head count.

Taking a look at our general fund for our salary savings, we have a approximately 1.75 or 1.74 million dollars in our salary savings that are built in.

And those are savings that we know that from just natural attrition and overall employee placement, that we will have some set some savings from that as not all the positions will be filled throughout the year.

So in order to do that, we're funding our capital, and our capital funding is approximately a million right now, just over.

As I said, we're still making the fine tunes to our uh year-end budget, and we'll have that available, but these are approximate numbers, shouldn't change too much.

Um as far as our millage rate, the um council just did a um uh certification of our estimated millage rate.

We do not anticipate that the millage rate will change any, although the um the county had a four percent increase um countywide um for the property tax.

For us, we are um anticipating because most of that for them was um the increase was commercial.

We have um our percentage is slightly lower, and so we're anticipating approximately three to three point three percent um increase in our property tax as far as our valuations, which also includes the residential freeze that um we have had in place as well.

So there are some constraints there.

Um as far as overall fees for the general fund as it pertains to our um sanitation, um parks and rec across the board.

Um we have not built in any fees for the upcoming fiscal year.

Um and then lastly, as I mentioned before, there were no um headcount increases.

So looking at the um Board of Lights and Water, our BLW, we have not built in any retail um cost increases or rate increases.

So that is the um the rates that we pass on to our customers for uh for the revenue side.

So we have not built that in.

Um typically what happens is uh the board will take a look at that mid-year to see if there is a need.

Um we have received notification on our cost side, however, from Cobb County Water and the Mary um Cobb Marietta Water Authority for potential increases over the next few years as that impacts our next fiscal year.

We anticipate that there will be a would be we have been notified there would be a five percent hope wholesale um water increase and a three and a half percent wastewater increase, and so those should take effect um at the be at the end of the calendar year or mid-year for of our fiscal year.

And again, from a retail side, the board will take a look at that and do an assessment and determine whether or not they would like to do a retail match.

Um as it pertains to our general fund transfer, and that's the amount that the um BLW transfers over to the general fund as essentially um profit of from their um profitability, and um that is three percent this year.

Uh that is a CPI calculation, and it was slightly lower, but the board agreed to a three percent increase uh three percent increase as the transfer to the general fund this year, um, and a lot of that had to do with um constraints on both sides that would uh um ultimately help um the general fund um in maintaining some of its stability as well this year.

One thing you're gonna see as we go through the slides is that this is an extremely tight budget year for the city and the BLW, um maybe one of the tightest for the BLW uh as a matter of fact.

Um maybe one of the tightest for the BLW uh as a matter of fact, um you'll see on their capital side that it's a lot less than uh it has been at times.

Um we've got some things we're dealing with uh on the general fund and the BLW side.

Obviously, with that, we have some positive things coming up on the BLW side that we'll uh see in not this budget year, but the following budget year.

Uh so this is one of those um, you know, get through this portion and get to the better uh times that we'll have ahead.

Um on the side that you see with um the city as we go through this, you'll see that a lot of our revenue streams are basically stable.

Okay, that's driving me nuts.

Yeah, it's for some reason our tape is uh is playing back and it's delayed.

Um say, how did you get up there so I know, yeah.

If you didn't hear me the first time, you can hear me again.

But uh as they correct that, um you'll see that you just a lot of our revenue streams are very tight and that they're uh they're not increasing at a at a real um substantial pace.

A lot, some of them are even going down.

Uh but I think that's just an overall situation with economy in general.

And uh the um the expenses obviously on our side are continuing to go up uh as everybody else is experiencing with their own uh situations at home.

So uh that our I will say our departments have been very, very good uh working with us this year on the budget to uh make sure that we try to cut wherever we can in order to accommodate for the lack of increase in revenue and the extra costs that we're having to deal with.

So uh no services will be impacted negatively.

Um we'll maintain all the services we have and the quality of the level of service that we have, although uh definitely the departments have had to go in and scrub uh all their numbers to make sure that they uh they find that extra money that we needed to make it happen.

So I want to thank Patina and her group uh because they put a lot of work into this.

Um thank you.

So taking a look at um the self-insurance fund, um, as I mentioned earlier, this fiscal year FY26 was the first time that we've had to go into our savings.

We um anticipated that we would um have to utilize two million dollars of um uh reserves in order to cover our cost, but um at this point I think it's going to move forward um utilizing just over a million.

And we were able to um and I want to uh congratulate um our HR department for um their ability to um secure a um a different uh cost savings for our um for our property and casualty.

We went with a deaf uh different um vendor, and so we went from an increase of eight approximately eight hundred thousand dollars um of costs in FY23.

If you look under the property and casualty up to just under 1.8, it was 1.7 million dollars in costs in FY25, and it we were forecasted to reach $2 million for our premiums in FY26.

Um thankfully we were able to um make adjustments and the council agreed um to move providers.

So those uh costs have cut um been cut somewhat.

Um they were able to hold it over a two and a half, eighteen month time frame, and so those um those uh cost premiums will remain approximately the same over that 18 month time frame, and then it'll be reassessed.

So we are um we have been able to reduce some of those costs.

The premium um renewal previously was in August.

I think it's been moved up just slightly um in um to May, I believe, um, as our premium renewals.

So we have been able to um reduce costs there, so we're not anticipating that we'll be utilizing any reserves this fiscal year, and we halted the transfer amounts that we were using from the general fund and the BLW to cover those costs, um, and we use the reserves this year.

We anticipate that we will for FY27 remain um return to the normal uh process where the general fund and uh the BLW would contribute their portion to the self-insurance fund to cover that.

Okay.

We moved from a private firm to GMA.

So we're actually in their pool now with all the other cities that they have in there, and that was the first time we've been able to get an assurance that we could keep the rates the same for the two years, which was very good.

So definitely want to thank HR for doing all that.

So looking at our tax side, um real estate, we're looking at our real estate taxes and our purple personal property taxes.

As I mentioned, um, we're anticipating a three percent increase for the city, four percent um countywide.

Um like most of that is coming from commercial, and then with our property taxes, um there are we've a personal property taxes, we've been able to put some processes in place and work with the county to get a better um process in place in order to increase our property tax um evaluation on, and that's commercial properties, so things inside of the business and their assessments on that.

So we've been able to work uh closely with them to improve that area.

Um I will say with the real estate taxes, um, that is something that has a um lot of legislature surrounding it, and we're kind of in a pending status right now to understand where we're going.

So that will be a which is in our uh real estate taxes is besides our number two revenue source for the general fund.

So that is an area of um concern going forward.

We have to determine based on the legislature that actually passes what our next steps would be and how it will affect the revenue going forward.

Yeah, it hasn't been determined yet, and the governor I don't think is signed uh the law yet, and we don't know if it's gonna be constitutionally challenged.

Um and that's the one that goes in and takes everybody that did not have a freeze in place and mandates a freeze on their uh homestead property.

Uh and then it allows them to go up to a 3% uh increase every year with that.

Um we we have uh since 2002 had the same exact thing in place, except we haven't had any increase in there.

So uh theirs is actually the states is more generous than the one we've been under since 2002.

I in talking to folks down at the Capitol on uh Friday we well, Thursday, sorry, um we uh were kind of told that they think that we're gonna be able to maintain what we do because it's better for the property owner than what they passed.

But as far as how we make that happen, um there's still to be determined.

So we don't know if we're gonna have to vote every year on it or if we're gonna have to have any hearings, uh, but they um they're telling us they think we can maintain what we have currently, and that's coming from GMO.

And also um with the CAP, if they um include the CAP, it will provide additional um constraints on our revenue as well.

Okay.

From a licensing standpoint, um, our business license is pretty leveled out.

Um we're anticipating revenue to be almost flat um year over year.

Um we have seen a couple of peaks in um and then um a lot of that has to do with um being able to um reach out to the business owners that have not renewed and um in multiple years, and so if we're able to get those um businesses in compliance as we were in um I believe that was FY24, that allows us to um bring forth a lot of additional revenue that we had not seen in the past and get those um businesses in compliance and then um and then compliant moving forward in FY25 that had to do with kind of um as I mentioned a leveling out.

Um we were able to get that jump in revenue previously, but then um once we got um everybody on board, we didn't have prior year revenue coming in, and so that gave us a better idea of what the revenue was going to be.

Um for FY 26 this current year, um that is just an indicator of um the change in revenue primarily year over year that businesses are reporting.

So it's based on a scale, and gross revenue is one of the calculators or its number of employees.

So most employee most employers report on gross revenue.

So that was just an indicator of some of the inflationary costs that we've seen throughout where other businesses are receiving additional revenue.

So then we take a look at our permits.

We'll have an influx in our permitting, and then it'll kind of slow down a little bit as those businesses that have permitted for construction start their construction process and then move on into going online.

And that had to do with the Kennesaw Kennestone emergency room expansion that they had.

So that was a very large project, and so there's that's where you see that spike in revenue coming from the permitting associated with that.

And then we take a look at our charges for services.

So that's gonna include sanitation, parks and rec.

Sanitation has had a kind of a level increase that has to do with the number of units that come on for new construction as or if we've acquired any additional units within the city, then those additional services are added on.

So it's pretty pretty steady, no large spikes there.

We don't anticipate any fee charges.

All of the growth has primarily been natural except for I think we had a slight increase or change increase in FY 24 that was an adjustment there.

They've also brought on internally some additional services for our downtown area and things of that nature.

So our parks and record leveled off.

We've seen some huge growth in those areas.

But taking a look at our franchise fees, um it has pretty much taken a nose die.

Um so but that's industry-wide, you know.

Um a lot of the telephone, most people, you know, have reduced the number of telephones that they have drastically.

Um it's hard to even find people to have a um, as they used to call it a house phone in their um in their house.

So, but now um so that and along with cable, most people are doing streaming services.

Um with our cell phones and streaming services, these revenue strains have um diminished greatly, and I anticipate that they'll continue.

They're franchising.

I guess we've got franchise on ice cream internet.

So everybody's switching from telephone cable over to their gigabit service or whatever.

So we don't have any fees on that service, I'd say that's where the service should say.

I I believe that's correct.

I have to double check.

I'm not sure with the um I'll have to triple check exactly how that's done.

I know that we have um we franchise fees with the cable company.

I have to determine if that in is inclusive of the um high speed.

Yeah, um, and then uh we have electric and natural gas.

And then we have electric and natural gas.

We saw C Electric showing a slight uptick, and that is because we are there have been for other providers that pay into the city.

They've had a number of increases in their costs, and though, and this is a percentage of their revenue, and so we've had a slight increase there, and we also anticipate that toward the end of the fiscal year, we'll start on onboarding another large load customer that will also help increase the internal BLW revenue that we pay to the city.

Natural gas has just seen a huge fluctuation in pricing over the last few years.

It has been extremely volatile.

We are this year the prices have dropped much more than we thought that they would.

So they've seen lower pricing that they have also been able in some instances to offer their customers, so that is reflective in the amount that we receive.

So then we'll looking at tax equity and insurance premiums.

So we have a slight increase there.

We don't know exactly what the amount will be as it's based on the valuation or the digest.

So we'll find we'll have that exact number a little bit later on when the full digest is released.

However, that area is also in negotiations over a 10-year period, and so that is something that they will be able to talk to, we assume we hope later on this year, and that has a lot to do with the Mapleton City of Mapleton being brought on.

And then we have our insurance premium.

So taking a look at the BLW, we'll take a look at the revenue side first.

As I mentioned, we have not included any retail rate increases in this budget.

So all of the adjustments you see there are in relation to usage or growth.

From a electric side, we anticipate there'll be a slight increase as we mentioned previously to the new large load coming on.

But that'll be possibly the last quarter of the fiscal year.

From a water standpoint, we've been in drought, and we just haven't seen the amount of water usage.

We've seen a um we've seen somewhat of a drop in that consistently, but we anticipate that um with the additional increase in usage.

Hopefully, next year we'll kind of get back into a cycle where the weather is not as um as much of a constraint.

And the same with sewer, the sewer is pretty much leveled off.

We don't see um much change there.

Our largest um customers for our sewer.

There are a lot of conservation efforts that have they have put in place in order to um minimize their costs, and so um those conservation efforts um have worked fairly well for them, and so that has stabilized our um revenue there as well.

And then lastly, we'll take a look at the BLW cost of sales.

So we've looked at our electric very carefully.

Both the calculations of it, the use, and even how much we think that we're gonna have and looking into the future as we bring on additional customers.

So with that, um we did not have our year-end settlement that we had that we've had in the past, so you'll see an increase in our cost for electric there.

We think it will surpass the cost this year.

Um as there is a new calculation that's being implemented with MEAG that will hopefully um make those um year-in settlement um numbers a little bit more predictable.

So we are working with them closely in order to um get that in place.

Okay.

Um with our water, that's um reflective of the 5% increase and the sewer, the three and a half percent increase in our costs.

Which those costs are being imposed by other suppliers that we use, and so it's not that the city or the BLW is saying they want to increase either one of those.

We're just doing pass throughs.

Okay.

And so this one actually takes us um as a segue into um the next committee meeting.

So we'll take a look at our hotel motel and auto rental.

Um, unfortunately, this year we have seen um a decline in our hotel motel um revenue collections consistently.

Um we anticipate that that will um continue.

Uh and I think a lot of that has to do with the economy.

Um we did have um in our auto rental a spike this year, and that had to do with about 170,000 that was collected um due to audit um revenue that was outside the collections um throughout the year.

So we anticipate that there will be some growth there, just not as much as we saw year to year from FY25 to FY26.

So with that being said, um I'll conclude my presentation and be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Um question.

Sir Are you factoring in any um increases in hotel motel tax because of the FIFA World Cup uh no um not for this fiscal year?

Um I don't really see um because it's happening around the June time frame.

I don't see it necessarily um carrying over too much into um next year or there being a jump.

So we'll just have to kind of wait and see.

I I'm taking that as a happy surprise.

So we're yeah, we're we're hopeful that we're gonna see uh something in the next 30 to 60 days, but uh that it wouldn't carry into July.

So uh for this budget that we're presenting here, it wouldn't be part of that, but we do anticipate the current budget year we're in that we would see that increase.

Any other questions?

We need to take any action.

No, sir.

This is um just for information only, and then um I will come back um during the finance committee meetings later this month with the full recommended budget.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

All right, thank you.

No other action to come before the finance committee.

We will turn a committee of two here, so I figure we would uh make it easier for you to this way.

All right.

I call the um special called parks, recreation and tourism committee meeting to order.

So thank you all for being here.

I know it's a big day for everyone for the people in here that um make our community better every day.

And I you know I I go out and I hope people make loans and or get loans and buy houses, and I hope I make our community better, but I make money on that.

You guys just do it, and it's amazing.

So thank you all for what you do.

Thank you for being here, and City's excited to support you.

So to start with, I'm going to start calling folks by organization.

And if you'll just state your name for the good of everyone here so they know who you are, and um we'll get going.

Sound good?

Good to do, Andre.

All right.

First up, we have uh Marietta Visitors Bureau and the lease on the welcome center.

I think both of those are Brittany.

Well, good afternoon.

Um thank you for the opportunity this afternoon to request the Hotel Motel Tax Collections for Fiscal Year 27.

I'm Brittany Gray, and I serve as the executive director for Visit Marietta.

Uh this afternoon I'm gonna share with you all a little bit about what we do, how we spent some of last year's money in our areas of focus for FY27.

And I realize I probably need a slide.

I'm not sure how to do this.

Rachel, I did.

That's okay, thank you.

I'm much better with visuals.

Perfect.

Okay, here we go.

So as the city's destination marketing organization or our DMO, our job is to tell stories, and we are the storytellers.

We're not creating new product or content necessarily, we're sharing our partners' experiences and stories.

We spent a good deal of time last year continuing to push our out our new brand.

Um, our visitors, businesses, and residents have all found it to be very authentic and to emotionally connect with the brand.

During our brand equity analysis that we conducted, we confirmed that the Marietta Square is our most memorable landmark in the city, and so we're using that as our hub in all of our messaging, and then we'll spoke out the rest of the messaging from the square.

This is our new brand, and our tagline is Meet Me on the Square.

And hopefully you've seen these logos around the square and in magazines and on social media and even while surfing the internet.

We also decided to, it was it was time to update the interior of our welcome center.

We needed the interior space to reflect our exterior messaging.

Maybe you have remembered um some of how we used to look inside the welcome center.

The interior wasn't bad, it just was really dated and it didn't resonate with today's visitor.

So we incorporated our new look and feel with artwork and some of our new retail.

We also kept it very inviting so people will still sit down and have a conversation with us and deciding what to do around Marietta.

We weren't necessarily focused on making it prettier, but it was about making the first impression actually work with our visitors.

So we're really proud of our welcome center, so we hope you will pop in soon to see our new look and feel.

We actually updated our website last year, and I told you a little bit about it.

But in addition to the website, we developed uh a new Black History landing page on the site.

And our visitors were asking for this, they were hungry for this, and we needed a place for all the content to live.

So we have a dedicated page to pull it all together.

Representation matters when it comes to travel decisions.

We also have a really great social media presence, and here are two examples I pulled.

The first is Miss Jeannie Martin Carter, who was a Lemon Street educator, and she was the first black woman elected to Marietta City School Board, and this actually connected with our residents in February.

And the second was a partnership we had with the ATL Foodies.

They are influencers online, and they covered Spring's second branch, a new restaurant in Marietta, and this clo had close to 60,000 views for us.

We continue to place print ads because we can't always rely on social media algorithms to be kind to us.

So we photograph our partners' locations and we use local talents instead of hiring models.

We're very intentional in reaching who we want.

It's all strategy.

And these pay ads are how we feed traffic to our new website.

We have insanely good targeting when it comes to our meta ads, which are Facebook and Instagram, and we're putting inspiration in front of the person before they even decide where they want to go.

We are partnering with the city in covering the broad story of America, excuse me, America 250.

So we created a Marietta 250 landing page.

You see the logos all over the city.

And this is where all of our partners' events live.

So we're taking that messaging and working it into a paid strategy, even for Visit Marietta.

And we're doing the same for FIFA World Cup.

We aren't competing with any of the World Cup matches in Atlanta, but we're leveraging them.

This is a global audience and a global moment for us, and we're hoping this can be a little happy surprise for Marietta.

We're going to continue to host our two signature events.

This year will be the 40th anniversary of the Marietta Pilgrimage Home Tour.

We produce this with Cobb Landmarks, and it's always the first full weekend of the summer.

And we just had our 31st Taste of Marietta, and this is an incredible celebration of us being a dining destination.

And this is always the last Sunday in April.

With the funding that y'all provide, we are now able to introduce Marietta to business leaders from all over the state of Georgia.

These are civic influencers and their decision makers.

This is actually a picture from Leadership Georgia that we hosted in Marietta.

And this is a target marketing.

This is excuse me, a target influence marketing for us.

We're also able to partner with Cobb Travel and Tourism when it comes to hosting other groups as well.

This is Association Express, and we hosted them two weeks ago.

These are meeting planners, and they could lead to direct economic impact that could bring hotel rooms for us, restaurant or attraction buyouts, and transportation all over the city, which is going to be helpful for our hotel mental tax and our auto-rental tax collections.

So we're very fortunate to be able to host groups like this.

And speaking of economic impact, tourism broadened economic impact into Cobb County of $2.5 billion in 2024.

It's the county's top economic driver, and we're very proud to work in tourism.

Tourism does save the average Cobb County household $744 when it comes to taxes, and tourism is very important to Marietta's future.

So our FY27 areas of focus are continue continuing to tell our destination's story and continuing our brand visibility.

We want to enhance the visitors' experience and their engagement.

We want to focus on inclusive tourism.

We want everyone to feel comfortable here.

We want to continue to strengthen our collaborative partnerships and our community alignment, and we want to be rooted in data-driven strategy and ROI measurement.

So that concludes my first presentation.

Are there any questions?

I just have one comment.

Mrs.

Carter lives in my ward.

She's still living on board bug.

I love that.

We when we posted that on Instagram and Facebook, it had the most resident um interaction that we've ever had in any of our posts.

So we're very proud of that.

Any other questions?

Okay, thank you.

So I think I can move now into our tourism requests for our welcome center rent budget.

The City of Marietta purchased four Depot Street, which is where we reside from the state of Georgia in FY 2020.

And FY 2027 will be the seventh year of the agreement.

And we would like for you to consider the request of 22,137.80 cents to be exact in tourism funds to be distributed to us, visit Marietta for rent and maintenance for the use of Four Depot Street for FY27.

And I get those numbers from the city.

Thanks for not making them up.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, we have Ali Stage Foundation.

Good afternoon, Council members.

Thank you for your time and allowing us this opportunity to make this request.

My name's Laura Price, and I serve as the treasurer for the Alley Stage Foundation.

And I'm here today on behalf of our producing artistic director, Colt Chambers, who could not be here.

He's in Asheville, North Carolina right now, representing the great state of Georgia as chairman of the Georgia Council for the Arts in meetings with the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Council for the Arts.

Arts, Arts, Arts.

He really obviously would very much rather be here today do this, but I get the privilege of stepping in and making this request.

The Alley Stage Foundation is a nonprofit dedicated to one simple but important mission to present high-quality, accessible live entertainment while ensuring fair compensation for our artist.

We exist to support programming that is artistically ambitious but not always commercially viable so that Marietta can continue to offer unique high-quality cultural experiences that attract visitors and serve our community.

Importantly, our organization is entirely volunteer run, which means that every dollar we receive, especially public funding goes directly to programming and artist support.

Our core programs include the Overture Cabaret series, which was a series of themed musical performances featuring professional vocalists and musicians.

My personal favorite, Shakespeare, an interactive theatral experience that has built a strong regional following, and then a very Marietta Christmas, which was a seasonal production that's designed to become a holiday tourism tradition.

Now, these are not typical performances, they're destination experiences that bring people to the Marietta Square, specifically for something they cannot find elsewhere in Cobb County.

Um, our work is amplified through our partnership with the Alley Stage, our host venue, and one of Marietta's most active cultural engines that host over 250 performances annually with nearly 20,000 patrons each year, and then we've also the Alley Stage does over 200,000 in donated tickets to veterans through vet ticks.

That's all of this can be an estimated 1.5 million annual economic impact.

Excuse me.

Together, this creates a consistent pipeline of visitors to the Marietta Square, many of whom dine, shop, and explore before and after performances.

Our foundation programs build on that momentum by offering specialty experiences that attract new audiences and encourage repeat visitation, particularly from outside Marietta.

In FY 2026, we were honored to receive 20,000 in cultural tourism funding.

Thank you.

That was awesome.

And we want to be very clear about how these funds they were used 100% went directly to artist fees.

This investment allowed us to compensate the professional artists fairly, expand the scale and quality of our productions, maintain affordable ticket prices, typically under $25, and that ultimately attracts thousands of attendees, including many from who were outside Marietta.

Those funds directly supported the tourism impact we're here to talk about today.

For FY 2027, we're requesting 35,000 in funding, and again, 100% of these funds will go directly to our artist compensation, allocating roughly 10,000 for our Shakespeare, 21.5 for the Overture Cabaret series, and 8,400 for a very Marietta Christmas.

As a volunteer run organization, we were able to ensure that this investment goes directly to the people who make these experiences possible.

This funding is essential to maintaining high quality programming while keeping ticket prices accessible, which is critical to both community access and tourism competitiveness.

At its core, this is more about performances, is about bringing people to Marietta, supporting local businesses, creating memorable experiences, and positioning our city as a true destination for arts and culture.

We're deeply appreciative for your past support, and we respectfully ask for your continued investment in this work.

Thank you all so much for your time, and I welcome any questions.

Thank you.

I don't have any today either.

You did a great job.

Oh, yay, thank you guys.

I was so nervous.

But there's all these amazing people behind me that I know, so I'm like, okay, I feel like I'm talking in front of my friends.

We could come up with questions.

Huh.

Well, you know what?

Too late.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Next up, we have Brumbeen Hall and Gardens.

Gone with the wind.

Gone with the Wind.

Good afternoon.

My name is Jessica Giancola, and I'm the director of the Gone with the Wind Museum at Brumby Hall and Gardens.

We are requesting the same level of funding as in prior years.

And I'd like to share a little on just how those funds have directly contributed to the growth of the museum and why continued investment is critical to sustaining that momentum.

I have served as director of the museum for the past year and a half, and during that time we have seen significant expansion in both attendance and reach.

In 2024, we welcomed 3,999 visitors representing 24 countries.

In 2025, that number grew to 5,588 guests from 45 states and 44 countries, including new international visitors from Taiwan, Venezuela, Bosnia, and Azerbaijan.

Importantly, the majority of these visitors travel specifically to visit our museum.

But they don't stop there.

They stay, dine, and spend throughout the local community community.

These position that positions the museum is not just a cultural asset, but a driver of tourism and economic impact.

The growth is a result of an intentional strategy.

We expanded our marketing efforts beyond the Southeast, investing in a summer billboard campaign and national exposure through the Tour Bus Magazine.

We also brightened our audience through additional platforms like the Knot and Here Comes the Guide to expand our reach in the wedding market.

In addition, we introduced new programming to diversify engagement.

Our Seven Experience series will continue with pop-up events like Bunnies in the Blooms, and we attract to attract new audiences and encourage repeat visitors.

These efforts led to an average Saturday attendance increase of 133% compared to the previous year.

We also strengthened our community presence through participation events such as the Super Museum Sunday and the Pilgrimage of Homes.

We love to attend the senior expo each year and foster that relationship with our local senior communities and centers.

And we are we also host about 12 to 14 different high schools for prom and homecoming photos, whether we really like it or not, but they're there.

We support them.

And they just get in the flowers, they're all but it's okay.

And finally, I am proud to have made connections and hosted events with many amazing groups in this room.

Looking ahead, we are building on the success with strategic initiatives designed to further elevate tourism and engagement.

We will continue our Southern Experience Southern Experience series.

And in July, we will launch the Passport to the Past to celebrate America's 250th anniversary, encouraging visitors to explore mine and other partner museums.

In November, we will host a weekend long event in partnership with the Clayton County CVB and the Road to Terra Museum to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the novel's publication.

We anticipate drawing at least 150 visitors from across the country for this event alone.

We are also seeing remarkable growth in the historic garden event rentals, revenue increase from 1,025 in 2024 to 7,091 in FY 2025.

And year to date, FY2026 has already reached 14,633 with additional booking security.

This growth has been driven by targeted investments in this space, including the addition of a micro bridal suite, a groom's garden, and then the supplies that we needed to properly host the events professionally.

However, to remain competitive in the rapidly growing wedding and event market, a full-scale bridal suite is essential to our success.

This is a critical next step in maximizing the revenue potential of the property and enhancing the visitor experience.

So continued funding of tourism will allow us to maintain our growth and expand our reach and further position the museum as a key cultural and economic contributor to the community.

I appreciate your time and your consideration.

Thank you.

I have a couple questions.

Okay.

All right.

One, how do we know if someone came here to go specifically to gone with the wind first versus they came to they're in Marietta and they see it and they want to go?

Um I don't know that specifically.

I just know ticket sales and discussions and then signing our guest book, the countries that they come from and why they came.

Um this is a bucket list item.

Um, and then we talk about where they're staying or I recommend uh restaurants, those sorts of things.

Okay.

Second question bridal suite.

Yes.

So what do we think the anticipated revenue increase would be if we had the full bridal suite?

How many more how many more events do we have, etc.?

Um I would say that our weddings would double.

Um when brides can't decide that they're not going to move forward with me.

Um, it is often the response is we did not have a bridal suite.

In fact, Ronnie from IT said his daughter would have booked there had we had a bridal suite.

So yeah, I anticipate it to double.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any more questions?

No.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

So next we have uh a couple city staff requests.

So first is data services and marketing.

Good afternoon, council.

Thank you for the opportunity to uh be before you today to ask for this request of a tourism grant to support tourism efforts, including the annual contract renewal of Placer AI.

Uh, the city's communications office actively promotes the city and supports broader tourism initiatives.

Funds are used for a variety of marketing and uh promotional expenditures, including social media advertising, digital billboards, promotional items, and other strategic initiatives.

Um some funds that we had from last year are actually being used right now.

You'll see in the next week or two.

There's a four-page article and cover with Cobb in Focus to celebrate our World or Soccer Fest with the World Cup coming, our 250th.

We had some big anniversaries like Glover Park Concert Series, the 30th anniversary of the History Center.

And all of that information is also going on to the digital platform of Marietta.com.

So those are some initiatives that we've been working on just to kind of uh support, continue the support of tourism in Marietta.

Um we also use Placer AI.

This is a location intelligence platform that tracks visitors' patterns, event attendance, and foot traffic.

This data helps inform decision making, and these reports also are shared with our community tourism partners to enhance their tourism efforts.

So city staff is requesting $35,000 in funding to continue these efforts, including the cost, which is 86% of that request for place or AI.

Okay.

Thank you.

No questions?

No.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

All right.

City event services, were that the same or is that different?

No.

Okay.

Yeah.

I don't wear handles at all.

You're special.

Otherwise, I might go down face first down the steps, but I'll go slow.

Maggie Moss, community engagement supervisor, City of Marietta.

First of all, I want to say thank you very much for the past city services tourism grants that you provided us.

This funding has been instrumental in replenishing overtime budgets for city staff whose time and service were essential in supporting these tourism events.

Your investment has helped ensure these events were executed successfully while also supporting the departments that have made these events fully possible.

So thank you so much for continuing to support us and community engagement and tourism in the city of Marietta.

So you will see before you my request.

Yep.

Juneteenth.

I know these.

I should remember these.

Juneteenth, July 4th, Art in the Park, Chalktober Fest, Veterans Day Parade, and City Staff at the Marietta History Center during the Santa on the Square program.

And that actually covers our city staff and other city services that we provide during those events.

New this year to the request is the new patriotic lights that you see now that are currently up in the park.

The installation, the annual installation of those lights.

And then also we'll cover the rental of the parking lot for the fireworks for July 4th.

Do you have any questions?

No, I don't.

Okay, well, if you have any, you know where to find me.

Thank you.

All right.

Be careful on the stairs.

All right.

Next up we have Cobb County NAACP, Juneteenth.

I knew the word last.

Well, good afternoon, Council.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for seeing us.

First, I'd like to say thank you for the continued support that the city provides to the Cobb County NAACP.

It is truly a delight.

When we think about first and foremost, we almost realize that we were the what do you call when you're the first?

We're the first.

No matter what anybody says in the communities outside of Metro Atlanta.

Marietta City, the City of Marietta, Cobb County NAACP.

We set the tone for everybody else that's following behind us.

So we're truly delighted about that.

We want to say thank you for continuing to support the Cobb County NAACP along with the City of Marietta as we continue to I think now produce our 24th Juneteenth celebration.

So it has really been a staple, a very significant part of our community.

We have requested a little more funding because what we find that, as we have said in the past, that the ultimate goal about Juneteenth has some components that we're really, really trying to tap into.

We, as far as tourism being very important, we want to educate our community.

Educate our future generations while the celebration is important.

We really really, when we think about the world that we're living in, how divisive it may be, the unity, because we sit in the city of Marietta where we host it, but we live in a very large county.

So there's a lot of citizens that we'd like to service, a lot of citizens that come outside of our community to patronize this beautiful city of Marietta and come to the original, the original Juneteenth celebration.

So we want to stretch our community outreach.

We want to try and find ways to make it more of an educational component.

We do plan to start traditionally with our three-day event that opens with our all-white party.

Someone last year asked me what did all white mean, and I thought, wow, I've never been asked that question.

All white means we're all white.

That's all it means.

We want everybody out in the park on Friday night to come celebrate unity in our park that we are quite proud of.

Then we start the second day with our cultural festival where we'd like to support businesses and local organizations that want to come out and have some representation as we continue to encourage folks to understand why we're out there and why we celebrate.

And this year, Juneteenth happens to come on Friday, which is the actual national holiday.

And then on Sunday, we will commemorate with Father's Day.

And we've been told that fathers don't get the kind of shine that the mothers are going to get this weekend.

But we are trying to be very intentional and highlight all the fathers.

So we're trying to put together some some A-list artists to come and celebrate who our fathers are in our community because we know without our fathers, we wouldn't have we there wouldn't be mothers.

So that's kind of Juneteenth in a bit of a nutshell.

Um we know what it does, we've seen it.

We hope that more people will continue to support it.

And don't make it about a perception, it is truly about unity, unity in our community for our entire community.

Entire community, we want people of all races, all nationalities to come and support because the NAACP, and I'd be remiss if I didn't say this, as I have an opportunity.

The NAACP is the national association for the advancement of colored people.

And colored people means all people.

The organization was found by people that were European.

They sought the need.

So we take an opportunity throughout all the work that we do to advocate for discriminatory practices that really don't exist but exist.

We have to keep it real.

Um to say that anybody that agrees or supports our mission and our work, please come and join us.

I said a lot.

Do you have any questions for me?

I have a question.

So can you share the um approximate numbers of those that attended the last Juneteenth?

Absolutely.

Um you have a question.

Absolutely.

We and we kind of targeted um it to have been about 50 to 60.

We had a little rain on Friday night, but the rain didn't stop much of anything.

People still were very interested.

And at some point through the history of Juneteenth, I think we had like a thousand people.

So it has grown over the years, and people really look forward to coming and patronizing the original Juneteenth.

Is that 50 or 60?

One day, or that's all three days.

Pardon me, one each day.

Oh wow.

Yes.

Yes.

We try to promote each day.

Thank you.

You're saying 50 to 60.

I've seen a lot more people than that.

Well, you probably had a better ticker than I had.

So we'll say 100, but I mean, it has grown, and and I'm just being modest, but really truly, it has grown.

We are very thankful for our community partner, Mr.

Gaines that always comes aboard and offers something to help us.

The welcome center, we always say thank you to it's just a good opportunity, and you know, without you all's support and continued support, it would have never been.

We started with what five vendors, four tents, and twelve people.

Now we're at a hundred, a hundred plus, maybe, councilman Carlisle.

So thank you so much.

You're welcome.

For what you do.

Thank you.

It's important to our community.

Absolutely.

Can I call you Jay?

Jason, you got any questions for me?

Always call me Jay.

Jay!

He asked my question.

Oh, my only just add on to that.

Any idea where people come from?

Do we have do we know where people they come all over the state?

Once we get an opportunity to get that billboard up.

They come from all over the state of Georgia.

They have even come as far as Alabama, Tennessee.

There's people that have come that they heard about it.

So it's big.

It's fun.

And I want to leave you all.

I didn't bring enough.

I don't only have two in my purse.

What we got in terms of our printed collateral right now.

Well, there's only two of us on the message.

Okay.

Any additional questions from me?

Thank you again for always supporting us.

I appreciate the work you all do.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

All right.

Next up, Cobb Landmarks and Historical Society.

Hello, my name is Trevor Beaman.

I'm the executive director of Cobb Landmarks.

Just a little bit of background.

I've been at Cobb Landmarks now for 11 years, but I started there as a 12-year-old volunteer.

We have a junior historian program.

And when I started as executive director, uh Cobland Marks was in a rough spot and was looking to actually uh close the root house down.

And so I said, not under my watch.

It meant too much to me growing up.

And so we have really invested the past 10, 11 years in trying to uh re-establish the Root House as a premier destination for Marietta, but also a model museum, uh house museum.

Um with your support all all of these years, uh we've been able to invest into the root house.

Uh in 2020, we completed a half million dollar uh expansion and renovation at the Root House.

And since then we've been investing in programming at the Root House.

So last year we had 6,940 visitors as people who bought tickets to tour the house.

Kind of a shocker to us is we built a gift shop on our property.

Roughly 6,000 people a year come just to the Root House to shop.

They don't buy tickets.

So that was an adjustment for us, but money is money.

Um last year we had 950 lecture attendees uh with grant funding.

We were uh trying to increase the number of lectures and adult programs we were offering.

That's a 66% increase from last year's lecture numbers.

Um and then also we uh are focusing on our uh annual programming.

So in the summer we decorate the house for summer.

Uh in the spring we do a wedding, uh in the fall we do uh a funeral.

And so in October last year, we had over a thousand visitors through the house just in that one month.

So you look at we had 7,000 people the whole year, a thousand people through October for our funeral interpretation.

Uh and then we do our Christmas programming.

We have a Juneteenth program that we do every year as well.

We also do the Married a Pilgrimage Home Tour.

We had 2300 people come through that tour last year.

Uh Cobland Marks as a whole, we have 250 donors, uh active donors.

Um, and then I mentioned being a model institution, model museum.

Um we've been able to attract a lot of groups to the Root House.

So some of the recent, we had the Society of Architectural Historians, they had their symposium in Atlanta and held their closing reception at the Root House.

Uh we had the Georgia Association of Museums in February, had a reception at the Root House.

We had the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation last week.

We did the spring ramble.

Um, and so uh we had 400 people through the root house for that.

And then we also had that same weekend at the Decorative Arts Trust held their symposium in Atlanta and held their closing reception at the Root House.

So there's a reason these folks are recognizing the Root House and coming.

It's really because we're investing in this house and trying to make it something special uh and and to teach people about the history of Marietta, the Root family and their enslaved house servants.

Does anybody have any questions?

No, I don't have any.

All right.

And I love everybody in here, but I'm going to go pick my kids up from school.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Georgia Metropolitan Dance is next.

Good afternoon, everyone.

I'm Beth Hughes, the executive director for Georgia Metropolitan Dance Theater, or GMDT, as we're a little more commonly known around Marietta.

Thank you for your continued support and for having us here today to present our request for FY27.

GMDT is a pre-professional dance company for dancers aged seven to eighteen.

Our office is located right here on Marietta Square inside the Georgia Dance Conservatory.

This is also where our dancers train and where GMDT holds all of its rehearsals.

And we're excited to share that in our 26th, 27th season is also our 70th anniversary season.

For FY26, we were granted 22,000 to support our two productions.

Funds were also used to create eight new costumes and maintain existing costumes for the ballet.

For our spring production of Don Quixote, funding was used toward the hiring of three professional guest artists for the roles of Basilio, Aspada, and Don Quixote, as well as to maintain our costumes for the production as well.

It will go also toward the hiring of rehearsal directors for this nutcracker and the spring production of Capellia.

Funding would also be used toward the construction of new costumes for both ballets and for the maintenance of existing costumes.

And lastly, we are requesting funds to be applied to two choreography pieces.

These will be for our upper level dancers and will be performed not only at our annual fundraiser, Dancing with the Stars of Marietta, but also be performed at community events throughout the season.

We had patrons from 100 zip codes and 16 different states, all the way from California to New Jersey.

In addition to our patrons, you will see our dancers and our families at local restaurants, coffee shops, and boutiques throughout the year.

This season we had 130 dancers.

This brings 130 families to the square, an average of four times per season.

Lastly, we'd like to thank the City of Marietta for your continued support.

This allows an average of 130 dancers aged 7 to 18 to take the stage.

And it allows GMGD to be a positive contributor to our community by providing diverse performances and engaging experiences.

Thank you.

Do you have any questions?

I don't know.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Sorry, we have one question.

So our performances are at the Jenny T.

Anderson Theater, as well as again, our fundraiser is at the Earl and Rachel Smith Strand Theater.

Thank you.

All right, next up, Georgia Symphony.

Watch the stairs.

All right.

Thank you so much.

I'm Suzanne Tucker.

I'm executive director of the Georgia Symphony Orchestra, and thank you for this time today.

This past season, the uh City of Marietta partnered with us, invested us in a major way, and we're really grateful.

Um, you helped us present our biggest season yet.

Our 75th anniversary has been filled with community celebrations with beautiful music and with meaningful remembrances of what got us to where we are today.

And so uh before we move on to our request for this year, I actually just want to take a moment to catch you up on what your investment did over this past year.

Um, how do I move through these slides?

Dong, right?

Sorry.

There we go.

Maybe we're all discoint at you.

All right, you got me.

There we go.

All right, we're on track here.

If you want to take a look at the screen, I will show you.

We started 75 years ago in the living room of the Moore House on Church Street.

This organization was just basically accidentally born there because they were members of this community who thought that a city as wonderful as Marietta deserved its own symphony.

This first iteration of the GSO was the Marietta Music Club, and it was all volunteer.

Some of them didn't even have their own instruments at the time.

Within a couple of years, we had grown enough to have our first full-time conductor who was Betty Shipman Bennett, and they were performing multiple concerts a year in venues, as you see here from this photo, Roswell Baptist Church.

And they had their own support organization, the Guild.

They were already establishing a model that would continue for the next seven decades, which is that music was made by the members of this community, performed within this community for the people of this community.

As we fast forward today, you see a much bigger symphony.

It's mostly professional, but uniquely, it still serves as a place for talented amateurs from this community to gather and sing and play.

We have four separate arms within the Georgia Symphony Orchestra.

We have, of course, the orchestra that we've mentioned, but we also have a chorus of over a hundred members who all gather weekly to sing.

We have GSO jazz, and we also have our Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra, which serves over 300 students every year with high quality music education.

Of particular importance to the people gathered in this room, we have continued our commitment to serve the people of this community and to perform within this community.

We performed 11 full concerts and several additional smaller ensemble performances within the city limits this year.

That's the most separate performances we performed here in the city.

And we were able to do that through your investment.

We played chamber concerts in places like St.

James Historic Chapel in Zion Heritage Museum.

We had a beautiful concert in January.

And as I said, all of these performances were directly funded through our tourism grant last year.

That grant also funded a brand new program that we started this past year called GSO on the go.

This is actually just last weekend.

We had two performances, one at AG Roads and one at the Zone.

And this coming weekend we'll be performing at Swip Sur Library and at Arbor Terrace.

And then of course, we were able to bring everybody's favorite concert, our children's family concert, and our sensory friendly concerts.

We're at the Jenny T.

Anderson this year.

We played four concerts there for children and for families.

Here's our youth symphony, all the talented kids that perform within that.

I've spent most of my presentation today talking about last year's uh accomplishments and last year's investment, and that's for one important reason.

We just want to do it again.

We want to continue the trajectory that we've been on.

The continued investment from the city has enabled us to turn back around and invest back in the city and perform in more areas in the city.

And we want to do that again.

The money that you guys invested in us last year enabled us to vastly increase and improve our marketing and communications, which led us talk to people from all around this region.

We are a regional orchestra, but to get them to come back within the city to all of the things that we offer here.

We don't want to go backwards.

We want to continue that investment.

We want to build on the successes of this year, and we want to continue to find unique ways to engage in this community.

We want to partner with all of our local arts and nonprofit partners, our tourism partners to bring music into unexpected places and often underserved communities.

And I'm here to ask you to help us to do it again.

Last year, between 65 and 75% of each one of our audiences came from outside the immediate zip codes of the city of Marietta.

In other words, they were tourists.

They came from other places to our performances.

This means that we drew East Cobb residents away from Roswell and Sandy Springs and they came to the square instead and went to see a del Toro and Max and Three Roses.

It means that when we went and played in Woodstock, our jazz concert, we drew them back and we sold out our Jazz concert at the Strand when we had it.

And it means that when we do a classics concert in Kennesaw, they also came when the chorus performed, and we had over 500 people for a chorus concert on a Sunday afternoon on Church Street.

So we can go other places and draw them back here, and we've proven that by looking at the zip codes of where our ticket buyers are from.

And 65% of them are from other places coming to performances within here.

This year, the um the GSO is requesting $65,000.

I've laid out the specific ways that we want to spend that within our official grant application.

But a summary of that is that the funds will support venue rental and personnel for no less than eight performances within city limits.

Additionally, we've requested substantial support for marketing and communications efforts.

We know that that moves the dial this year.

We know that we increased both our donors and our ticket purchases from outside because of our increased marketing and media efforts.

And finally, the grant the grant request includes funding to continue developing GSO on the go, that program that will help us take music into underserved areas of our community.

And this just makes sure that we can fulfill our mission, which is to remove the barriers so that everyone can benefit from the transformational power of music.

Thank you for considering this request and for all of the ways that you supported us over this past year.

We are proud to be part of the city's history, and we are proud to call the City of Marietta our sponsor this year, and we would be proud to continue to do that in our next season.

Thank you so much.

And if you have any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, we have historic Marietta Square branding project.

Hello, friends.

Hello, hello.

I'm Stephanie Coston with the branding project.

This is my 11th year of coming to you guys asking for support, and I'm overwhelmingly thankful for the support that you always give us.

We essentially do four things on the square.

One is the monthly First Friday art walks that are year-round.

The second is the every Saturday Artisan Market on Mill Street.

The third is Winter Wonderland Santa Claus visits.

And the fourth is social media support that creates energy, not just for those individual pages, but also running the Marietta Square page.

Our focus is to bring life and identity to the Marietta Square as its own thing.

Not just the city of Marietta, but to make it very clear to people that if they choose something that they see on some sort of social, if if they see it with us, they can come to the square and they can park the car and they can spend the day or the evening here and they'll find that thing within walking distance.

The first event is the monthly art walk.

It's been a meaningful driver of both the economic activity and community connection in Marietta for 20 years.

This is our 20th anniversary, and we're doing a lot of things to promote that in the community.

It increases the foot traffic to the local shops, restaurants, and galleries while showcasing the city's creative identity.

During the event, businesses around the square see higher sales and stronger visibility as residents and visitors explore the area, dine locally, engage with artists displaying their work.

The second thing that we have is the Saturday morning artisan markets.

These are held on Mill Street beside the farmers market every Saturday morning of the year, rain or shine, January or not.

And it's remarkable the amount of people that show up consistently in cold weather and bad days.

It's a staple of the community.

We have a couple of thousand people come through every Saturday morning, and as they come through and visit us, they leave us, they leave the farmers, and they go on to the square and they have brunch and they shop.

And it's it's a very viable energetic spot for people to put their energy as a community on Saturday mornings.

And we realized that people really desired this weekly place to gather.

And if you've ever been to it, you'll know our our aisles are very wide because you it has to be that way because people like to stand and talk and neighbors see each other, and it's it's it's actually my favorite part of what I do.

I love Saturday mornings.

The second thing that we do that is by far the biggest undertaking is the Winter Wonderland experience.

Um we had nearly 1,800 families this year visit with Santa Claus and have their photos taken in the Marietta History Center.

Um this experience has become a staple for locals and visitors alike.

These appointments are coveted, and we're very proud of how these activities have grown and improved every year.

This upcoming year, we're adding to our Santa experience a few days that families with children with sensory issues will be able to make appointments and enjoy a modified Santa experience.

Our product partnership with the History Museum has helped to grow and has brought foot traffic and increased interest to the museum.

Plus, we just really like hanging out with the history museum people.

They're really great.

Um the other aspect of what we do, what I do is um social media.

I um I run the the Marietta Square social media page along with the pages that are associated with these different groups.

Um between those we have about 71,000 followers.

And on just the Marietta Square Instagram alone, we reach about 300,000 people every year.

Um I think social is kind of the way to go to reach people, and we find it to be very helpful, and then we find it to be a great place to communicate.

I answer questions all day long from people who want to know what time something opens and want to know what's going on on the square, and it gives us a way to reach out and have an actual relationship with folks that sometimes that's hard to do.

Um your funding makes all this happen, and we greatly appreciate it, and we're hoping you're continue to fund us.

Any questions?

No, thank you.

Oh, well, I got one more thing.

Abby and I are doing an event at Marietta High School in a few minutes helping some things.

Um so I love everybody too.

But I've got to go, and then she probably does too.

But okay.

Well, then I have a bunch of questions, and I don't know if you're gonna have to.

And oh, ask.

Okay, so let's start talking on the art walk.

What advertising do you do on that?

Because what I see is not anything for Marietta branding.

So, what are you doing advertising for the art walk?

So we have our social media for the art walk.

We also have the billboard that we use on the um on the loop.

So we have that billboard and we have um and we have social.

Okay.

And what's the rental on that billboard?

Because what I'm looking at in your numbers here is it says marketing promotions, publicity, three thousand dollars.

Right.

So that's for everything.

Okay.

That's not just art walk.

Right.

So we boost the with our social, we boost posts.

So we use money to pay.

Yes.

And and so when I have something that I have an art walk coming up for one of the 12 times, we um I'll put money behind it so that it reaches out and it's very targeted, and we target into different areas, and so we are constantly boosting those posts so that they have a bigger reach into the community to people who don't know about us and aren't following us, but are usually um we we push to people for for just for art walk for um people who are interested in arts, you know, a myriad of different tag words that we use.

Okay, so you said that people leave artisan market and the farmers market and come into the square.

Do you have numbers on what that would look like?

I don't have numbers, but I know that if you walk onto the square at 10 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday, if there weren't farmers and artisans, it looks very different.

So I can't, I I don't have any way to measure those numbers necessarily, but um yes, I know that it I know that it drives the numbers.

If you're here, you can feel it.

It's a when the farmers and artisans leave at lunchtime, there's a lull that happens because we're gone.

And obviously, everybody would be fine without us, but it is definitely a perk for the businesses on the square.

Okay, and my last question, and this kind of just goes to how the 6,000 would be used, because again, I see marketing being 3,000.

Um, and then employee cost and then non-employee cost.

What is a non-employee cost?

So we have um Santa Claus, we have the elves, we have the Santa is definitely our our biggest place where we where we spend money.

Um the Santa's, we make money with Santa.

There's there's income coming in with the photos, but Santa makes 150 dollars an hour.

Okay, and he's he's an independent contractor.

Yes, everybody, everyone is an independent contractor.

Okay.

Um so yeah.

And so my last question for you is the branding project has changed from being a 501c3 to 501c4.

Can you tell me why that happened?

I don't think I know that.

Okay, it's a 501c4.

I looked all these guys up.

I looked you all up a jet.

Oh.

And my issue with the 501c4 is it allows you to enter into politics.

You can screw it.

We do not do that.

I don't know how that I didn't do that.

We've a board.

I that concerns me.

Everybody else is a 501c3.

I did check all of you.

Um, and I just have a concern about that.

So if you could look into that, that would be.

I will, but I promise you, not only do I not post politics, but I delete and block everyone who tries to take politics in to us.

We don't do that.

But I don't know who would have it's a pretty small board, and no one's ever run it by me.

We just need to be careful if that's what we're putting money from tourism.

100% cannot go to Bible Nazi.

Putting money into that.

Okay.

We do I do no politics.

I do even if it's not even just politics.

Anything that is ugly towards another business on the square, which is people are crazy.

Um I delete everything and block them because that's because I can do that.

Okay.

So I will.

I will look into that, but that's not a concern.

Thank you.

Thanks.

No, I'd like to know that answer as well.

Okay, thank you.

Next up, Lemon Street Classic.

I believe I see Coach Hood here.

With his Lemon Street Classic show.

With Marietta on the sleeve here.

Does anybody need to get up and stretch?

I don't know.

Well, I was wondering if we could do you want to do that first.

Because she's gonna go to the Abby's gotta leave.

She's gonna leave.

Coach, I hate to do that.

Hold on one second.

That was a great idea.

Absolutely.

Abby, come on.

Oh, absolutely.

I still appreciate that.

I'll just need to know.

The problem was I wasn't called yet, but I'll do my best.

Okay.

And I think I have some slides up as well.

Sorry about that.

I didn't mean to throw you into the well, but I don't want you to be late to the high school.

Thank you.

Cheryl, I was wildly unprepared for this moment.

No, just kidding.

Um, we're gonna be judging um some artworks from the high school students at the Marietta uh high school, and they always just knock it out of the park.

It makes me really excited about the um professional artists that we have in this next generation.

So it gets me really excited as I talk about what I do.

So um, as y'all know, I not only work for the uh for Visit Marietta, I'm also the executive director of the Marriott Arts Council.

And uh I'd like to go ahead and say that we are very thankful for the city's partnership and what all we have done so far.

We could not have made this happen without y'all's partnership and what y'all have done for us.

But I'll start with our mission statement, and that is to enrich the artistic and cultural landscape of the city of Marietta through advocacy education and most notably public art.

If you walk outside along the trail, you can see it.

We just put up the traveling fence gallery this past weekend, um, and more about that later.

So, oh, my formatting.

I'm sorry, y'all.

Uh well, we have lots and lots of partners, and we uh brought in more last year.

Uh very exciting, um, as you can see in that smaller circle.

We work with Bridger Properties to do a sustainable kind of um encore of our bridge installation from 2024.

So that was just taking art that was made and recycling it into something that can still be experienced along the trail.

Um we also notably partnered with old uh Zion Heritage Museum during October to host an equitable evening where we use performance art to have conversations about health equity.

Um we've also been partnering with Smith Gilbert Gardens in the city of Kennesaw as well, and I'll uh circle back to that later.

We got lots going on, y'all.

It's been a very productive year for us.

Um and if you have walked in the square recently, we have two new murals in production, one behind the history center, kind of going along with um Marietta 250.

Um so we have Leanne Colver on the right.

She is painting a mural that's kind of a quilt design interlaid with pictures from the archives of Marietta History Center, and we're very thankful for their partnership in that.

Now on the left-hand side, we have Rocky Washington, another local Marietta painter, uh painting at Antica, kiosco's new restaurant concept.

So we're super excited to be working with a business owner to make their space more of a creative place, and no doubt this will be the backdrop for many an Instagram post.

That's at that restaurant.

Looking at the day of Trailfest, where we kick off all of this public art, the day itself is very full of festivities.

We have our fur Folly Pet Parade, and yes, while the weather did not cooperate with us last year, people still brought their pets out in their gear, and it was still a wonderful, wonderful day.

We have live music at Trailfest.

That is our keys to the city public piano.

That is right outside my office, and y'all, we hear some beautiful tunes being played on that outside my office.

That's open for anybody to use.

Yes, we do also have some four-year-olds banging out, whatever they just want to do outside, but as the cost of community, and I'm so happy to have it.

But yes, that's our keys to the city piano.

And once again, that's just giving the general public exposure to the arts, getting their hands on it.

It's a really beautiful moment to experience.

Kids' activities too, as well, getting them exposed to the arts at a young age, so they can appreciate it as they grow older.

And one of our biggest um programs that we do is the traveling fence gallery.

And since we have a new few folks here, a few new folks here.

There we go.

Um that is an immersive outdoor gallery containing 160 works of art, 40 of them being student works and 120 of them being uh works from adults.

Um and we've also expanded that into um art in our parks, which has um student works in eight of our city parks as well.

So we're bringing art out to people, involving the community in it, and making it accessible to everyone.

We are also working with uh the city of Kennesaw and um Smith Gilbert Gardens for our sculpture tour.

This is just one of them.

It's already become very iconic, and once again, the backdrop for many an Instagram post.

It's right outside my window.

I see people taking pictures of it every single day.

Um, but we're doing a traveling sculpture tour with Smith Gilbert Gardens, so we can exchange sculptures every year.

It's pretty cool.

Um and then our bridge installations.

We are working with KSU's architecture department, um, fostering professional development for creative placemakers of the future through their architecture department.

And these students are incredible, and I'd like to once again thank the city for um um helping us and partnering with the uh North Loop Bridge installation pictured on the right.

That's weaving history, and that's a celebration of the Cherokee culture of basket weaving, kind of encapsulated in this abstract piece.

And then in October, we also celebrate um National Arts and Humanities Month by doing our October program.

So we do a printed program which features everything that's happening in Marietta uh for the month of October and goes a little bit beyond into other cultural elements.

One thing that we did this year that was new is we included the culinary arts by having um some coupons for uh our local restaurants in there as well.

And your support goes to you know, marketing these things, helping with the printing costs that you know go with doing productions this big.

And we are already planning Trailfest 2027, even though um Trailfest 2026 is this Saturday, y'all.

So I hope to see you there.

Another formatting issue.

We love that, but it's fine.

Any questions?

No, I'm I'm good.

I'm good here.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Of course.

Thank you.

All right.

Coach.

Sure.

I think I'm sure.

I need to get up with is John Silvia text me one more time to say, don't forget to tell them about this, then that way it's done, and I can tell them I missed it.

So obviously I'm here to talk about Lemon Street our tournament.

Is this um you get the PowerPoint for this?

I think John sent that in.

And that's fine if you didn't, because I'm terrible with technology, so I may not be able to even move the slides.

So first of all, thank you guys so much for your support.

This is a seventh annual uh Lim Street Classic, and Lemon Street means a lot to us.

It is so important for us and for our community.

Um this has turned into a national event.

Um we have we we started out, we knew we were gonna build a tournament when we came to Marietta eight years ago, and we were gonna use a landmark of Marietta, something that was be historic and draw people here.

Um when we learned about the story Lemon Street, it was a no-brainer because it was very, very important.

Um obviously John Sylvie's not here.

I'm Marcus Hood, Headman's basketball coach at Marietta High School.

Um they sent the sub here uh since Sylvie's out of town.

Uh Miss Lena Evans Bennett was going to join me this this uh this afternoon, but she had a funeral uh for the family, and so she couldn't be here.

She is also a Lemon Street uh not necessarily alumni.

She went to Lemon Street, but she graduated from Marietta High School.

She was the first black basketball player to play on the girls' basketball team, and and so she has been an intricate part of what we do.

Lemon Street is not only turned into a national uh showcase.

We've had the first MBA player, Jabari Smith come through, and we personally have Isaiah Nelson who is on the draft board now, which I'm so excited about.

I came through Marietta as a freshman, talked to Orlando Magic, uh one of the uh representatives for them this morning about him and talking about his life because when you go into draft, obviously you know they do every inch of background they can on you to to find out if their investment is gonna be worth something.

So we're hoping he gets drafted uh so he'll be another representative of Lemon Street.

Um but not only M Street is a huge basketball national tournament, but it serves as a catalyst for change.

Um and one of the purposes for Lemon Street, obviously we know that Lemon Street um the last graduating class was 1966 uh when integration took place in 67, school was torn down, and no longer did they have a place to go back to represent you know themselves that didn't have a school anymore.

And so one of the some of the feedback we've heard from a lot of the alumni are so thankful we do this.

We wear their uniforms whenever we play.

We represent Lemon Street in the tournament, uh, which is an awesome touch, and we highlight an alumni every time that they come.

Um or not that they come, but when they're they are there, but we also specifically reach out to some others.

Part of the purpose of what we want to do, obviously I stated uniting our community.

It was really cool to see uh Rodney Gallette, who is a all state uh last graduating class of Lemon Street, won the state championship in basketball.

Uh sit down with our mayor every year, sit there and have conversations, just see our you our the community come together and unite.

That's so important to us.

Uh we also want to honor the legacy of Lemon Street, uh, which is important.

We do that through our app and our our uh website.

Uh the history of on the is is on there, not only through athletics but academics, because academics were so important to Lemon Street.

Um great teachers come through there, uh, great students came through there, and also it's a way to tell their story.

You know, that's the big thing about our app and our uh our website uh that tells uh the story of folks from Lemon Street.

The cool thing is this a couple years ago having different conversations with different coaches from you know from Augusta to different states, and they were talking about hey, the you know, because we want to open their eyes to what this tournament is actually about versus just another basketball tournament.

Hey, the same thing was going on in our community, and so to get people talking was really really important to us as well.

Um we have also partnered with the Ludacris Found Foundation.

They came on board with us a couple years ago.

They help support us with scholarships.

Um, and so with the money they provide, we uh give two scholarships now uh every year uh to two students, uh student athletes.

It's not it's not athletic scholarships.

They actually have to write a um there's a long list of things that they have to write, and Miss Lena's actually on that board, Rodney's on that board uh that determines the winners of those scholarships, um, and they're 1250 dollars apiece, so they go to um promote the academics uh that is combined with the Lima Street.

And again, because Marietta's first class, we want to run a first class event, and that's why we're so thankful how for how you guys have supported us in the past.

Um, and you know, it takes everyone to run a great event as is this.

Um, and so our ask, our financial ask, obviously, you guys have all that stuff is around 35,000.

All the money that you give us goes back into Marietta, um, whether it be hotels, whether it be food, um, whether it be security, everything goes back.

Our expenses run over about 50,000.

So obviously, our tournament doesn't make enough to always um to to cover, and so what you guys have done for us has really helped us tremendously.

Um, not only does it is it the teams and all that that come in, but the families that come in.

And this year, we have 47 teams coming, and it's 10% of all the high school teams in Georgia will be here running through Marietta.

Um, last year we had a team from Canada and a team from Bahamas, and we've had you know team from New York uh and all over the country, so it's a it's a top brand tournament.

Um do you guys have any questions for me?

We're all do they play.

We play at the high school.

We we hold it at the high school, the dates are December 28th through the 30th this year.

Multiple locations are all at the high school.

No, we keep it in Marietta.

The only uh venue we've used outside of us is the middle school.

Okay.

So we won't go outside of the city of Marietta with with hosting.

Wonderful.

It's a wonderful program.

Thank you, coach.

All right, thank you all.

Thank you.

All right, tell John that I got everything in, I guess.

Tell John and you can go back to the high school and judge our too.

Next up, um Marietta Educational Garden Center.

Who is here?

There we go.

Hi, everybody.

It's great to see all of you and my supporting people behind me who I've enjoyed working with over the last several years.

My name is Kate Millholland.

I'm the executive director of the Marietta Educational Garden Center, also known as Fair Oaks, and we are located at 505 Kennesaw Avenue.

With me today are Neely and Kathy Young and Kathy Kelly, all representing our board of trustees and moral support, which is always nice.

Let's get the next slide.

So Fair Oaks yesterday, today, these are some fun old pictures from our archives showing kind of the past to present.

The house was built between 1850 and 1852 by the Newton family.

And then the Meyer family, Squire, and Fower family, Fowler families all lived at Fair Oaks.

From 1919 to 1962, the Benson family lived there.

And then in 1966, the family deeded Fair Oaks to the Marietta Council of Garden Clubs.

And you can see a picture of the ribbon cutting there.

I think the Newton and Fire Meyer families were not represented.

But we celebrated 175 years in September, and we were excited to have descendants from the original families in attendance.

Let's see.

So today at Fair Oaks, we are the home to 20 area garden clubs made up of more than 600 members.

Our garden clubs meet Monday through Thursday for their educational and service and of course social activities.

And then on the weekends were booked for a variety of events.

Weddings, community events, special events of all kinds, and then local enjoyment.

Jessica mentioned the prom and homecoming photos in her gardens.

We have the same thing.

Jessica and I have a nice relationship where we try to help each other out and accommodate the area high schoolers to take their photos.

So this is just a collage of all the things that have happened in the last couple years at Fair Oaks.

We feel like we are a treasure of the Marietta community.

So people come into town, they have their event at our place, but then of course they are staying at local hotels, Airbnbs, they're renting cars, they're eating at restaurants, they're having the rehearsal dinners on a Friday night on the square and having their weddings on Saturday.

So we are happy to share our space with Marietta and feel like we've got a great reciprocal arrangement.

Just in the month of May, we have 10 high school graduation parties.

So it is a very, very busy time.

Um that Trevor mentioned.

And then we were on the pilgrimage tour as a tour stop.

So we are happy to welcome in both our local uh neighbors, but as well as people from across the county, the city, the nation.

See what's next.

Um so last year we were um granted money from the city to replace our sign.

You see the original sign that was installed in 1969 when the doors opened to be the garden center.

The current sign that you will see out there now, and then our future sign to be installed in June.

We had to put a pause on installation because March, April, and May were so busy that we couldn't even take time out of the calendar to have the sign installation.

But that is in um the works from Marietta Signs.

Um so we come to you today with two cru requests.

Um my original thought for this request was gonna be for the 3D tour and drone video.

Um what we'd like to do is really qualify our interested clients by them coming to our website and seeing what we offer.

Um that way when people come in through the door, they're that much closer to booking their event.

Um and they kind of it's managing expectations from afar, but it's also interesting.

People who may not have realized everything that we have.

So we like to have a drone fly over the property to give a full shot of the three acres that we're on, and then go through the house and and potentially have some myself possibly on video talking about the different um aspects of rentals um at community use any way that somebody would would want to use it.

Um so that would cover the quote that we received from the company um that I reached out to.

And then the second request is for a roof.

Uh it's pretty self-explanatory.

Um I looked back on our records and the current roof, somewhere I've narrowed it down between 1990 and 2000 that it was installed.

So it's time for a new roof.

Um we've had a couple quotes out and both in agreement that it's just a matter of time before something really major happens.

We're lucky to have gotten through some severe weather without any leaks, but but um but it's coming.

So we have um created a campaign called Raise the Roof shingle by shingle.

We are having donations come in from members, we're having mahjong mingles that are uh 100% of the proceeds are going to raise money.

I've applied for a grant from the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation that I'm waiting to hear on, and we have some money, a CD set aside.

So we are actively working to raise this money, but as we all know, things always cost more than than you expect when you start digging into a historic home.

Um, my next slide says thank you, and thank you so much for the um continued support.

This um has been a real boon for us in terms of being able to do things we would not normally be able to do, and all of the support and the way we have used money in the past has gotten us to the point where we are today where um March, April, and May I've taken 10 years off my life, but we're busy.

And our bottom line shows that.

So um thank you again.

And any questions?

I have a quick question.

So what's your I guess um what's your high attendance dates that kind of um so they are currently I would say the second half of March up until through Memorial Day.

Things quiet down quite a bit in June and July.

Um August used to be very quiet month for us this year every single weekend is booked, and then we're pretty solid up until probably mid-December.

So it's just kind of that those three months from let's say mid-December until mid-March where things are very quiet.

So that's kind of when we utilize the garden center internally if we want to have any internal fundraisers because we know we're not taking viable booking dates off the calendar.

Got it.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

Next up, we have Marietta Fire Museum.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for this opportunity for the Marietta Fire Department to present our request for tourism grant funds.

My name is Malcolm Walson.

I'm a captain at Station 51 right next door.

And as of August of last year, uh took over the operation of the fire museum.

Uh I'm very proud of the caliber of our fire museum and uh what we have to offer, and it would not be possible without this tourism without tourism grant funds.

In the past, these funds have gone to restore uh the 1879 Silsby steamer, the 1921 American La France, and uh more recently we've gotten uh signage approved for the exterior of the museum above the roll-up door.

A lot of people come to the museum, and uh when they're there for the first time, they're surprised that there is a museum there.

So we're trying to do a better job of that, and that's getting some good signage out there.

So our fire museum.

It does serve as an important historical and educational asset to our community.

It preserves the legacy of our fire service.

It was founded in 1854 while attracting visitors interested in local history and public safety.

The tourism funds we're requesting will be used to enhance the museums' appearance, visitor experience, and overall appeal as a tourism destination.

So with these tourism funds that we're requesting, uh we would like to add apparatus lettering and striping.

We have a 1976 sea grave fire engine.

It's the bright yellow uh green fire truck that sits upstairs in the museum.

It was restored several years ago, and so now we just need to finish that restoration, and that would be the striping and the lettering, which we have photos of the way it looked in the 70s, and we want to get it back to that point.

So we're we're very, very close, and that's one of the few things left that we need to do.

The other item we would like to do uh glass, the lettering for the glass out front of our station.

Right now, it's uh number one, it's old.

It's probably 30 plus years old, so it's starting to peel off.

But what we'd like to do is actually have lettering showing that the museum is behind this door, and that we also have it's station 51, and then above the top of that, put our address.

Display upgrades.

We would like to do some more cases.

We've got so many things in storage, and I'd really like to be able to present more of those items.

It's a good problem to have that we have so many things, but we're kind of limited in the way we can display it.

So display cases, mannequins, things of that nature, I think would really help.

We've also got a lot of documents, and so I'd like to be able to display some of those things in some secure glass cases.

Museum does need to be painted.

The interior is a yellow that's 20 to 30 years old.

Uh, it's been banged up a lot, get a lot of visitors, a lot of kids, and so we'd kind of like to repaint that just to create a more visually appealing and welcoming environment for guests.

And the last item that we would like to do, there's a antique 1950s coin operated fire engine ride in the lower level, the plaza level of the museum.

It's crazy popular with kids.

Kids love that thing.

My kids love that when they would come when I was a new firefighter and they were, you know, five, six years old.

Kids love it, they love to get on it, they love to ride it.

So mechanically, it's okay.

That's the good news.

Aesthetically, it's been banged up.

We had an issue uh about a year ago where someone came in and vandalized some things, and that was one of the items that that took a hit.

So it's mostly cosmetic.

Problem is finding somebody that will do that sort of repair work.

Uh I've got some some leads, so I intend on getting uh getting in contact with those individuals.

But yeah, kids love it.

Um essentially, you know, these upgrades will significantly elevate the quality of our museum.

It's a great museum.

As it stands right now, it's a great museum.

And I just want to elevate that.

I'm super proud of it.

I want to make it more attractive.

I want to make it more attractive for visitors, all the school groups that come through, city and county school groups, uh, and history enthusiasts.

By investing in these updates, the city will help to strengthen a unique local attraction that contributes to tourism, community pride, and historical preservation.

Questions?

You have any questions?

Okay.

Good information.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate y'all.

All right, next up is the Marietta History Center.

Wheeling and dealing.

Okay.

Oh, yay.

All right.

This is my first time having slides.

Hello.

All right.

My name is Amy Reid.

I'm the director of the Marietta History Center, and um, I just want to take a minute to say how proud I am of everybody that's in here.

Our community, our tourism community, just does it such an amazing job, and when you support any one of them, you support us all.

I'm gonna steal a line from Andy.

He always says a rising tide raises all ships, and that's truly what we have here.

So thank you.

All right.

Thank you for the opportunity to share the work of the Marietta History Center and the vital role it plays in preserving our city's identity, supporting tourism, and strengthening our community.

This year is especially meaningful as we celebrate our 30th anniversary.

For three decades, the museum has served as the steward of Marietta's history, ensuring that the stories, artifacts, and memories that define us remain accessible for future generations.

Our mission is simple to ignite curiosity in Marietta's history by connecting people through compelling stories and engaging experiences.

Simply put, nowhere else.

Nowhere else in our community preserves the breadth of Marietta's history as comprehensively as we do.

Our collections tell the story of this community from every angle.

From indigenous and military history to civic, business, and personal celebrations and tragedies, from major events and significant community leaders to the narratives of every demographic that have shaped our neighborhoods.

Many of these histories and archives have never been shared anywhere else.

One of our greatest priorities is bringing these stories to life.

Our galleries allow visitors to explore the lives of the Cherokee and Muskogee peoples or view one of the largest public displays of weapons in North Georgia.

We showcase our pivotal aviation history, including actual Marietta, Rosie the Riveters, Bell Aircraft, and Lockheed.

We tell tales of heroism from every generation of military veterans and conflicts, such as tales of multiple spies during the Civil War, including those who would become our nation's first recipients of the Medal of Honor.

Did you know that Alice McClellan Burney, the founder of the National PTA, was born, raised, and taught here in Marietta.

How about how World War I soldiers from Camp Gordon set up an artillery artillery range here that fired rounds into Kennesaw Mountain?

Unfortunately, four people died when one accidentally hit a private property.

I can tell you exactly where that is if you need to know.

So that you know, when you're digging your gardens, you're safe.

And then we find pure joy in showing younger generations older technology, such as what a phone booth is and how a rotary phone works.

And even as Patina said, what a home line is.

Beyond our permanent galleries, our road tening exhibits highlight underrepresented voices and fascinating collection pieces that dive deep into rabbit holes of history better than Hollywood could imagine.

A major milestone this year was the launch of our online collections database.

As the steward of over 50,000 artifacts and photographs, expanding public access was a priority.

In just five months, the database has seen over 800 searches, with Marietta Square being the top turn.

With 11,000 items already digitized and more added weekly, we are making our history available to the world at the click of a button.

We are also seeing incredible physical growth.

Attendance has rebounded significantly since the pandemic, rising from 7,000 visitors in 2020 to over 18,000 visitors in fiscal year 26.

This growth reflects a renewed local visitor interest and the success of our community partnerships, including many of the organizations represented here today.

As we celebrate America's 250th anniversary, we are expanding our programming even further.

Upcoming initiatives include special cemetery tours focused on revolutionary war era residents, a lecture and VIP reception with White House historian Dr.

Matthew Costello, presentations featuring presidential artifacts from noted collector Russell Clayton, and a special exhibit featuring objects from early America from our archives, Marietta's 1876 centennial celebration, and the 1976 bicentennial celebration.

Raise your hand if you were here then.

We have also developed a traveling exhibit for the city focused on the American Revolution, Georgia's role in the founding of our nation, and the indigenous cultures that inhabited the region at this time.

You will see this at each Friday night concert and other planned events on the square, as well as in the lobby right now.

Additionally, we are planning a symposium highlighting Cherokee and Muskogee history and expanding our annual fireworks on the bricks event into an elevated visitor experience.

Finally, I want to highlight that the History Center is an active participant in our local economy.

Our community room rentals and museum store are more than amenities.

They are critical tools that generate revenue and position the museum as a central gathering place in our downtown.

By drawing visitors to the square, we directly support our local shops and restaurants.

At its heart, the Marietta History Center is about more than just old objects.

It is about preserving identity and community connection.

We are proud to serve this city and are deeply grateful for your continued support as we ensure Marietta's history remains visible, relevant, and accessible for generations to come.

Thank you very much.

Any questions?

I don't have any.

Thank you.

Hello, everybody.

Hello.

Um, I'm Sally McCauley.

I'm executive director for the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art.

And you got the PowerPoint.

Oh, there we are.

You did.

There is the pictures of the art museum.

You skip the theater on the screen.

I'm sorry.

We'll come back to you keep going.

We'll just Oh, okay.

That's why I was surprised.

Our mission statement is to inspire, engage, and educate a diverse community through the exhibition, interpretation, collection, and preservation of works of American art.

But we endeavor to build community through art, which is one of the reasons we put it on the street on the square.

Build community through art.

Why support the MCMA?

We're the only American fine art museum in Metro Atlanta.

MCMA plays a vital role in shaping Marietta's arts and cultural landscape.

MCMA has up to $3.5 million economic impact, and Choctoberfest has a $3.8 million economic impact.

Year-round programs draw tourists to Marietta and provide opportunities for the community to engage in art.

The museum reached over 79,000 visitors in 2025, a 33% increase from 24, and a 49% increase from 23.

The education department grew substantially and reached 10 times more people in 25 than in previous years.

We were awarded Best Museum by Best of Cobb, 23 and 25, and we've been awarded Choctoberfest the best festival in the state of Georgia for the last three years.

And these are some that we are have done and are doing in 26.

Events and programming.

We have uh exhibition opening receptions, and we have art of the cocktail, and we have exhibiting artist talks.

Do arts and crafts like knit or sew or that kind of thing.

We've just started that this year.

Studio art classes, we have a wide variety acrylic painting, oil painting, watercolor painting, printmaking, pottery on the wheel.

If you haven't done that, that's a lot of fun.

I've done it twice.

I'm not very good, but I love doing it.

Clay hand building, glass fusing, and still life drawing.

Um community outreach, we do traveling art exhibits, we do art history lectures, we collaborate with Cobb County Libraries, Senior Center Centers, and Parks and Parks Department, community festivals, and art after school enrichment.

Then we have Chalktoberfest.

The street, it's a street chalk art festival.

Uh this year it's October 10th and 11th.

It's on the historic Marietta Square.

It's free and open to the public.

Um 3.8 million dollar economic impact.

And look at that crowd.

I mean, that's what this is about bringing tourism to the city of Marietta.

Um we were voted best best festival in Georgia, as I've said earlier.

Um we had 1,400 children competing in the children's um section last year.

So it's just a big draw for all of Cobb, well, for the world really.

We're an international festival.

We bring artists from South America, from um Italy, from Mexico, and the United States.

So yeah, that's why we're asking for more money, more money.

Um we want to thank you so much for your support in the past.

We couldn't do it without you guys.

And are there any questions for me?

Um I have a question.

Okay.

Um make it too hard.

No, it'll be real simple.

Okay.

It may not be real simple.

Okay, okay.

So just uh on average, how many people attend Choctoberfest?

But then the city has started doing this cell management where they, if you use your cell phone, you get counted.

So they say it's around 40,000, 40,000 to 50,000.

However, my cousins came for Virginia and they weren't on that list, so I think that some of it might be correct and some of it might not.

I know that they check it from 10 o'clock in the morning until 5 o'clock in the afternoon, but people start coming to that thing at 9 o'clock in the morning and they go to six or 7 o'clock at night.

So I know they're not counting for all those people.

This is just a roundabout estimate.

Yeah.

That's all I have.

Okay.

I told you the simple.

Yeah.

I'm sorry, what?

With a clicker every time somebody walks by.

I thank y'all so much.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right, so we'll go back to Marietta Theater Company.

I apologize.

Hey y'all.

I'm uh Josh Hilsher with Marietta Theater Company.

Um thank everybody for all the support you provided us over the years.

Without it, we wouldn't have been able to grow into who we are today.

Um a lot has changed for MTC over the last decade, and that's really thanks to the support of all y'all, and really appreciate that.

We've been producing professional Broadway theater, um Broadway-style musicals on the square since 2017.

Over the past nine years, MTC has produced over 30 Broadway-style musicals with over 250 individual performances.

MTC's work is recognized locally and nationally.

This year we were honored with first place in the best of cob live theater performances.

Um we also received seven Broadway World Award nominations, which affirms the quality of shows that we're putting on right here in Marietta on a national scale.

MTC operates with a flexible model that allows us to opt to activate highly visible spaces with consistent programming and draw more audiences to the square.

Our focus isn't on controlling a building of venue, it's about delivering high quality entertainment that benefits Marietta's economic economy and creates memories that laugh last a lifetime.

In addition to being a go-to for entertainment on the square, MTC also supports nearly a hundred paid jobs in the arts each year.

We consider over 300 auditions each year to keep creative talent working locally and help make Marietta reliable hub for creative talent.

In recent years, our focus on accessibility and diversity and adding family programs has been a great success.

This year our access uh strategy is focused on adults with disabilities.

Um we're partnering with established programs that aid in functional skills development.

These adult students attend our shows often for the first time ever.

Uh and if interested, they continue on in volunteer roles, expanding access to the arts while helping participants uh with socialization and the feeling of accomplishment that comes with actively participating in your community.

It's really great.

Um last season, with the city support, MTC welcomed over 4200 attendees, with 71% of those people coming for the very first time.

Um these new visitors are drawn by MTC's recognizable titles like nine to five, everybody knows Dolly Parton, Little Women, Little Shop of Horrors, these big names really draw people in.

Um our guests come early, they stay late, they visit, they spend money at local restaurants and shops, and just talk to the people over at Marietta Proper.

They love it when we have a show, people are in there having dinner and a dinner in a movie's uh old school.

Dinner in the theater show is really the new date night.

Um estimated economic impact last year alone is 319,000.

Every dollar invested in MTC in MTC circulates back into the Marietta's economy and is focused on upholding the production quality and popular titles that MTC is known for.

And that keep guests from coming back.

Did y'all know that it costs about $56,000 per title to produce just one Broadway show?

That's why not many theaters do musicals regularly.

It's very expensive.

Um granted funds directly support licensing and royalties for popular titles with broad commercial appeal.

Um funds also support professional orchestrations, professional graphic design, and targeted marketing to draw more visitors to Marietta.

Your prior and continued support upholds Marietta's a destination for the arts and enables residents and visitors to enjoy Broadway style entertainment right here in Marietta.

Our goal is simple.

Bring people to Marietta, support local businesses, and create memorable memorable experiences right here in Marietta.

I'd like to close with a short video that shows our mission and impact.

Believe me, it was very compelling.

There we go.

Thank you very much.

Any questions?

No.

Thank you.

Did you know that the Waller family lives in Marietta?

I did not know that.

That's Waller's grandson and great-grandson.

Very cool.

Thank you.

Thank y'all.

Thank you.

Next up we have Old Zion Heritage Museum.

I don't think the old practice.

Hello.

I'm gonna start.

I'm Angela Spurlock.

I'm the chairperson for the Old Zion Heritage Museum Board of Directors.

We welcome you, we thank you.

And I just want to say also, everybody's I'm kind of going off script, but we've all been talking.

Um somebody earlier used the terminate wrote it, which is Unity and Community.

And I have just, I will say that I have seen that.

Our museum and our growth and people's awareness has been so helped by so many of the groups.

I mean, Amy's helping us.

We've worked with the GSO, October.

So we are all a collective, and that I think helps Marietta helps us all and helps all of our tourism.

So I start with that, and I start by saying thank you because all of these are possible because of you all.

So with that, I start.

Um I'm also in technology, but not great with the clicker, so we'll see how it goes.

So we'll see how it goes.

Okay.

So first of all, just want to say thank you.

We are we were recipient of the grant for last year.

We've been recipient for a few years.

And these are some of the activities that we were able to do last year.

We did October, we had an event there.

You heard some you heard uh and uh Abby mention it before.

We do the pilgrimage every year.

We've added um a Sunday with Santa.

I hear it too.

I guess I have a backbeat, so I'm gonna just try and go with it.

I'm gonna I'll just keep speaking while you while you work on it.

But um, we've added a Sunday Santa because we have a Santa that comes to the museum.

People come, they learn.

It's an African American Santa because representation does matter.

People are now bringing their kids every year.

It started to be an annual thing that we add to it.

Um this year we were able to do a wonderful Christmas concert for anybody that was able to attend was something we weren't really seeing.

Well attended, excellent, something that Grant Money helped us to fund.

Black History Month this year was if it's on, it's actually on YouTube, but uh Tears, because we had one of the speakers from the 638, which was the uh black battalion of black females, they were the only battalion deployed during World War II.

And just to say how representation matters, one of the daughters of the lady, she was at our church for 20 years, and we never knew because they never thought it was important until the movie was made.

So those are the kinds of things, the kind of events that we're trying to do with the museum, trying to improve and increase access.

Um we have we've had collaborations.

I'm not gonna go everything because I know I have a time constraint, but um, we had a wonderful, wonderful event with the GSO.

It was a candlelight concert in the museum, and there were literally people brought to tears.

Um we do a caregiver conference because that's a huge thing in our community, and draws now so many people to the area.

Um restaurants, hotels, rentals, and even people in Cobb who just haven't come.

They pass on Powder Springs or whatever, but they haven't come into the into the square.

So we're we're just bringing even people in Cobb County who aren't as familiar with our wonderful little square.

We don't know how they don't know, but we are working to improve that access.

Um, we also did a youth summit, which was just last week, uh coincided with the ramble um that we had.

Um we had in the museum that day.

We think it was our highest number because between the ramble and the youth event, we probably had about 175 people come through the museum in one day, which is something we haven't had before.

And we do tours for just about anybody.

We are increasing our presence with schools, a lot of homeschools come through, reunions, um, and all of that is made possible partly with the grant to help us keep that up.

Um Juneteenth celebration is coming, it's June 13th this year.

We're having it the week before so that we don't clue.

I'm pointing to and double ACP who's not back there, but um so that we don't conflict with that.

We're having it the week before, but it's an old-fashioned fish fry just to kind of pull that old fashioned thing in, and we'll have the museum open so that people can come through.

And then our big event for this year is Zion the Production, which is a retelling of the story of Zion and how it came into effect.

Um we're working with the 250th committee.

Zion itself is celebrating its 160th anniversary this year.

Um, some people don't realize that means that church has existed literally since the end of slavery.

They had people celebrating before while they were still slaves, it became a church after.

And it kind of goes back to what some of the other speakers were talking about, which is um people are very interested in black history right now.

We're doing we're doing all we can to sort of make people aware of that, and that's one of the things we're looking to do for this year, which is really I'm gonna use the term take it up a notch in terms of our social media, in terms of our presence, in terms of making people aware that we're here.

Um, we have a wonderful story to tell, and I I think you know, it's been mentioned here too.

There's a lot going on about history.

People taking our history, people rewriting history.

Our history is our history.

Good, bad, or otherwise, it's our history.

And I think that Marietta has such a beautiful story to tell, and Zion is part of that story.

The enslaved people were part of the fabric of Marietta after enslavement ended.

A part of the fabric of Marietta is just talking to the gentleman who does the Lemon Street concert at the Lemon Street uh basketball tournament.

We have people still there who were part of that.

Um and so we want to tie some of those things together.

And that's what we really want to do for the new year.

Um I'll take another line, which is we want to do more of what we did last year and take it up a notch, which is a lot.

We thought we could do a lot.

We are also an all-volunteer group.

We've reached our limit.

We need to go to the professionals.

And so that's what we want to do around social media, around video videos, people getting a snapshot, and we also want to increase our ability to do small things.

We've had weddings there, um, you know, ceremonies.

We've had a lot of events with music, because one of my favorite stories to tell is people who were thought to be not intelligent, not too bright, built a building that's still there, and it's acoustically almost perfect.

And so we have a lot of musicians who like to come in, and we really want to um up our um exposure so that people know that we're there and want to do those concert.

So I'm gonna snip because she told me to go right, but I'm still hitting the wrong button.

Um here we go.

So this is a little bit of what we have planned.

I kind of spoke to that.

Um, a little bit of what we have planned.

Any of you who are on the 2025th committee, you've probably met Miss Lamero Adams, and if you have, you will know that she is a force to be reckoned with.

Um we want to do a view to go with Miss Lemurial giving a tour um of the museum is one of the big points, and a documentary on making of the museum.

So after it the church left, what happened, and how it got to be a museum.

So those are a few of the things that we are trying to do.

And we're here's our graphics, so now you know why we need a professional.

Uh, this was Angela trying to get this together.

But that's the Christmas concert.

Some of the people we had literature dancers.

Um, this is just people coming to visit um in the museum.

I think we have a picture of the candlelight.

Yeah, the GSO when they came, Arctober.

This is I spoke about the Black History Program, and this was our U Summit that was just last week.

So that is what we're doing.

That's what we hope to do.

Again, we thank you because you make it, you make it possible, and we are we're very proud of our museum, and you guys just make it really uh easy for us and helpful.

Any questions?

I have a question.

Uh-huh.

The play that's commemorating commemorating the um the slaves that came from First Baptist to Zion.

It's going to be out at the Marietta High School.

Is that right?

Yes, it's on June 27th.

Yes.

That was my next question.

It is the Zion, the production, because we're not going to literally do the play.

It's a reenactment with dance and the history.

So giving it a little more energy than just a straight play.

But yes, that's June 27th.

The Fish Fry's June 20, June 13th.

Both of them are fundraisers because we are trying to raise funds outside of just the grant process.

But yeah.

So when would the tickets go on sale for that?

Um, if I was smart, I would have brought you the QR code now, but I will make sure that you get it.

They are on sale now.

Okay.

Great.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other questions?

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

All right.

Three more.

Earl and Rachel Smith Strand Theater.

Hello, everyone.

My name is Andy Gaines.

I'm the executive director of your local historic nonprofit, now 90-year young in the last historic theater in Cobb County, Georgia.

Um, and I'm very excited to be here today for two reasons.

I'm gonna take a moment of privilege to say how happy I was to hear how many people said partnerships.

How nice it was when the ramble came, how much everyone showed up and showed out in this city.

It was really awesome to see how all of those outside folks coming in got to be a part of the 17 plus arts organizations uh that the city embraces.

So thank you for them and for y'all.

Um I'm not gonna go on and on too much.

I'm gonna talk about what Earl and Rachel believed in because their name's on the building.

Uh and for Rachel, it was all the squishy feelings of the arts bring, the inspiration, aspiration, functionality of having 500 plus people experience one thing all at the same time.

So, yes, we have a theatrical season, we have a comedy series, a homegrown series where Southern artists can be on a southern stage for a southern audience.

We have an Opry series that we just did at Johnny Cash on Saturday night with a professional band and with community singers.

And we have a silent film series with live organ accompaniment because where else in the world can you go and do that?

And movies and sing along to movies, sensory-friendly movies, Disney princess movies.

There's a lot of opportunity.

If nothing else, we're an abundance of arts inventory.

But that's one side of it, because the other side of it is what Earl believed in, and what he believed in is that the strand should be a cornerstone of economic development.

And we try to live up to what his standard was.

So last year we had 62,000 people walk through the doors for ticketed, non-ticketed public events, things like Brew of the View, the Lumier Lounge, the piano bar that's open every weekend, but also all the other private events that we have going on.

The weddings, the graduations, our friends that yes, understand how many graduation parties that are going on right now.

Last year alone we had 253 ticketed events.

Not including the public non-ticketed or the private events.

And that represented 347 days lit at the Strand.

And with that, it was 733 zip codes represented from 40 states and even four countries.

Thank goodness for the Cobb International Film Festival that's four days at the Strand Theater.

Because I don't know that we would have gotten those four, like uh gone with the wind who got 44 different countries in their bucket list items.

Um a number that we're really proud of is 5.8, but I'll go back just a hair to say, and this goes for every organization inside of this room right now.

A couple will spend an additional $75 in the local economy outside of their ticket price for an evening of the arts.

So whether that's food or a babysitter in my case, as I'm going to be one of those people that have to go run and get a kid, or the gas to even get you there.

When you add all of that together on our strand budget, our economic impact was 5.8 million dollars.

And we're really proud of that.

And that's it.

We'll keep it there.

Do y'all have any questions for me?

I'm happy to answer them.

Oh, I don't have any.

Copy that.

Appreciate y'all very much.

Next up is George Ballet.

Hello, good afternoon.

Thank you, Miss Stephanie.

Good afternoon.

I am bearing witness to a lot of growth and expansion.

And I do believe that is happening throughout Marietta.

That is happening for us, and I want to thank you for all of your support since 2010 and going forward.

My name is Ashley Ann Hensley.

I'm the executive director of the Georgia Ballet.

And this fall will mark half of my life dedicated to the organization.

I moved here to dance in the company.

Then I took one of the school ten years later.

Now here we are, ten years later with the executive director role.

I would like to tell you a little bit more about the Georgia Ballet.

The Georgia Ballet, established in 1960 by my mother-in-law Iris Hensley, was originally named the Marietta Civic Ballet.

It is now the Georgia Ballet.

It is a cornerstone of the arts in Marietta and the greater Metro Atlanta community.

As both a professional ballet company and an accredited training school, we serve dancers and audiences across the region.

Our work is rooted in artistic excellence, education, and meaningful community impact, while continuously bridging classical ballet with excessive accessible modern storytelling.

Our performances enhance the artistic culture of our community as the only professional ballet company in Marietta.

Through full-length classical productions, we bring high quality traditional ballet to local audiences while preserving the integrity and legacy of the art form.

We are comprised of 36 dancers, three main stage productions, and a school serving hundreds of students right here in Marietta.

The School of the Georgia Ballet is one of the region's leading training programs, guiding students from early childhood through pre-professional levels.

Our structured curriculum and experienced faculty prepare dancers for success, with many alumni going on to top collegiate and professional programs.

The school also serves as a direct pipeline into the professional company, providing valuable performance opportunities and fostering the next generation of artists.

In addition to pre-professional training, we offer classes for students who simply want to explore dance, have fun, and experience the joy of movement in a supportive and engaging environment.

Our arts and education programs and community outreach programs expose students to the beauty, strength, and creativity behind the art of classical ballet by making it accessible to students of all ages, abilities, and economic backgrounds, ensuring that every student has the opportunity to experience and engage with the art form in a welcoming and inclusive environment.

This past season marked a significant period of growth for the Georgia Ballet.

Our audience reach expanded to 22 states and over 100 cities through ticket purchases, reflecting a major increase in both visibility and demand.

This growth was further amplified through extensive media coverage, including features across television, digital and print outlets, such as Atlanta Live, Fox Five, and regional press, significantly increasing our brand visibility and audience awareness.

We saw substantial growth in ticket sales, first-time attendees, and overall engagement, while also elevating the scale and quality of our productions.

This momentum has strengthened both our community presence and our organizational impact.

Looking ahead, we are preparing an exciting and ambitious season featuring Firebird and Carmen, the Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty.

Each production is designed to build on our recent growth, with Firebird and Carmen offering bold, dynamic storytelling and powerful musically driven experience, enhanced by a live orchestra.

The Nutcracker will continue as a beloved tradition, further elevated through live orchestration, while Sleeping Beauty showcases the beauty and traditional tradition of classical ballet.

Together, these works reflect our commitment to artistic excellence, immersive performance experience, and continued growth.

I would like to show you a short video.

It does.

Thank you for checking.

Live orchestration transforms performances into immersive experiences, enhances emotional depth, timing, and connection between dancers and audience.

Our proven success of this is the Knuckracker with orchestra for several years now, has elevated audience response and engagement.

Through the Marietta Tourism Grant, the impact for us specifically would go straight to live orchestration for Firebird and Carmen.

Positions the Georgia Ballet as a leading regional performing arts organization.

We are deeply grateful for your continued support since 2010.

Your investment has played a vital role in our growth, enabling us to expand our reach, elevate our productions, and deepen our impact within the community.

As we look toward the future, we are excited to continue building on this momentum together and further advancing the arts in our region.

Thank you very much.

Do you have any questions?

May I leave you a seasoned rat card?

Sure.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Uh next up, final.

Um bringing in the end here is Theater Square Art Alliance.

Unless I missed anyone, did I miss anyone?

Okay, good.

It's okay.

Hey y'all.

It's been a while.

It's good to see y'all.

I'm gonna keep it simple because we've been sitting here for three hours, and I know y'all are tired.

And I know everybody behind me is tired, and we got business to conduct.

Um first things first, I want to say thank you for the years of committed um support you have given to the Theatre Square Art Alliance on behalf of Marietta's Theater in the Square.

I think what's most unique about us is that um Theatre Square Art Alliance is only in its third year, technically its second year going into year three.

And most of our support has come from this board.

You guys have made it possible for us to go out and seek sponsorships and different sorts of support from different people in the community outside of the community.

So I want to say thank you for that, because what you are seeing is the growth of a non-for-profit here, right here in Marietta, and how it can grow when the board supports it.

So thank you for that.

First things first, I want you to know what happened to your money that we spent this year, because we're still spending it.

You guys gave us a grant, and that grant went directly to the marketing of Theatre Square Art Alliance on behalf of Marietta's Theater in the Square.

So if you're ever driving down Barrett Parkway or if you're driving down um East West Connector on Austell Road, there are these big billboards.

Um and right now they are showing things that are happening right there at the theater.

A lad in the musical is performing, our summer camps are coming up, and so as we continue to grow and develop, the reason for we're asking of more money and for another grant is because we want those billboards to be there year-round.

One of the biggest things that we have found is that if you don't have something happening consistently in the theater, if you don't have something consistently in someone's face, it's really easy for them to forget that you exist.

It's really easy for them to forget that something's going on.

And so the reason for our increase of funding this year is because we're looking for the ability to market year-round, not just events that are happening at the theater, but the theater itself.

Knowing what is going on, what is coming up, what we stand on, our mission of the theater, when those things are happening in billboards, when those things are happening on the radio, when those things are happening on streaming networks, because now you can do commercials on Hulu and Peacock, and you don't have to see the uh enormous uh many, many politicians who are advertising the the what's happening in November, but you can also see like your plumber, you can also see your theater, you can also see Taste of Marietta.

So streaming is the way of the future, and these are all the things that we want to get involved in.

But that takes more funding.

And so when you look at our request this year, what you are looking for is an increase in the marketing efforts of the theater.

How do we keep this on everyone's forefront for the duration of the year?

Not just when we're doing our productions, not just when we're renting out the space, not just when our resident theater are performing, but so that everybody knows that Marietta's Theater in the Square is there, it's open, it's lively, and anytime you need a date, anytime you need an event for your kids, we're the place to go to.

Do you have any questions?

I like it.

That's pretty straightforward.

I like it.

I'm good.

Thank you.

You're welcome, everybody.

Do you have anything else?

No.

I know.

Good presentation.

Thank you, all of you for being here.

I know heard the word partnership.

And I love how so many groups are working together.

So thank you for being here, and thank you for all you do.

And over their business, we're adjourned.