Good evening.

I call to order the August 25th, 2026 Portage City Council meeting in honor of all denominations and personal beliefs and as we reflect on freedom, liberty, and having the independence to be self-governed for all people in the United States.

Please rise for a moment of personal introspection and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance.

At this time, I would like to call Troop 244 to please come and lead us in the pledge.

Please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

And to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

And if we could please begin with roll call.

Yes, Madam Mayor, I'll start with Burns.

Still here.

Ledbetter.

Here.

Miller here, Olmstead, here, Pearson.

Here.

Randall.

Here.

And Young here.

Thank you.

All right, we have uh two proclamations this evening.

The first one is on the Emancipation Season Celebration 2026.

And I'd like to call Justin Williams and Dr.

Michelle Johnson to please come forward.

She is with the Institute of Public Scholarship, and we are delighted to have you both here.

I'm delighted to be here.

Thank you.

Well, I am honored to read this proclamation recognizing June 19th to September 16th as emancipation season.

I congratulate you on joining the city of Kalamazoo and most recently the state of Michigan in making such a proclamation.

And it reads whereas Michigan organizers in Detroit began celebrating the emancipation of enslaved people in the British West Indies on August 1st, as early as 1839.

And whereas after that time, organizers across the state established August as a time to gather to reflect on the past and present and envision the future for the descendants of enslaved people.

And whereas emancipation celebrations made regional, national, and international connections between the formerly enslaved and their descendants, and whereas Kalamazoo residents hosted emancipation celebrations in 1846, 1862, and 1894, and whereas Kalamazoo County residents figured prominently in statewide celebrations as organizers, speakers, performers, and attendees, and whereas Michigan's governor Ferris Woodbridge supported participation in the nationally significant 1915 Lincoln Jubilee held between August 22nd and September 16th in Chicago, which researched and celebrated black people's international status in 34 countries, 18 states, and Puerto Rico, 50 years after the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865.

And whereas 105 black delegates from Michigan, including Kalamuzou resident and officer Lulu Margaret Williams, conducted and participated in research to create the Michigan Manual Freedmen's Progress prepared exhibits, lectures, performance, and presentations for the August 26th Michigan Day at the Lincoln Jubilee, and whereas Juneteenth celebrations that emerged from the closure of the Civil War in Texas in 1865 spread from that state and became established as a national holiday, recognized in Kalamazoo and whereas the Institute of Public Scholarship endeavors to recall, revive, and deepen these traditions through celebrations, panels, and education.

Now, therefore, it be resolved that I, Patricia M.

Randall as the mayor of the City of Portage to hereby recognize June 19th to September 16th as emancipation celebration season from this day forward and encourage all Portage residents to learn about, recognize, and support initiatives that celebrate diverse expressions of emancipation and the end of slavery.

Thank you very much for joining us.

It's truly an honor to have you here.

I think this is the first one we've ever done.

If you would like to tell us a little bit about your organization, um you're free to do so.

Absolutely.

I will try to not go on and on because I can't.

I won't let you go on and on.

We've been here too long.

The work at the Institute of Public Scholarship we do is at the intersection of the arts, humanities, and sciences.

We focus on creating, remembering and restoring our history and culture for people who are on the margins sometimes, but also folks who are artists and cultural creators and folks who are interested in being community scientists.

And so we have a whole host of programs, and we're over there on 313 North Verdict, where we invite you on September 12th to our second annual emancipation jubilee block party that will be leading up to on Thursday.

Thursday at 6 o'clock.

We're going to really kick it off here in Portage with myself doing a longer conversation that kind of fill fills out the context for this proclamation on Lincoln Jubilee and Emancipation Celebrations.

And then we'll be having Carmen Bell, who is a really fabulous opera singer who will be giving us a period number from the 1915 era.

So our website is the IPSnow.org and start looking out.

We got some new vans that are going to be pretty fancy that you'll be able to click on the QR code.

So we do a lot of work in Kalamazoo and Kalamazoo County, and we are honored to be able to bridge what oftentimes seems to be too much of a gap between communities of Portage and Kalamazoo, where we share so much in common and clearly we see a love and interest in celebrating the freedom that we've all worked so hard for.

So thank you, Mayor, and thank you, the rest of the commissioners, for having us here today.

Thank you.

All right, next on our agenda is the recognition of new Eagle Scouts from Troop 244.

And the scouts that are being recognized are James R.

Jones, Riley Reinhard, Sophie Schmidt, and Eunice Sullens.

And if I could have their Scoutmaster come forward with all of these people.

Okay, perfect.

And you if you could talk in the mic, the people at home can see you and hear you.

And you are probably uh the troop that um brings forward more Eagle Scouts than all the others uh combined.

So congratulations, whatever you're doing is working.

But if you could tell us a little bit about your efforts and where you're located, that type of thing.