Meeting discussionsStart with a topic.

Stop by beach. Start. Yeah, there's eight of them. Yeah. House. coming in on two wheels. It's a lot You guys are enjoying yourselves. So this year Well, everybody's Somebody I should have That's what he told me. What's See how I to her. Yes, sir. Is that anything else. All right. What' you say? I'm like perfect. That's always Hey, That's all we All right. Good evening everybody. It's 7:02. It's the first meeting. We've started late uh in a while. Sorry about that. Um welcome everybody. Uh we are pleased to have Reverend Michael Walker with us from King's Chapel AM Church, 2600 Davenport Street. like to invite you up now to lead us in the invocation and pledge. Everybody please rise. I will. Thank you. Father God, we come tonight to give you honor and give you praise. Oh Lord, we thank you for bringing us here safely, Lord. And we thank you for allowing us to to have the mind, a clear mind to come and to be about your business. Oh Lord, we lift up your name in the highest of highs, oh God. Lord, we thank you. We thank you. If we had 10,000 tongues, we could not say it enough. Lord, we love we love the way you've been treat you've treated us, oh God, even when we didn't do what you wanted us to do, but you still loved us. So, Father God, we come tonight giving you thanks and praise in the matchless name of Jesus, who is the Christ. We pray. Amen. Amen. And amen. Let's do a pledge of allegiance to the flag here. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Amen. We sure appreciate you being with us tonight. Thank you. All right. We don't have any agenda changes tonight. Um, mayoral report is going to be short this evening. We had our uh, annual daddy daughter dance since we last met and that was a huge crowd and a lot of fun. Um, the Smyrna Little League starts up this week with practices. There's over a thousand kids signed up to play. Um, so I think um, first part of March or later this month is the little league parade. if you have them come out for that ever. It's it's quite a thing. Starts at Campbell Middle School and ends at Bartlett Field at Brinkley. Um and all the players are out on the field. It's uh it's a it's a great community event and I hope everybody's enjoying the warmer weather.

Um we got all 70s this week so that makes it a little easier to do just about everything. Um we'll move on to proclamations and presentations. And the first item is a proclamation in recognition of Georgia Arbor Day. And who is handling that? Miss Wilkinson. I'll turn it over to you. Okay. Thank you. Um I have a pro proclamation by the mayor of the city of Smyrna in recognition of Georgia Arbor Day. Whereas the first Arbor Day was celebrated in 1872 in Nebraska as a special day for planting trees uh and has grown to thousands of celebrations in communities across our nation each year. And whereas community partners, families, and friends will be joined together at local Arbor Day ceremonies to recognize the benefits of trees and urban forest. And whereas trees will be planted across the state, creating a lasting legacy for future generations. And whereas trees improve water quality and quantity, reduce the erosion of precious soil, top soil, increase property values and economic vitality in business areas, provide shade, clean cleanse the air, create habitat for wildlife, and add beauty to communities. And whereas trees promote outdoor recreation which improves human health and well-being and reduces uh natural deficit disorder, nature deficit disorder in children by encouraging more activity and connection to the natural world. And whereas all of Georgia benefits from forestry, which contributes billions of dollars annually to our state's economy and provides employment for more than a 100,000 people. And whereas the city of Smyrna has been a tree city for 23 years due to the celebration of Arbor Day. Now therefore, I, Derek Norton, mayor of the city of Smyrna, Georgia, do hereby proclaim February 20th, 2026 as Arbor Day in Georgia, and encourage our citizens to plant trees, thus leaving a legacy for present and future generations. Thank you, Miss Wilkinson. Is there anybody here to accept?

Come on up. Good evening. On behalf of Julie, uh she asked me to accept the proclamation and to share the following. Today we recognize Arbor Day as a day to celebrate the many benefits of trees, especially native trees that are indigenous to Georgia. We celebrate Arbor Day in February because it's the ideal time for planting. Each year, Keeps Mr. Beautiful honors this tradition by planting at least one tree. And this year, we're excited to plant several in North Cooper Lake Park right next to the Smyrna Community Garden. The planting will be this Friday, February 12th, at 12:00 p.m. And everyone present is invited. We'll be planting a total of eight trees. Four will be native tree species, two fringe trees, an eastern red bud, and a service berry tree, which you may know has delicious fruit that's similar in flavor to blueberries. Native trees make local ecosystems more climate resilient. They reduce landscaping costs, and they increase pollinator populations responsible for the 2thirds of the food that we eat each day. Speaking of food, in addition to the native tree species, we'll be planting four non-native fruit trees for some variety. Two fig trees, two apple trees. Once all of the fruing trees reach maturity, they'll provide free food to park and community garden visitors alike. So during this Friday ceremony, um we will also be giving out free tree samplings to seedlings, excuse me, to anyone who would like a seedling of their own. Our tree seedling species include the southern kalpa and bald cypress trees which are also native to Georgia. And we thank you all for having us tonight. We accept the proclamation on behalf of all keep sma beautiful and the city of Smyrna. And we look forward to seeing you all on Friday for our tree planting ceremony. Thank you. We're going to come down and get a get a photo with y'all. But let me just tell you how much we appreciate what y'all do. And those are fantastic new shirt. I

have not seen those shirts before. Those look those look really good. If that doesn't represent the jungle city, I don't know what does.

Once upon a time, Laura and I served on that board. And uh I just love all the things that y'all do for our community. Um next we have a presentation from the Smyrna Education Foundation. We have a report and uh and a check from JRM. So come on up. I see Mr. Dax and Mr. Goldsmith in the audience. Tim chairs our education committee. Thanks for being here, folks. Would you all mind just introducing yourselves and just tell us what you do for the for the city and JRM? A lot of folks know you, but not everybody does. Could you just explain? Sure. I'm Bill Watson with JRM management and uh we partner with the city to uh produce spring jell festival, taste of Smyrna and crafts and drafts and um Smyrna is one of our absolutely favorite venues. It's beautiful. Uh got the restrooms and the fountain. all that's completed and now with StillFire kind of bookending the events, it'll be even better. Um so we're very excited about that. So we're always um conscious about trying to give back and and do what we can. Uh we partner with uh Atkins Park and Kevin Draw who couldn't be here tonight to put beer gardens within those events and then proceeds from that we uh we set aside. And then um with uh with the events this past year we had a little bit of weather and uh but we still uh the crowds always come and they're always a great events. Um the um with the uh beer gardens we were able to raise $3,33121 and that's from all the events. So we coupled with that um we're going to donate $20,000 to the Smyrna Education Foundation and glad to do it. uh I think always mention this. Thank you. Uh the matriarch of our company uh FA Miller uh taught for 32 years.