[Music] Hi everyone and welcome to another council update. I'm here with council member Dave Clawson. So thanks for joining us Dave. Thanks Phil. Good to be back again. Well Dave, May is a month where we take time to recognize some truly incredible groups, causes, and issues. And we have a lot of proclamations during the month of May. And so, Council Member Clawson, can you tell us a little bit about uh what's coming up? There are a lot of proclamations uh we're going to do in the month of May. And uh some of them are the uh Mental Health Awareness Month, National Police Week, Police Officers Memorial Day, Building Safety Month, and Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. It's a busy month. It is. And and so those are some really important topics. And I know that you've got some experience working in public safety. And so, uh, what do some of those proclamations mean to you or mean for the city of Cottage Grove? Yeah. Well, of course, I come from the law enforcement family. Um, almost 40 years in law enforcement and I've had the opportunity to be in Washington DC during police week and National Officers Memorial Day. And it's very humbling when you go there and see the name of someone you used to work with on that national memorial. So, we just need to recognize what law enforcement does for us, what our first responders do, and um how important they are to a community? It's very true. And and you mentioned some other important things that are happening this month. Um we have Building Safety Month and Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Uh is there anything that you can say about those? And I know in addition to that, there's mental health awareness month. And I know that you were mentioning earlier before we started a resource that that exists here locally for mental health awareness month. Yeah, one of the uh local resources that we have and what the police department works with is an organization called NAMI, a national alliance for mental illness. They have local chapters here in Minnesota. And I know they worked uh with our police department when many years ago we were one of the first in the area to establish a crisis response unit. So NAMI is a great resource locally for us and um NAMI is a good advocate for lobbying any legislative action, anything in the mental health world. I know NAMI says that the mental health system isn't broken. It just really hasn't been built yet. So if you need help, it it's now an easy number to remember. uh just dial 988 and um any the people on the other end can get you connected with the right resources you might need. So um we're happy to recognize that this month. That's really great and I really appreciate you mentioning that especially that that hotline for folks to call if if ever they need any assistance or anything along those lines. Uh and then of course last and certainly not least, we've got building safety month and Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Um, is there anything you want to share about either of those proclamations? I know that we work I work with a lot of really great staff um, doing building inspections and making sure that people's garages and decks and what have you are safe. And so I don't think people realize, you know, they're kind of the I don't want to kind of unsung heroes. Maybe people don't know about them, but they are out there working. If you watch any YouTube videos, for example, there's stories of things falling apart in buildings and inspections gone wrong. But just know that our building code division, they're not there to find problems. They're really there more to educate. They work well with our local developers and builders to make sure, you know, your project comes off well, it works, uh, doesn't fall apart. And then, of course, we're celebrating Asian-American and Pacific Islander Month. This gives us an opportunity just just to recognize people that have been in our community for so many years and all the things they've contributed to our community. Uh well, Council Member Clawson, thank you again for being here uh and for helping us shine a light on these important weeks and awareness months and just for taking the time to shoot today. Very good. Thanks, Phil. Well, that's it for this month's council update. Thank you for tuning in and follow the city on Facebook X or Twitter, Blue Sky, and thank you as always to the South Washington County Telecommunications Commission for all that they do to produce the content that you're seeing here and for residents in our area. Thank you, and we'll see you next time. [Music]