Mr. Stephens thanked Leisure Services Director Carol Collins and her staff for going above and beyond with the Holiday of Lights Drive Through event this past Sunday. He also thanked everyone in the City for taking the time to display holiday lights. He closed his commented by wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday season.

Vice Mayor Byington echoed Mr. Stephens comments. He shared that Thursday, December 17 is the 117^th anniversary of the Wright brother’s first flight. There will be a virtual celebration online event shown on Wright Brothers National Memorial’s Facebook page. He added that a B-1 Bomber will fly over the Dayton area at 10:35 a.m. that day.

Mayor Duncan read excerpts from two different citizen letters. The first letter was sent to the Kettering Police Department from a Kettering resident regarding an event that happened near his home.

“We became aware that something was going on when we saw the flashing red and blue lights of a police car reflecting off of the house next door to us. We watched for a while and then saw a man walk down the alley. Then we saw two men near the driveway. Then another police vehicle arrived, stopped near our house and then left. A few minutes later another car arrived and then, without us noticing, two police cars were almost blocking Orchard Drive at Aerial Avenue. Then we noticed another car parked on Aerial Avenue. We observed that several times one to three officers took advantage of the motion sensor lights to look over some papers using the Rumpke trash dumpster as a table. We figured out that something serious was going on but we had no idea what it was.

Then a large step van pulled up, eventually followed by another. But around that time a strange thing began as private cars and trucks arrived. Civilian looking men got out and began to get dressed out of their trunks. At that time we realized that they must be S.W.A.T. We watched as they matter-of-factly went about the business of putting on their gear just like they were putting on a coat and tie to go to work. There was no evidence of any hesitation about preparing to put themselves into a potentially dangerous situation. Eventually we were able to account for 10 police vehicles and one ambulance but we know that there were probably more, because of what occurred next. After some prep time, there was another meeting in the driveway at the dumpster at which there were several uniformed officers and around a dozen officers in some sort of body armor. This was an extraordinary sight to see in real life. Then, over the next few minutes, the crowd dispersed and we saw six people head down the alley and the others "disappeared". At that time we were sure that we and our house was not in danger and that there was nothing else for us to observe so we went back to bed, feeling safe and secure.

The reason that we are writing this letter is to tell you how impressed we are with all that we saw. First, there is just the number of police that were right outside our house protecting us. Then there was the fact that if we hadn't seen the flashing light we wouldn't have even known that something was going on. The quiet, of the way you went about your business, was somewhat eerie but it is also very reassuring and impressive. We realize that some of you were abruptly awaken from a good night's sleep and that some of you did then have to go to your regular shift without a full night's sleep. This is most likely accepted as just "part of the job" but it still shouldn't go unnoticed or unrecognized.

Our only regret is that on that day we took down our blue stripe "We support police" flags. We know that, if they had been up, none of you would likely have seen them in the dark but we wish that our support was still visibly present while you were going about your work. We want to tell you that we support you and appreciate that you were there protecting us even though we seldom get the opportunity to see this in person.

We hope that we never have to see you in action again and that, having had this experience, we now feel, more vividly, your ever presence in our neighborhood.”

Mayor Duncan shared that Oakwood Public Safety Officers Ryan Rump and Jeremy Smith are on the Kettering Regional S.W.A.T. Team and responded to this incident.

The second letter Mayor Duncan read was from an Oakwood citizen that participated in Oakwood’s Citizens Police Academy.

“I just wanted to send a quick note of thanks for creating and offering the Oakwood Public Safety Department Citizen Police Academy. I absolutely loved attending – anyone who I have spoken to over the past 9 weeks has heard about how much I enjoyed learning more about what the Public Safety Department does.