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Topic: Is Flint mobbed up like Detroit
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Soave saying about Williams not having employees or equipment, "In his case he was his company" says Soave about Williams.

Rataj says Williams did not have experience to get boots on the ground to get muddy on the ground. Soave disagrees that he did not have any experience. "He ran DWSD."

Rataj says that's a different animal than going out in the field. Soave says that's your opinion. I thought he (Williams) would be a good company to mentor and hopefully at the end it was going to be fruitful.

Rataj presses that Williams didn't have any work experience to carry out provisions of 1368 for pipe rehabilitation. Ferguson says Rataj was the one who had the company to do the grunt work. Soave agrees that he was equipped to do that.

Rataj says Williams did not bring to the table what Ferguson could. Soave says he did not choose him.

Soave says Williams did have experience but not the equipment and the people.

___________________________________________________________________


Last edited by untanglingwebs on Tue Nov 21, 2017 4:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
Post Mon Nov 20, 2017 11:52 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Soave admitted that the attorney turned contractor only had experience and not manpower or equipment. However Soave gave him $200,000 when he ha to replace him for Ferguson. Now, with Soave's help Williams is part of a dynamic business, MPS. Charlie Williams
Chairman

Charlie currently serves as MPS Group Chairman. He also has served MPS Group as a board member since 1999. His duties include senior executive management and myriad corporate oversight responsibilities, including strategic planning, corporate ethics, diversity initiatives, and board and stockholder relationships.

Offering years of broad executive management experience, Charlie has served the City of Detroit and Wayne County in various capacities for more than 30 years, including posts as Chief of Staff for the mayor of Detroit and as Deputy County Executive for Wayne County. He also served as Executive Director of the Detroit Water & Sewer Department for several years and is a member of the State Bar of Michigan.

As a consultant to Highland Park, Michigan, he advised the Emergency Financial Manager regarding financial and administrative matters. In 2006, Charlie was appointed to a six-year term with the Wayne County Airport Authority Board, which is the governing agency for the world's 15th busiest airport. He also currently serves as an audit committee member for Magna Entertainment, a publicly listed corporation.

Charlie's enthusiasm, judgment and experience assure solid governance for the challenges and opportunities the MPS Group faces now and in the future.
--------------------------------
We have the same situation in Flint. The last pipeline project was rebid and some say unfairly. W T Stevens was said to behind in her assigned workload and yet she got the biggest share of the new contracts. Here we have a Minority female owned company that is located in the business incubator . She more than likely qualified or some work, If she had the equipment and employees, why was it necessary to bring in 2 subcontractors from the western side of the state?

And why when the equipment of the subcontractors was vandalized, did Weaver insist on saying it was W T Stevens equipment that was vandalized? Is someone mentoring W T Stevens? At the bid meeting many minority contractors complained on the subject of subcontractors.

Did the other contractors have subcontractors?

In another instance another female owned company, this one with ties to Snyder got a contract on the pipeline.


Last edited by untanglingwebs on Tue Nov 21, 2017 3:38 pm; edited 1 time in total
Post Mon Nov 20, 2017 12:13 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Pipe replacements delayed after vandals destroy contractor's equipment


Vandals delay pipe replacements in Flint

By Jessica Dupnack | Posted: Fri 11:45 AM, May 12, 2017 | Updated: Fri 5:42 PM, May 12, 2017

FLINT (WJRT) - (05/12/17) - Vandals are delaying pipe replacements in Flint.


Crews got to work Friday morning, ready to replace pipes on Flint's north side, but they found a $70,000 truck burned and completely destroyed. It didn't stop there - about seven vehicles and heavy machinery had windows busted out.

The equipment belongs to two contractors who are in the city, hired to replace pipes.

Hardrock Drilling and Excavating, out of Jackson, lost that truck that was likely set on fire and had damage to several other pieces of equipment. Gustafson Excavating, based near Muskegon, is dealing with windows broken out.

They're speculating this happened around 2 a.m. after someone who lives nearby the former Bryant Elementary School off Pierson Road called 911. They reported seeing something suspicious in the lot where the equipment is parked.

The project manager with Hardrock says they've been using the lot for about a week so they don't have to transport equipment back and forth.

The crews were planning on digging up lead pipes at 8 homes in the city on Friday, but now these pipe replacements will not happen.


The companies do have insurance, but it's going to take some time to make a claim and get the equipment back to work.

A spokesperson with Bedrock says they will be looking into how much private security will cost. They're already dealt with broken windows while their equipment was parked at another location in the city.
Post Mon Nov 20, 2017 2:10 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Traverse City Record Eagle, July 27, 1993

Trash Baron Networks for Profit

by
Stephen P. Dresch
When trash baron Anthony Soave was questioned about the $200,000 his political action committee (City PAC) gave to state and local politicians and candidates in 1992, he responded, "... we do spend a significant amount of time and energy promoting our business, offering advice, educating opinion leaders about the issues that affect us, and sharing information. I believe the popular term for that is called 'networking.'" Soave's director of government relations, politically-retired Flint mayor James Sharp, said, "We believe that contributions ought to be made to government in order that it [sic] can continue to function, and we do it in concert with the law."
Post Tue Nov 21, 2017 10:10 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

January 19, 2014 12:00 p.m. UPDATED 1/22/2014
Preparing for Detroit waste contract, growing Rizzo drops plan for landfill
By Chad Halcom
T
JOHN SOBCZAK
Chuck Rizzo Jr., CEO of Rizzo Environmental Services Inc., said the waste hauler plans this week to end its option agreement on 316 acres where it had proposed a landfill in Lenox Township.

Sterling Heights-based Rizzo Environmental Services Inc. has seen so much growth recently in municipal and commercial waste collection contracts that it no longer sees a need to diversify into landfills.

The turning points: Waste collected by Rizzo under a new trash hauling and curbside recycling contract award from the city of Detroit apparently won't be leaving the city, and St. Clair County may become a disposal option for some of its Macomb County suburban customers.

Company President and CEO Chuck Rizzo Jr. said the family-owned waste hauler plans this week to terminate its option agreement on 316 acres of land where it had proposed the Clinton Valley Farms landfill in Lenox Township. It will also table its application for Macomb County officials to allow the landfill in favor of a request to export more trash outside the county, he said.

Rizzo said a number of market conditions for waste collection in Southeast Michigan have changed since the company first entered into the Lenox option, about a year ago.


One is the likelihood that Rizzo and Florida-based Advanced Disposal Inc. will be disposing all of Detroit's trash at the Detroit Renewable Energy LLC waste-to-energy plant in the city (known as the Detroit incinerator) once the two new Detroit contractors take over solid waste collection for the city on May 1. That originally wasn't expected to happen, when Detroit first shopped a proposal to privatize waste collection last year.

Another is that neighboring St. Clair County may open its borders to accept Macomb waste soon to its own Smiths Creek Landfill, in a deal that is expected to create more market competition for the Waste Management Inc.-owned Pine Tree Acres landfill in Lenox. Pine Tree is currently Macomb's only open landfill.

"We were concerned about a monopoly (by Waste Management), and amending our request might create the same result," Rizzo said. "This change now helps create the market competition effect of having another landfill in the county, but without the cost of adding another landfill."

Jeffrey Bohm, chairman of the St. Clair County Board of Commissioners, confirmed that the county has reviewed landfill operations with consultants and should "very soon" consider a proposal to amend its solid waste plan and allow waste imports from Macomb and Lapeer counties.

Traditionally a closed county, St. Clair has seen collection at its only active landfill dwindle from about 370,000 tons in 2003 to about 170,000 tons today, largely due to plummeting commercial waste contributions among its local businesses. That brings Smiths Creek to about a break-even operation, he said, and the county has been looking at waste imports to bolster profitability.

"The volumes are way down, and we are looking for a way to get our waste streams stabilized," Bohm said. "Sometimes you have communities that don't address that issue until it's become a problem. We're trying instead to be very proactive."

Rizzo said his company, co-founded in 1998 with his father, Charles Rizzo Sr., maintains a business mix of about 60 percent municipal contracts and 40 percent commercial waste collection contract with large manufacturers and other companies.

Its parent company, Rizzo Group, is co-owned by father and son along with CEO Michael Ferrantino Jr. of EQ – The Environmental Quality Co. in Wayne; New York City-based private equity firm Kinderhook Industries; and Habib Mamou, president of V&M Corp., doing business as Royal Oak Recycling.

Rizzo Environmental has grown steadily through a mix of new residential contracts and business acquisitions, and the company claims it has never lost a municipal contract since Hamtramck became its first customer in 2001.

When Kinderhook acquired its stake in Rizzo Group in 2012, revenue was about $23 million, Chuck Rizzo said. This year, it should exceed $70 million, even before it begins servicing two out of four geographic zones of Detroit.

Rizzo Environmental in November acquired Royal Oak Recycling (Chuck Rizzo estimates the target company revenue was almost $20 million) and in July it won the residential hauling contracts for Eastpointe, Roseville and St. Clair Shores away from Waste Management of Michigan, a subsidiary of Houston-based Waste Management.

The company also picked up contracts for more than a half dozen Oakland County communities and the management of a Warren transfer station out of the 2012 bankruptcy of Flint-based Richfield Equities LLC, which converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation last February.

Chuck Rizzo and Charles Rizzo Sr. told Crain's the company won its first municipal contract for Hamtramck in 2001 and has since grown to provide services to 32 local communities in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties.

Adding the Detroit contract is expected to require Rizzo to buy about 40 new vehicles and add 55-60 new jobs, and could add $10.5 million to $11 million in additional yearly revenue, meaning 2014 revenue could approach $80 million depending on when Detroit service begins.

Contract terms are still being finalized, although Chuck Rizzo said the company could start as early as February.

The company also claims a better than an 80 percent success rate on recent municipal bidding against its competitors. Chuck Rizzo credits that track record in part to being a local company without the added overhead costs of Waste Management, Arizona-based Republic Services Inc. and other competitors that also maintain landfills, recyclable materials recovery centers and other nonhauling operations.

The company also has sometimes aggressively pursued new business, even submitting unsolicited bids in the past for St. Clair Shores and Harrison Township. Last fall, it submitted a similar bid to Rochester Hills, and even tried a local politics tactic: contacting a citizens' watchdog group that organized robocalls to residents after that company renewed a Republic Services contract without competitive bidding.

Because of the corporate growth, Rizzo recently acquired 6 acres of land adjacent to its 40,000-square-foot garage and office building in Sterling Heights, where it has been based since 2005. Chuck Rizzo said the company hopes to open a new services center in Pontiac by June if it can clear some Oakland County regulatory approvals in the next few months, but it isn't short on vehicle fleet space.

"There's plenty of capacity here" at Sterling Heights, he said, adding that even with Detroit, the location won't be more than 80 percent full. "And at this location, we're not near very many residential neighborhoods to have concerns about noise or the early morning starts."

Rizzo Environmental also has a bid pending to add Southgate to its waste hauling contracts, and plans upcoming bids on Harrison Township and Washington Township as well as possible acquisitions this year, Rizzo said.

Tom Horton, government affairs manager for the Michigan, Indiana and Ohio region of Waste Management, said the new Rizzo and Advanced Disposal contracts simply prove the Detroit area "has always been a robust, competitive marketplace" for waste haulers, and that competition should continue.

He also said a new $15 million plant that converts landfill gas from the Pine Tree Acres landfill into electricity has helped establish Waste Management as the largest producer of landfill energy in the Midwest.

That plant, completed in 2012, expanded the landfill's power output capacity from 8.8 megawatts to 21.6 megawatts, enough to power about 17,000 homes. Horton also disputes Rizzo's contention that Pine Tree Acres has a monopoly on Macomb waste disposal due to its location and limitations on waste exports.

"These are guidelines, not restrictions, on moving waste in the county's (solid waste management) plan, and these (Rizzo's) allegations that restrictions exist are simply without evidence," he said.

Horton said commercial waste collection in Detroit remains a thriving Waste Management operation.

The company handles recycling and hauls paper and cardboard waste for reuse for General Motors Co. at the Renaissance Center headquarters, under a zero-landfill conversion plan the automaker completed at its headquarters complex in December. But Royal Oak Recycling, now a Rizzo company, also bales and ships paper from the RenCen to be resold as material and cereal box and tissue paper.

Both Rizzo and Advanced Disposal, the company awarded the other half of the Detroit contract, are expected to send waste to the Detroit incinerator. The city is being divided into east and west collection zones as part of the contract.

Detroit Renewable Power President John O'Sullivan confirmed the two new waste contractors recently informed his company they will send all Detroit waste to the plant, either directly or by way of a Southfield transfer station.

"It's my understanding that's the city's choice, though we haven't had much direct communication from the city recently," O'Sullivan said. "That may change soon, though, since a new mayoral administration is in and we expect to see some new activity now on its (Detroit's) operations side."

Chad Halcom: (313) 446-6796, chalcom@crain.com. Twitter: @chadhalcom
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Post Tue Nov 21, 2017 10:53 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

The ownership of Warren Waste Transfer was not clear to me. Although articles discussed Qurino D'Alessandro as fronting for Tony Soave with the Warren Waste Transfer, later articles rarely mentioned the ownership. Soave discussed selling his waste business to Waste Management, but the state documents only show a merger and the Warren Waste transfer is one of the entities in the merger.

It is probably safe to assume that since Soave (through D'Alessandro) still controlled the Warren Waste Transfer, then there had to be some relationship (at least in the beginning) between Rizzo and Soave. However there is no mention what arrangement the City of Warren had in order to contract management of the facility.

In later years Rizzo discussed Waste Management as an adversary and indeed Waste management took the hardest hits from the growth of Rizzo.
Post Tue Nov 21, 2017 11:06 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

When Rizzo got the 2001 contract, the company was to transport the City's municipal waste to the landfill. The City was to install and make an additional "direct dump" system by June 30, 2002. Later the city argued there was no definition of what constituted a direct dump. In return Rizzo was to pay the City of Warren a $10,000 royalty fee for the use of the facility for other customers.

The additional equipment. a third compactor for yard waste. never was installed and Rizzo alleged he lost profits and incurred increased costs. As a result, Rizzo with held the royalty payments.

The battle was taken to the courts in 2005 when Rizzo sued the City of warren under their corporate name of C & R Maintenance. Rizzo reused to pay royalties until the City installed the dump system and made it operational.
Post Tue Nov 21, 2017 3:59 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

The legal wrangling lasted for years. The Macomb Daily kept a running dialogue of the battle.

January 2006 - the judge dismissed the case with prejudice.

March 2007- Rizzo agrees to drop case. Sought an extension of contract and agreed to a lower price if extension given.

May 2006- The city started withholding royalty fees from the invoices. Rizzo goes to council to state his case. The City withholds $28,626 per month until the contract expiration date in October 2008.

October 2007-Rizzo sues the City in U.S. District Court and includes City Controller Richard Fox and former Public Service Director and asked for a declaratory judgement.
Allegations included a breach of contract, statutory conversion and retaliation in violation of 42 USC section 1983 and conspiracy. Only the section 1983 and the conspiracy charges were not dismissed.


Last edited by untanglingwebs on Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
Post Tue Nov 21, 2017 4:47 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

December 2007- Rizzo refiles in Circuit Court and this time raises issues dismissed in Federal District Court.

February 2008- Rizzo files to use the arbitration clause in the contract and sought damages and determination that the City materially breached the contract.

March 2008- asked to transfer all claims to arbitration.

The City of Warren had finally installed the required repairs at the dump site and compacting facility so that Rizzo could accept outside construction debris. However Rizzo owed $840,000 in royalty fees.


An independent auit of City Finances noted the $1 million bank line of credit had expired so the City could not recoup any monies they believed they were owed.
Post Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:33 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

December 2008- The City of Warren asked Hannover Insurance for an opinion on coverage.

May 2009- Third Party Administrator denies coverage citing the policy section that coverage did not apply when public officials when errors and omissions were from a f failure to perform or a breach of contractual obligation.

The city did not prevail in their lawsuit.

June 19, 2009- Arbitration awarded Rizzo $6,419,580, but that Rizzo ha wrongully withheld $683,276 in royalty payments.

Mediation over the arbitration award gave Rizzo a settlement of $5,973,000. Rizzo argued for enforcement of the arbitration award.
Post Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:50 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Former Lion Billy Sims wants to make Flint hub for global food manufacturing

Updated Aug 19, 2016; Posted Aug 18, 2016

By Molly Young

1978 Heisman Trophy Winner and Former Detroit Lions running back Billy Sims is seen in this 2012 file photo. (MLive.com | File)
FLINT, MI -- Billy Sims, 1976 Heisman Trophy winner and former Detroit Lions running back, wants to make Flint a hub for global food manufacturing.

Several groups met in Flint Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 17 and 18, to talk about revitalizing Flint and share ideas about turning the city into a global food manufacturer, according to a news release from the Billy Sims China Food Group.

According to the release, groups expected to attend included the Billy Sims China Food Group, The Flint & Genesee Chamber of Commerce, The US-China Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese Government, Heilongjiang Agriculture Co. Ltd. and others.

The idea is to develop food processing centers in Flint, creating "hundreds of jobs initially and thousands over the coming four years," as well as improving "the U.S. balance of trade with China," the release says.

George Wilkinson, group vice president of the Flint & Genesee Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber is still learning about Sims' idea, but is excited about any project that could bring economic development to Flint.

"Our responsibility is to make sure that we listen, we learn and we understand all of the things associated with this potential opportunity for Flint," Wilkinson said. "We are excited and enthusiastic about any project that could come to Flint from an economic development perspective."
Post Tue Nov 21, 2017 10:44 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

alexharris Aug 20, 2016
I have no idea whether the prospects for this specific business venture in Flint will come to fruition. What I do know about is Billy Sims Facebook account on the time he sought out Flint Mayor Karen Weaver on the idea of bringing his highly successful restaurant operation to Flint. When his management team came up from Oklahoma to meet with Weaver, she kept them waiting over an hour, "only to turn the meeting over to her designated representatives," none other than Eric Mays & Aonie Gilcreast. At that point, as Sims later characterized it, Gilcreat & Mays proceeded to pretty much shake the Sims folks down. Bottom line, it seems abundantly clear, as long as Karen Weaver & her clowns have anything to do with Flint, Billy Sims & his team will not ------ at least not with the Weaver Administration negotiating a business venture for our community. A.H.
Post Tue Nov 21, 2017 10:47 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

THE RETALIATION BEGINS:

By Ron Fonger rfonger1@mlive.com
GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- County Road Commission Manager-Director John Daly has survived an attempt to fire him after 18 years in charge of the agency responsible for more than 1,500 miles of area roads and bridges.

Daly said Monday, Nov. 20, that Cloyce L. Dickerson, chairman of the Road Commission, delivered a termination letter to him, but the remaining four members of the commission had never voted to fire him.

John Daly
"It says terminated ... (for) failure to perform my duties," Daly said Monday, declining to comment after a Road Commission meeting Tuesday, Nov. 21.

At the Tuesday meeting, an attorney for the county told road commissioners that Dickerson had no authority to take the action and the five-member panel appeared divided on Daly's future.

Genesee County commissioner: Road Commission manager-director's contract should end

No vote was taken on terminating the manager-director.

"I do have some concerns. I'm not going to voice those concerns," said Dickerson, who declined to comment further after the meeting.

Dickerson said he delivered what he also described as "a termination letter" to Daly, but attorney Thomas H. Derderian told the board that the five members -- not just one -- can make such a decision.

Daly was hired to run the county road system in 1999. A Texas native and former city manager of Three Rivers in southeast Michigan, he was a finalist to become Flint's city administrator in 2014, a job that eventually went to Natasha Henderson.

The falling out between some members of the Road Commission and Daly came to light the day after the county Board of Commissioners unanimously passed a resolution to explore dissolving the Road Commission and transferring its powers and duties to themselves.

"The action was a result of county commissioners receiving complaints over the last several years from residents and other elected officials about the condition of the county road system," Board Coordinator Joshua M. Freeman said in a statement to MLive-The Flint Journal.

"To resolve these issues, members of the Board of County Commissioners met with members of the Road Commission to discuss their concerns about the management and leadership of the Road Commision," the statement says.

"The Board of County Commissioners told the road commissioners that they needed to address those management and leadership concerns or the county board would explore all legal options they had to fix the problem for the residents, up to and including dissolving the Road Commission."

The Journal could not reach Mark Young, chairman of the county board, for further comment.

The resolution approved by commissioners says state law permits the board to transfer the powers, duties and functions of the Road Commission and to dissolve the governing body.

The resolution says taking such action would require at least two public hearings, and refers the issue to a public works subcommittee for discussion and review.

Freeman's statement says if road commissioners "find a resolution to our concerns about this organization, then the Board of County Commissioners will be more than happy to rescind that resolution and continue with the current Road Commission structure."

Road Commissioner David Miller said the push to remove Daly from his job has been heavy-handed and improper.

"It smells. It really smells," said Miller, who said he's yet to receive complaints in writing from county commissioners.

He said he and the other four road commissioners have recently been lobbied to dismiss Daly by county commissioners, who appoint members of the Road Commission.

For many years, county commissioners have periodically debated the idea of eliminating the Road Commission and replacing it with a countywide department of public works.

But Miller said Daly has received a rating of "outstanding" in every evaluation he has been given since his hiring in 1999.

Daly also still has nearly two years remaining on a contract he signed with the Road Commission, a deal that pays him $105,000 per year as well as a car allowance.

In 2010, former county board chairman Jamie Curtis said Daly should not be given a contract but should work as an at-will employee like other county government department heads.

The Road Commission has an annual budget of about $57 million annually and about 140 employees, Miller said.
Post Wed Nov 22, 2017 6:35 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

From M-Live:


Flintmatters
Daly. his wife along with other road commision employees were heavyweights in the mayor's recall petition drive and the recall election and the support for Scott Kincaid was overwhelming by staff!

Ron Fonger | rfonger1@mlive.com
@Flintmatters Flint Mayor Karen Weaver was at the meeting Tuesday, Nov. 21, but did not speak.

@Flintmatters So was Flint Councilman Eric Mays and Aonie Gilcreast, an unpaid advisor to the mayor.
Post Wed Nov 22, 2017 6:38 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Wendy Braun-Daly is said to have a lawsuit against he City . Allegedly she receive an award for her assistance with the crisis only to be fired a week later by Weaver.
Post Wed Nov 22, 2017 6:44 am 
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