 much for your patience on this morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning to everyone. My name is Henry Simons, and I'm the assistant city manager of operations, of course, for the city of Columbia. And today is a celebration. Day is a milestone for many of us that have been on this journey. We are grateful for our valuable partners and our stakeholders. The city has worked with to bring this project to the groundbreaking phase to bring Philly Park back to life. I have a pleasure and privilege to welcome you. Thank you for your presence on today. As we gather together for this monumental occasion. Thank you to our mayor, Mayor Danny Rickerman, to our mayor from town Councilman David McDowell, who represents District 2. Thank you to our councilmen that are with us today. City Councilman that are with us today. Councilman Howard Duvall, Councilman Willow Brennan, Dr. Aditya Bussles, Councilwoman Tina Herbert, Councilman Peter Brown. Also want to acknowledge our city manager, Theresa Wilson for a diligence and leadership for our great city. We'll also have some acknowledgements afterwards and also some acknowledgements from our mayor and council members here in just a minute. But I want to take just a moment to thank our Parks and Recreation staff who have worked on this project for many years. Equally, I'd like to thank our park rangers for their work in maintaining park safety and presence and their dedication to serving on the site when construction is finished and Philly Park is open to the public. Our vision for Philly Park is to create an environment that is sustainable, that is safe, user friendly and improves the quality of life for all who visit. Sustainability is inclusive of our commitment to maintain the beauty and integrity of the park after construction is done. This is inclusive of an improved fountain and water feature functionality for lower maintenance. This also means having a dedicated staff for proper continued maintenance for all of the parks functions. It means creation of landscapes that are more accessible and easy to maintain and includes built in erosion measurement control measures that were incorporated sustainability techniques to capture and trick stormwater. This is our commitment as the City of Columbia. We believe that this revitalization will bring economic growth and enjoyment for families for years to come. Our program will follow in this order. We will have remarks from our Mayor, Mayor Daniel Rickerman, City Manager, Theresa Wilson, followed by Mayor Proksem, Ed McDowell, Representative Beth Bernstein, former Representative Curtin Finley, our Project Manager, Todd Martin, Lee Mastburn with Mastburn Construction. Yours truly will return with some brief acknowledgments and some direction. I think the fans worked really well this morning. Thank you all again for your patience and help me welcome Mayor Daniel Rickerman. Good morning, everybody. I was waiting for the choir to roll in so we can have a little hallelujah this morning that we're actually here groundbreaking something that we've been talking about for a long, long time. Today's a very exciting day in the City of Columbia. You know, this is our crown jewel and so excited about being here today. I do want to acknowledge folks that are here today who came to support us. Representative Beth Bernstein, Representative Kilmer Martin, Representative Bauer, Senator Shealy. Thank you for being here as well. Former Representative Curtin Finley, who obviously this park is named after his dad and so excited that the family is part of that. But Leonardo Brandt, our county administrator over to Walker, our county chair, who's a great partner in a lot of things. Our neighborhood leaders, I saw Bart and John because neighborhood leaders stand up for a second. Just to be recognized, please. I see everybody coming in, but I wanted to make sure and obviously, you know, we wouldn't be here today without several people. One of them is Todd Martin. Todd, where are you? I need Todd to stand up. Representative Darvin is here now and I'm going to make sure we roll it down. But we wouldn't be here without Todd, you know, Todd's our secret weapon inside our house over at Parks and Recs. And he really came up with what you're going to see happen over the next. I want you all the day to really take time walk around here and look around because the next time you see this park open to the public, it's going to blow your mind and Todd, that's that. The second person we got acknowledges former council member, Joe Taylor. Joe helped us figure out how to finance this thing in a short period so we could get it done. And some maneuvering around the finances short term bond that we could do something that would normally take us 30 years in a short period of time and want to make sure that we acknowledge Mr. Taylor's contribution to making this day happen. But as you know, this park 17 and a half acres. It's been our crown jewel for a long time. But for a long time, it stood empty and then a sore for us. We're so excited with this revitalization. 22 to 24 months and I hope Mr. Mashburn can move that needle a little bit more like we see it done earlier. I know he can do it if he tries. But it really is our signature part. And with our growth downtown and be in the center of our crown, it's so important for us to have it be in the best shape. As we look for this new attractions and its iconic water feature that everybody talks about this probably been in more lawyer ads than any other thing in the city next to 9 9 9s. We're just so excited that not only that would come back to life, but it will have added features that will really draw people in and be part of that. But that fountain coming back to life, cascading with new designed waterfalls, flowing downstream to a redesigned pond into streams that will be around the pathways in the walkway. So you feel that water feature as you're moving around in this park. Obviously, some of our great attributes and new pieces that will enhance our children's experiences, our adults experiences here, we will have walking areas and trails with a revolving series of local public art displays. So that'll be an enjoyment for all those who visit. We cannot wait to get this going. And as we talked earlier, you know, this this happened because of team effort. And we've been talking a lot about how important it is in our city to be part of the puzzle. And we're going to continue to talk about each and one of you is part of the puzzle. And each puzzle has a different shape and a different form and it connects a different way. So when you think about your involvement, not only if you're involved in this park, but in our city, in our growth regionally, you're part of the puzzle. Think about how you fit and how we can continue to work together collaboratively to create opportunities like this. This will not only be a part of quality of life for us here in the city, but a huge economic engine. And I'm so excited that we're here today. And I'd like to ask our city manager, Teresa Wilson, to come up and help usher this project through as we pushed and pushed her hard. I think he said, hallelujah, I woke up this morning saying, amen, won't he do it? Hallelujah. We are at this day of the groundbreaking for such an iconic piece of our community. I wanted to recognize all, you know, Todd's vision along with ACM Simons and director Davis with Parks and Recreation and just their diligence to get this project done over stops and starts COVID compilation of funding and all the things that go along with the project of this magnitude. But I wanted our Parks and Recreation staff before I go into more thoughts about public safety and health and upgrades, but the staff, because they take please stand. They take such please stand, our Parks and Recreation women take great pride in what they do every day. And so to be a part of bringing this part back to life is going to mean so much to them and the work that they do all the time. You can't miss me today in this green flowers I have on that I want to read something for many people. The color green has strong associations with nature and brings to mind lush grass and trees and forest green is often described as a refreshing and tranquil color. Other common associations with the color green are money, luck, health and envy. And so when I woke up this morning, I was like, I feel prosperous. I feel like we're in a turning point, a tipping point of growth and development in our city. And I just felt like putting this on. But Miss Councilman DeVall said something to me as we were sitting you said I'm looking out and I see a lot of contractors and finance years in this audience. And he is absolutely right about that. So we have so many people to thank that helped us bring you know, external partners as well that help bring this to fruition. So there's the money piece, the luck, you know, the weather's nice today. But I feel like we're finally at a place through COVID and everything else that's transpired, that we're getting this done and we're going to see it through. And if there's a little luck in that I'll take it help. Obviously, it's a part and it's a part that is going to bring vitality and activation for our community, our citizens, our children. And of course, I want it to be the envy of all parts. Again, the crown jewel as Mayor Rickman described an essential aspect of the planning for and design of the revitalized family part is devoted to public safety and ensuring that everyone who uses this part will respect the integrity of its public recreational purpose. So it is meant to be a public part for all people. But we are going to ensure and I'm sure you've heard, you know, bits and pieces of me saying this as we've gotten to this point, we're going to ensure the integrity of this part going forward, the activities in the park, the behaviors that will not be in the park, and so on and so forth. When we open to the public part rangers will be assigned to family part to have a constant presence and ensure the appropriate use of all of the facilities. Our part rangers will operate from an onsite office located at the top of the part, offering maximum views to monitor park activities. They will walk the park and engage with our citizens and visitors. There will also be a hospitality office with the city staff at the interest facing the Vista district. And a key component of the design is ensuring better visibility throughout the entire park. The park's lighting will have a lantern theme designed to not only create a sense of beauty, but also increase public safety and will feature multiple LED lighting components to brighten the area. And finally, there will also be cameras placed throughout this park and select locations to help monitor activity and call boxes will be placed at select locations for added security. So this has been a team effort. Chief Holbrook is here with his team. They've been an instrumental part of the planning and design for what their needs will be. Our procurement staff is here. Obviously, this wouldn't have gotten done with the right people in place at the city and procurement to work with these contractors and all of the financing that had to go into place. You know, if you have a question about activation of the park and that the why would we do all of this for it not to be a long time activated part, don't question that. There is no way we will have gone through what we've gone through to get to this day without ensuring to the public and this community that this part will be the jewel and it will be activated and it is going to be the place to be. So we're looking forward to it. I can't wait. Well, after having all of you here today, and because I am a retired preacher, we'll just go ahead and pass the plate. I'm not laughing. Park restoration, of course, would certainly need your funds. Anyway, let me say this. It has been an exciting time in the life of the city. We met, continued to meet, configuration after configuration. Matt, we're glad you're here. You've allowed us to ask the questions that was necessary and I'm thankful for that. This park is a community's effort. A community's effort. Not my effort, not the mayor's effort or anybody else's effort. This is a community's effort to expand what we're doing here in this park. A new stage for concerts, a place where children can come and really be impacted by other folks' presence. A place where folks really understand that it's not just green space, but it's a park. Now, I want to reiterate something the city manager said just a moment ago, green is for money and she put on that green blouse because of the money emphasis. I put on a red tattered day because red represents power. Power. Power and excitement to get the job done. It was hard and members of the parks and recreational staff, Henry, thank you for leading us and forging us and allowing us to allow Todd to do his job. It's been a blessing and guess what? The blessing is the day, but the abundance is coming. Somewhere I read in Nehemiah, Nehemiah says I can't come down off of the wall. I'm going to stay there. I'm going to stay on the wall until the city is rebuilt. Well, we're going to stay on this wall until it's redone and folks are going to be blessed with its presence. So, just keep in mind that we're not by ourselves, but this event and this inclusive park will be a park for everybody to come and enjoy. Thank you so very much for being here. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I don't have prepared remarks and I will be so I will be brief. I think I'm here as a representative from the legislature because let me I'll give you a little bit of background history of why I'm here and why I think I'm here and the importance of that. Representative Kurtman Finley, we've been friends for a very, very long time, but we also came into the South Carolina House of Representatives together in 2012. We were elected and he was my seatmate and we were over the past several years of his service. We would lament about for I would probably go east to him my sadness over what has happened to Finley Park and so as a member of the legislature and when we have good financial years we're able to request certain monies and I'm glad that relationship with the state in the city of Columbia has encouraged us to be able to do certain allocations to projects in the city of Columbia and I was more than happy to request money to help with this revitalization project being born and raised right here in Columbia and we're remembering when the park was built and when it was renamed for Mayor Finley and just the contributions that Mayor Finley has made to the city and then his legacy, his son, Representative Kurtman Finley, it was my honor to be able to request money and every 170 members in the legislature also agreed so with a little bit of money I think we had a million dollars that we were able to give to the city I'm very proud and happy that we are at this moment right now and we can start to really appreciate that iconic waterfall and this is the gem of the city of Columbia and I look forward to coming back here and celebrating so many fun events here and just the optimism that we have and everybody here so thank you for letting me be a part of it now it's my honor to be able to introduce Representative Kurtman. So let's date everybody how many people here remember Joe Sapp? This park was Joe Sapp's vision. Joe Sapp and my dad were great friends Joe cared intensely about the city of Columbia, the downtown region. After his wife passed away he worked single-handedly to get the park revitalized and to get it renamed. I think Joe brought me the dedication for the park about 150 times word smithing it, word smithing it, word smithing it and his attention to the tail and the future was what mattered so much and where we are so blessed is there's so many people that remember this park still at its height. Overture and I were talking about Mayfest in this park 20 years ago. Brought Speaker Lucas down to see the park at its nadir but all he could talk about is being here in law school and remembering what it was like down. This park in some ways is a bellwether of Columbia. It was designed in my dad's vision to be our central part. Sort of the gravitas of a downtown area and a downtown community that was growing. Let me think about it. Proximity to the river, proximate to the business community, right off of where commuters come into town where people could eat lunch, live and enjoy. You know my dad was architects and city planners will tell you he was a frustrated architect and I will tell you he could frustrate architects but the key was he believed that Columbia could be a truly great city. He really did. He believed that the city could be a world-class city in the south. We went as far as Boston, New York to talk to the various planners. What we have to remember is that these visions and plans only get built when we work together. Speaker Lucas, Chairman Smith, that now Speaker Smith, Chairman Bannister, we're all willing to invest money in the city. That is a relationship that we have to continue. The mayor, who we've been friends, we met in a bar in Five Points probably 35 years ago. Yeah, it's the truth. He was behind it. I was in front of it. One of us came out better. But the important part is we have to have friends. We have to have people willing to bring money to invest in our city and to bring us forward because these parks are expensive to build but they're even more expensive to maintain. And what I would ask and I hope is that we will continue to maintain this park and make it better. So Chairman Walker, when our grandchildren run around they will see what it looks like and then it becomes intergenerational. And think about Central Park. New York people talk about Central Park as its central feature. That is what we hope that this park becomes. A central feature to Columbia where it's not just a picture of a fountain that had worked in 15 years. That it is that dream that people envision literally 40 years ago. Thank you. It's been a special day as we celebrate the beginning of this new chapter here in the park. This project means a lot to me. It's been in the works for a long time. I'm extremely blessed to have a part in this funding project. I want to thank the city for the opportunity to work on such a great project and the support to move this project forward because without that we wouldn't be here today. Of course I had so much help along the way. We had a fantastic design team that I want to recognize. They're here today. Together we uh we collaborated. We challenged each other. We challenged the design. Until we landed on solutions that we believe will make nearly part of the family rule once again. As I call your name please feel free to stand up because you have a little lot of credit and that team is really not standing to have it. Thank you. Thank you for your time. L.S. 3.P. Schuyler in the State Sheet. B.P. Law. F.N.M.E. D.G.A. Johnson and King Engineers and E.F.I.T.T. Estimators. I also want to take the time to recognize the internal staff that we keep members also. Gregory Tucker who's here. It was a tremendous amount of help. Hinton Davis. It was huge on this project. We also have Bob Croats, Keenley Bryant, of course AC-100, Henry Simons and our director Lenny Davis also. Just an outstanding team and that's what it takes to pull out pull off something this on and off. To just touch on the design, walk you through some of the components. The new stage will be built into that hillside, projecting into the center of the city which will allow us to have more concerts more events truly activate the space. The event space will be an oval we're calling the event oval and from that oval we'll spin off with strolling gardens and those gardens will help to link all the different spaces together. From the destination playground that will be front in the Gaston and Taylor line we'll have a new amenity shelter with a hospitality office, restaurants and splash baths that will reach you as you arrive in the list of districts. The iconic fountain behind me will run once again. It will be very exciting. It will also be updated with more connectivity and accessibility for all users. The pond will be reshaped with lush native vegetative edges that will then flow into amenity stream, anchor in the strolling gardens. I also want to touch on a bold statement we're making. Ms. Wilson mentioned the lantern. We're going to clad that wall you see behind me to become a piece of art and at night a lantern for the park and from that the architecture will play off of it, the the stage of the pavilion, the playground, all the different park components creating this cohesive park layout and design. With this revitalization it's the city's goal to make a welcoming, safe, activated, and of course the pond will once again I want to just continue to say what a blessing it is to work in this project. Look forward to starting work with Mashburn on the construction to implement this vision we have if any part. Thank you. Thank you Todd. I've been to a lot of groundbreaking and I have never seen this many people this many dignitaries, this many cameras. I'm just sitting here thinking what have we gotten ourselves? I don't know what we're thinking but I do want to commend the city. I mean it's been a long time coming they never gave up on this project, they never gave up on getting this done and it's finally here. This means so much to my family and our company. Our office has been three blocks from here for nearly 50 years and this is the most underutilized asset I think in the city of Columbia that we have. This is our central park. It is going to be fantastic to see this moving forward and from our perspective we're so excited to work with this design team with the city. You know we came in it was over budget and we thought oh no first thing I call Daniel you got to get more money but we sat down with Todd and this design team and Henry and everybody and we spent like three weeks and really just went through it piece by piece and didn't take away from the quality, didn't take away from the final product and we all found a way to make this happen and that's that's the difference in the city right now that's what we're doing. There's a buzz in this city that's fantastic and it's not just the the the city of Columbia what's happening is the city staff and the city managers and councilmen and the mayor and I'm just excited to be a part of this. Our company is excited to be a part of this and we can't wait to to take this and cut the ribbon and have this open to the public. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. Just some brief acknowledgments. I do want to say that echo Todd's comments. It has been a blessing not only to work on this project but to work for the city of Columbia. It's a great place to work. It's a great place to live. I also want to thank my colleagues that they don't like a lot of recognition but I want to recognize our my colleagues the other assistant city managers that are present today. We have Pam Benjamin here with us one of our super assistant city managers. We have Mrs. Geithner. We have Jeff Peleon. We have Jeff Peleon. We all work together collectively with support of our mayor and our council and our city manager to try to get things done and I'm just grateful for the liberty and the autonomy that they give us to do our jobs. And when those things occur we work collaboratively together. These things these things happen. Again I want to thank the mayor and council all of our state representatives that are present with us on today. Again Mr. Kirk and for your legacy of your father and your remarks. Again our Parks and Recreation team as Ms. Wilson has acknowledged earlier led by our director Randy Davis, Kenya Bryant, Scott Garrett is here with us Ebony Kelly who's my office manager who helps me make things work. Thank all of our team and staff. I also want to acknowledge Karen crucifix our park ranger leader in the bat. Thank you so much Karen. I'm going to wait. Todd has acknowledged very good Tucker and he's acknowledged Bob folks as well. I also want to recognize Chief Holbrook and the entire Columbia Police Department. I think Chief is here in the bat. Thank you Chief Holbrook. She made a mountain of nose back there. Again sand tech and mass burn. Again this would not be possible without the collective efforts of many and my grandfather used to tell me many hands makes light work and many hands have been involved in this process so we are grateful that this day has come and even more grateful when we do the ribbon cutting in the fall of 2025 so we're looking forward to that.