 As an aide to then-State Senator John Olver, my first community development project was working with the mayor and the city officials here in Northampton on the question of redevelopment of what was then the Northampton State Hospital property with Governor Michael Dukakis talking about deinstitutionalization of those suffering with mental illness into community-based programs. The mayor and the city understood that this huge spance of land was going to be an opportunity for redevelopment and they wanted to start doing the planning and Congressman Olver helped them get financing to do some very significant community-based visioning and planning for this property. Well, many years later as a state senator and a freshman state senator, I was in place as they finally decided to close the institution and have people move into the community. And so long-held plans and visions for redeveloping the property took on a new life and they took the plans off the shelf. Legislation was passed. Then Representative Bill Nagel and myself as the state senator and by the way, Representative Peter Kokot was aid to Representative Nagel at the time. And so together we all worked on developing the legislation that was necessary to redevelop the property. And here we are now a couple of decades later and seeing the fruits of all of that labor. So here we have behind me some of the mixed-use housing that was developed. We have a building that was completely renovated and restored. It used to house mental health patients. It now is home to many families over my other shoulder. We have new construction of both home ownership opportunities as well as rental properties. Mixed use of low and moderate income people. And then just beyond are some single-family homes. So essentially we're seeing the creation of a whole new neighborhood here. But it's not just about housing. There's also economic development and across the street the new facility for Cole Morgan has been built. There are plans for additional expansion of commercial efforts here in front of the old Haskell building. They're hoping to put in a small collection of shops that could provide for the needs of people who are living in this neighborhood. And if you go beyond the buildings you have the community gardens and you have passive recreation. So here is another example of what legislators work on with municipal officials and take great pride in the jobs that are created as we construct and renovate properties and then providing opportunities for home ownership for new rental units as well as for commercial and even in the case of Cole Morgan industrial development. Jobs are created while the work is going on and then the people who live in these places work in the community work in the region and contribute to the economy. This isn't the only development going on in Northampton. We have a vision for expanding and modernizing the three county fair grounds and I was able to get $4 million to help reconstruct the horse barns which will make possible the continuation of certain events at the grounds and they have plans for another 30 plus million dollars worth of improvement on that property to modernize and make possible all kinds of other activities that might otherwise not be possible there. And of course it doesn't stop there. Northampton is known as one of America's best small arts cities. We have a number of performing arts venues including the Academy of Music and again a little bit more than a decade ago. I was able to secure about two million dollars to help with doing some basic improvements to the building both on the inside and the outside and there are several other projects going on in the city that relate to cultural venues and to cultural improvement. So there's plenty going on here in Northampton in terms of trying to identify new opportunities for economic development, improve the property tax base, improve the opportunity for jobs and we're standing in one of the proudest sites I think in terms of the accomplishment of local political people and community leaders in helping to take a property and breathe new life into it.