 Welcome everybody. We've got some seats up front if anybody wants to get comfortable and Check in up there So my name is Dan Cahill. I'm the land steward with the city of Burlington And it's with a lot of joy and excitement that I welcome us all here to celebrate this momentous occasion so What we're doing here today is celebrating the addition of This parcel into Burlington's cadre of public natural areas And we're gonna acknowledge a lot of the individuals and the benefactors that have made that possible So this is this is a big deal for us And of course at any occasion where it's a big deal We invite up our mayor Merrow Einberger Thank You Dan Guess I should not have touched it Give it another shot here. All right, welcome. Welcome again everyone. Thank you for that introduction Dan Thank you all for coming. This is a momentous day. I Remember the first time that I came to this property very well It was with Dave Hartnett and Roseira Long and they had a vision of how this beautiful piece of property and large piece of property 11 acres could be added to the Assemblage that was already starting to take shape and gosh that was a that that trip was a long time ago now Wasn't it guys? It must have been You know second term visit maybe you know better part more than six years ago. I think and I don't think any of us knew exactly how Challenging a journey was going to be to make this all happen, but I'm so grateful to Roseira and Dave and Irene and Everyone else and there's a lot of people who have been involved in going from that idea to this getting done over those years This was only possible because of Elks Lodge number 916 and Because of the gift of Irene and Roseira As as well as Elks members and neighbors here in the New North End It was also only possible with the work of many city employees particularly the Parks Recreational Waterfront Team that is so well represented here today The their contributions Irene and Roseira's contributions rep to this project exemplify such a special place Special such a special city to live and to visit and it is a place that has great Public spaces for the whole community to enjoy and benefit from Thanks to everyone who has worked on this project today's announcement That this acquisition of the public land will forever protect Access from the greenway to the arms forest And adds 11 acres of urban wilderness to the already I don't think I'm even touching it should The generations to come as Burlington has become again a growing City with many people wanting to live here wanting to make their lives here having these natural spaces in complement to be a growing city is it going to be more important than ever and I think really just Emphasizes how valuable it is that all this work got done I am incredibly grateful to everyone who's played a role in this significant combined effort over the last many years And I want to again call out key partners here the Department of Parks Recreation and Waterfront again state and federal partners Friends of Rock Point the Episcopal Church the Parks Foundation local builders Burlington voters I believe I saw representatives from the Chris from the land trust think thank you for your partnership The numerous neighbors and community leaders and of course the dedicated members of the Elks Lodge 916 and the Long Family Rosario and Irene I am proud to stand on behalf of a grateful city to thank you and your fellow members for your commitment to This community and to this beautiful place that we call home and now I am Excited to welcome to the microphone Cindy white our director of Parks Recreation and Waterfront who has been so committed to this project as well as our other conservation And outdoors efforts Cindy. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you again for joining us in this exciting time It really is an amazing addition to our properties I would say that the average Burlingtonian that goes by this will in many ways for a while not feel like a change They don't realize that we now have this public access here, which was private land. So Thank you so much for everybody for coming So I just want to talk a little bit about Rosario and Irene Elange and Rosario I'm kind of sticking at you a little bit because Not only is there a financial commitment they've made possible, but guess what Rosario did all the work So not only did he say we are happy to dedicate a check to this But Rosario said and here's what you need to do and here's what I'll do and he checked in Occasionally to make sure I was doing what I needed to do. So Rosario Thank you for making it easy for us to acquire this property And as everybody knows, it's a lot of relationships that Rosario had that made this possible He had to convince the Elks members that this was something good to do and then of course He had to go to the National Elks to let them convince them that give it gifting this land to the city was the right thing to do Beautiful birds flying overhead. It kind of reminds us of how important this meadow habitat is for the city We have a lot of forested land But what we don't always have a lot of is this open meadow land And so the acquisition for the city of this land will help protect it for future generations I also want to recognize the hard work of Dan Cahill Dan's our city land steward and he's had this vision a long time He's had some meetings with them Elks early on to talk about this property And then continue to have that the conversations with us about how important it was for us to acquire this land Or at a minimum have an easement through it But we're so happy for the gift again of rosario and Irene so we could have the acquisition of that property Um, Dan had the vision. So many of you have heard arms park. You've heard arms forest You might think what's the interchangeable piece there arms park is what the city owns Arms forest is the greater parcel which includes the high school owns property Episcopal diocese owns property and now the city owns this property And Dan had that vision to manage that as one property and we have the permissions from all of those to do that So when you hear of arms forest, it includes multiple properties property owners managed as one So Dan, thank you for your commitment dedication and not losing hope that we will get here one day And as um, the mayor noted this is part of that larger rock point coalition Crispo gets here from the lake sampling land trust He was part that was a lot of meetings that we had to get there Kelly wasn't the wasn't in her role at the time But Kelly's here with rock point on the Episcopal diocese was an integral partner. Um I still remember when I I've been here about six years, but the The fence that was up there right on the property And part of that rock point work that larger coalition was a beautiful set of stairs that leads up into the property That really makes it feel like a welcoming space And then zoe from the wild ways we look forward to the day when the wild ways trail comes through here And connects to to rock point Let me make sure I didn't miss anybody on that one I think we got and I don't know if you have anybody here from the parks foundation But that was a a lot of work with john bosan's was a leader of that work And just acknowledgement to john with all that work with the rock point and we called this rock point east And that was rock point west when we were having our meetings and very carefully talking about our budgets And so rock point west was ahead of us They were quite ahead of us, but patient for rock point east Otherwise known as arms force to catch up but we're here today catching up and we look forward to Improving an access through here so everybody can walk bike or roll Into the property and while it's an amazingly rare ecological special species here We also want to ensure that our that people can get to access to them There's sarah my skin sarah is with the parks foundation sarah was One of those great folks that behind the scenes trying to convince people to Open up their checks to help with that project. So we were just Acknowledging that effort All right, we hit most of these things here So again, we will over the next year to improve that access And in conclusion today. I just want to celebrate, you know, just again thinking about the celebration of this acquisition rosair and iran, thank you so much for your generosity to the city of burlington And we will take good care of this property And for your future generations will be able to come on to this and enjoy and celebrate All that we have here today I'm going to now pass it over to rosair. Um, and if you could share a few words with us Well, I may stutter a little bit because I'm because I'm already shivering so I hope I hope we won't hold you too long Uh It's been a long road since about uh, I think it was around 2017 when we first started Getting involved with this I just want to fill in the gap a little bit of how important this land is The it isn't just the metal you see in front of you It's the woods that go along this ravine all the way up to almost to the back of the elks And it is it is original woods There are trees back there that it would take three of us with our arms around it to be able to surround it. So there's Plants endangered species plants that are growing in there that the park department has marked out so that the people on trails Don't stomp on them There's a lot of good to this land that really needed to be conserved So it's an important piece to To the world let's say so that's why we're very happy to have participated I have to give a lot of credit To the elks members because it was a long difficult task to get it passed. Nobody wants to give up land Because years back it used to be used elks would have Picnics down here families would have picnics I can remember when I was chair of our 20th high school class reunion I had a picnic here with all the families on sunday after they banquet on saturday So there's a lot of memory that goes back to this Haven't been an elk for 59 years And also haven't worked for the city my wife and I in combination about 75 years We have a great appreciation to both the elks and to the city The city provided us a very decent living all this time So that's part of the motivation that drove us to Contribute to be able to get this land Donated by the elks to the city by our making a contribution to the elks So that's how it came about and we're very very happy and very proud to have participated in it We thank you all for being here Next up is uh, Dave Hurtin it Good morning Well, as Moro said it's been a long haul, but Simply put we're here for really A little louder rose air We have very two special people in our community Irene and rose air launch rose air contacted me Four or five years ago and said I'd like to meet with you. I'd like to run something by you and uh Prior to that the city had approached the club about the property and it really didn't go anywhere and so when I met with rose air He proposed this he said I Irene and I would like to purchase the property from the elks and and gift it to the city And I remember saying I said rose air. That's very generous. You know, you don't have to do that He was like, oh no, we want to do that We we we feel very fortunate Burlington has been very good to us 75 years of service to the city they've given Right and now this is their way to give back And I tell people all the time I find myself defending Burlington, you know, you hear people say it's not the same well I disagree Burlington's a special place to live And when you think about it There is a park within walking distance of every family apartment business there is in the city And that is really something special And when you think about how that whole operation takes place And you think about those guys and the green trucks and some of them are here today richie snow and others That day in and day out go and they work on these parks and they keep them clean and beautiful and safe for us It is a community effort Like none I've ever seen before in the parks department It just does an incredible job and we're very fortunate for those guys in the green trucks I've been a member for the elks for nearly 20 years I served as a trustee and I was the Chair of the trustees up until this past summer when unfortunately I had to step away I didn't want to but it there was a you know family Emergency and it was it was time for me to step away and spend some time with my family But the elks mission and they have a lot of great missions, you know silver towers and veterans and there's a there's a there's a ton of them, but There is also about giving back to the community And the elks feel strongly about that and in the last five years that I've been on the trustees We have made a huge effort to partner with the city of bronyton Whether it was with the public schools and allowing them to use our spaces Whether the organization like hands coming in and helping them with their dinners and the food drive So the elks over the last five years is made a huge effort to partner with the city This is one step. I look forward to many more. I hope to get back involved with them Right to continue that hard work because I think it's important. The elks is a great neighbor for the city of bronyton I would like to introduce a bob camel who's here from the district deputy I'm sure I won't get all the titles right and I know he has more but He was instrumental in getting this passed All right, he actually came to the vote that we had at the club and as rose there said it was not easy Right, but when when bob came and addressed the membership that night I think he changed a lot of people's mind. I think it I think it was well served that he attended He's here today, and I'd like bob to say a few words. Thank you It definitely is a little chilly today, and I'll be brief Um, I do I represent the grand lodge of elks and oversee the lodges in vermont and when The bronyton lodge came to us with its request and we were more than happy to come on board It's out community Veterans youth that's what we stand for and that we're here to help our communities all throughout vermont and throughout the country I can't say enough about rose there and Irene. Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention We were more than happy to sign off on this and with the help of the bronyton members Help make this a reality for the bronyton community So we're very pleased to see this move forward. What a great addition to bronyton. Thank you All right, we're gonna wrap this up here. Everybody's shivering a little bit. So again. Thank you so much for coming today In the spring We'll be having a kiosk up here right in this location here That will share the story of the donation from rose there and Irene launch and then also the story of the arms forest and we'll have a Map of the park so you can know where you're going when you come up here for an adventure But I really encourage you to come especially in the springtime. The wildflowers are beautiful as rose there noted There's many miles of trails through the park and we do encourage you to come back and in the winter It's also a great place to ski in snowshoe And uh wear windbreakers because it's always windy So again, thanks so much everybody for coming and rose there and Irene. Thank you so much Um, I'm zoe richards and I chair the burlington conservation board and this has been a piece of property that's been On the minds of the conservation board for a long time. Um, and uh, And we've been really excited that um that this has finally happened And it allows folks to actually connect into the greater arms forest Through the bike path. So it's been a really critical piece of property. So we're very excited that um that the acquisition has happened This add-on to the arms park or arms forest is pretty awesome too because Pardon me. Your name is oh, my name is kate cruisy. I'm a new north end neighbor of um, this whole area And I think this particular meta is a very special part Of the open spaces of burlington because it's actually still a sand plane with the little bluestem grasses Which are reddish colored and you can see some rabbit tobacco Which is white colored and so we are able to collect seed From this site to plant in some other sites. So we're actually using local Uh genetics, which is a pretty amazing thing to do in this day and age Burlington's a pretty amazing city with these intact natural communities still in place So that's it great addition Sarah carpenter ward four city counselor and neighborhood of this fabulous project And i'm just here to thank the launders and thank the elks and say how excited we are to have this resource in our neighborhood We've been using it for years, but now it's really belongs to the public and Um, we're just so proud of the launders family and the elks and our new access to this Yeah, and I'll echo what sarah said So much thanks and gratitude to the uh to the launders Um, you know and I've been using this uh property Uh since I was a kid actually, um growing up in the new north end and this acquisition will Provide a really important piece of connectivity Um to the arms forest which is sort of landlocked out here. It's a real special piece of property But it really hasn't had any formal access until now. So we're really really excited about that