 afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for being here on bluff road. We appreciate you taking times from your business schedule to be here. And we're going to get started and not hold you. I did want to let you know that coffee, lattes, donuts are available courtesy of First Citizens Bank. So please help yourself. And at this time, we'll have an opening prayer from Reverend Charles Epps, who is a longtime member of the Starlight community. I set you bow your head with us. Eternal God, our Father, to give of all good and perfect gifts. We praise and bless you now for your wondrous deeds. All that we have come from your boundless goodness and generosity. Now God, we pray that you bless these grounds and all that will occupy it, all that was set upon it. And may these ground also be a place for innovation and productivity that will enhance the lives of many. We ask this through Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen. Thank you, Reverend Epps. And thank you again today for joining us. Welcome to Bluff Road, the Bluff Road corridor that leads into the city of Columbia and the county of Richland. We've been named one of the best places to live by Travel Magazine. And it's a great day to be in the state of South Carolina. The fastest growing in the nation, fastest growing city in the nation, a state in the nation, sorry, fastest growing state in the nation. On behalf of myself, Felicia Maloney, and the Executive Director of the Columbia Empowerment Zone, and the Board of Directors of the Columbia Empowerment Zone, we thank our residents, our city, county, and our state leadership for entrusting us to lead the Bluff and Atlas Road Improvement Project. And obviously it's important from the number of you who are here to share in that. We are here thanks to an allocation of funds from the General Assembly to the city of Columbia. We are confident that we, along with our partners, will deliver a project that will positively affect the lives of our residents and create a model for our leadership to share with other leaders around the country. Thanks to the city's confidence and C-E-Z, I am proud to be here today to spread the word about the good things happening on Bluff Road. Now I have the humbling experience to present to you the distinguished panel behind me, all of whom need no introduction. They are nationally and globally recognized. Well, our first speaker, Mr. Russ McCoy, unfortunately cannot be with us today. He had deaf in his family. He is the chairperson of the Columbia Empowerment Zone Board and has led us for many years. Standing in for him to read a statement prepared by him is a board member, Ben Johnson. And at this time, Ben Johnson. Good afternoon. It's a privilege to be here, a pinch-hitting for Russ McCoy this afternoon and as a board member of the Columbia Empowerment Zone, I'm extremely grateful to the City of Columbia and to the State of South Carolina for entrusting us with this project. This is truly a team effort to really bring such a change to this part of town and this part of the county. To start out, I'd like to thank CEO Delgado Centavo and Chief Organizational Development Officer, Patra Cruz of Eau Claire Community Health for their commitment and your commitment to serve this community. This center is going to be life changing for so many in this community and we're extremely grateful for the partnership. I want to thank Richland County Administrator, Leonardo Brown, Sheriff Leon Lott and Richland County Council for your interest in building a public safety center in this area. Your public safety, of course, is critical to the success of any project. We could not be happier that you're with us today. I also want to thank Daryl Jones and Jordan Jones with Integral. They're our development partner on this project and their knowledge and expertise has been and will continue to be essential for a successful completion of the project. And as for the the Columbia Empowerment Zone, we're extremely honored and committed to bringing the the finest marketplace possible that's going to provide fresh food. It's going to provide entrepreneurial opportunities and a number of programs to this region and we promise to do our best to make the marketplace all that it can be. Finally, of course, I want to extend our appreciation and for the support provided by the state of South Carolina with the House of Representatives and the Senate for the appropriation that's provided the funding to purchase this property and do a lot of this development and as well as the the City of Columbia for entrusting us with that grant to make these improvements to the Bluff and Atlas Road area. The City of Columbia selected the Columbia Empowerment Zone to lead this effort and we're grateful for the confidence placed in us by the city and the General Assembly to undertake this important project. And now I'm going to turn it over to Daryl Jones with Integral. Good morning everyone. We are pleased and honored to be here today as partners again with the CZ, the city, the county, as well as the state. Felicia asked me to talk about one aspect of this development that you may not be familiar with and that's affordable assisted living. Well you may ask well what is that? So let's talk about the the state of affairs for seniors today when they can no longer live independently. Right now unless you can afford $5,000 a month you really have two options for the most part. That's one to go to a nursing home way before it's time for you to be there or two if you're really really lucky and my mother fits into this category being really really lucky of living in the back bedroom of a loving and caring family member. But even with that getting your medication, your food, and safety you still miss that socialization. You miss that control of your life. And it's a very important element that we all take for granted every day and everything that we do. So affordable assisted living and when I say that I mean living in a first class assisted living community and paying roughly a thousand dollars a month because that's all many of our seniors can afford is something whose time has come. Integral took on this challenge about 12 years ago. We created a model out of existing resources at the state and federal level using low-income housing tax credits and a Medicaid waiver program putting them together in a way that we are providing that. We developed the first one in the state of Indiana that was in 2015 today they're 31 in the state. That's how successful it is and the state would like to see a lot more. It makes so much sense from an economic standpoint because you pay maybe a third of what you have to take care of for an individual in nursing homes and it's really what the seniors want. You know this is they should not be suffering in silence. This is their time of timeless relevance. So you're standing on a site today where the first affordable assisted living will be developed in the state of South Carolina and we are so happy to be your partner again. Thank you Daryl. We look forward to that. Our next speakers will be Mr. Dalton Transvent who is the Deputy District Director for the Office of the Honorable James E. Clyburn, 60th Street of South Carolina. Mr. Transvent has been a member of Congressman Clyburn's team since 1993 and has strongly supported the efforts of C-E-Z. C-E-Z actually got its start and that is the Colombian Power Zone through the efforts of Congressman Clyburn. Good afternoon everyone. Good afternoon. Bernice, 26 years ago when Congressman Clyburn was fighting for designation of something in Colombia as an Empowerment Zone you were fighting to make sure that we included Lord Richland as a part of that. We had some challenges. I don't know who else around was a member but Bernice would call every day. I can admit this now since it's a success and we've done it. Sometimes I wanted to try to hide from your phone calls. But because of the work of Bernice and other members of the Lord Richland community throughout Richland County and the city of Colombia we were able to get Colombia and something designated as a joint Empowerment Zone. They have since separated. Something's kind of dropped out and their project has ended. But Colombia had the foresight to keep their portion of this project active and it has really yielded good results in the city of Colombia. So Bernice, Paul Livingston who's on council at that time, other members of I think Daniel, I don't want to tell your age. I think you may have been there as well. But thank you for your vision and foresight because the Colombia Empowerment Zone has really delivered for citizens of Colombia and Richland County and Bernice, your vision now for them to deliver for Lord Richland is coming to fruition and I'd like to thank well Senator Dick Jackson I think you were hanging around at that time as well so I didn't see you were hiding back there. But this we think is just going to be just a small piece of what's to come in the future. So I'd like to thank all of you for being here. The partners Eau Claire, Community Cooperative Health who we work with, the Empowerment Zone itself, City of Colombia, Richland County and thank you to all your elected officials because I know how hard your job is and Jermaine didn't see you. But I'd like to thank all of you for being here and if there's anything that our office can do as you move forward with this project and other projects please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you. I'm not quite that tall. Thank you Dalton. Next we'll hear from the Honorable Daniel J. Rickerman, Mayor of the Capital City of Colombia. Mayor Rickerman is one of the most passionate people I know when it comes to issues that affect the residents of the City of Colombia and his region particularly in the areas of sustainability. He's always seeking solutions and willing to share knowledge that he has. He understands that knowledge is his only power when you share it. He has been a strong supporter of this project since he was actually councilman Rickerman. So he's been aware of it for a while. I was just kidding him earlier because if y'all saw him at the red dress campaign he did the thing with his red dress tie and so he didn't wear it today but we'll hear from Mayor Rickerman. Good afternoon. It's good to see everybody out here. You know usually when we have this many elected officials in one place we're at a funeral so it's really good to see everybody here. But this is what collaboration looks like. What's really exciting about this project more than anything is that 10 years ago literally 10 years ago actually I take that back it's 20 years ago 2004 I first got elected and Senator Jackson invited me out here and take a moment to honor Chip Jackson as well Chip and Daryl both invited me out here to see what they had a dream about. It was housing. It was about making it affordable and competitive for community members but building a sense of community. They had visions of stores markets healthcare services guess what folks we're here. You know why? Partnerships. That's what it's all about and I think that's what we're seeing more and more today is partnerships in this dream. Mr. Jones downplayed it. What he described to you today about assisted living is a model that we don't have anywhere else. This is going to change the scope. When they first shared that model with us I was ready to move that day because I realized how much of an impact it's going to have on our community and our state and what makes it more special it's coming out of the number one city in South Carolina Columbia. Come on let's hear it let's get excited. This is what it's about but the when you put all these pieces together this project started off at first we talked about the assisted living we got the apartments going down the street we got houses here we got the the Neal Center but what else we're going to have we're going to have healthcare and the market the market was a dream it was a napkin dream and guess what that dreams reality and that dreams gone from being on a napkin that was a market to a state of the art kitchen a place where businesses can incubate a place where they can sell their goods a place where people can learn and have an opportunity to chase their dreams add in the food trucks you add in all the different components hopefully as Felicia continues you know we have a lot of faith in Felicia because she's not afraid to try something she's not afraid to move the needle and move it forward when you look at where this started and where it's going to end it's going to change a quarter a gateway to the capital city so thank you all intracole city county the senator we wouldn't be here we wouldn't be here if you wouldn't keep pushing and fighting so thank you come on let's give it up so with that i'm gonna relinquish it to you got it thank you mayor as i said he was a very passionate man uh-huh uh will brandon who is the um district representative for this area cannot be here today so we have the honorable tyler bailey getting his wet his feet wet he's the newest member on council so we'll hear from mr bailey good afternoon everybody are you all excited about this project because i really am it's been a pleasure to be here i'm there's a lot of elected officials here but i'm the newest elected official here and when i was running for office representative germane johnson told me don't forget about lower richland and this is my first elected official speaking engagement so how can i forget about lower rich richland i want to recognize all the elected officials here we have a chairwoman of county council jesson mackey councilwoman uh chickees newton uh sterile harris and angela carburn from richmond school district one and calisthen liviston and representative germane johnson along with the senator thanks y'all for y'all support of this area i'm very excited about this project the whole city is excited about this project and i also want to recognize bibleway for their vision in developing underutilized land areas in this area and i'm a son of a pastor and a leader like senator jackson who leads his congregation serves in the community in the general assembly and also looks how we can better neighborhoods and communities surrounding the church is something that needs to go recognize and honor so we should all give senator jackson flowers for his work that he's done over the years we're excited about this project it's going to be huge for this area and we're excited about our partners and we're looking forward to the growth here this is a huge important corridor for the city of columbia so we're excited and we look forward to the future thank you thank you mr bailey next we're going to hear from mr leonardo brown mr brown is the county administrator for richland county he leads the executive team for the county that overseas services for over 4 000 residents and um and council members he provides leadership and budget and financial management crisis management talent and team development strategic planning and community and media engagements so we'll hear from mr leonardo brown thank you i'll start by saying what everyone else has said good afternoon and we certainly do have a lot of elected officials here and as any of you all know uh you always want to make sure you take care of home so i'm going to recognize uh the council member who represents this district uh who is uh adamantly excited about this project and it's miss shero english miss english good morning good afternoon so on behalf of richland county council uh council chair chair jess kamaki who was introduced earlier miss english who represents this district and richley county council as a whole those who are president those who can't be here i'm really an honor to stand before you this afternoon to talk about this idea of the redevelopment of the bluff and atlas road area not only is this a significant investment in the residents that we serve but it will also pay dividends as we collaboratively bolster the vibrancy of this community and the quality of life for our residents and you've heard their term collaboration used over and over again uh in our council our city our community partners our state representatives uh and our state senators have continued to try to work collaboratively so that richland county residents can benefit from all the resources that our state has to provide specifically richland county council has a strategic plan and if you're not familiar with their plan i'm going to talk to you just very briefly on three important points one is to foster good governance one of the things that richland county council has tried to do is figure out a way that it could demonstrate its commitment to fostering good governance and richland county's portion of this development with this magistrate facility and sheriff's substation is its investment in fostering good governance for the rural richland area uh secondly i want to talk about just very briefly this idea of planning for growth through inclusive and equitable infrastructure which is one of those six goals the idea behind that is to work with our partners and take a look at how we can leverage future investments again to improve the quality of life for the residents and finally is to establish operational excellence and one of those initiatives is to create amenities that benefit the residents we believe that the magistrate and sheriff's substation will create an amenity that will serve not only the justice system but the residents who facilitate that process and whether it's water and sewer or residential commercial development richland county is committed to providing residents throughout richland county with the enhancements needed to support and serve plan growth this redevelopment project is a testament to the growth through collaboration between different governmental entities as well as community partners so again on behalf of richland county we're very excited and we're looking forward to continue to serve this community thank you thank you mr. round and before i introduce our next speaker i would like to recognize chief holbrook who's standing in the back back there and i think that's my boss standing next to him but not sure yeah missy gentry a c m missy gentry whom i report to so we'll next hear from sheriff leon lot um he first came to richland county sheriff department in 1975 as a patrol officer and advanced through many positions before taking on the chief of police position and another thank you you look fabulous and he decided to come back and in 1996 he became the share for richland county um share plot um turned the direction of the department into community oriented policing and so you see why he fits so well in this community project thank you share plot i want to say wow see everybody here uh i know the elected officials all got recognized uh left sefts roads out so seft i'm gonna throw you in that group too but there's so many community leaders here from arthur town taylors macamden eastway park all these places so you know i want everybody that's here supporting this project raise your hand raise your hand everybody that's how important y'all are so let's give everybody a round of applause as she stated um been here since 1975 i have seen this area for many many years and in 96 after y'all elected me we talked about having a substation in this area that we needed one and bernice and i did talk about it a lot we prayed about it a lot we thought about it a lot but guess what it is coming about coming about now and we welcome this now this is going to be a joint effort it's not just the sheriff's department of master chief holbrook and his people will also be working it's all about public safety about us working together and and when you have a project like this for it to be successful everybody has to work together so that is why we're here today because so many people came together not just one group not just two groups but everybody with the support of this community so i'm very excited about it i'm excited about what it's going to bring to this area you know the visibility of having deputies work out of here visibility having C police officers work out of here that that's all that's going to do is improve this area even more the lower rich layer is a great community it's been left out a lot of times in the past those days are over with and today is approved for that so thank y'all for making this happen thank you thank you sheriff like will next year from pietra cruise pietra is the chief organizational development officer that's a mouthful for old claire corporate health centers she's been with old claire for a number of years now and she leaves the day-to-day operations um and she is all about the business of providing health care that is her passion she lives for it every day and so with that said i'll introduce miss group thank you felicia for the warm welcome and good afternoon everybody it is such an honor to be here and to see all the support that we have especially for community health centers as felicia mentioned my name is pietra cruise and on behalf of our board of directors and our ceo mr delgado kentha again an honor to be among such a designated group of supporters in the community for those of you who are not familiar with o'clair cooperative health center we are a community health center providing services to our marginalized communities or populations that make up the communities in which we live and being a part of a project like this is monumental and it's monumental because words that i heard today that were mentioned um with our partners our colleagues our collaboration um support um having an idea and sticking with that idea and gilling around the idea and what we see here today um is the effects and the result of keeping each other lifted and having that idea yes having that idea and bringing it to fruition so while we have not broken ground please know that we are extremely excited to be doing so in the near future and again um on behalf of community health centers we stand on the shoulders of you all who are here with us today we are advocates all of us are advocates not only for the services that we provide but for the persons who truly rely on not only health care services but as a community health center for many we are a beacon of hope and you all provide us that stability um to continue to operate in our community so again on behalf of our board of directors and our ceo and um everybody in the community who relies on the services that we provide thank you we are truly looking forward to this project um we are extremely grateful for the support and um the confidence that the team behind me has shown in cooperative health throughout the years and with that i will hand it back to you felicia and before i go on i would like to recognize two other board members mary sparrow and um reginald rice over here but of course um i don't make up c z all by myself our board of directors provide guidance support literal work but we also have staff verdine and cleat and uh crystal and we have morgan who is our intern and xavia and eddie in the back back there um so can you please give my staff and this is hockey you've heard a little bit about the marketplace here and they are mentioned sprinkled throughout the conversation so on the site where we're on here's is scheduled to be the magistrate office and um substation but on the other side of the road there is scheduled to be eau claire cooperative health and then just beyond there is the marketplace the marketplace is going to be a commercial kitchen five commercial kitchens it will support entrepreneurs to help generate uh intergenerational wealth um and we have food trucks out here so mostly entrepreneurs in the food service and artisan industry will be able to use that you have a lot of people we have a lot of good cooks in south caroline and i'm sure down here in the bluff road area so they need a place to go and prepare their their products in a de-hack approved kitchen a lot of people are getting into natural skin care products they need a place to go and um market um prepare those products and um and and distribute them and package them as well so the kitchen is scheduled to be have five kitchens right now teaching as we've been a longtime partner of eau claire cooperative health so um eau claire will be able to also use the kitchens for teaching classes to help some of us get our cholesterol down and you know teaching us to to prepare meals in a healthier way um it'll also have an event center where people can use it for birthday parties small weddings and it will our weather here you know it could be winter today and spring tomorrow so we're going to make sure that is an indoor outdoor event so you know you won't have to scurry and change if it starts to rain you can just be on the inside and those kinds of things on the other side of that um the junkyard we've cleaned up that was a junkyard and we're working to get ev charging stations there we have um board members and other people who are driving electric vehicles and there are no charging stations in the area so that is our goal for the junkyard on on that side and there's a garage there for food truck vending owners who can't park in their communities because of the regulations that surround their community so it'll be a great place to promote entrepreneurship and community activity there'll be walking trails and we've asked that the walking trails are wider particularly as we address seniors like me our baby boomers who are getting older and we have a lot of seniors who drive their wheelchairs like it's their that is their vehicle so we're going to make sure that it is safe and people don't have to go out on bluff roads to get from one facility to the next facility and after this program we're going to unveil the site plan up here for you to see so we have some before pictures and and we'll unveil the site plan so you can see what we have planned now with that i'm going to introduce my fearless leader of the city of columbia miss teresa wilson who is the city manager of the capital city she leads the city's executive team checks in the mail and she oversees approximately 140 services for 145 thousand residents the city is currently growing at a rate of 2.3 percent and miss wilson is truly a service minded individual she's dedicated to supporting her staff and providing the resources that we need to do our jobs and providing opportunities that improve the lives of the residents hi everyone good afternoon hey miss forney um thank you all for being here we are totally excited um felicia and the cz board and the staff at cz as felicia described you know this is visionary work and it's hard work and it takes time and i know there used to be a farmer's market out here somewhere but it went to a different county i believe at some point in time that's all good and sometimes when things like that are happening we don't understand it and we wonder why and it may not be on our time but if you're a believer as we see it's happening now it's always what right on time right so it's right on time it's timely with many other things that are happening in our city and our county and i do not want to underestimate even though it's been described somewhat but i think it's my turn to probably give a little bit more color to the history of the columbia empowerment zone and how as an arm of the city sometimes it is great to have those elements in place where a non-profit entity like that can come in and be the conduit for projects like this and so the cz they eagerly work to fulfill the goals of the vision of the city the the mayor and the city council member strategic goals in partnership with their own mission the staff as we've said and the board of directors they diligently focused their efforts on these type opportunities that promote entrepreneurship and creating jobs and eliminating blight and so this unique ability to form strategic partnerships is really important because this is how we produce economic development in disenfranchised communities and so i think we can't underscore that enough that this proposed bluffing atlas road project is a great example of when you can leverage those different elements in a city and in a county and create the station at congery point the economic activities as felicia just described that this project will include components influencing how this whole community will continue to restructure itself and you've got all the players here today who are gonna ensure that that happens it's not just the city it's not just the county but it is state government and health entities etc coming together to make sure that we have access for the people in lower richland that so richly deserve government services they don't have to travel so far to get health care services fresh foods and entrepreneurship to really help generate wealth for our future generations it's a legacy project it wouldn't have been possible possible without this collaboration as it's already been said and i'm just really thankful that i can still be a part of working with individuals around me the mayor the city council madam chair county council the county council members and everyone who really are passionate i know a lot of times as a community you don't see all the work behind the scenes but it is happening and you see that finally manifesting itself with these type projects this too is an important corridor to keep us on the map it's the gateway to the congery national forest for example so we want to keep those things in mind and really thank the board members i'd ask them to stand felicia did mention the ones that are here uh reginald brice sarah stand stand mary mrs mary sparrow been done been done yeah so they were really really hard for no pay so we need people who are willing to do those things thank you all so much and the staff and all the staff of the city that is here to help put on these events our assistant city managers are here our community development staff is here economic development staff i'm not on call names y'all raise your hand if you're a city of columbia employee thank you thank you thank you we appreciate you all so very much and your investment all of you in the quality of life for the residents of our city our county and our state um the next person to speak and i think it's already been said senator darryl jackson the honorable darryl jackson my mentor my friend um has such a commitment and you know what i'm gonna just say is you know we see a lot of stuff happening around us sometimes in state government and other entities but he ain't about all that fanfare and the antics he's just getting it done and he has a partner beside him and miss willow make jackson the first lady um who is also such a wonderful part of this community um they personally mean so much to me and i thank them for their dedication and hard work and we have to give them their flowers today y'all because they have been following this through for a long time do you still want to come up i think i did it for you policia okay thank you thank you so much to to risa who is just a wonderful person i remember when she was beginning a lobbyist at the state house for the university of south carolina and i'm just done such a fantastic job into the city columbia thank you for the wisdom hiring her as the city manager again and to the mayor of the city thank you so much to mayor rickmond thank you for your incredible leadership to risa county uh risa county council county administrator thank you to the chairwoman of risa county council now this is really a god moment because jessica mackey took chip jackson's place when chip passed on to the other side and now stan jessica she is uh the chairwoman of risa county council to all of the city council members if you hear uh would you stand i just want to recognize you again and say thank you to you uh that are here to tyler and then to risa county council uh thank you all council members again would you just stand stand council members and then the most important body of all school board members because i once was a school board member so was paul liviston and they shaped the lives of our children would you all stand that are here representing jennifer and shara harris and who else is angel i'm sorry see my son just told angela that jennifer was his teacher and and certainly angela thank you so much let let me say uh that i'm here to say thank you and there are three legendary individuals that i want to thank who've been here from the beginning dalton mentioned this first of course is congressman clibern he and i were elected the same year i went to the senate he went to congress i wrote his cotel to get elected and i've been riding his cotel ever since yet so thank you to congressman clibern i once worked as an intern in his office uh thank you to dalton for being here uh and then bernie scott i know we've talked about we call her my scott not only would she remind us but when bernie's remind you other people have a heavy hand bernie's has a heavy fist okay she reminded and she worked hard for this area thank you so much my scott and then i have to say a very special thank you to paul liviston who was on council then paul has always been an inspiration i succeeded him on school board so that's how long he and i have been around that guy but he was on county council he saw something when no one else saw it the dream center would not be in use today if had not been for paul liviston and this project so congressman clibern uh bernie scott paul liviston please help me say thank you to them i don't know if there are too many events where you have this type of collaboration you have congress you have the state house you have the county you have the city you have the school board you have the sheriff's department the greatest sheriff anywhere in the country you have the chief of police the greatest chief of police in any city all of them are here and we say thank you i could not have done this by myself appropriations starts in the house and people don't realize it but you would never get anything passed if you can't pass both of ours k paterson reminded me when i was first elected he says son you talk a good talk but talk don't get nothing done he says you've got to work with people to get it done thank you to jamaean johnson who worked in the house a very special thank you to my friend seth rose who is here seth represent the arthur town litter camden area jamaean represents the bluff area we have a great great team the council woman sure english and she keeps newton who are here also and i'll leave you uh with this one story so when we were running for office bernice remember this jim clavin's running for congress i was running for senate bernice was running for county council and we all were running paul for something and there was a mrs laura jefferson and you know who she is revenue apps she lived to be almost a hundred years old she was the matriarch of this community she went everywhere we went to every community meeting i was 34 years old when i was elected to the senate i would have to pick her up and take her everywhere i went and she said to us don't ever forget the bluff road quarter don't you forget arthur town taylor's litter camden bluff road every community richard street and she would make us name them and she says don't ever forget that and she said to me on her dying bed judge simon thank you for your help she says son it hasn't come yet but one day it will come and one day it would happen i remember what she said she says i pray that elderly people won't have to go to somebody else's community to go see a doctor i pray that one day that they will have what i never had and that is to buy groceries in my own community to get my prescription fulfilled in my own community she was almost a hundred years old when she died my mom would be 90 years old this year and my goal pietra is that that health care center and that pharmacist would be up that a 90 year old person who lived her entire life on this quarter would be able to get health care and buy food in her own community and that's what this is all about thank you finally to the leaders of the neighborhood raise your hand these these leaders of the neighborhood that are here it's rice and others they they not only shaped this neighborhood but they've shaped our lives some of these leaders were leaders when i was a little boy riding my bike in the community and they would stare here and say thank you then they very special thank you to a gentleman who's not here paul not paul paul mitchell is not here he's the president of optis bank paul mitchell was raised two blocks down the street when this project was almost dead paul mitchell wrote a check for over five hundred thousand dollars to secure this land to say let's make it happen we said paul we're not sure when it's going to come and not sure how you're going to get your money back and he says this is for our community paul is a product proud product of atlas road and joe frazier court and he's now one of the most successful business people in the country and he did what others don't always do he put his money where his mouth was and i said very special thank you to him to all of you thank you we look forward to it the first thing we are going to do tomorrow right come on for me since i won't talk anymore you got to cut a preacher off when you give him a mic first thing we're going to do tomorrow you see that building behind me it was sheriff lot a bales bondsman building when they built the jail on bluff road they told us development is coming when we build the jail you're going to have all kind of development what they did not tell us was that all the development would be bales bondsman and so i told felicia i don't ask for much but i want this the first building you need to knock down is the bales bondsman building so on tomorrow you see that bulldozer with tailord brothers on it on tomorrow if the weather permits that building is coming down and be replaced with a health care and a judicious center thank you to god be the glory god bless you thank you senator jackson i did just want to recognize our partners and just say thank you to the people who help and um the city of columbia public and media relations department the parks and recreation department the city police department the office of business opportunities the city of columbia planning and development city um department of utilities and engineers richland county um richland county sheriff's department the food policy committee new millennium properties which is palm Mitchell um midlands community development corporation and first citizens bank i also want to say the coffee and donuts occur to see a first citizens bank so please help yourself to some lattes coffee i haven't had the donuts i said i was going away but i've heard some really good things about them so please enjoy yourself and now if i could get the podium members to join me and members of council county council um city council and the board members to join me over here we're going to unveil the site plan so look to be back on this property a few more times for some ground breakings uh in the future to come