 My name is Ethan Hipple. I'm the Parks Rector for the City of Portland. I work in the Parks Rec and Facilities Department, so hello everybody. This is really exciting to be here. This project has been a long time coming. A long time before I have been in my job here, people were working on this. So it's very exciting to be up here with Frank and Sharon Riley. So let's hear it for the Riley's. So a little history on this project. You're standing in, many of you know this, so I'm preaching to the choir here, but you're standing in Portland's oldest park, oldest official city park. 1866, the park was set aside the week after the Great Fire as a firebreak, but then turned into a beautiful open space that's still here in 2017. Interestingly enough, we did some test pits here when we were figuring out what was underneath these sidewalks, walkways that were going to be rebuilding, and the fountain that we're rebuilding. And the first thing, we got a backhoe in here and started pulling up concrete. The first thing we found was ash and charcoal from the fire. So this is like living history here. So it's really exciting to see this finally happening. I know this park has had its ups and downs and people occupying the park and the trees have come and gone and come back. We've got a lot of great, mature trees here now, but there's a lot more coming as part of a restoration plan. So the friends of Lincoln Park formed and I'll let you tell them, I'll let them tell you about their history and how they came to be, but they collaborated with the city on a rehabilitation plan that calls for quite a number of things to happen, many of them, which will happen this year, which is why we're here. So the walkways that we're standing on that are cracked and dangerous and in disrepair, these are all going to get ripped up and replaced. Historic, you know, to basically replicate what we have here. This has all gone through Deb Andrews and her historic preservation board. The fountain behind us is the most exciting part of this, which it's not here right now because it's in the workshop being completely restored by Jonathan Taggart who we'll introduce in a minute. And we're actually completing, the fountain has been missing a piece for many, many years, which was, we found a replica of that piece and that is being restored, which will be the missing link on the top of the fountain. Strong wind today. Aren't quite doing the job. One of the others, so that will all be done this summer, this spring actually. The city council just approved, late last week, our capital improvement projects for 2018, which include a complete restoration of the original fence that you see around the park, which is really exciting. So we'll be jumping into that as well and it's a restoration of the fence. It'll actually be taken apart bit by bit, taken off-site, remediated. We think there's some lead paint on there where that'll be taken off. It'll be fully restored. If you look closely at the fence, there's a lot of things that have bumped into it over the past 150 years. And so there's pieces missing that'll be refabricated. So it should be a beautiful fence replicating what we had here. And then trees and benches and all kinds of great improvements to this park are coming soon. So one of the things I love about being a parks person and working in the parks world is, I always see parks as, it's kind of like a canvas that life plays out on. And you know, if you go into anybody's house and you look at their wall and you see pictures on the wall of their kid hitting their first base hit at Little League or a picnic in the park with their family or a proposal or a hike on a trail. All these great things that are people's life memories happen in parks. And it's really cool to be part of that. I've always loved my job because of that. But this place in specific is special for me because about five years ago before I lived in Portland, I came to Portland with my daughter. She was probably about eight at the time. And our friends said, let's go to this park down the road called Lincoln Park. There's a circus there today. And we came down the street. It was right here, right behind us in this grass. And there's a trapeze and music and clowns and everything running around. And it was a great day. It was a sunny, beautiful day. And we said, yeah. And we said, after the performance, my daughter looked at me and she said, we should live here. This is a great place. So it obviously, that worked. It had an impact on us. And it's a lot to do with Lincoln Park. Every time I come by here, I think of that. So it's great to be here today. A couple of people I want to recognize and thank for all their work on this. Because like I said, this has been going on a lot longer than I've been here. But Deb Andrews with our historic preservation. She's been doing tons of work on this and wrote a grant which is supporting this project through Maine Historical Preservation Committee. And she's my partner in this. We're working together on this project hand in hand. So Sally DeLuca, who's our director of Parks and Rec and Facilities. Jeff Tarling and Joe Dumay. I know Jeff wasn't here yet, but they've been both involved in this project over the years. Right from the beginning. Right from the beginning. They've been with us to Maine State. And then our forestry, parks and playgrounds crew who take care of this place. We've got Parker here today who's helping out. But many others too. The city manager, John Jennings. I know you're here somewhere. He's been very supportive of this project. And I've got some other people to introduce. That's just some of the staff I wanted to introduce. That'll come later. But right now I want to introduce these great folks, Frank and Sharon, who do really great things with their biscuits. And getting people excited about things. So, pass it on to you. Thank you, Ethan. And this man is a treasure, let me tell you. So I want you to help me. Welcome! There's so many people to thank. Ethan has already mentioned the ones I was going to thank. And these are people without whom this would never happen. I call myself the spear carrier. The chief spear carrier. Just to get things started. But there's no way I could do this first and foremost without Sharon right away. Another wife might have said, well, have fun. But no, Sharon was right there with me. I want to tell you two quick stories, alright? How this all began. I'm walking through the park one night. And Bob Weier is here. Parker is his son, right over here. Second generation park. Yes, second generation. And he's cleaning this basin. And I said, excuse me, sir, but are they going to refurbish this finally? And he said, oh no, we don't have the money for that yet. But he said, we're going to give a presentation tomorrow night. First Friday. And Allison Hilgrew is going to give a story, the story on the history of Lincoln Park. I got home as a charan. I have to listen to this tomorrow night. That was it. I was hooked. The other story, at one of the council meetings, right after we started, the former mayor, Mayor Michael Brennan, I went up to him and I said, Michael, I just want to ask you, why didn't somebody do something about this beautiful park before this? And he straight faced and said to me, well Frank, we were waiting for you. That's good. Well, it's nice to see all your people here. Mayor Eaton Strindling is here, and Spencer is here, district manager, and so many people, to thank friends, and Jill, and Jeff, and everybody. And there's Allison. Oh, there you are. I was talking about you just now. Now you've got this all started. Anyway, my thanks to the city of Portland, and to all the people that Eaton had mentioned, in particular, I want to thank all the friends of Lincoln Park, and the Portland Public Arts Committee, and Jonathan Tackett for the fine work you're going to see here this summer when that fountain comes back. I think so. Where is Jonathan? Oh, there he is. Do you want to say something, Jonathan, at this point? No, other than it's an honor to be able to work with him. It's an honor to work with you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Sharon and I were in Washington, and we had the opportunity to meet with Senator Angus King, and he was terrific. We told him all about the park, and history, and everything else, and he said he would love to be here today, and he would love to send one of his representatives. And she is here today. And, Barney, are you here? And I want to pronounce your name properly. He said, Althea. Althea. Barney, come on. Talk a little bit, please. Well, this is going to be very impromptu. Senator King listened to Sharon and Frank last week, and he, after they left, said, we got to have somebody there. This is really big. Taking on the refurbishment and renovation of a park. Our parks are who we are as a community. It's what brings people together. It takes commitment and passion, dedication, collaboration from all sides to really make it work. And to be able, at some point, if we can be a part of it, if we can bring any resources to bear from the federal side of things. I know Senator King is more than happy, in fact very eager to be able to help you see this through fruition. So we're here for you. We are so thankful to Frank and Sharon, obviously, but it takes more than one or two people. So all of you who are involved here helping, providing ideas, muscle, money, whatever. Thank you for feeling that this is a worthwhile project for the City of Portland. Any of you who have done any traveling know you go to Bordeaux in France, go to New York City, go to Belgium, go to Spain. Their parks are what make the definition of their community so vibrant and so special. And so this is part of Portland's essence and Portland's history and you are making it special for all of us. Thank you very much. And thank you for letting us hear you. Thank you so much. I want to thank Warren Seridan as well. They're here today. I don't know if you want to say something. They are the architects of the plans and everything. Would you like to say anything? I enjoyed this park and I've loved working on it and I don't think I have any more to say because you could do that. It's great, I tell you. It's a great apartment land box. Hillary, thank you for being here. Would you like to say anything? Thank you Sharon and the City of Portland and everybody who cares about parks and all the people who have given time, money and energy to make this happen. It is so exciting to see this park come back to life through the citizen efforts of people like you. Thanks for your support. We appreciate it. We have several people here. Our Mayor, Ethan Strimley. We have our City Manager, John Jennings. We have Jill Jueson here. We have a well-spilled guest. Spencer. There he is. I want to invite each and every one of you to say something if you'd like. Ethan. You don't need a box. I will just say a few words. Mostly thank you to Frank and Sharon for all of their incredible work. Mayor Brennan was right online when he looked at him and looked at the two of you and you in particular and said it takes a hero, obviously, sometimes to save our parks and preserving a park like this, historic preservation is so important for the entire community. I've heard that above and beyond this being our first park, I think Cesar Chavez spoke in this park once, I heard. So people of great prominence have been here, much greater prominence than us. I do know that Belinda Ray was hoping to be here. She couldn't be here, obviously, at the moment, but I know that she would have wanted to share her support of this park. She is a great advocate for her district, including this park right here. She is always, as any counselor can attest from the floor of the council trying to make sure that the people in her district get resources. But I think she also really understands her district. It is a park for all of the city and all of us. So I can't wait to see how beautiful it's going to be and the fence restored and the fountain as well. So thank you again for all of you. I want to thank Dave B. Show too. This fellow has been with us right from day three, was it? These are computer juniors. And all of our board members, I know Noni Ames is here. Where's Rick? Rick Nolan and Barbara Harvey and Jeff Tarling isn't here. Don Head is in Florida. Don Head is in Florida, isn't he? I'm lucky. Listen, there's food, please. You've got to be ground breaking. Oh, ground breaking. So I've got a couple of things. So before we do the groundbreaking with the shovel, we've got golden shovels. No ground breaking is complete without the golden shovels. But a couple other people I just wanted to recognize who are here. We have Tito Dreis who is our contractor for the job. He's forming Ken Grass who will be here day to day making this project happen. Frank and Sharon introduced Jonathan Taggart who's really an artist who takes care of so many of our public monuments and statues in Portland. So we're really lucky to have him and they did mention they have treats and I mentioned their biscuits before but you really need to try the biscuits because what I've learned about you and the short time that I've known you is that when you guys make biscuits, good things happen. So you get people over and feed them biscuits and things happen. If I forgot to thank anyone, take your biscuit and hit me with it, will you? Alright, let's see some digging people. Cheers! Cheers!