 following this order. We will have remarks from our mayor, Mayor Daniel Rickerman, our city manager Teresa Wilson, followed by Mayor Pro Tim, Ed McDowell, Representative Beth Bernstein, former Representative Kirkman Finley, our project manager Todd Martin, Lee Mashburn with Mashburn Construction, and yours truly will return with some brief and acknowledgments and some directions. I think the fans worked really well this morning, so thank you all again for your patience and help me welcome Mayor Daniel Rickerman. Well good morning everybody. I was waiting for the choir to roll in so we could 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 and 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 Kilmert Martin, Representative Bauer, Senator Shealy, thank you for being here as well. Former Representative Kirkman Finley who obviously this park is named after his dad and so excited that the family's part of that. But Leonardo Brown, our county administrator, Overture 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. Thank y'all for being here. Thank you sir. I couldn't 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. Okay. Representative Garvin is here now. I want to make sure we acknowledge him 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 y'all today 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 a finances short term bond that we could do something that would normally take us 30 years in a short period of time and I 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 been a sore for us. We're so excited with this revitalization 22 to 24 months and I hope Mr. Mashburn can move that need a little bit more. I'd like to see it done earlier. I know he can do it if he tries. But it really is our signature park and with our growth downtown and being the center of our crown, it's so important for us to have it be in the best shape. As we look for its new attractions and its iconic water feature that everybody talks about, that's probably been in more lawyer ads than any other thing in the city next to 999s. We're just so excited that not only that will 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 adult experiences here. We will have walking areas and trails with a revolving series of local public art displays so that it'll be an enjoyment for all those who visit. We cannot wait to get this going. And as we talked earlier, you know, 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 part, 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 who helped usher this project through as we pushed and pushed her hard. Well, the mayor is right. 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 A.C.M. Simons and director Davis with parts and recreation and just their diligence to get this project done. Over stops and starts, COVID, compilation of funding and all of the things that go along with the project of this magnitude. But I wanted our parts and recreation staff before I go into more thoughts about public safety and health and upgrades with the staff, because they take please stand. They take such please stand, our parts and recreation staff, all of our parts and recreation staff. These men and women, thank you all, these men and 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 blouse I have on, but I wanted to read something. For many people, the color green has strong associations with nature and brings to mind lush grass and trees and forests. 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 Ms. Councilman DeVall said something to me is we were sitting here saying I'm looking out and I see a lot of contractors and financiers 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. Health obviously it's a park and it's a park 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 parks. Again the crown jewel as Mayor Rickman described. An essential aspect of the planning for and design of the revitalized family park is devoted to public safety and ensuring that everyone who uses this park will respect the integrity of its public recreational purpose. So it is meant to be a public park 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 park 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 Finley Park to have a constant presence and ensure the appropriate use of all of the facilities. Our park rangers will operate from an on-site office located at the top of the park 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 entrance 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 at 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 Finlay Park and that the why would we do all of this for it not to be a long time activated park 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 park 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. Thank y'all for being here. 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 we need your funds. Anyway look just let me say this it has been an exciting time in the life of the city. We've met, continued to meet, configuration after configuration. Matt we are 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 tie today 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 uh in Nehemiah and 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 gonna stay on this wall until it's redone and folk are going to be blessed with its presence. So just keep in mind that we are 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. Representative Bernstein would you please? Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. I don't have prepared remarks and I will be so I will be brief. Barring 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 hadn't worked in 15 years that it is that dream that people envisioned literally 40 years ago. Thank you. Wow what a special day as we celebrate the beginning of this new chapter here at Thigley 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 monumental project. I want to thank the city for the opportunity to work on such a great project for the support to move this project forward because without that we would not be here today. Of course I had so much help along the way. We have a fantastic design team that I want to recognize. They're here today. Together we collaborated. We challenged each other. We challenged the design until we landed on solutions that we believe will make family part the crown jewel once again. As I call your name please feel free to stand up because you deserve a lot of credit. That team was led by Stan Tech. Includes Civitas, LS3P, Chow and Associates, WP Law, FNME, BGA, Johnson and King, Engineers, and Aiken Cost Estimators. I also want to take the time to recognize some internal staff that were key members also. Gregory Tucker who's here was a tremendous amount of help. Kenton Davis was huge on this project. We also have Bob Probst, Kenya Bryant, of course ACM, Henry Simons, and our director Randy Davis all played a huge role in family part. Just an outstanding team and that's what it takes to pull out pull off something this monumental. 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 it the event oval and from that oval we'll spin off with strolling gardens and those gardens will help link all the different spaces together. From the destination playground that will be front in the Gaston and Taylor lawn. We'll have a new amenity shelter with a hospitality office, restrooms, and a splash pad that will greet you as you arrive from the Vista district. The iconic fountain behind me will run once again which will be very exciting. It'll 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, anchoring the strolling gardens. I also want to touch on a bold statement we're making as 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, the pavilion, the playground, all the different park components creating this cohesive park layout and design. With this revitalization it is the city's goal to make a welcoming, safe, activated, and of course the crown jewel once again. I want to just continue to say what a blessing it is to work on this project. Look forward to starting work with Mashburn on the construction to implement this vision we have for Penley Park so 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 into. 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. I mean 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 and first thing I called 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 and 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 I 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 assistant city managers. We have Missy Gentry. We have Jeff Palin and Clint Shealy. 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 we want to thank the mayor and council all of our state representatives that are present with us on today again Mr. Kirkman's friendly for your legacy the legacy of your father and your remarks. Again our parks and recreation team as Miss 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 our team and staff. I also want to acknowledge Karen, Karen Cusifit our park ranger leader in the back. Thank you so much Karen for your work. Todd has acknowledged Gregory Tucker and he's acknowledged Bob Propz as well. Also want to recognize Chief Holbrook and the entire Columbia Police Department. I think Chief is here in the back. Thank you Chief Holbrook as well. See Major Martin and others back there. Again Stantec and Mashburn 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 looking forward to that. At this time we're going to move into our groundbreaking photos in the back. We're going to have our council members and some of our dignitaries to join us back to do a groundbreaking photo. I'm sorry. Yeah Justin will direct you all with that. Thank you Kenya. We'll move into that and after we do the groundbreaking photo then if the media wants to take questions from any of our dignitaries you can do so at this at that time. But thank you all so much for being here. Take take advantage of the refreshments and drinks that we have. We certainly appreciate you all being here on this monumental day. Thank you so much. But anything that will suit you that will suit you. If I have to, yes, if the only time I can get to the left in New York. I hand on the shovel look straight ahead seriously let me know didn't you just pick up a few shots a couple of times and then it doesn't matter I can have a beer and that was no part of the show. All right everyone look forward okay one. All right good. All right let's uh let's position ourselves more over in the scoop. All right don't fall from there. Everyone look up. All right when I I'm going to say one two three go when I get to go that's when you kind of throw them here. All right one two three go. It's okay. Sometimes I'm even worried if the text doesn't work anymore. All right good everyone look here. Okay one two three. If you want me to I'll be happy to do it. It's their meeting. All right that looks good. Originally we find out some potential issues but not that we get into them more. We find out not that we don't. We'd like to utilize that type of for a while. Not only that you imagine you look exactly you know my understanding you can show pictures on there. Yeah. Oh I don't know about that one. That would be interesting. I thought they don't mention that they they can have some kind of That would be interesting. All right you take care like Murray now. Yeah yes ma'am. When you did some serious writing for something. Yes you ought to come the barbecue cookout in the circle park next year. But for the southeastern order that that's a big event you know there we are hoping to build a national you know that's the first year. Will you send me a personal invite? You just send me an email from you. I get so many emails that I don't know where. I can I can I can imagine that you've been a such an important and powerful leader. Okay I would do that. Go go ahead. Good good see you.