11.5.2022 Senator Thomas Norton City Pier Dedication

it's

um it's my pleasure to welcome everyone to the Thomas Norton City Pier we're pleased to uh that you joined us for this day for the Redevelopment Authority in the city of Fall River uh I want to recognize the best elected officials in the Commonwealth uh I want to recognize Congressman James McGovern

our Fall River State delegation Senator Michael rodericks our Representatives Carol Fiola Alan Sylvia and Paul Schmidt who couldn't be with us today but uh sends his greetings um mayor Paul Coogan and I'd like to recognize uh two city council members that are with us Linda Pereira and Andrew raposo uh I also want to recognize too I hate to call him ex-mayors past mayors past mayors uh Carlton beveras

and I think I saw Sam Sutter running running through and while he's next all right uh Sam Sutter and uh John Mitchell thank you um with us today from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection is Millie Garcia Serrano Millie thank you she's the director of the Southern uh region and also Kate Cavallo who both of them have contributed to the Redevelopment of the City Pier for many years many years

thank you I can remember talking with John Mitchell back in the day when many many years ago about about this project but there were so many things going on in the city of Fall River that uh this now became a priority and we appreciate everybody's help and effort in getting this done where's Joe Joe Ferrera are you here uh you are Governor's Council Joe Ferreira and I apologize if I missed anyone if I

did please just yell your name out um I also uh especially actually uh I want to give a shout out to my colleagues on the Redevelopment Authority board uh John Erickson uh Vice chair Joan Medeiros uh treasurer and um two other members that are not with us uh today uh is Louis Gonzales and uh Ann Keane all I've given their time and their talents to guide this project along and sometime when you have an hour an

hour and a half I'll tell you about it um I also want to recognize our executive director Sarah page thank you yeah you you can't believe that would be 45 minutes of the hour her tenacious energy and sense of responsibility kept this project on track no matter what the hurdle was and we had a couple thank you the the City Pier has been closed to the public for over 40 years over the last 20 years

15 million dollars has been invested in environmental remediation reconstruction uh the reconstructing the peer structure the addition of the bulkhead and most recently the completion of the improvements that you see here today the Redevelopment Authority is pleased to be opening this pier for public enjoyment and adding two-thirds of a mile to the walking path along the Taunton River

we want to thank our legislative delegation from the Commonwealth and put a commonwealth Support over the last several years providing 1.6 million from from The Economic Council uh 600 000 from the from Mass development most recently representative Carol Fiola secured a hundred and fifty thousand dollar earmark in the state budget toward the installation of pilings along the north side of the pier

our goal is to add a doc system in the spring to bring more recreational boaters to our restaurants and tourists thank you

now it's it's my pleasure to introduce the mayor of the city of Fall River who without his support and guidance this doesn't get done mayor cougar okay so we have a slight change in the program um they asked me to sing The Star Spangled Banner but they knew this place would empty out like a bomb drill so it's our pleasure to introduce the Corey sisters singing The Star-Spangled Banner

oh say can you see by the dawn's early light what's so proudly we held at the twilight's last gleaming who's brought stripes and bright stars through the perilous by fight or the rest parts we were so gallons least streaming and around Pockets Reckless bursting in and gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet or the land of the free and the home of the praise

thank you

okay how nice was that uh and obviously this is another very special special day in the city of Fall River and it's definitely my honor to be here and celebrate with all of you the opening of the senator Tom Norton City Pier

I will go off script for one second I've known Tom forever I remember being in his basement talking with him while he was yelling at me about stuff I remember being in his office on New Boston Road while he was yelling at me about stuff but I always listen to him because I always knew he knew more than me and I appreciate his friendship through the years I really appreciate Tom

the dedication of his peer disappearance another tremendous step forward for Fall River and our Waterfront I want to thank the Redevelopment Authority for their vision and hard work which made this city pure a reality going back decades since becoming mayor I have asked many times about the plans and timelines for this piece of land this area is one of the most popular in fall river right now

it's used every day by Walkers boaters commuters it's an honor to provide our residents with another beautiful open space that can be enjoyed for decades to come the future of this pier is very bright in my head I can already picture concerts food truck nights workout classes maybe a beer garden and the opportunities are endless and we've seen a new Civic a new appetite for civic events in our city

and today we acknowledge another great great place to host them as I said earlier this is another step forward for our Waterfront and the City Pier is another very exciting piece of this puzzle that's coming together right before our very eyes this area is so chock full of potential and this ceremony comes only a few weeks before we celebrate our next step the groundbreaking for the Route 79 project

which will go on right behind you this will completely transform our Waterfront and bring millions of dollars of new investment to Fall River before I thank up before I thank up that's good before I went I don't want to say what I was going to say you you would have thought Joe Biden was here I'm sorry

funders and now in that project some of them Joe already mentioned which made today a true reality and although neither one of them could join us today I want to thank the baker Polito Administration for their tireless support of Fall River projects like these right here those two

those two have stood right by our sides going forward and I can't thank them enough for all they've done for the city and of course I want to acknowledge the Norton Family Patrick Doris I've had his sons in school Owen was a little bit younger but it's great to see everybody here today I really really appreciate everyone coming out this is going to be a very special place in Fall River and

thanks for all your support and a specially thank you for coming out today thank you very much thank you thank you Mr Mayor appreciate that um I'd also now I would like to uh introduce state representative Carol Fiola of the sixth Bristol District that includes the City Pier the Waterfront and serves as chairman of the joint committee on tourism Arts and Cultural development Carol you're welcome what a great great

morning Irish eyes are smiling Tom you brought beautiful weather it's such an honor to follow your footsteps as a representative in the same district and around the corner in the same neighborhood and we could be here for hours as has been told to tell Tom stories and uh but I will I will not do that today but just congratulate you thank you because of all of the Reps senators seven Mayors in the course of the 40

years this project has taken to come to its culmination and still is not complete it takes a village I hate to use that term again and again but it takes a village whether it's the state agencies you know working with us on environmental issues uh getting funding it's been a Monumental prod project since 2016 that is when the the wheels really got moving once we uncovered all of the environmental issues and what we

could do and couldn't do so it has been nothing short of miraculous since 2016 to to get this project completed and to that there are so many people to thank as I said the many mayors my colleagues as I stand Here representing rep Schmidt and rep Sylvia Rome wasn't built in a day and I kind of looked up that depth you know what did that mean uh they call it the Eternal

City because it's still evolving after thousands of years Rome wasn't built in a day and everyone is impatient we get that what's happening why isn't it happening when we look back in 30 40 50 60 years when this Waterfront is even different than it is today uh we'll we'll get that are the people after us will get that it's always evolving this city has never evolved in my lifetime and probably

yours as much as it has right now and we've got to appreciate that and thank the countless dedicated people who have done this um so I just want to say congratulations to the Redevelopment Authority thank you and lastly to Congressman McGovern to my colleagues the senator and the Reps but I want to just once again um the mayor did one but highlight the baker Polito Administration the injection of about

six seven million dollars over period of time by the state along with the contributions by the Redevelopment Authority show how important relationships are to getting things done and I want to commend this group and all of us for working together because it's the only way we're going to move the city forward and you can see that and lastly I want to comment the Redevelopment Authority there's two

organizations that have been constant in this project for 40 years now remember 40 years ago there were dump fishing boats were sunk Jim carham started the project to be honest Bob's here thank you Bob Jim and look fast forward 40 years but two agencies have been involved the Redevelopment Authority and the fall of office of economic development now known as the Bristol County Economic

Development Council and I want to tip my hat to them to the baker Polito Administration and to my husband Ken who has been a constant constant constant force and I believe and I'm going to say this and you would think I would say this he's he's a major reason why we're here today so thank you all congratulations

thank you representative appreciate those kind words and I was going to say that about Ken too but I won't um at this time I'd like to call on Senator Michael Rodricks who is no stranger to us having spent over 25 years uh serving the people in the south coast and he is the current chairman of the house Ways and Means senator rodericks

thank you Joe good morning everyone uh this is just an amazing day a beautiful weather great job Joe for arranging that weather because you might as well take credit for it and um uh I am uh my job is to uh introduce the gentleman who will introduce uh special guests today but before I do that I just wanted to say a few words about my good friend and Mentor Senator Tom Norton

um I could not think of anyone more befitting than to name this City Pier over because I remember way back when talking about this project with Senator Norton and um when I was first elected to the state house as a state representative in 1996 Senator Norton had one of the nicest biggest offices in the state house he was Senate Majority Leader and it was right across the hall from the house chamber and you know this

is pre-cell phones pre-texting pre-facebook in free all free all of that that when you wanted to talk to someone you actually went to their office and sat down and taught face to face and I can't tell you how many conversations I had with Senator Norton and how much I learned just listening to him trying to understand sometimes right the message the message he was he was trying to but and it was always he

always had he has these great cliches and and today 26 years later when I have one of the nicest biggest offices in the state house I think about Senator Norton every day and I use his cliches all the time I can remember one time it was a very controversial issue coming up at the state house and you know we you get maybe one or two of these a session right where and what I mean by

controversial is is where the general public is split 50 50. half the people are on one side and half the people are on the other side these you know those are the ones that you know no matter what decision you make you're gonna anger half your constituency and I was in there lamenting it and I didn't know I'm flipping what do you think and he goes Mike listen on controversial issues

you can't walk down the middle of the road you have to pick a lane otherwise you get hit by traffic going both ways right right right I use that all the time I use that all the time because we see it as young freshman legislators come in and you know we have those hot issues and it's like pick a lane you know otherwise you're going to get hit by traffic going both ways and

another time and I'm trying to think of the cliches that I can actually repeat in public you know yeah right um but another one is um we we had just finished doing a budget and we were very successful as Senator Norton always was in securing good money for the district and but for some people it wasn't enough you know it's never enough you know you got us a million bucks why didn't you

get us two million bucks you know and I said Senator what do you do he goes Mike you can never feed a hungry elephant so so thank you thank you Senator Norton thank you for your years of service thank you for really uh your friendship your advice your mentorship I really really appreciate it I might have been I was probably a pain in the neck as I came into your office all those times

but I really really appreciated and valued uh the opportunity that I have to have those conversations it's not like that anymore today everything's you know texting and tweeting and this you know it's it's just something missing uh in society today when you don't have when you don't sit down across the table and look someone in the eye and have a have a real conversation and I I really appreciate you that um

so now I get to introduce the man that will formally introduce Senator and a good friend of mine we were both elected together in 1996 I too on the state house uh and uh Congressman McGovern to the U.S House of Representatives and since then again a gentleman whom I've had a great pleasure and opportunity to work with on so many issues as he represented uh Fall River for years in Congress he is in leadership

Congressional leadership today um and uh you know he's chair of the very powerful house committee on rules and he he's someone who has never forgotten where he came from has never shied away from his values um and is never afraid to fight for those that need someone to fight for them my good friend uh someone I'm very very happy to be seen again today uh Congressman Jim McGovern

well first of all uh let me let me just say Fall River looks beautiful um and and I am happy to be here with my good friend Mike rodriggs who I have great admiration for uh your two incredible state representatives uh representative Fiola representative Sylvia mayor Coogan thank you so much for all that you have done for this city my colleagues in government here the Norton Family Doris Owen Maggie uh Patrick

and I um you know this this is an incredible day and to be here uh at this City Pier that's going to be named after our good friend Tom Norton is so appropriate because he is always recognized the potential of this city and this is the potential of this city this is beautiful um and uh I you know and people will come here uh and enjoy themselves and uh

and while they're here they may go to a restaurant in Fall River they may go to shops in Fall River or they may go to the narrow Center in fall river which is an incredible place um you know uh some might say that Tom Norton kind of is an old style politician uh well if that's the case uh I want to see more old style politicians get elected to office at every level

and I say that sincerely because as We Gather here today I mean uh we have you know given all of the polarization in our politics all the hostility even violence in our politics I would welcome more people like Tom who ran for office not to bash an opponent or another political party but ran for office to serve the people he cared most about and to deliver for his community and um

I mean and we got people who run for office because they want to get more Twitter followers um you know or want to be on a cable TV show more often uh but uh you know he ran to deliver uh for the people of this community and when you look around Fall River and the south coast and I think my colleagues in the state legislature would agree uh his fingerprints are all over everything because he

delivered the money that really were the seeds that has resulted in a lot of the incredible things that we see happen in this area and so I I think we are all grateful to him for that but some of you know this and some of you may not know this but um I wouldn't be in Congress um if it weren't for Tom Norton uh the first person to ever endorse me

was Tom Norton when I first ran in 1994 I didn't make it through the primary I came in second and then I ran again in 1996 and he endorsed me again first person and without that there's no way I could have convinced people down in this part of the state that I was worth taking a chance on and you know and he taught me an awful lot I I he introduced me to the

Venus de Milo and his incredible holiday parties and Bob Stan Amor he um he uh he introduced me to Portuguese food like I I still order Cherise I mean although it's not as plentiful in Worcester as it is down here um he introduced me to the Liberal Club which I realize is not always so liberal um and uh and ham and bean suppers and I remember one time he arranged his ham and bean

supper for me at the Liberal Club with with senior citizens and and I got up and I gave this talk and I I really thought like I hit it out of the ballpark I thought it was really really good and was all over with he came up to me you know sometimes he speaks right in your face right he says hey look I said well he says that sounded like a

doctoral thesis uh he says you know next time it's a Coke and a smile um and he says also too long he says you were the only thing standing in the way of them getting their dinner so you know so he was always there with very very Sage advice but look you know the the Irish poet Yates once said count where man's Glory most begins and ends and say that my

glory was that I had such friends and I look here look at all the people here today uh Tom Norton has a lot of friends um he has a lot of friends because he was a great public servant um he has a lot of friends and I would say this even because more importantly he is a very very good man um and foreign and we need good people um in in government we need good people

in the business Community we need good people to step up and to care about their communities and one another and I have learned so much from him and I think all of my colleagues in government here have learned so much from him he has a wonderful family that have also done so much for this community uh and so I just want to say and I think I speak for everybody everybody here when

I say Tom I love you a lot and it is now my honor and privilege to introduce Senator Tom Norton

I had to stop him from running yeah the it's a good thing this doesn't have a motor I would have ran out of here a while ago he uh but they this day is such an honor for me I uh the people that talked before me um were great people I think if Senator Michael Rodricks he tells you that he's the most important senator in the next to the Senate President he's really I think the difference

between the size of my office and the size of his office he had a cash register in his office Kenny Fiola was a former employee of mine I thank him for all the great work I haven't had this opportunity to say that to people but he's done a lot of work on this one front end for the city Not only was he Not only was he a great basketball player then ended up in bu

he married a beautiful woman Joe Marshall Joe and Joe and apple who worked so very very hard on getting the Vietnam Wall in the country I don't believe in I guess that Jim McGovern can correct me I can't I don't know how many Vietnam walls there are besides Washington and it's a it's with a battleship on one end we got to put something on the other end I'll tell you if you want to ask me

later I'll tell you about it mayor Gogan through the young man who worked actually worked in the state house with his uncle who was John long I don't know if anybody knows that was a representative and uh I knew him way back to his family for a long time and he also as you said himself he had Owen Patrick's son in school I mean but he's done a good job

he's kept his head to the to the grind and he kept doing these things that he needs to do you know um I'd like to thank Sarah page the director of the Redevelopment Authority for her effort and everything and uh Sarah what do you tell your board to thank them very much because I never got a unanimous vote in my life to an old and dear friend Congressman Jim McGovern for taking out

time from his work in Washington thank you very very much thank you and congratulations on the very positive position in the Congress of the rules committee Jim the late friend of both of us Congressman Joe moakley would be very proud of you and so am I

was born in Forever educated in the Sacred Heart grammar school graduated from bmcdfe high school you're going to get a calculator to add this up and graduate bmd Jiffy High School in my senior year at Durfee I worked in the common trade making men's shirts as a pattern maker and a designer um I served in the United States Army stationed in Germany with the fourth Diamond division for two years I was

married to the late Janice Flanagan and worked for five five years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Bridgewater I was then elected as a state representative for the North and the Four River parts of Somerset in all of Westport the Journey Begins I served 12 years in the Massachusetts in Massachusetts as a state rep from Fall River while running for straight rep I was

rallying went to a rally in the North End of Fall River and there were some parents of special needs children in the group and they were asking about services for their children at that time I was working in a prison I had started a clothing program where inmates volunteered to work one night making clothing for children in state funeral School the cloth and patents were all supplied by four of its garment industry

the uh the program stopped because we had from Bradley's had got patterns of teddy bears and we blew them up to be a big size life size and what happened was two inmates tried to escape in in the in the in the panda bear so that was the end of that program during my time as a state rep and a state senator the Tom Norton Open golf tournament ran for 25 years at the forever Country Club

the players paid to participate and they were driven by people in this audience who got people to play who approach the Celtics Red Sox all of them was nice and all of that the money they paid all went to the special children's for 25 years in the grade of Four Brothers

every Christmas Eve we ran a Christmas party around my birthday for senior citizens including the handicap at White's Family Restaurant Jim knows he was there he helped us a sit-down meal can't spin door prizes for a crowd of about a thousand people and all of that was done free for 25 years when I retired your Congressman at continued the Christmas party Jim McGovern until it was until it was redistricted

the congressman which of course our Master of Ceremonies and he was a great friend of myself and both of us of Joe Mosley while serving my constituents we created an immigration service in conjunction with the Massachusetts Courts for 20 some years these immigrants that passed through that service were helped by my assistant of many years and she's got to raise her hand Isabella

and we did immigration service worked in conjunction with the immigrations if it's swearing it took place every year aboard USS Massachusetts the big Maybe so we did the citizenship in the courts and in the courts and then we moved to the battleship and did the citizenship on a battleship but people from all around the world get on that big boat down there and talked about that and the

fact is that they had their citizenship they became citizens on board that ship this Waterfront is alive with a nice thing the um and and as I always said it's all about people all people I gotta introduce my son Patrick and uh and my wife Towers Anderson my son Patrick and his beautiful wife Maggie of Narrows Fame and their two sons Benjamin on in Owen raise your hand just raise your hands

don't sit up don't get up Benjamin Benjamin graduated from the University of Tampa and works in Tampa Bay in Atlanta Georgia with a former professional Hall of Fame football player who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers work done remember that name and wore it done and they provide housing for people in need and the thing about it is his mother was I think a policewoman wasn't she good

she got married she got married his mother got rooted in Georgia and from that day forward he dedicated his all this thing and uh Benjamin is with him this time and we're very proud of you Benjamin thank you Owen is a graduate of the Naval Academy and has been accepted by the U.S Marine Corps and is training to become a U.S marine fighter pilot we're certainly happy for you raise your hands

also present in my wife Doris's daughter Holly there she is all right oh and the four of Doris is daughters Robin's children Hannah Tucker Slater and Sophie there's no room in the place for you guys so so in Sophie Bjorn and of course our adopted daughter Michelle people in this audience whether you held in office or you didn't hold an office have been good will you've spread your good will out to a lot of people

and that's what's appreciated about people who are for River rights and that's what I carried with me every day it's all about people I talk I talk to you I thank you for yesterday I thank you for today and I thank you for tomorrow God bless you let's make what if the Waterfront a tourist attraction to beat none thank you for coming appreciate it foreign

thank you okay

uh please be seated we're not done he's he's ready to go thank you no no no no we're not we're not selling tickets yeah all right all right just give me a moment thank you I leave the mic for one minute geez

um want to express the board's appreciation uh we had a lot of collaborators and and partners when we started when we took took this uh this project on um I I personally and I'm sure the board would agree with me uh we want to thank can can uh what's your name Viola no I'm kidding I'm kidding Ken Ken phiola who has shepherded the city's um Pier and Redevelopment for over 20 years and now

uh serves as an invaluable consultant to the Redevelopment Authority one of the best things we ever did thank you Ken thank you another essential member of our team is Attorney John Coughlin who guides us most importantly through a lot of this the things we had to deal with and keeps us out of trouble now now John usually flies under the radar so I doubt if he's here today but I did publicly want to thank him for

everything he does for the Redevelopment Authority thank you also the uh the big the beta group is a um a key partner uh who have put all this together uh Mary Lou Armstrong I'm going to name the people that were involved uh from beta uh Mary Lou Armstrong John uh uh Joe McLaughlin Eric Galley Andrew Pleshette and Nick Cabello and Bill McGrath uh I think they're with us today and we appreciate that thank you

for all your effort if you have no idea what goes on behind the curtain especially with uh director Sarah page working with these people thank you again Sarah uh that group um they planned designed engineered and continue to work with us as we bring dockage to the pier next year we also want to recognize the construction contractor for the project Mas building and Bridge and last but not least I want to

personally thank our our board member he doesn't know I'm going to say this Johnny Erickson who really truly managed the City Pier project for several months before we had an executive director I mean it was like a uh he did a lot that's all I want to say thank you John thank you John um I want to thank uh Johnny again and George mulattos in their respective companies uh Sunrise Erectors and

we thank you for that Tom thank you uh uh in fact speaking of the sign we now invite the Norton family and our distinguished dignitaries to head over to the interest uh the entrance of the pier for the signs unveiling so Patrick and family you you don't mind thank you