7.7.2022 Veterans Press Conference

all right guys uh another very very important day in fall river going to benefit a lot of people and that's what we're trying to do make sure people's lives are better um first of all i want to thank everybody for being here today and i want to acknowledge a few of our elected officials in the back of the room is maureen from senator roderick's office tyler from representative viola's office and skyler from

representative schmidt's office uh joining us in person up here we have uh representative alan silvia we have city councilor um linda pereira and i think that's everybody that's uh and obviously he'll be speaking a little bit former city councilor trotley is also with us today um and we're here today specifically and also just walking in right now is uh state representative carol fiola also joining us

um she'll be getting detention for being a minute late it's my old job my old job uh we're here to celebrate a couple of great initiatives with our office of veterans services that will make life better for the veterans of fall river mass as nearly everyone in the room knows fall river has a rich history of supporting and celebrating our veterans

our entire waterfront shows this from the monuments at the veterans memorial bicentennial park to the battleship under the braggart bridge which is named after a florida soldier who died in the pearl harbor attacks more than any monuments of dedication our strength in supporting veterans comes from the groups and individuals like those joining us in the room today we're lucky to have a huge coalition of

veterans service organizations volunteers and veteran leaders themselves who make sure that our veteran community gets the services and recognition they need that is why i'm excited about the creation of the veterans advisory committee and the distribution of funding to 18 specific veterans groups these two initiatives will support our shared goal of making life better for our veterans

i want to thank the 10 appointed members of the vac who stepped up to join this group which has been a long time in the making the group will work with us to promote good understanding and relationships between our veterans organizations veterans their families our administration and the community many of these members are involved in the same veterans organizations who receive the boost in funding from the

hundred thousand dollars we are allocating from veterans service office all service organizations who currently serve forever veterans were included in this distribution and we're here today at the corkiro club which is the home of our veterans kitchen and so i i'll introduce her because probably nobody in the room knows her uh don trahan she's a very quiet timid young lady and i just want everyone to know that

because uh i wrestled with her when she was 17 and she's really mellowed out with age so you know their volunteer-led team has served countless meals to our veterans community even turning to delivery or grab-and-go during the worst days of the pandemic so the veterans in need could enjoy hot home-cooked meals these funds are going right back into the community and being used for a

variety of projects programs and events to serve our veterans population and it's a honor for me to be able to give these groups a boost after a tricky few years of working through fundraising all the time battling covert with that i want to introduce one other person who has been instrumental in putting this veterans advisory committee together city administrator seth aiken who was also a veteran

and with that i want to introduce the director of veterans services uh michaela britto um and she's been instrumental in getting this off the ground and getting this funding into the hands of these well-deserving organizations and i want to thank mikael

i'm really honored and thrilled that i've been able to spearhead woodstock allowing to get this veterans advisory committee together i'm not cutting out the war council i'm just reaching out to other people and organizations within the community that are very instrumental and stakeholders within the veterans area um senate representative sylvia is going to be on the committee along with our city councilor

linda pereira city administrator seth aiken the battleship with megan rathburn and several others who are in this room today as far as distributing the hundred thousand dollars it's very very needed within all of our different veterans organizations whether you have three people 20 people or 500 people within your organization each organization is going to be getting the exact same amount of money

so again i really appreciate the fact working with um the mayor's office and getting this initiative up on the ground and running and with that being said i'm going to introduce bob dynan the commander of the hall of war veterans council thank you on behalf of the farva veteran's blog council and affiliated veterans organization i wanted to welcome you into the florida world veterans headquarters for our kitchen and

in other organizations i want to thank you to the kitchen director don trahan and her staff are preparing us all for today's meeting uh i it has it has been a busy year for the florida veterans war council with a lot of changes taking place some may we may not agree with but the veterans will continue to serve and uh and survive and are confident that going forward any differences of opinion or processes will

be worked out for everyone but but there are they have been very positive actions on behalf of the city of fit city veterans our council and we are very pleased uh about first and foremost we have mayor paul krugman who has demonstrated his care and commitment to foreign veterans not just because he donates to our kitchen and other courses but because he actually shows up sits down and shares a meal with us

and communicates with us the forward war council uh asked for a veterans advisory board and he listened and took action the end result is that veterans now have a sounding board and another voice in the city government we believe this will go a long way in benefiting not only your city veterans veterans but the city as a whole thank you mayor coogan for your commitment and communication and support

for the veterans community it has been it's no secret that for our variable war veterans council disappointed about not receiving 40 chapter 40 funds but again mayor coogan listened uh the uh tourist staff city administrator aikens and vso brito found a way to secure funds for not only the member organizations but our farm of the world veterans council but our brother and sister affiliated veterans service

organizations that have that have been active in foreign chapter 40 funds traditionally have been ten thousand dollars but mayor coogan has earmarked 100 000 for our organization mr mayor uh and your staff thank you from the bottom of our hearts

in closing i i want to acknowledge a couple of veteran council members who have asked for city to establish a city advisory board and to obtain funds for veteran organization that is of course our city councilor wendell pereira attorney renee renee brown and our veteran former commander and board advisor bill damaris thank you mr mayor thank you mr mayor wherever he is thank you thank you

as you can tell bob is my new campaign manager so we'll be kicking off in a moment i do want to let um the former uh veterans agent or rand pine street for us the city council i do want to let a couple of people say a few words that trotley

thank you for having me uh for today and i'm proud to be here to help i've always been able to uh you know gladly serve the veteran community in for a way way before i ever became a city councilor and obviously i'll continue to serve after city council so i have anything that the veteran board needs me to be or do i'm at their service and i i look at this as an opportunity

personally it was something we talked about a while ago i looked at this as an opportunity not just for the support of our local fall river veterans but just to see what's out there how we can also be supportive to our veteran communities on the state and even at a higher level there's plenty of legislation and things like that and veterans in need all over the city and all over the state um that that could

use a a unifying body where uh people in fall river can can say what they need to say and and uh support what they need to support to help all veterans um uh that's that's that's the vision that i that i had when i first was talking about this but to also have a unifying central area where all the organizations in fall river can come together to have a table a seat at the table and

to talk about what we need to do when it comes not just when it comes to memorial things but also how to best support the veterans in the city that don't even know some of the services that we have i think that's a very important unifying situation that we can all work together to to accomplish so uh to all the people that were involved in uh putting us together um i think everyone deserves a

you know a round of applause for that in general um but also just um just to reach out to the new vets that are out there too i think that's a really important piece right now there are there are veterans right now younger than me i'm 42.

so you know find some of those other veterans out there they're in their 30s and 20s and and let them know that fall river is here for them too i think that's a very important piece to this so with that i yield and i will give the floor to my city councillor uh linda prayer it's been great um to be here to be part of this when i told the mayor we need an

advisory board people need to feel um that their voices are being heard but i i've got to tell you i've never been to a veterans meeting of any sort that we don't stand up and say the pledge of allegiance so could you please do that for me behind us there's one there i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation

under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you it means a lot to me that we do that kids should do that every day at school and i i went to a grand opening today uh will flanagan and some people opened up a dispensary and i know a lot of veterans that use medical marijuana to assist with illnesses that they have a ptsd so i want you to know that i've asked

him if he can give veteran discounts because no dispensary gives you discounts so as always i look to try to do as much as i can for the veterans so let's wait to hear from him and if you hear him on the radio let's all call him rasm and let's get another discount for us but this is great to be here and i thank you all very much for attending

i also have one more person i'd like to say a few words he's a member of the committee he's a veteran uh state representative thank you mayor and uh it's of course an honor to be here and to be a part of this community this committee and a part of this community that is always there uh to focus on veterans and their needs my phone is speaking because i am actually in session and uh

we're gonna have a roll call i know in a minute but um it's it's very important that we gather like this something like this a committee uh to focus on veterans needs uh should have happened a long time ago um i i credit uh linda pereira and of course uh mayor coogan for for actually doing this i think it'll be more unified and we'll get a number of things done

that we have talked about over the years so uh thank you all also for being here thanks just mentioning how appropriate today we are taking up a complete uh another veterans bill today that's going to be very helpful in many respects so i just want to share that thanks uh senator fiola thank you um that concludes today's uh ceremony we appreciate everyone for coming out and uh we'll be announcing um

the date for the first meeting shortly and we'll see if we can get this role and thanks everybody