##VIDEO ID:5PfuuByd6qI## good morning Patterson we're here to celebrate yet another victory for our youth over a year ago we were cutting the ribbon on the newly renovated baseball field here at school 25 and it was almost 10 years ago when my civic association in its first iteration built this playground and I know what you're thinking we're going to have to upgrade it so I'll speak to the principles who are involved with my civic association primarily the first lady but today it's about tennis and today it's about developing the next Serena Williams the next Venus Williams the next Coco Golf and I'll even say maybe the next Dr Lori Newell who as you know was a very talented tennis superstar in Jamaica but she'll elaborate on that a little bit later I do also want to start off by thanking the members of my Administration who made this possible quite frankly wasn't easy but we're here and that's all that matters we're not going to dwell on the past we're going to focus on the future that's what today is all about so I want to thank Dominic stampone representing our legal department let's give him a round of applause our engineer who is spitting image of Eli Manning James B McGrath III our DPW director who got to keep his job with the Giants Billy Rodriguez hi very good and I also want to acknowledge the fact that we have a very active quality of life committee here in this neighborhood and we're joined by the chairman Vince ianacone who really cares about the Sixth Ward always advocating text messages every morning and just recently in order to enhance the aesthetic appeal and also quite frankly an interest of safety we repay both Michigan Avenue Illinois Avenue as well and we fix the sidewalk yes thank you Vince that's Vince squeaky wheel gets repaved streets at this time I want to hear from the forementioned superintendent tennis Superstar Dr Lori n tell us all about your prowess on the court tell us good morning good morning um very excited to be here um you know as the mayor has stated I am a tennis player former tennis player so I know the value in sports and I know the value that it can bring to our kids here in the city so really excited to be partnering with the city um thank you mayor for the opportunity also we have our board members here our board president so just really wanted to you know say looking forward just happy that we're all working together that we can bring you know yet another um activity upgraded for our students and so really grateful about the future for our kids and you know who knows I may come out and watch a tennis match here and there so with that I just want to turn it back to the mayor thank you everyone and Madam super intenna I'm not quite sure if you're just going to be a spectator spectator because quietly we did renovate the tennis courts at Eastside Park last year and every weekend I've been practicing in anticipation for our matchup when we cut the ribbon hopefully in March so Billy Jean King and Bobby rigs have nothing on us speaking of recreation this could not have been possible without the leadership of our assemblymen and the director of the division of recreation who's joined us today Mr Benji e Wimberly please dunan this morning good morning R morning running and gun I want to thank the mayor the mayor and his 250 text messages 25 uh put that in the paper there yeah Mr President I think broke Direct on it's well worthwhile I mean the one thing to upgrade the school 25 it's a a really uh emerging population here and our summer camp program this past summer had 80 kids and those 80 kids will now have the opportunity to have tennis instruction from former participants from Recreation former participants at Kennedy High School who now run our Recreation tennis program uh we now have indoor Recreation tennis at school 27 while the weather is a little inclimate but but these guys have done an amazing job two young men from Patterson uh went to Kennedy High School were part of recreation now they're coming back giving back uh to the community and I think that's so important mayor superintendent that we continue to build on this with east side and Kennedy and uh the residence that happen so we do have yearr round tennis from Recreation and at a whopping cost of zero all you have to do is register so if you're interested make sure you get out there we thank the mayor the city council the superintendent the school board for giving our children and our residents this opportunity thank you thank you assemblyman right so dtail on what he said I mentioned earlier that we renovated the tennis courts Pastor please join us we renovated the tennis courts at Eastside Park this year thanks to the support of the city council we'll renovate the Westside Park tennis courts and in all fairness we painted the East Side Park tennis courts orange and blue so we don't want our friends at Kennedy High School to feel like they are not as important so the color code there will reflect no not orange and blue on that one that'll be black and red of course this also could not have been possible without the leadership of a young man who just stepped down from the school board after a distinguished 12year career where it was culminated in the presidency and this young man and I used to run up those steps here at school 25 as a form of our physical activity and he is no stranger to this section of the city and no stranger to what I call the campus here at school 25 and that is Mr Manny Martinez thank you mayor I forgot all about that those stairs right there we may have to get those done from the work we put in running up and down things trying to stay in shape um but thank you to everyone who was a part of this endeavor and um again uh however I can lend myself to anything positive for our community for our children for our constituents I'm all in for that I'm just happy to be a member of this team to continue to get things done and produce results for our city so thank you all for being here and uh let's go yes thank you man Manny's very modest when we used to run up the stairs he always beat me and it was bad it was really bad also want to call forward the current School Board president who voted in support of theou and making this possible and that is Mr Eddie Gonzalez and I'm sure you'll also acknowledge your colleagues Mr Mr President go get him thank you mayor uh good morning everyone and as the mayor said yes this team effort I thank our colleagues on the school board who supported this and even those who were reluctant to it's not because uh they do not care for recreation or our children they just have all personal opinions as to what they uh see as us as a team moving this District forward but I am so proud to stand here before you to show what collaboration can do between city government our city uh Administration the council and the Board of Education when we work together we can make things happen for the betterment of our children for the district for the community that reside here who will be benefiting playing here now I do have a challenge for the mayor and our superintendent and and the ribbon cutting I challenge them to play a one-on-one tennis match Mone my money is on as well just for the record uh but I really appreciate everyone coming out because this is the beginning of a new era we are going to collaborate more often and we're going to do more for the city and I really appreciate it everybody here thank you mayor thank you superintendent and the dbil of what our school board president said I my money's on Dr n to win but quite frankly we should do it for charity and who do whoever emerges Victorious I guess the money should go towards the respective budget the school board budget or the city's budget I see I wanted the school budget right yeah yeah that's true that money's going to that school budget I want to take the time out to acknowledge the council members that are here especially the council president our councilman from The Fifth Ward we always say that a shared Vision equals a sh Victory and this year is going to be one a banner year as far as investing in our youth is concerned there are three more playgrounds we're about to build 21st Avenue breelan Avenue and cop park in our north side then finally the basketball courts at 12th Avenue are going to be renovated as well so a lot of these facilities these sites that have been neglected in the past thanks to the support of the city council they will be remedied in 2025 so at this time I'm going to call for our council president Alex Mendes thank you mayor thank you good morning morning what an amazing morning today uh I believe we have the right partnership in place in the city of pison and that's the reason why we investing millions of dollars to support youth building Park renovating all the different parks and and and and let's not talk about the past it was a lot of back and forth to get this project done but we here and that's the most important thing I'm excited to see uh the city council Administration the and the Board of Education working in collaboration because this is the right partnership we're serving our children we're serving our community and I'm looking forward to see this grand opening we not only have as a mayor said it before we have a state-ofthe-art tennis court at East Side park now we're going to have the Westside Park and we're going to have now at the school 25 this state-ofthe-art tennis court and this is going to improve the life of all the Resident they're going to have a beautiful tennis court where they're going to be able to play and exercise a free and all CA and it's definitely going to beautify the area and it's going to increase the value of this surrounding area and the property it's a win-win for everybody let's continue working together to move the city in the right direction thank you mayor thank you thank you I also want to thank and acknowledge commissioner Dela McCall from the school board for joining us let's give her a round of applause and gentleman who just sworn in gave me the honor and that is commissioner Hector el neevis thank you for joining us yes so do I that's his tennis court groundbreaking suit right there look at that you got to wear that that you know he works at City Hall I've never seen you look like that before Hector you done volunteering at the school Bo all right but nevertheless we do want to hear from a gentleman who for the last almost seven years has supported our endeavors whether it's restoring hinchliff Stadium or making sure we build the first inclusive playground in the city of Patterson which happens to be in the Fifth Ward at Roberto Clemente Park ladies and gentlemen our Fifth Ward councilman Lewis a valz the yeah keep it clean3 so um beside the uh beside the good perfume that coun Mendes had we're not judging we're not judging C we're not judging Let me Give a Little Bit Of History here let me give a little bit history here all right out of the 36 years that I have in Patterson I have 20 uh 30 years knowing this place I used to live in Michigan in wach way before c uh mayor Andrew used to be a commissioner he used to take wine to my house to for that vote I met councilman uh Mendes in that store over there when he was campaigning for the school board in 2010 so and my kids attended School 25 and uh one of the things I got to say is this place this playground and this field it's not just for the six SW residents it's for the residents of patteron anybody that want to come enjoy our Fields our plays that they could come down to this placees I enjoy it I just go to Lobby like always I do uh when it comes out to groundbreakings and other places outside the fifth war and we going to have a good conversation a real conversation superintendent and also with our future Senator that we need to put also money and invest in school 15 basketball courts that's been deicated for longest but I think with the real conversation and putting the money where supposed to be the residents of the fifth Court will have a basketball court and I I think we have that relationship communication to be able to make it happen so we celebrating today tomorrow we're going to play and the next day of that play we're going to construct more playground for our kids because they deserve that thank you thank you thank you councilman and this is a win win because not only will the tennis courts be ada8 compliant that by virtue of making them ada8 compliant the playground becomes 88 compliant as well with a brand new tennis court new fence and United States tennis Association approved the specifications so that is a segue yes that's a segue to our last speaker who is arguably the most or should I say the foremost tennis expert here in the city of Patterson and that is Pastor Doug gold Pastor please all right good morning uh it's good to be here anytime you mention the word tennis for me it has been a pathway to to success that's right tennis took me to college it took me around the world and um here in the city of patteron I know what tennis can do for our young people CU I know what it did for me I'm always excited when there's more courts because if we keep them on the tennis court we'll keep them out of the out of the judicial cours and our goal is any City that prioritizes their children has a bright future I'm not a ponan I moved into the city that's right because I want to have an impact my Avenue to do that is through tennis because I know what it did for me it took me around the world got me to me meet a lot of great people took me to college gave me an education it can do the same for our kids in the city of pison so let's Get Behind These initiatives because tennis is a pathway to success for our youth again if we keep them on the tennis court we will keep them out of the out of the judici court and that's what we need thank you so much got to show him a lot of love we're talking about tennis right here that was excellent really held serve on that one right is that sorry that was my fall double fall right there sorry I couldn't got a little racket going on over here bad starting to devolve I do want to also acknowledge our Deputy Mayor Maria Del Ras and I you remiss we have to thank our PA our business administrator Kathleen long because she made sure that the funding was in place so that we can break ground on tennis court and other playgrounds and basketball courts so Kathleen long from all of us thank you for your leadership so without any further Ado or any additional bad puns let's break ground on the new and improved Tennis Courts at school 25 stay strong mayor all right new tennis court perfume that right another one another one more okay let's score there go all right