Family for their role, Mohammed Nuru and folks at department of public works had a role, lindsay hirsch. applause with all due respect to dpw and everybody else who is here, the hardest working staff in government is rec and park. Gk, construction manager, mary hobson, project manager. [cheering and applauding] director of capital planning, don. Our great operations staff, zach taylor, judy auberry who is here, and everyone else who has contributed to this incredible project. So, at rec and park, were encoloneling people to get out and play. Thats our tag line, get ready, 1, 2, 3. Get out and play. We say that because of the importance of keeping our families active and healthy. This is a real serious issue. According to the center for disease control, Childhood Obesity has more than doubled in our children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. In 2010 more than onethird of our children were overweight or obese. It is important that we get our kids outside. Our children toda
We have about 25 of our population thats at or below the poverty line, so you have to look at rate structures that are tiered so the people can pay their bills. Franklin we would love to have Something Like 75 federal money. We do get some federal aid and we are thankful, but on the other hand, were paying for this primarily with new rates. We have increased our rates to among the highest in america. But not nearly as much as if we hadnt passed a onecent sales tax dedicated to water and sewer infrastructure. Hunter that sales tax counts for about a third of the revenue of the department right now. Franklin we got 75 of the voters to agree to tax themselves so that their children and their childrens children could have clean water because were investing in it now. Hunter there were no alternatives. The infrastructure was in dire straits. A lot of people didnt want to believe it had to be done, but it had to be done. What came out of those lawsuits by the upper chattahoochee river keeper
Gk, construction manager, mary hobson, project manager. [cheering and applauding] director of capital planning, don. Our great operations staff, zach taylor, judy auberry who is here, and everyone else who has contributed to this incredible project. So, at rec and park, were encoloneling people to get out and play. Thats our tag line, get ready, 1, 2, 3. Get out and play. We say that because of the importance of keeping our families active and healthy. This is a real serious issue. According to the center for disease control, Childhood Obesity has more than doubled in our children and tripled in adolescents in the past 30 years. In 2010 more than onethird of our children were overweight or obese. It is important that we get our kids outside. Our children today average over 71 2 hours behind a screen. Listen to that. 71 2 hours behind a screen, less than 30 minutes a day outside. That has to change. And this playground helps get it done. And i wanted to just offer a quick quote from ric
Quick quote from richard lu who is the author of a book called the nature principle which encourage uz us to reconnect with nature and create a balance between nature and the ever evolving world of technology. ~ he says imagine a world in which all children grow up with a deep understanding of the life around them, where obesity is reduced through nature play, where children experience the joy of being in nature before they learn of its loss. Where they can lie on the grass on a hillside for hours, and watch clouds become the faces of the future. Where every child and every adult has a human right to a connection to the Natural World and shares the responsibility for caring for it. Thats the community, thats the world, thats the park that all of you have created today. And i want to say that while were here looking at this amazing playground which, by the way, has the worlds im not kidding the worlds longest monkey bars. Woohoo and as the father of a daughter who has broken not one, bu
The most Ribbon Cutting and most Ribbon Cuttings, we keep everybody off limits and then we cut the ribbon and then stuff happens. You cant stop them. You can only hope to contain them in there so were going to let everybody continue to play. So, its been said that, that success has many, many, many parents and there are many parents, many people who have contributed to this outstanding, outstanding effort. We are so, so proud of this project and so thrilled to be able to give a new face to Lafayette Park. This park has tremendous history, from a City Attorney who claimed ownership of 12 acres in the 1860s, holiday hill, how many know about holiday hill . Right . Where the City Attorney actually thought he owned a piece of this. To a professor who set up the first astronomical observatory on the west coast here in 1879. To the hundreds of people who call this park home after the 1906 earthquake, to controversial mind troops. To controversial park renovations. Lafayette park has many sto