In the west end neighborhood. This will deliver a crucial piece of City Infrastructure to thousands of nearby businesses, residents and visitors. Our agency, public works, is proud to have designed a modern fire station that is expected to exceed National Accreditation standards and serve the essential needs of our first responders. It may not look like it yet, in less than a years time, a seismically sound fire station will be standing in this very place. It is true public works fashion, the project team has been working hard to ensure this facility will be delivered in timely and fiscally responsible manner. On time and on budget. With that said, its important that i think the entire public works staff, our project team led by our city architect, project managers and i want to thank all the staff from public works who worked on this project. But most importantly i want to thank our construction partner in this, alton construction, leading the project and getting it this far. Youll hear from a lot of speakers about the station itself. It will be the most resillent station of all the fire stations here in San Francisco because it is a very well designed facility and will meet all the standards as i said earlier. We have quite a number of speakers. Ill start by introducing the president of the board of supervisors and supervisor of the district london breed. Please welcome her. applause good afternoon everybody. Thank you all so much for being here today. You know, i have a special love for this fire station because i grew up just a couple of blocks from here. Every year, every time i look at this fire station, all i can think about when i was a kid is toys. This is where i actually came on the door that was located on turk street, thats where we went to pick up our toys during the Christmas Holiday because of the firefighters toy program. And so i know tom oconnor who is the president of local 798 is here, thank you for continuing that program and your leadership in this city. You know, theres another reason i love this place is because many of the men and women behind me, this is where they work every single day and my aunt, who was mentally disabled, she would come here all the time. Sometimes she would be in a good mood and compliment the guys especially and talk about how handsome they were, but sometimes she had difficult times and the people at station five treated her like family, they took care of her, and i know who is our deputy chief was a captain here during that time, they love michel so very much and i want to thank you for taking care of my aunt and being there for her. This is really a family, and the folks here, they save lives every single day and take care of this community and love this community. So this station is really not just a gift to our city, its to demonstrate to the men and women of this department, we want to make sure they have a great station, a station that works for them. A station that is state of the art so they can do the job theyre doing for our citizens and city and county of San Francisco. I want to say thank you to all the folks working on this, to alton for their work on the construction project, moving on time and on budget thus far. And thank you Mohammed Nuru for leading Construction Projects all over the city, i know theyre not always on time and budget but thats okay, well get to that another day. And our chief will be saying a few words later and our commissioners. This station is going to be a jewel in the city, its the station we deserve for our residents. I look forward to being here and cutting the ribbon when we open in one year. Take care. applause thank you supervisor breed. And also i have to say from the bottom of my heart, the last few weeks have been very difficult for all of us. London woke up in the middle of the night and took over the city and really did an excellent job. Lets give her a hand for that. applause now i want to introduce our partner who has worked with us from the beginning all over our city, whether its trying to work on systems, whether its remodelling fire stations or building new fire stations, leading the effort of going through the whole effort to make sure we have resillant structures and the correct tools that the Fire Department needs to do its job, welcome chief hayeswhite. Good afternoon everyone. The job is looking great. First and foremost, i want to acknowledge four of our five Fire Commissioners that are here. The Fire Commission is under the direction of president cleveland. Thank you for your support every step of the way. applause as director nuru eluded to, theres been a lot of change and difficulty in the past several weeks and i would like to also acknowledge the great vision and support always of Public Safety that mayor ed lee had, if not for mayor lee we would most likely not be standing here. I want to acknowledge mayor lee and certainly president breed, this is near and dear to her heart. This is a vital part of this neighborhood and community. We are all very excited about it. So thank you president breed for being here. And certainly it is a partnership. I have a lot of respect and admiration to my colleague, director of public works, theres a phenomenal team, all those standing here. Thank you for what you do. And i want to acknowledge tom oconnor, vigilant making sure we have healthy safe work places and the men and women standing behind me, members of this very station looking forward many drive by each day to look at the progress of the station. Hats off to alton construction. These are the men and women who will be working out of the station, led by the assistant chief here at this division house. We only have two division houses in the city, one at 19th and the other right here. Its a vital part of our operation. Assistant chief is with us and the members assigned to engine five, truck five and battalion five, who by the way are still at work, reassigned to local stations. I just wanted to say thank you, great job and we look forward to cutting the ribbon as president breed said. Appreciate it. applause we all know no project happens without the partnership of the actual contractor. So were going to ask the contractor from alton construction to come up and say a few words. I will tell you, i have made quite a number of visits to the site during constructions and some of the beams and bolts are the largest and strongest i have seen in construction. Being built, i know this is not going anywhere. Welcome. Come say a few words. applause they dont usually let us talk at these things. Rolling the dice with that one. Im the Vice President of operations for alton construction. We are the general contractor on this project obviously. For the last 20 plus years we have operated almost exclusively in the public sector, schools, police stations and obviously fire stations. When our group when i said i was going to say a few things, i thought about the common stuff, site constraints like working in a big city and it occurred to me that the aspects of this project are not particularly unique at least for me. This is what we do every day. We work in this environment. And the truth is, the materials that go into a building like this are not often the reason a project like this is successful. Its much more often due to the personalities and work ethic of the people on the ground working on this every day. So you know sorry im happy to have the opportunity to say that the group of architects, engineers and project managers i work with every day out here, sort of lower level are of the highest caliber. You know, the architects who are here, the engineers are here. Shawn obrien, the engineers, im not sure if theyre here. And captain mcfarland, the Fire Department representation at our weekly meetings. So to say that i have been impressed with this groups professionalism would be a dramatic understatement. We operate in the nine bay area counties and have hit every corner of every county and i can say without uncertainty this group is exceptional without question. Theyre workers, theyre not delegators. They get into the problem and get us what we need every day to keep going. We havent always agreed on everything. This isnt a fairy tail but the group has been fair and direct with us every single time and its not as common as you might think. I for one am excited to be part of this team and on behalf of our small team, the superintendent, project engineer without whom i would be under water on this job. Bob and shannon alton, disappointed they cant be here today and on behalf of our entire alton construction family, congratulations to all stakeholders on the milestone and a special thanks to the people i work with every day. Its been a real pleasure so far and im looking forward to a strong finish. applause thank you andrew. And all those guys you name are from public works. This project was from a scratch to getting out to contract was done inhouse and speaks to the capability of what the Public Works Department can do, it wasnt like that many years ago. Now we have healthy projects and were proud of that. The next part of the event, were going to sign a beam. We do have markers that all of the guests can sign. But before i do that, on behalf of public works i want to say thank you to all the men and women of the Fire Department who protect us and make sure our city runs smooth every day. applause thank you, thank you all of you. Supervisor breed, commissioners, we have pens over there, if you can start the signing process on the beam. We will sign the beam and allow everybody to go back to work. Yes, sign. 5, 4, 3, 2 , 1. Cut. We are here to celebrate the opening of this community garden. A place that used to look a lot darker and today is sun is shining and its beautiful and its been completely redone and been a Gathering Place for this community. I have been waiting for this garden for 3 decades. That is not a joke. I live in an Apartment Building three floors up and i have potted plants and have dreamt the whole time i have lived there to have some ability to build this dirt. Let me tell you handout you how to build a community garden. You start with a really good idea and add Community Support from echo media and levis and take management and water and sun and this is what we have. This is great. Its about environment and stewardship. Its also for the we implemented several practices in our successes of the site. That is made up of the pockets like wool but they are made of recycled plastic bottles. I dont know how they do it. There is acres and acres of parkland throughout golden gate park, but not necessarily through Golden Community garden. We have it right in the middle of so, actually i think its officially good afternoon, ive been saying good morning all day, but its afternoon. Welcome. Im the director of the department of children, youth and their families. [applause] the only time i get applause is for saying that. At press conferences [laughter] it is so exciting for me to be here with you all. This is a labor of love that has taken over two years to come to. And i am so happy to be here with young people, in community, and with our key partners. We have the police department, the chief of police is here, adult probation, we have rec and Park Partners and School District partners. So im so proud to be here with everyone and with our mayor. First, want to thank our host, our School District, james denman middle school. Particularly principal lisa, thank you so much. [applause] we had an opportunity just a few minutes ago to tour one of the classrooms that i have to say, it is amazing. Its wonderful to see people curious and excited about what theyre learning. It makes me want to go back to school. Maybe, maybe. I want to recognize and thank century i thought i saw him around here. Yay applause been helping to make really helpful for us. San francisco has made this very powerful commitment over the many, many years within the city, but more importantly in the last two years, to ensure equitable access to opportunities and services for all of our children. So that they can lead lives full of opportunity and happiness. Dcyf is one of those departments trying to envision that dream and goal set out by mayor ed lee. Were not the only department that can move toward the goal of having access for all. Were one of many departments. Were a city of community and city of leaders who want to work together. And with that, i would like to bring up to the podium, a person who needs no introduction. Our mayor, mayor mark farrell. [applause] mayor farrell first of all, any deacons in the house . Come on, we can cheer all right. Listen, i want to thank maria for all of your hard work on behalf of the citys families and children. I want to acknowledge a number of people here today. First of all, supervisor safai is here. District attorney gascon next to him and our school board members. We have our president. As well as commissioner walton. And as well as our Vice President of our school, please give him a hand as well. And i know commissioner haney was coming as well. Today is a chance to celebrate the Bright Future of our citys children here in San Francisco. While we do honor the legacy of our late mayor, edwin lee. Mayor lee was a longtime champion of children here in San Francisco and today, we also will celebrate that. You know, it is our responsibility as a city to uphold the values of San Francisco. Of inclusiveness and hope that we ensure San Francisco remains affordable for families. And that we invest in the health and success of all of San Franciscos children. As a father of three young children, i understand that, mayor lee was a devoted father of his two daughters and there are so many fathers and mothers today with us. With that, we need to make sure our children receive quality education, they live in safe homes in communities and with that, they can achieve Amazing Things in life. As city, we are committed and will always be committed to serving those most vulnerable and most needy here in San Francisco. We know that our families are face ago crisis of affordability. Of childcare. After school programs. And we need to make sure that parents know that their children are safe at school, after school, and on the weekends. And we want a city that provides programs to support our families and our children. Whether its the transitional aged youth here in the city, families with single mothers or working class families. That is who we are going to support as a city of San Francisco. That is who we are as a city of San Francisco. And today, its so amazing. I am most excited about the fact that the Beacon SchoolCommunity Strategy that is currently in nine middle schools is now available on all 27 middle schools across the entire city of San Francisco. [applause] its going to mean such an amazing change for cities and families. Its going to allow us to serve over 8,000 more children than were serving today. Were investing through High School Partnership programs and 16 million for the youth here in San Francisco. When we fund these programs, were not only investing in our residents, were investing in the future of San Francisco. And we know that those are investments that i am proud of as a mayor of San Francisco and that i know mayor lee was proud of when he was mayor as well. Its something that we all should be proud of together and something we should all celebrate. Today is a day of celebration. I want to say a special thanks to our principal here. We got to know each other last year when we opened the middle school as a shared schoolyard projects. For the weekends here that our children can play here. If were not doing everything we can in our City Government to support our families and children, i dont know what our government is all about. So i am so proud to be here today, so proud to stand with the people behind me who do all the hard work to make this happen and so proud to support our families. Thank you, everybody. [applause] thank you, mayor farrell. So in order to deliver the best result for San Franciscos children, youth and families, we have to work in deep collaboration with our citys partners and stakeholders to ensure the most effective and efficient use of resources. One of our proud and key partnerships is with the San Francisco unified School District. With that, we have dr. Vincent matthews. [applause] thank you. One of the things im most proud of is when the partnerships come together to make things happen for our children. It is said that you can judge the true character of a community by how they treat their children. And so when we come together like this, this is exactly what its all about and this is what makes me most proud to be a san franciscan. In order for us to do our work, were guided by the work of our board. Im going to introduce him one more time, the president , Vice President cook and commissioner walton and one of the supervisors in the audience, shes shy now, but you should hear her in meetings. We thank you for your hard work. We are fortunate to live in a city that is so deeply committed to the health, wellness, Emotional Development and academic success of our students and families. I want to thank t