By JACKIE MAJERUS
BRISTOL – Waving boxing gloves triumphantly above his head and grinning broadly, Mayor Art Ward jogged away from the excavator and toward the crowd gathered in frigid temperatures.
"A new start for downtown Bristol!" Ward shouted into a megaphone, moments after he'd used the big machine to take the first whack at the city-owned downtown mall.
"Bristol's on the move," said Ward. "We have a future that I don't think anybody could have visualized 10, 15 years ago. It's a new beginning and we have everything on our side to keep it going."
Despite the wind that dropped temperatures to around zero, a party atmosphere prevailed, and John Leone, president of the Greater Bristol Chamber of Commerce and a former mayor of the city, played host at a demolition bash.
"Forty years this mall's been standing," Leone said, using the megaphone. "Today it's gonna fall."
The bundled up Bristol Central High School band braved the cold, valiantly playing the theme from "Rocky" with freezing lips and fingers.
One saxophone player wore mittens to protect against the cold and flute players sported gloves.
As the band played, Ward – at the controls in the cab of the Volvo excavator – clawed at the building, not far from the doorway of the former Ocean State Job Lot anchor store.
When he managed to get the clawlike arm to break through the overhang, the crowd cheered. Then he kept at it for a couple minutes until the overhang fell.
Ward said later he wasn't about to stop until he demolished part of the mall.
"It was fun," said Ward. "They said it would be a cold day in hell when this thing came down. It worked!"
Mayor Gerard Couture, who was mayor when the city bought the mall several years ago, drank in the scene.
"It's a good day for me personally," Couture said later. "I knew Bristol had to make a move with the mall. It may have cost me an election, but it paid off for the citizens of Bristol."
Couture urged city politicians to keep the project moving.
"Artie, don't let that wrecking ball stop," said Couture.
State Rep. Frank Nicastro, another former mayor who is also currently a Democratic city councilor, said the mall demolition couldn't come at a better time, since the Route 72 extension project is on its way. Soon, no one will be able to say that Bristol lacks highway access, he said.
"We have the greatest city in the state of Connecticut," said Nicastro. "Let's make it better."
Leone, too, said the Mum City is the best, with ESPN, Lake Compounce and the Little League complex among its attributes.
Leone compared Ward to Rocky Balboa, the boxer Sylvester Stallone brought to life in the 1976 movie "Rocky." Now it's Bristol's turn to win the championship, Leone said.
"Like Rocky did in the fight, he stood up and he punched away," said Leone. "Eventually he was successful."
Leone recognized Ward and three previous mayors for their contributions to downtown revitalization.
Gerard Couture deserved praise, Leone said, for buying the mall on the city's behalf and getting the project started.
"It proved to be the right thing for Bristol," said Leone.
Couture's predecessor, Nicastro, now a state lawmaker and city councilor, deserved accolades "for understanding we should take it down," said Leone.
Former Mayor Bill Stortz, whose campaign critical of Couture's mall project enabled him to oust Couture after a single term, deserved credit for moving the project along, said Leone.
"Gerard [Couture] took it one step," said Leone. "Bill [Stortz] took it to another."
But Ward gets the prize "for actually knocking it down," said Leone.
The only problem with the event Monday morning, Leone told a crowd of about 50 that walked across the street to the chamber offices for coffee, hot chocolate and donuts, was getting Ward to climb down out of the machine.
"I had to drag him out," Leone joked.
Attorney Tim Furey was among the crowd of about 100 that showed up to watch the demolition begin on the mall's exterior.
"Now the center of our town has a new beginning," said Furey. "Bristol is so far on the move, it's great."
Bristol Hospital President Kurt Barwis showed up for the demolition and brought hospital executives with him, all clad in hospital team shirts.
"It's a new beginning," said Barwis. He said having a vibrant downtown is important to the hospital, because it can help serve patients – and draw needed medical staff to the area.
"I'm recruiting people here," said Barwis. He said one potential staff member asked whether it was possible to walk to an ice cream shop in the evening, and suggested that a positive new development on the 17-acre mall site could make downtown safer and offer such amenities.
Leone said Barwis is a newcomer, having been at the hospital only about a year and a half, but is doing a great job.
"It'll take him 25 years before we call him a Bristolite," said Leone.
Barwis said the hospital crew brought sledgehammers, but he suspected they wouldn't be allowed to join in the fun.
*******
Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
BRISTOL – Waving boxing gloves triumphantly above his head and grinning broadly, Mayor Art Ward jogged away from the excavator and toward the crowd gathered in frigid temperatures.
"A new start for downtown Bristol!" Ward shouted into a megaphone, moments after he'd used the big machine to take the first whack at the city-owned downtown mall.
"Bristol's on the move," said Ward. "We have a future that I don't think anybody could have visualized 10, 15 years ago. It's a new beginning and we have everything on our side to keep it going."
Despite the wind that dropped temperatures to around zero, a party atmosphere prevailed, and John Leone, president of the Greater Bristol Chamber of Commerce and a former mayor of the city, played host at a demolition bash.
"Forty years this mall's been standing," Leone said, using the megaphone. "Today it's gonna fall."
The bundled up Bristol Central High School band braved the cold, valiantly playing the theme from "Rocky" with freezing lips and fingers.
One saxophone player wore mittens to protect against the cold and flute players sported gloves.
As the band played, Ward – at the controls in the cab of the Volvo excavator – clawed at the building, not far from the doorway of the former Ocean State Job Lot anchor store.
When he managed to get the clawlike arm to break through the overhang, the crowd cheered. Then he kept at it for a couple minutes until the overhang fell.
Ward said later he wasn't about to stop until he demolished part of the mall.
"It was fun," said Ward. "They said it would be a cold day in hell when this thing came down. It worked!"
Mayor Gerard Couture, who was mayor when the city bought the mall several years ago, drank in the scene.
"It's a good day for me personally," Couture said later. "I knew Bristol had to make a move with the mall. It may have cost me an election, but it paid off for the citizens of Bristol."
Couture urged city politicians to keep the project moving.
"Artie, don't let that wrecking ball stop," said Couture.
State Rep. Frank Nicastro, another former mayor who is also currently a Democratic city councilor, said the mall demolition couldn't come at a better time, since the Route 72 extension project is on its way. Soon, no one will be able to say that Bristol lacks highway access, he said.
"We have the greatest city in the state of Connecticut," said Nicastro. "Let's make it better."
Leone, too, said the Mum City is the best, with ESPN, Lake Compounce and the Little League complex among its attributes.
Leone compared Ward to Rocky Balboa, the boxer Sylvester Stallone brought to life in the 1976 movie "Rocky." Now it's Bristol's turn to win the championship, Leone said.
"Like Rocky did in the fight, he stood up and he punched away," said Leone. "Eventually he was successful."
Leone recognized Ward and three previous mayors for their contributions to downtown revitalization.
Gerard Couture deserved praise, Leone said, for buying the mall on the city's behalf and getting the project started.
"It proved to be the right thing for Bristol," said Leone.
Couture's predecessor, Nicastro, now a state lawmaker and city councilor, deserved accolades "for understanding we should take it down," said Leone.
Former Mayor Bill Stortz, whose campaign critical of Couture's mall project enabled him to oust Couture after a single term, deserved credit for moving the project along, said Leone.
"Gerard [Couture] took it one step," said Leone. "Bill [Stortz] took it to another."
But Ward gets the prize "for actually knocking it down," said Leone.
The only problem with the event Monday morning, Leone told a crowd of about 50 that walked across the street to the chamber offices for coffee, hot chocolate and donuts, was getting Ward to climb down out of the machine.
"I had to drag him out," Leone joked.
Attorney Tim Furey was among the crowd of about 100 that showed up to watch the demolition begin on the mall's exterior.
"Now the center of our town has a new beginning," said Furey. "Bristol is so far on the move, it's great."
Bristol Hospital President Kurt Barwis showed up for the demolition and brought hospital executives with him, all clad in hospital team shirts.
"It's a new beginning," said Barwis. He said having a vibrant downtown is important to the hospital, because it can help serve patients – and draw needed medical staff to the area.
"I'm recruiting people here," said Barwis. He said one potential staff member asked whether it was possible to walk to an ice cream shop in the evening, and suggested that a positive new development on the 17-acre mall site could make downtown safer and offer such amenities.
Leone said Barwis is a newcomer, having been at the hospital only about a year and a half, but is doing a great job.
"It'll take him 25 years before we call him a Bristolite," said Leone.
Barwis said the hospital crew brought sledgehammers, but he suspected they wouldn't be allowed to join in the fun.
*******
Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
33 comments:
Anyone have any pictures to spruce this up with?
Couture had the courage to buy the Mall, although it might have been better thought out.
Stortz did grunt work in geting it cleaned out and ready for demolition, as well as sold process for going forward.
Hopefully Ward will take those two examples, corage and hard grunt work and keep the process going.
Ward did absolutely nothing to move downtown forward.
How many of this crowd were city employees partying on taxpayer time?
History repeats itself. Ronald Reagon 1989 "Mr. Gorbachev, take this wall (mall) down!" The Berlin wall (mall).
Despite the nay sayers on this blog.
This a positive step in the right direction.
For the nay sayers it is a foreign concept for you.... Optimism.
It means -- the belief that good ultimately prevails over evil or the tendency to take the most hopeful view of matters.
Try it sometime!
I wish I had a job that would let me leave work to go party and mingle during the workday.
"Highway access..."
*snickers out loud*
..."Ward did absolutely nothing to move downtown forward."...Well gee poster 1:12, instead of spouting baseless drivel about what the mayor has or hasn't done, why don't you enlighten us about all of the wonderful things that you've done to help move ANYTHING in Bristol forward...guess we shouldn't hold our collective breath...Ya, I thought so...
"I wish I had a job that would let me leave work to go party and mingle during the workday."
Well, I don't have a job like that either, but I took a little time off (without pay) to join about 100 other good citizens of Bristol in the bone numbing cold (not exactly party and mingling kind of weather). We were there to support our mayor and our city...Oh okay, that would explain why you weren't there.
Poster 1:12 is likely just an average citizen, what's Ward's excuse?
The difference is that Ward was a longtime 14 year City Councilman, deputy Mayor and now Mayor, it was his job and responsbibility, yet Ward was useless in doing something about downtown. Yet now he gets credit for it?? More backslapping from political insiders.
I'm guessing the critic defending Ward and shooting down the average citizen here is a City worker.
Do you want a medal for taking an hour off from work? Some people can't do that without losing more than just an hour of pay. Most of the people who showed up were there with permission on company time (hosiptal), city workers, retired people, or professionals who make their own hours or can come and go without affecting their pay.
Couture deserves a lot of the credit. He took a bold step, and with it a lot of criticism.
But buying the property was the right thing to do.
But I find it interesting, that Stortz, who was quite active and vocal and provide much input when Gerry was mayor, and then worked hard to provide some direction when he was mayor, did not warrant a comment in Jackies story.
Not inconsistent.
All in all, we must move ahead, but as usually the case, results come from the efforts of many, and they all should get their share of credit.
...You'd be guessing wrong.
..."Just an average citizen" can do a lot more than you think ... People who malign, complain, criticize, whine, moan and groan don't do anything for anyone.
I thnk there's been no shortage of items in the Press over the past two years that quoted Mayor Stortz about the mall. In any case, it's impossible to put the words of everyone in a single story.
If Stortz wants to weigh in, though, I'd be happy to post his comments here on the Blog.
Was Stortz even there?
Yup, he was there!!!
This is pathetic that Art Ward's apologists are now blaming average citizens for the decay of Downtown and the stalling of fixing Downtown, yet their guy is in his 15th year of office and did nothing.
Leone told that Stortz was there, shivering with the other former mayors. They even posed for a picture.
However, he apparently never went inside afterwards. Jackie never saw him -- and neither did some others.
Leone even joked at one point that Stortz swiped the donuts and vanished.
So it wasn't a deliberate slight. It's just one of those things.
Jackie said, in fact, that if she'd seen Stortz, she would have included his comments. She's nice like that.
Oops, sorry. It was Ward, not Leone, who made the doughnut joke.
It's getting better all the time. Here's hoping the new construction matches our expectations.
I'm embarassed to say I live in bristol, this little village is a joke now
To "embarrassed to live in Bristol." Leave then and I don't think any one will miss you!
...We're all pretty embarrassed to say you live in Bristol too...
I couldn't help but notice a look of panic on the Mayors face when the Hospital Director arrived with a staff in white coats .
It's rumored he was overheard muttering ... " not again ... not again .... not again . " ;-)
"They said it would be a cold day in hell when this thing came down. It worked!"
Bristols newest slogan "Welcome to HELL"
Is that a city STOP sign in back of Ward, or is someone holding up a cue card for the Mayor?
...2:51: Wow, 10,000 sperm and you were the fastest? Too bad there was no lifeguard in your gene pool...
History lesson people....
http://books.google.com/books?id=mRYGhEh0KO0C&pg=PA274&dq=william+jerome+2nd+house#PPA250,M1
We have a proud history..are we forgeting????
To the person who wants a job that lets you off. You spend a lot of your time on this blog during working hours , how come you couldn't go to the Mall function ?
I thought that city employees were not permitted to use the internet.
i see the hit from the mayor but that's it work has seemed to stop over there should'nt alot more of the building be down by now. one day i drove by at the red light i noticed that the wrecker was'nt even there anymore?
Like the SEBBP, work only seems to happen when there is a need for publicity.
Given enough time, another photo-op will be in the works.
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