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Congresswoman secures $550,000 for Goudy Park

By Sarah Shurge
Concerts in the park would not
be the same without the Goudy Park
Amphitheater. Craft and vendor
shows would not be the same with-
out the amphitheater. Homecoming
and prom pictures at Goudy Park
would not be the same without the
amphitheater.
The Goudy Park Amphitheater
was built in the 1990s and unfortu-
nately, it has begun to fall apart.
Over time, the structure has worn
because of age, the seating, the reten-
tion wall, and the stage; as well as
concrete that had a reaction that
broke the concrete down prema-
turely.
So what happens when the am-
phitheater needs some TLC?
The City of Wayne council real-
ized there needed to be a way to fix
it but after going to the Wayne Down-
town Development Authority (DDA),
they wondered where they would
come up with the money.
United States Representative
Rashida Tlaib was the answer.
“We have this great resource [the United States Representative for the 13th District Rashida Tlaib presented Wayne Mayor John Rhaesa and Wayne City Council
amphitheater] and we can't do any- with a check for $550,000 to fix the Goudy Park Amphitheater. Pictured left to right: Mayor Tom Porter, Councilman Kevin
thing to fix it, and you can't just put Dowd, Councilwoman Debra Wass, Councilman Phillip Wagner, Congresswoman Tlaib, Mayor Rhaesa, City Manager Lisa Nocerini,
Band-Aids on stuff. So, I’m just re- Councilwoman Kelly Skiff and Councilman Alfred Brock.
ally excited to have Congresswoman
Tlaib here today to be able to help us “I really just wanted to thank Con- come down and visit. And this is a representation we’ve ever had in
in the venture of making Goudy Park gresswoman and your team for being structure that we desperately wanted Congress,” said City of Wayne Man-
the gem it's been to our community able to provide this to our commu- to maintain,” said Biden. ager Lisa Nocerini, in reference to
and look forward to the future,” said nity. This is just amazing,” said Thanks to the help from Repre- Representative Tlaib’s involvement
Wayne Mayor John Rhaesa at the Mayor Rhaesa. sentative Tlaib and the half a million with the City of Wayne.
Wayne city council meeting on March Representative Tlaib said her dollar check, groundbreaking for the At the meeting, Representative
23, 2022. own thank yous at the meeting. amphitheater is planned to begin in Tlaib gave a shout-out to her Chief of
Representative Tlaib has sup- “Thank you to City of Wayne for the late fall of 2023. Staff, Larissa Richardson.
ported the city of Wayne in many having a vision and not giving up on “I know I am probably not going “If it wasn’t for her, we would not
ways like COVID funding pay, sup- this. Our residents get to see it, be a to be your member of Congress have gotten over 15 million dollars.
porting employees, but most impor- part of it.” said Representative Tlaib. when I think this is going to finish. It was throughout the district, not
tantly, she has been present for the “One thing I love is there is a real love Please invite me. I want to see it,” just the amphitheater, there were 10
people of Wayne. for the arts and music in City of said Representative Tlaib. projects and not everyone got all
“Just know I’m here as a partner; Wayne, that folks are not really “All the work that we do legisla- their projects approved but we got
it's not just the amphitheater, it's aware of. We know we can build cars, tively in Congress, sometimes we every single request that we put in
everything else,” said United States we know we have this amazing work- don't get to see the end result. But approved. And more,” said Repre-
Representative Rashida Tlaib at the ing class, families and the people this is one that I would love to be sentative Tlaib.
council meeting. “I want you to know that just love their community, but I able to come back and actually see Getting financial support for proj-
a lot of people are like ‘oh, City of saw it personally. And saw that you and be part of.” ects like the amphitheater is not al-
Wayne is small, there's not a lot of all really love bringing people to- As an expression of gratitude, ways easy.
people.’ It doesn't matter, if there's a gether and I know the amphitheater Mayor Rhaesa presented Representa- “As you know I get really giddy
need, I’m gonna be there.” is going to be a huge success in doing tive Tlaib with a key to the city, along and excited about money coming to
Representative Tlaib was in- that and continuing that.” with a travel size key for when she re- the city. We constantly have to work
formed of Wayne’s need to fix the am- Mike Buiten, Director of Building turns to DC. hard to apply for grant funding to do
phitheater and again, she showed up and Engineering, spoke about the “I feel that having background the things we need to do. It's really
for the people of Wayne. On March amphitheater at the meeting. with the Federal government, the refreshing to know that we do have
23rd at the city council meeting, Rep- “This is a structure, the stage and State government, and now with successes like this. That the City of
resentative Tlaib presented the city amphitheater, that has created a Local government, that I can hon- Wayne - as small as we may be, but a
council with a check for $550,000 to wonderful opportunity for thou- estly see that since I’ve been here powerful city - that we’re being paid
fix the Goudy Park Amphitheater. sands of people every summer to over the 7 years, that this is the best attention to,” said Nocerini.
The Wayne Dispatch · April 2022 · 7