Transcript of Remarks for Peter Rogoff, FTA Prepared As Delivered Grant Announcement

7/10/2010

Thank you, Joe. I’m Peter and I’m President Obama’s FTA Administrator and it’s a great day to be in Mansfield—not just because of the weather but because it’s my pleasure to bring to you the good news of the $4.9 million grant for the Mansfield Town Center and the Intermodal Hub that’s going to be a central part of that vision.

As Congressman Courtney said, folks have been working on this project for a very long time. It was part of a competition that President Obama had us put together for the DOT within the Department of Housing and Urban Development and with the Environmental Protection Agency for the purpose of trying to unify communities like this, that have a vision of transportation choices for its people.

The best part about this project is that is comes at a time where communities really need to put money to work, not just to improve the quality of life for folks but to put people to work in jobs that are desperately needed.

So this is a good day for jobs in Mansfield and it was also pointed out that this was a very very competitive procurement for about $160 million in what we call bus livability grants.

We had over $2 billion in applications. Connecticut did extraordinarily well in this competition.

The other day I was down in Stamford announcing a $16 million grant for their urban transitway and now I’m sort of at the other bookend of the state announcing almost $5 million for Mansfield.

It’s because of the vision of the folks in the state and it’s because of leadership from people like Congressman Courtney.

The congressman pointed out how hard the Mayor has been riding him on this project.

I can assure you that the Congressman has not let us forget about this project either.

He is right. It’s a competitive process but it also helps us a great deal to have friends reminding the department of the importance of this part of the state of Connecticut.

The other thing we really like about this project is the integration with the business community.

Knowing that our dollars and the investments that the taxpayers make will yield further investments by the private sector for the greater vision for Mansfield.

This was not a project that we created down in Washington, DC. It wasn’t a project created by Secretary LaHood or me.

It was a project created and envisioned by the people of this community.

What the Obama Administration has done is listened to this community and responded with the kind of seed money that will put this project over the top and get it built.

So again I want to not only commend the Congressman -- I want to thank him for his leadership on this.

Thanks to Senator Dodd and Senator Lieberman, who have also been strong advocates.

But I also want to commend the folks who really brought this vision and struggled when there was no money and it was all just a concept, and how everything’s coming together, such that we’re really going to see dirt being moved and we’re going to see improvements for the community and we’re going to see them soon.

And it’s all because of their leadership that we’ve gotten to this point today.

So, thank you very much.