Friends of the Fuzhou Committee,
The Fuzhou Ting repair crew’s flight back to China took off from the Sea-Tac Airport three hours ago. They left a messy park behind for us to clean up.
O.K., I am being a little facetious here, because I am really relieved. The Fuzhou Ting repair project is finally completed. Beautifully done. Please see the picture I took this morning. It wasn’t bright enough out there to see the details clearly, but you get the picture. We are so grateful for the generous contributions of our sister city Fuzhou, China.
This whole operation has been successfully executed, owing much to Debbie Bingham, Sister Cities Coordinator, for managing every step of the way, from planning, budgeting, coordination, to day-to-day tasks and media coverage. She pulled in resources from various sources, including personal contributions, and made the Fuzhou team’s stay in Tacoma safe, productive, enjoyable, and memorable.
We need to thank the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation, its President Theresa Pan-Hosley, the Board of Director, as well as passionate members such as Clay Zhang, for the support, contributions, and help that they have provided throughout the project. Members of the Tacoma-Fuzhou Sister City Committee have also helped tremendously. Taking the Fuzhou crew out for dinners, for grocery shopping, for shopping for personal/family needs, for entertainment, etc.; providing/lending them some kitchenware and household items; visiting them on the job site on a daily basis; spending time with them during the evenings from time to time – just to name a few things that we have done together to make our guests feel like home.
Councilmember Joe Lonergan visited them on September 3rd on the job site and at their residence, on behalf of the Mayor and the City council, and also to bestow his personal greetings. Deputy City Manager Mark Lauzier also visited them on the job site on September 12th to express our appreciation on behalf of the City Manager and City government.
So, now that the Fuzhou Ting repair is done, Debbie will spend the next few days organizing the clean-up of the job site, removing the fences, honey bucket, etc. The City’s grounds maintenance crew from the Public Works Department will come in and take care of all the shrub trimming and tidy-up that needs to happen by the end of the week (when I said “the messy park site”, I wasn’t totally joking).
By the way, the construction of the new parking lot and landscaping that has been going on at the park site is a separate project called Phase 3 Improvement. Public Works Department also plans to finish it up and clean up the site by the end of the week, leaving a couple of items to be done that does not need to mess up the park site.
So, in a few days, we should be able to enjoy the park as – probably more so than – we have been over the past few years. Please continue to enjoy it, love it, and guard it (i.e., reporting on unethical activity).
Regards,
Lihuang Wung
City of Tacoma
Planning and Development Services Department
