Splash pads are both functional and figurative. They provide respite during the hottest days of summer and they bring a community together for some old fashioned fun. When they're working, splash pads provide recreation at its most visceral, simple moments for all ages, drenched in happy chuckles, smiles and squeals. But when they're not working, splash pads symbolize neglect, lack of attention to detail and apathy. When Mayor O’Leary and his staff checked the city, splash pads in 2011, they found that only a single pad was working. One The citizens already knew this fact. As each summer, the Waterbury Fire Department would respond to calls of fire hydrants being opened which reduce water pressure, introduce discolored water into neighboring homes, and eroded citizens confidence in reaction to the splash pad analysis. O'Leary simply said this just isn't right. The city, even with tight budgets, got to work on fixing the splash pads, as well as a myriad of items big and small in time. New pads were built in 16 parks and the hiring of park and recreation employees was expanded. The municipality assessed quality of life issues for its diverse population. It took stock of the ways that living, working and playing in Waterbury could be improved. Then it did something about them. Welcome to Three by Ten How Waterbury Rebuilt Itself as a City of Strength. Episode three Make a splash and drive more interest. Improvements were made across the city's landscape, including renovations to its symbolic center. The famous Waterbury Green. O'Leary and his team were keen on maintaining the Green's original character while infusing modern features into the plan. Like LED lights, security, phones, automated irrigation and a plaza space, the luster has returned to this downtown gem, renewing pride for the place where President Kennedy once spoke and the Welton Fountain still resides. The Waterbury Green is back to majestically reflecting the words of Charles Burton, who in an 1857 issue of the National magazine, said,“Waterbury, with its beautiful center square and its quiet shaded streets lined with handsome residences, presents an appearance quite unique for a manufacturing town. ” While the green is a marquee renovation, a multitude of spots around the city have been reformed. Rivera-Hughes Memorial Park has had handball, basketball, turf and restrooms added. a grant funded playground was built in Chase Park, the handball court and Large Carousel Pavilion at 17 acre Lakewood Park has been renovated. New bathrooms and a playscape were created at Waterville Park. An entirely new park was even created in the Brooklyn neighborhood, creating a recreational home for children that was previously a charred building, shell and overgrown, vacant lot. Another recreational area receiving major attention was Fulton Park, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 70 acre venue contains three main sections, two of which feature athletic fields and tennis courts, while the other is known for its beautiful rock garden, rose garden and lilac path. Fulton Park was designed by the Olmsted brothers, who are renowned for having imagined many high profile projects, including Central Park in New York City. Local, private, state and federal funds, along with a full time city maintenance staff, were dedicated to the many improvement made in Fulton Park, including a new playscape pond fountains. Aggressive control of unwanted aquatic vegetation and the clearing of several overgrown areas. I'm Cathy Smith and I would say I'm a Waterbury volunteer. Cathy is much more than a volunteer. She and her husband Jim, have been instrumental in countless initiatives that have transformed the Waterbury. We were both born and raised in Waterbury. We both love the city. Lots of history. Family started a business. My father was a builder. Jim's father started a bank. Uncle started lumber companies and real estate companies and concrete companies. And part of the fabric of the city. The city is just. I think it's an incredible place. Magnificent infrastructure, unbelievable history, legacy, diverse neighborhoods. It's just everything about it. It's I find it inspiring. To Cathy, one of the most inspiring venues that she helped to revitalize is the Fulton Park Warming Hut And the building that we're in was in complete disaster shape. And we retrofitted it historically accurate windows, doors, everything to make this a community center. And people use it now for parties for graduate missions. They've even had weddings. Municipal Stadium, one of the state's most historic baseball fields, was entirely rebuilt and renovated. Municipal crowds once cheered for Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto when the Yankee greats battled the Waterbury Timers in 1947. They saw women's softball pitcher and Waterbury native Joan Joyce strike out Ted Williams, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky in order during a 1961 exhibition and awed at stars like Ken Griffey Jr and Alex Rodriguez during national tournaments of the 1980s. But by the 21st century, the complex had been so neglected that it was declared unsafe. Since the multimillion dollar, multiphase revitalization, Municipal Stadium has been the home of the Mickey Mantle World Series. The Waterbury Silverbacks of the Connecticut Collegiate Baseball League Division two, Baseball Power Post University and a variety of travel teams and tournaments. Hamilton Park with nearly 100 acres that began as a land gift from a Silver Factory owner in 1898, originally included a zoo and a public swimming pool. Through comprehensive neighborhood input,$9 million is now driving phase one of a major renovation, which will feature a new pool, pool house play scapes and promenade adjacent to the Seven Angels Theater. Library Park, a neighbor to the similarly historic Waterbury City Hall Building and the backyard lawn of the Silas Bronson Library, also received a major overhaul with $1 million of support by the Harold Webster Smith Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Webster Bank. The park is now an even more attractive venue for downtown, recreation and large community events. One large community event called The Gathering came to be in 2013 after local journalist and publisher John Murray hatched the idea and collaborated with the City of Waterbury to create it. The festival brings all ethnic groups together as a celebration and exploration of Waterbury as diverse cultures. Over the years, more than 100 countries have been represented through parade floats, music, clothing and food vendors. Today, it is the largest multicultural celebration in New England. As all of this was going on. The fiscal stability, the infrastructure overhaul, the quality of life improvements, interest from out of market leaders peaked. Several of the most successful businesses in the region and around the globe were now investigating whether Waterbury was a fit. Executives of King Industries spent a year secret shopping in the city, frequenting the stores, restaurants, churches and parks to see whether they and their employees would be comfortable here. Bob King, the company's manager of operations, noted that leadership saw functional and cultural benefits to being in Waterbury. They love the community dynamic as well as the city's proximity to ground rail and water distribution. For King Industries, international business, But what really throws it over the top is when you see educational support being put into schools to support manufacturers in the area. That really threw us over the top to know that this city is so supportive of manufacturing. We really felt at home and also we really felt that we would be successful here as a company within Waterbury. that feeling has led to their purchase of a 10.7 acre property, more than doubling their previous footprint with a $51 million promise of development that will support a workforce of approximately 250 people. Mega brand franchises and multi-generational family businesses also join the Waterbury scene. Texas Roadhouse. Taco Bell, Jersey Mike's Burger King, Popeyes. Five guys, Starbucks and others opened locations in the city. So too did Frank Pepe Pizza Napoletana, the pie maker who helped make New Haven the pizza capital of the United States to many. Hoffman, one of the nation's first auto groups with a century of success in markets like Hartford and New London, built a new $10 million BMW dealership in Waterbury Israel Bradley Hoffman, cochairman of the Hoffman Auto Group, recalls his impression of Waterbury. You know, in the earlier part of my life, my impression of Waterbury was very little. It was a place to drive through when I was going to New York City. when the Century celebrating auto Group looked to grow beyond its well-established locations. Waterbury offered something unique. The values that I was raised with other than, you know, honesty, hard work, etc., the top two would always be family and community, those two things. It starts with our 480 employees. And that's that's a philosophy that lies within our company values. And we practice it, we preach it, and we push it every day with Waterbury that has taken off like something I've never seen. I've never experienced such an immediate desire to get involved in a community because those values are there amongst everyone, including government officials. Hoffman's impression of the city has gone from little to today. A lot. First of all, as a business person, Waterbury represents a very pro-business environment. On the personal or family side. My impression of Waterbury did change in time, and it changed in an incredibly transformative way for me and for my family and actually for everyone who works in our company. We look at coming to Waterbury as forever, and it will be forever. You know, I'm third generation. There's a fourth generation behind me, so we're all in it for the long haul. And that's what makes dealing with the mayor and his team so wonderful. Even international powerhouses are getting in on the excitement building in Waterbury. Eemax, the top supplier of water heater solutions in the United States, moved its headquarters and manufacturing to Waterbury, doubling its operational footprint in the process. In 2022, e-commerce and technology giant Amazon selected the Waterbury Naugatuck Industrial Park as their preferred site for a first mile distribution center. The deal underscored a regional approach towards economic development between the City of Waterbury and Borough of Naugatuck in collaboration with state officials. The New Amazon Center is forecasted to generate 1000 full time jobs and hundreds of part time jobs. Tommy Hyde, CEO of the Naugatuck Valley Regional Development Corporation and interim director of the Waterbury Development Corporation, had this to say. The idea to approach economic development from a regional perspective really gets back to Mayor O’Leary and Mayor Hess from Naugatuck several years ago. They worked together to buy a piece of land in the Naugatuck Valley Waterbury Industrial Park and went to the state to get $1.8 million of funding to build in an access road. About two years ago. We went out to bid for that property and we received several bids. One of them being Blue Water development group with Amazon as their tenant. Amazon already had a deal in Waterbury, so they were familiar with the administration and they were familiar with the location. And I think the interesting part of that was typically when we put properties out to bid, it's usually a developer that doesn't name who the end user is going to be. In this case, Amazon wanted the property so badly that they actually decided to put their name to it to give the city a level of confidence that this is not going to be a spec build. There's a tenant who's waiting for this development to happen. The pro-business environment in Waterbury has also intrigued companies with extremely unique models like one a revolutionary business that started with a fish tank in the basement of a Fairfield County residence. Ideal Fish raises bronzino and an immaculate and sophisticated and complex on Waterbury Avenue of industry. The delicious Mediterranean fish, a featured product alongside the company's salmon, shrimp, caviar, trout and barramundi offerings, is grown in a massive recirculating aquaculture system. In basic terms, this means that the waste products of one system becomes the nutrient inputs for another, says Eric Pedersen. The Ivy Leaguer turned Wall Street financier turned Ideal Fish founder. We do it in a way that the fish grow much more healthfully and much more quickly than they would in the wild. His business resides in an enormous structure originally built by the Waterbury Button Company, a few hundred yards from the newly widened 84 highway that can transport seafood to a market or kitchen overnight. The ultra sustainable model of ideal fish has garnered international acclaim from a feature in the New York Times to being named one of the best for the world beat, corpse and environment. Yet Pedersen credits the Waterbury workforce for the company's meteoric rise. My staff, my employees are all located right here in the Waterbury area, and that’s what's made us successful. that's something that you can't look at in the papers or online and figure out have to go out and meet them. You have to sort of see what the labor force here is like. and what you have is an ethic in this community that is resoundingly American. We're doing something really special that I think is going to change the way that seafood is supplied, not only in this country, I think globally in time. Go figure. One of the country's largest saltwater fish facilities is in Waterbury, where, like the city's name implies, water has provided new life from Ideal Fish to the fully functioning splash pads. Cathy Smith voicing a sentiment shared by a large number of community and business leaders, summarizes what Waterbury is all about. There's just so many amenities that are here available to anybody at any time that you could use. You can't find a better location. You can get to New York, you can get to Boston, you go wherever you have to go. And you're right at the intersection of the highways. So I think there's just so much opportunity here. Paul Pernerewski agrees. He's had a front row seat to Waterbury’s historic rise as a member of the Board of Aldermen since 2002 and the board president since 2009. Pernerewski was born, raised and educated in the city before a long successful career as legal counsel for the Attorney General's office and the Connecticut Airport Authority. His family, his parents and his relatives still call Waterbury home. when I became an alderman in 2002, I think the city was at the lowest level that you can imagine a city being at. It was bankrupt financially. In some ways it was bankrupt morally. But it just seemed like a great opportunity. My family was here. I was invested in the community and it seemed like I had something that I could give back. I was born and raised here. I've lived here my whole life. And I just remember what it was like when I was a little boy. I remember what my father and my grandfathers told me Waterbury was like when they were growing up here. Downtown was vibrant. The factories were churning out 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And while I know we're never going to get back to that history, I do think Waterbury has a great future ahead of it. And I would love to see that happen in my lifetime, to see Waterbury really transform itself one more time into something phenomenal, a place where people want to come and a destination for people where they can really come and enjoy themselves. Mayor O’Leary reflects on how his administration has started building that very place. One of the things I'm most proud of is we'll be leaving this city much different than we found it, and we're proud of that. And it took a team effort from day one, and I think the city's fiscal health speaks for itself. Having said that, there is so much more to do, so much more that can be done. And it is really my hope that the next mayor or mayors who follow will recognize the potential of this great city, the people of this city, and utilize the foundation, the especially the fiscal foundation that's been put in place to achieve almost anyone's dreams and visions. Waterbury is well into its transformation, rebuilding itself in an incredibly short period of time as a place where everyone belongs and where you're welcome to join in. Through the involvement of individuals, families and businesses. There's so much more that can be built and from that building. Many of the city's greatest achievements will be born. Listen to each episode of the Three by ten podcast. Watch the three part video docu series and buy the companion hardcover book at thewaterbury.com