No one worked harder than former state Rep. Richard O. Belden to get state officials to support the ongoing redevelopment of Shelton’s Canal Street area.
Which is precisely why the Derby-Shelton Rotary Club named a pavilion it built on the Shelton Riverwalk in honor of Belden, who died in 2007 after a long career of public service in the Valley.
More than 60 people turned out Tuesday morning for a dedication and ribbon-cutting at the building.
Click the play button above to see dignitaries “cut” the ribbon at the new facility.
The Derby-Shelton Rotary Club’s website also has extensive background information and construction photos.
A slideshow of photos from the ceremony is also posted below. Article continues after the photos.
Rotary Club President Mary Ellen Samatulski began Tuesday’s program by thanking several Rotarians who worked “tirelessly and selflessly” toward getting the project done, particularly Pavilion Committee Chair David Grant and Long-Range Planning Chair Ernestine Luise.
Samatulski and several others also singled out Jim Tate, who supervised the design and construction of the structure, for praise.
The ceremony then continued with Grant and Luise making some thank yous of their own, presenting Mayor Mark Lauretti and Shelton Economic Development Corporation Executive Director James Ryan with awards for their support.
Ryan then gave an enthusiastic endorsement of the project and the city’s larger plans for downtown, beginning by noting the site of the pavilion was once “a crater that was blown up in 1975,” a reference to the massive fire at Sponge Rubber Products that year.
“We’re going to see this filled with people,” Ryan predicted. “This is just a space to die for. The hair should be standing on the back of your neck.”
Ryan said the dedication of the building to Belden is “richly deserved,” relating a story about a meeting he attended with Belden and Lauretti in the mid-90s with the state’s commissioner of economic development.
The state official was initially not supportive of the city getting a grant to help redevelop downtown.
“Dick looked into his eyes and said ‘Are you sure? Are you really sure?’” Ryan recalled.
Seconds later, he said, the official had changed his mind.
That sort of commitment extends to the city’s current leaders, Ryan said.
“Shelton has political leadership that gets behind programs that are appropriate and makes them happen,” Ryan concluded before introducing the mayor.
Lauretti appreciated Ryan’s warm-up.
“Not bad, Jim. You’re getting better,” he said after taking the podium. “He has a way of trying to steal the show, you know. I’m onto him.”
The mayor then stressed how much progress has been made redeveloping downtown.
“It’s easy to stand here today and look up and down this strip and see the vision,” Lauretti said. “It wasn’t so easy 20 years ago.”
But, he added, projects like the pavilion are just steps in the long-term plan to nurture development downtown.
“This vision, in my mind, will continue for many years to come,” Lauretti said, noting that those who have helped the process along in the past two decades would hand the baton to others to do the same thing going forward. “As it should. You can’t do everything all at once.”
“The die is cast,” the mayor went on. “There’s nowhere to go but up for this area of our community.”
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Derby-Shelton Rotary Club Pavilion Project Moves Forward
