09-R209

2009 -- H 6150

Enacted 04/29/09

H O U S E R E S O L U T I O N

DECLARING MAY 2, 2009 MARY FERRAZZOLI DAY IN THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

Introduced By: Representatives Martin, Jackson, A Rice, Ruggiero, and Gallison

Date Introduced: April 28, 2009

     WHEREAS, Mary Ferrazzoli, a native Newporter and lifelong resident of the city, single-

handedly fought to protect the historic rights-of-way along the Newport waterfront; and

     WHEREAS, Mary dedicated years of her life to the ongoing struggle to protect the public

right of access to the waterfront, and thereby, in 1984, founded and organized the Friends of the

Waterfront as a public advocacy group to carry on the fight; and

     WHEREAS, Mary Ferrazzolli, by the time of her death in 1994, had built the Friends of

the Waterfront into an organization of over 1000 members who continued the fight to protect

public rights-of-way and who recently succeeded in gaining recognition by the City of Newport

of a public waterfront Harbor walk; and

     WHEREAS, Mary Ferrazzolli was recognized for her tireless efforts by receiving the

Gold Medal Antiquarian Award from the Preservation Society of Newport and the Environmental

Achievement Award from Save the Bay; and

     WHEREAS, Mary Ferrazzolli, through painstaking research and indomitable advocacy,

identified the public rights-of-way along the Newport waterfront leading to their being duly

certified as such by the State of Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council; and

     WHEREAS, Mary Ferrazzoli established, by her example, a contemporary model of

responsible citizen advocacy for a public right and a community benefit for one and all in the City

of Newport and the State of Rhode Island; and

     WHEREAS, The City of Newport has honored her by dedicating in her memory, a pocket

park on the city dedicated waterfront Harbor walk at the intersection of Long Wharf and

Washington Street as Mary Ferrazzoli Park on May 2, 2009; now therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

Providence Plantations hereby declares May 2, 2009 as Mary Ferrazzoli Day in honor and

gratitude for her lifelong dedication to protecting the right of public access to the waterfront; and

be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and he hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to the family of Mary Ferrazzoli.

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LC02304

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