0011 2 [Applause] 3 well thank you thank you for apprciate good morning everyone uh my name is Ali zi I'm the market director for Chase Metro West Region uh welcome to ashlin's ribbon cutting day uh the welcome Committee of uh town of ashin Ashland Business Association has been tremendously rece uh have received us well so thank you thank you so much for that uh you know we are up to what is it 96 branches uh with JP Morgan Chase in New England region and we continue to grow and expand our strategy is not about opening a lot of branches but uh Bridging the Gap in the communities that are underserved or underbanked and Ashlin was the right location for us when we think about creating an economic Hub throughout the Metro West Region uh so
002really excited and proud for uh this day to become a reality to all of our uh ashin Business Association members we have someone from our lovely planning board the chair of the planning board here um Trisha Kendall she um this project did go through site plan approval um and was approved um to change from what was a Blockbuster to a restaurant to now um a Chase bank and I hope you are here for a very long time so let's not change it again okay um so I am Beth Reynolds I'm the director of Economic Development and community outreach um I've been in Ashland for eight years now in this role and we have welcomed a lot of new businesses um and we try very hard to be very business friendly we try to support our
003businesses the best we can um and that's really what my role is here um for you and the chase team um and I hope that um again I can help you in any way she perform so um today we are kicking off our official ribbon cutting which is great so marks your opening um and then uh lots of future success I'm going to introduce Our Town manager Michael Herber um and he's gonna say a few words and then we'll continue on hey good morning everybody doing wow what a what an awesome day hey um gosh I've been here long enough uh to remember when it was that dilapidated Blockbuster and I remember like first starting here I'm like we've got to do something with that I mean it's uh was just not really not really
004um basically embellishing our values if you will uh in the community and uh so you know we love what it has transformed into obviously you know a restaurant prior to Chase here but now to see it Thrive with a with a well-known wellestablished institution uh like JP Morgan Chase coming here uh just really I think solidifies um the impact this location is going to have within our community with the 126 area um I mean we we're talking about all kinds of new things happening here in Ashland especially along this quarter you know new uh new sidewalks new streets new roundabouts you know for those of you for those of you that aren't familiar with Ashlin that was a really controversial thing you know to have a a roundabout Ry here but um you know when
005we started this uh Economic Development journey and bringing Beth on board and decided that that was something that we were going to focus on you know it wasn't necessarily about bringing on any business here into town it was about bringing in businesses that could be good Community Partners we're looking forward to uh you know developing our relation ship over the uh over the coming years and like be said hope you're here for a long time um we're committed to helping you be successful uh just like I know you're helping you're willing to help the community be successful so thanks again 22 years ago I I moved to Ashlin and the Ashlin Business Association welcomed me um they made me feel like I was part of an organization that wanted wanted to help businesses and it
006made me feel uh I I really felt there was a sense of community um we get back in so many ways and you know I there's there's just a lot of irony uh JC John Carlos J we're we're at the J we're at the JC Point okay um so um we we have this 126 uh Community event that we started maybe four or five years ago to to tr really try to welcome um businesses on the 126 quarter that was that were struggling a little bit with all the construction that was going on and we did it right here in the right in the parking lot here with a habitat and Mazy was supportive and and Mazy wasn't here anymore and the day before the 126 event I get an email from JC want to
007get involved in the community please reach out to me and we we ended up connecting and I said there's there's a irony JC that with your email we have an event tomorrow and JC organized his team and they came and that's how we started out and while Chase is a big Bank um you have a small Bank Feld Community Bank fi and um on behalf of our board me board members Peter Weiss Gerber um Dick Bennett Sandy monino bill gath Beth Reynolds uh we just want to welcome welcome Chase to uh Ashlin um I have a little uh piece of the ribbon that uh you're going to be love that okay so this um certificate of recognition is awarded Chase Bank in honor of their official ribbon cutting on Wednesday November 13th ashon Business Association
008extends best witches for continued success welcome to Ashley what aning aming opportunity to be able to open and make history of Chase history and ashon history is at the same time by opening this amazing um Chase branch here in Ashland and um I still remember that day Adam um me looking it was just curious right it's one of our values curiosity right um I was looking in like who who can I reach out to who can I speak to um because uh you know we need to be part of the community we need to say Hey you know we're Chase Bang like we're here to help um we want to be part of your uh your your life your journey right um immediately immediate welcome um got a bunch of emails from different people of
009the town which uh like I was just overwhelmed with warmth you know um I think that something that I will always cherish from this amazing Community is that there hasn't been a single person that has that has given us like any like sort of um you know not positive remark at all everybody so we do a lot of Outreach calls right try to let people know that we're open we do emails every single person has been extremely um appreciative and welcoming of uh the chase uh Branch here in Ashland it's been a pleasure this has been an immensely blessed and privileged time that I've been able to be here um in Ashland um and we just want to give it back to to all of you because um uh this just has been remarkable so
010I truly appreciate the support from everybody and um so why don't we get it going with our ribbon cutting cut the ribbon right awesome 1 2 3 [Applause] [Music]