just done the street, i attended and out -- event for small business enterprises conducted by paul prendergast and his team. that afforded me the opportunity. all of the general contractors were there, and i had the opportunity as a small business to reach out to each of them face to face and talk about my business and how i can team with them and work on this project together. being a woman-owned firm, with my husband out here in the audience and my son running this truck here -- they have been at my side. and i cannot tell you what this means to my business. it has been a struggle sometimes. it has been rewarding. it has had opportunities. overall, it has been wonderful. because of the presidium parkway, i was able to increase my staff by 65%. additionally, i was able to purchase equipment to put on this project. this equipment is called a boom pump and it comes concrete. it can pump 173 cubic yards of concrete for hours and had a reach of 147 feet. you can imagine the efficiency that is going to bring to the general contractors on this project. this is economic recovery in action, the abili

i want to take a quick second to a knowledge paul prendergast and his team, the tremendous job they have done in finding those people and demonstrating that minority-owned businesses are perfectly qualified to add value to a project of this size. we have them right here in san francisco. we do not need to import them from mars. they are prepared to do a good job. we have to connect them to the right people. that is what paul and his team is doing and it deserves acknowledgement. [applause] there is also, because i will forget later, a big and warm hearted acknowledgement to the rpd joint venture represented here by several people who cannot see now, the engineering firm that has been our right hand in getting this project designed and ready to go. and i want to also acknowledged representatives from the u.s. department of congress -- department of commerce minority development agency who are here today. and of course the private sector, our most important and valued partner in delivering this project. i think bob is here today. those are the folks that are going to be building the town.