[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 53 (Tuesday, April 29, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E784]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO MAYOR DOUGLAS H. PALMER

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BILL PASCRELL, JR.

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 29, 1997

  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring to your attention 
Hon. Douglas H. Palmer, who on July 1, 1990, became the first African-
American mayor of the city of Trenton, NJ.
  Mayor Palmer was born on October 19, 1951, and was raised in his 
family home on Edgewood Avenue in Trenton. He attended the public 
schools of Trenton during his formative years and graduated from 
Bordentown Military Institute. Bordentown, NJ. Mayor Palmer then went 
on to graduate from Hampton University in Hampton, VA, where he 
received a bachelor of science degree in business management in 1973. 
While in college, he played football and baseball and was named to the 
all-conference baseball team in 1970, 1971, and 1972.
  Since becoming mayor of Trenton, Mayor Palmer has made tremendous 
strides in rebuilding his beloved hometown, including implementing 
changes and improvements in every area of city government. He has 
orchestrated plans that have increased affordable housing, expanded 
recreational programs, improved health care--especially for the 
children, the elderly, and the poor--and created numerous economic 
development projects.
  Mayor Palmer has also demonstrated leadership in the area of health 
care, including securing grant funding and luring the State's top 
medical school, the University of Medicine and Dentistry, NJ, to 
Trenton in order to start the State's first comprehensive drug 
treatment, research, and educational facility. He has also established 
Trenton Loves Children [TLC], the city's first comprehensive program 
for inner-city children that ensures all preschoolers will receive free 
immunization against childhood diseases.
  Also Mayor Palmer has worked to bring the Family Development Program 
[FDP] to Trenton. This welfare program involves both the business and 
educational communities and seeks to provide complete individual job 
training, education, and placement assistance for welfare recipients. 
In its first year of operation, FDP has been extremely successful and 
is considered a model welfare reform initiative for the Nation.
  Mayor Palmer's most prized accomplishment, however, must be making 
Trenton home to the country's first federally funded Weed and Seed 
antidrug program. Weed and Seed helps rebuild inner-city communities by 
weeding out drugs and other unlawful elements of crime-ridden areas and 
seeding in positive aspects of community life such as after-school safe 
haven sites for neighborhood children. The program has been called a 
model for the country and has attracted visits by such dignitaries as 
former Vice President Dan Quayle and former U.S. Attorney General 
William Barr.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that you join me, our colleagues, Mayor Palmer's 
family and friends, and the city of Trenton in recognizing the 
outstanding and invaluable service to the community of Mayor Douglas H. 
Palmer.

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