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The Raynham Channel
Economic and Business Development Committee 04/07/2025
(Episode Description is AI generated and may be errors in accuracy)
Community heroes don't always wear capes—sometimes they carry umpire masks, coach clipboards, or business plans that transform neighborhood eyesores into thriving establishments. The Raynham Economic and Business Development Commission's 2024 Pride Awards ceremony pulls back the curtain on these quiet forces building a stronger community.
Standing before a room of neighbors and officials, three local volunteers collectively represent over a century of service to Raynham's youth. Skip Crossman, who started as baseball umpire-in-chief in the early 1990s, continues training young umpires while celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary. Chad Gregory, whose volunteer journey began in 1993, now watches with pride as those he once coached take up leadership positions themselves. And Detective Lou Pacheco, who leveraged his undercover narcotics experience to connect authentically with students as school resource officer, summarized his 25-year mission simply: "Keeping the kids of Raynham safe was my thing."
The business transformation stories prove equally compelling. What officials candidly described as "one of the biggest dumps in town for two decades" now stands as Hannoush Jewelers' beautiful facility after a $3 million investment. The landmark Barrels and Boards Restaurant location underwent an extraordinary metamorphosis, now employing 104 community members while serving "Portuguese pizza" that commissioners enthusiastically recommend. These revitalization projects don't just improve aesthetics—they generate revenue, create jobs, and signal confidence in Raynham's future.
As the commission begins considering nominees for next year's awards, they invite all residents to identify deserving individuals and businesses. After all, recognizing these contributions doesn't just honor recipients—it strengthens the collaborative spirit that makes Raynham special. Want to nominate someone making a difference in your community? Reach out to any commission member and help continue this tradition of gratitude and recognition.
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Have a seat you want to stand. Whatever, if I could have your attention, I think we'll get started. We're still missing a couple of people. We're gonna start without them and if they can't come for whatever reason, bill Lewis will take their certificates. I'm John Noblin, chairman of the random economic and business development Commission. I'd like to welcome everyone here today for a 2024 community pride Awards. Our committee consists of seven volunteers appointed by the selectmen. The committee consists of myself, carol Sullivan, b Scannell, russ Matarana, matthew Henry, bill Lewis and Ken Boland. I also want to thank Pat Riley for attending our meetings and helping us with our agenda and minutes. We meet the first Monday of every month, when possible at five o'clock in this room. We try to promote business development in our town and we annually recognize businesses and individuals who will go above and beyond to make Rainham a better place to live. We also oversee the welcome to Rainham signs, which were donated by Dan Andrade. The flowers are donated by Clive Olson of Olson greenhouses and planted by Yukon landscape, donated by dan andrade. The flowers are donated by clive olsen of olsen greenhouses and planted by yukon landscape, donated by ken bowen. We're very proud of the fact that we have plenty of worthy candidates for our awards. We welcome the selectmen here tonight. Our town officials and I also want to thank carrie ann campbell for creating the certificates and Carol Sullivan for our refreshments, which we hope you all share with us afterwards. We have six awards tonight One new construction award, two remodeling awards and three citizen volunteer awards. The first new construction award goes to Hanoos Jewelers for their new business on route 44 across from charles plaza. We understand that business owners have many choices as to where they want to be and we're very glad that ali abuzid I hope I pronounced that right and the henus jewley company chose rainham for their beautiful new facility.
Speaker 1:He started in taunton in 1996. He he was born in Nigeria and they've invested over $3 million in the Rainham facility. He's not here yet. Carol has talked to him. He's probably going to be late, which he already is. So, carol, why don't you come up and take his certificate until he comes, and then we'll get a picture later? All right, all right. Why don't you take his certificate until he comes and then we'll get a picture later? All right, all right, all right.
Speaker 1:The next award for 2024 goes to ss services corp for the extensive remodeling of their facility on the corner of richmond street and south street, west West. Steve Santos started the business in 1992 and his son, paul, joined later, acquiring this location in 2022, invested over 1.4 million. They employ 52 staff in the HVAC projects. They did a great job there and we also be proud of that. They took a facility, upgraded it, made it look good and it's one of the most visible spots in town. So want to thank them Steve Santos, who's also not here yet, right, but he's keepin so and Bill's gonna take his right.
Speaker 1:The next remodeling award goes to the Barrels and Boards Restaurant on Route 138. This restaurant location has been a landmark in Raynham for well over 50 years. This was one of the most extensive remodeling jobs jobs ever and the outcome proved it was well worth it. Dean Sacks' owners acquired the property in 2019 and has invested more than three million dollars in renovations and upgrades. He employs 104 employees and has created a dining experience in Rainham. We wish him good luck with his new adventure the former Great American Pub and we're anxious to hear when that opening will take place. So we want to congratulate him, and he's not here yet either, so Bill's going to take it. Bill, you're doing a good job. It's extra food right.
Speaker 2:So much extra food.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we got sandwiches for everyone Next year, never mind. All right, now we're going to do our citizen awards. We've done these for a few years and I'm proud to do these. These are good. The first citizen award goes to Fred Skip Crossman, who moved here in 1979 with his wife and their three sons. Skip became the umpire-in in chief of the Rainham Youth Baseball and Softball Association in the early 1990s. After Fran Dillon and Fred Petty, Skip is still volunteering for the youth of Rainham, training and assigning umpires for Little League, high schools, AAU programs and any other league around that needs somebody to do this thankless job. He has more than 25 kids that are still on piron at all levels. Skips wife also deserves an award, as she and skip celebrate 50 years of marriage like a congratulate skip.
Speaker 4:Thank you. You can say a couple words if you want, just a couple. It's good that I've got one of my players here. You said you actually beat him in a foot race. Yeah, no, that is true. We had a foot race because I got sick and tired of him telling me how fast he was and I said I've got a bum knee but I can beat you, so I go, let's go 40 yards. So he did it and I was gassed, but I beat him by a couple of feet. So I I walked away and I said to somebody next to me it's a good thing you didn't ask to race again, because I wouldn't have lasted.
Speaker 4:But Frank, frank was. Frank was a great kid, great guy, don't say what well. Well, I mean, he was a kid. He's no longer a kid, but he and Aaron Aaron, who's hiding somewhere, was one of my co-managers at the time. So we get a lot of fun and all of my kids played for Lou, so there's a camaraderie. Kenny and all the rest of Kenny's kids umpired for me, which were great. You know, know, it's a good group of kids. They earn a little bit of money, they learn some responsibility. Some go on and make big money. Some, just after three or four years, say I've had enough of these adults, let's, let's, let's just go home and mow a lawn or something. But it's fun, I enjoyed it and I have enjoyed friendship with this guy, because you know, oh god, since the early 80s.
Speaker 4:I mean his daughter played baseball for me and Johnny played on one of my teams and and we know we've we've had a good relationship. We did every part of random youth baseball, from director through president, through secretary, through treasurer or whatever we flip-flop. For you here's just to stay active and John's John's the best thing in random, really, really he is Chris and I appreciate his friendship. You know we miss Cheryl, but and Johnny but now will. His grandson is taking my class and he's going to want to play. So it's cool, we enjoy it and I thank John very much. Thank you, skip.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Thank you, skip. The next citizen award goes to Chad Gregory, who started volunteering in Bridgewater-Rainham in 1993. This was submitted by one ofENDS SO IF I SCREW UP YOU CAN BLAME THEM.
Speaker 1:With BR FOOTBALL, chad AND HIS WIFE MOVED TO RAINHAM IN 2003 AND OWNED A TAVERN. Chad STARTED COACHING YOUTH BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL IN 2013, and HE BECAME PRESIDENT OF THE RAINHAM YOUTH B 2013 and he became president of the Rainham youth baseball and softball Association in 2018. He also started the very successful Monty tournament that was on the news today. I don't know if anybody heard of the Monty family. They dedicated a big thing for the veterans. I guess in in Natick or somewhere was on the news all day today and I think it was. It was good so and that turn it's probably the most successful little kids baseball term in the state. I'm just guessing there's industry eight-year-olds. He also worked with the rain M Giants football program in 2021 until the present. Chad is a true volunteer and dedicated to the youth of our community and we all should thank him for all his hard work. Congratulations.
Speaker 3:All right, I don't want to hear from you. Take a little credit too. We appreciate all your time. Thank you very much. Thank you, guys, for nominating me. As I said when Matt first said that I was joking, but I said thank you, and I think the greatest thing is and it's funny, I was talking to Jenny on the way in is a lot of these guys that were coached in the 90s and Skip knows that also.
Speaker 3:Now you see all these guys coaching or administrating, and you know life is very cyclical like that. I think that's my proudest thing is just watching all these guys grow. I'm proud of all of you guys. Thank you very much. Thank you just watching all this gas, bro.
Speaker 1:thank you the next citizen award goes to lupa Chico, a random police detective for over 30 years, school resource officer for 24 over 25 years, who quotes football at Taunton High, coyle, cassidy, br, raynham Giants. He's also a member of the Raynham Giants administration staff. Lou also ran the Raynham Jocks Camp, the Raynham Seed Camp. He's a great mentor, advocate and friend of the youth of Raynham. Lou also received the Raynham Recondition Award in January, so it must be his year for award. So I want to thank Lou for all he's done. My daughter works with Lou at school. Congratulations.
Speaker 2:So basically all the stuff you guys mentioned, great, all the coaching. The best part of what I got to do is, through the police department and through the people in town, I got to take my coaching and bring it into the schools to keep our kids safe, and whether that was physically keeping them safe and trying to keep up with all the technology to keep our kids safe, or teaching classes. And I got to go in there and teach anti-drug classes and making good choices classes forever. And it was cool because, as you know, if you have kids it's so hard to keep a kid's attention. But I had the luxury of working undercover narcotics for a good five years so I was able to have that street cred to go in there and talk to the kids and kind of get them wide-eyed and tell them stories. So everything I said kind of made sense to them. And then I'm just, you know, lucky God, whoever's looking out for me and our kids.
Speaker 2:But when that kind of wore out, I had a couple of big-time wrestling buddies the Lumberjack and Garrett Perry. Garrett Perry would come to the schools, hang out with the kids and everybody. They were my friend. That worked out good. And then when my undercover work started getting just a little stale. I literally got called out of retirement and we did that, that hire for hire for murder, hire for kidnapping, where I got to be a bad guy who got hired to to kid a kid. But it was hilarious because everybody here obviously knew I was a cop, so that was fine. But when they did the television article they blacked out my face and stuff for people from far away because there was some bad news involved in that thing. But the kids thought it was awesome because when I got to school they were like we knew that was you.
Speaker 2:You had that thing on your Facebook. It was definitely you, but the kids thought it was awesome because when I got to school, like we knew that was you.
Speaker 3:I just say I don't know what you're talking about but that really got me another 15 years.
Speaker 2:So I appreciate it, I really do. But just for me the coaching was was a great thing, but honestly, keeping the kids of random safe was my thing. I don't want to safe was my thing.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you just a little side note I am. We recognize three individuals tonight who have volunteered for the children of rain him for a combined total of over a hundred years. These men helped make Rainham special, along with the many other men and women of Rainham who give up their time and energy to help everyone, especially our children and grandchildren. So I just want to thank those three. In closing, I'd like to thank everyone here tonight our award winners, public officials and our citizens. I also want to thank my committee for all their hard work and thanks again to Carol Sullivan for the refreshments. We hope everyone can stay and enjoy, and I'm sure there's some stories in this room we haven't heard. So I think we should hear them and I invite anyone to say a few words. I know Pat wants to say a word and maybe Joe, so thank you, john.
Speaker 6:That was extremely well said. I just want to add my congratulations to the all of the award recipients. They certainly are all very well deserving of the awards. I think we can all agree that Rainham has a lot of great things going for for the town. One of our greatest assets is our commercial base from world-renowned businesses to local family businesses, single owner startups and everything in between, we have a great, great community of businesses, commercial, that commercial base. It means so much for the town.
Speaker 6:And certainly these three award recipients Hanush Jewelers, barrels and Boards and SS Services are, when I say, jewels among them, and we certainly appreciate them and want to thank them very, very much their commitment to our town, for their involvement and for their investment in our town.
Speaker 6:And then, of course, another one of our greatest assets are our volunteers, who donate so much of their time, their energy, their, their talent and in some cases, even their resources just to better the town and to help all of those that call, all of us that live in town and call Rainham home. And again, these three individuals, chad Gregory, skip Crossman and Lupo Chico are stellar examples of that. So just thank them so much for everything that you've done and hopefully will continue to do. And then, of course, if I mention volunteers, I have to mention our Economic and Business Development commission members, who are also volunteers, and thank them for not only this event and but for everything they do, for their monthly meetings and they get together, and for everything they do to try to support and help our businesses in town and those who make our businesses strong. So thank you all so much.
Speaker 5:I will be brief. Pat did a great job, especially with the pun, so that was even better. I just wanted to take a moment to congratulate everybody. I'll start with the businesses some phenomenal businesses Ali and Hanoush. That was and I think if we have a novel would agree probably one of the biggest dumps in town for about two decades, with coaches being dumped there, mattresses being dumped there and just about everything in between. So the opportunity to get that cleaned up and generating revenue and creating jobs in the community is phenomenal.
Speaker 5:The old Christopher's, which is now barrels and boards I think I was on the board for a month when Lou let us know he got a call. We had a cop doing a detail there I don't know if you remember that, chief and they deployed the tasers for the first time. Yeah, and we had about 100 cops come down to that. Another dump. Glad to see that Revitalized, rejuvenated, revenue-producing, job-producing and some phenomenal food. I highly recommend the Portuguese pizza. Yeah, s&s again a a beautiful property. As Chairman Noblin said, and as Miss Riley said, the volunteers the backbone of the community. We're lucky to have all of the honorees with us tonight and I think, cumulatively, our businesses and our community volunteers are every year what makes Rainham great, and it's a phenomenal opportunity for us to come together for a few minutes and recognize those contributions across the board. So congratulations to all of you and thank you does anyone else want to add anything?
Speaker 1:I think we've given. I'm trying to think, but it's probably over a hundred awards now in a long time. There's a few recipients that are here tonight, kenny being one, and I'm sure there might be a couple others, so we look forward to that. If you know anyone that is deserving, let us know, or any one of us know. We try to go through the year and figure out who we want to give it to, and then we always give them the following April. So we'll be looking at the 2025 nominees now and then we'll go from there. So I'm done. So if anyone has any questions or anything. If not, I hope you stay. We got some refreshments, hang out for a while, and then I look forward to the next time. Thank you, thank you, thank you.