Mayor offers "state of the city"

Wednesday, January 8, 2003

Mayor Dave Jett told Chamber of Commerce members he believes that "as we set goals for the future, we must first look back at what we have accomplished."

And in reviewing the last two years since he took office, he found that much had been accomplished, praising the department heads for all of their hard work.

He began with the downtown improvement project. He noted the city stepped forward to start the project, hoping the business community would join in and pick up the effort to make it a success.

Over the past year, he noted that nearly every park in the city had seen improvements. He encouraged everyone to take a look at Optimist Park to see the difference that had been made there. Legacy Park continues to be a work in progress, he said and pointed to the recent addition of Mountain Ridge Park. In addition, a new skateboard area was being established in the Richard Aguirre Park.

He noted with pride that work continues on the new police station -- the first city facility to be built from scratch since the library. The structure should be ready for occupancy by April of this year.

A new steel dome has been added to the water storage tank, adding possible 50 years to the life of the tank.

The city can now boast of a new animal shelter. The $80,000 project could have an actual value of $100,000 thanks to all of the volunteers efforts to complete the work. He noted the city has partnered with a number of different organizations in an effort to care for the animals.

Well #14 should be in operation this spring. The mayor explained the new well was put in after the city lost production of a well last year. He noted that the continued growth of the city means it needed the additional capacity. New state regulations forced the conversion to a new accounting and billing system. As a result, the water bills have a new look and the city can now offer a direct pay system.

The city's airport has seen some major upgrades thanks to some grants. A new lighting system will allow pilots to turn on the runway lights from the air as needed.

Thanks to the efforts of the fire department, the city now has a new ladder truck, giving a new capability in fighting fires. The department was able to purchase new airpacks and turnouts through funds from a federal grant.

One of the most painful adjustments the mayor and council are faced with occurs when they must revise utility rates and franchise fees.

But as labor rates climb and the cost of disposal, etc. go up, the council has been called upon to raise the rates. It is never easy to make such a decision, said the mayor.

The city's personnel policy has been updated and revised, thanks in large part to the efforts of Leanna Taylor, the city treasurer.

The mayor explained how he strongly feels the importance of the role the city's appearance plays. He has pushed for the city-wide clean-up campaign and has found there has often been a lack of cooperation.

The city revised its ordinances to give them teeth, and found the number of violations has gone down. The city will continue to enforce the ordinances, in an effort to make the problems with weeds, junk cars, etc., a thing of the past.

Looking ahead, the mayor said the city is working on its final draft of the water master planning document. Once the master plan is accepted, the city will have reserved water rights to the year 2025. And as soon as Well #14 goes on line, work will start on two more wells.

A master plan for the city's sewer system is also being developed, as the city tries to forecast its needs into 2025. New headworks may be needed and the city must look at its lagoons. Repairs must be made and the system will require more capacity to handle growth. Together with a number of other bottlenecks in the system, the mayor said it may require $6.5 million for the infrastructure work.

New grants should allow the city to make additional improvements at the airport. New taxiways, ramp, aprons and fence should be included as part of the upgrading.

The mayor pointed out that 350 new homes have been added to the tax rolls since he first took office in 2000. The city continues to see growth and he was pleased to report that even though the community had seen a number of businesses close, there still had been an increase in added jobs. And he pointed with pride that on the bottom line the property tax levy had either stayed the same or gone down.

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