City of Warsaw recently issued the following announcement.
City of Warsaw March "From the Mayor" Column
From the Mayor…
The State of the City Address I delivered two days ago at the Center Lake Pavilion was my
eleventh as your mayor. I thought in today’s column, I might first discuss how I prepare for the
State of the City and then share the focus of this year’s speech.
It is a statutory requirement that mayors shall annually “provide a statement of the finances
and general conditions of the city to the legislative body”. Thus, the reason for the speech and
the guide for its content.
Each year, I spend a significant amount of time preparing for the State of the City. I gather all of
the city’s’ financial data, accomplishments from our nine departments, and progress updates
on a variety of projects. I usually spend several weeks organizing the material and preparing a
draft. Then, I spend several more weeks editing the material to final form. This year in
particular, there was literally too much information for a 30-minute speech.
It’s always tough to eliminate a particular accomplishment or project from the address. As
mayor, every department and every goal reached is worthy of mention. It’s hard to leave
anything out.
This year, there was the added element of significant last-minute activity. For example, literally
two days before the State of the City, there were three housing projects approved (Harvest
Ridge, Park Ridge, and the Gatke Lofts) and the Nextremity/Medartis acquisition occurred. And
just one week prior, the Autocam/Medtronic agreement and the Danco/ Lincotek acquisition
were both announced. There was a lot of last-minute editing.
The final speech was printed ten minutes before the meeting was set to begin, and in my haste,
I made an error that I need to acknowledge. The KCCRVC provided a generous grant to the new
kayak rental kiosks that will be installed at both Pike and Center Lake beaches. I inadvertently
referred to the grant as coming from K-21. My apologies.
I began my speech talking about how our financial position remained strong throughout the
pandemic as we were able to continue to grow and keep the tax rate down. Looking ahead, we
know inflation and workforce shortages will continue to impact our budget and future
construction projects.
We also talked about the significant progress we have made to improve US 30 in our
community. The overwhelming public sentiment appears to support keeping the US 30
improvements on the existing route. This spring, INDOT will start a preliminary engineering
study to look at all options. We encourage everyone to attend those meetings.
The city has made significant progress to support new housing developments and apartment
units to address the current workforce housing shortage. This continues to be a key priority for
the city.
I finished the speech with a discussion of how our community has changed since the last
census. Not only have we grown almost 17%, but the average age of our citizens is now 31
years of age, which is 5 years younger than 2010. The makeup of our new citizens continues to
become more diverse, which creates great benefit to our community.
I closed with this. “I couldn’t be any more honored to face the challenges of our future than
together with this community!” How privileged I am to be your mayor…
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up