2009-01-27 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Damon Johnson, City Engineer, addressed the council with his report. He said all the departments were doing well and operating as expected. He said his only comment was the importance of educating the public on upcoming sales tax proposal on March 10th to pay for the 50 million dollars plus wastewater upgrade. Mr. Johnson said if the sales tax fails, sewer rates will have to increase 300% in order to pay for the improvements. J. MAYOR'S ANNUAL STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS I would like to say thank you to the citizens of Batesville for giving me the opportunity to serve as your mayor of this great city, and I am pleased to report tonight on the state of our city. I commend our hard working council members for all of their support and dedication given to this city. I also continue to be impressed with our workforce. From the supervisors to each employee, they continue to serve the citizens beyond their call of duty. Even with two floods and the remnants of the winds of Hurricane Ike blowing through our city, they continue to give 100 percent. First, I would like to reflect on some of the accomplishments over the past twelve months. With the continued support of the 1/8 cent sales tax that our citizens passed in 2006, an architect was hired to move forward with the new fire station in Westside. Ground was broken for the station two weeks ago. The ground breaking did not come about without the generous support from County Judge Bill Hicks and his crew assisting in hauling over 20,000 cubic yards of clay gravel to help raise the site out of the flood plain. Also assisting was our dedicated firemen hauling gravel as well. The street department as always continues to stay focused on improving our streets and drainage problems in our community. Unfortunately, due to the high price of oil in 2008, very few blocks were able to be over-layed with asphalt. Drainage will continue to be a challenge for the department also. Traffic flow on Sidney and Myers Street was improved with a yield lane on Sidney Street entering Myers, and a turning lane on Myers Street. Traffic flow leaving the parking lot from the Batesville High School onto Pioneer Drive was improved by extending and restriping the turning lane. The sanitation department fleet was upgraded with the lease of a new garbage truck. The city will continue replacing the aging fleet with this particular lease program. This will assure our citizens reliable service and keep our fleets on the job instead of in the garage with mechanical problems. The department also received a new chipper machine through a recycling grant. Believe me; this was greatly needed with the three disasters that we faced last year. Batesville Water Utilities completed its first year under direction of the council and mayor since the abolishment of the water commission. These departments operate with fourteen less employs than in 2007. The water treatment plant completed a three million dollar upgrade to the purifiers and filters last year. This should assure our citizens ample water supply for a number of years. The department continues to replace broken water and sewer lines all over the city. The city also contracted out the meter reading this past year allowing the city to reduce a small fleet of vehicles being used for this purpose. The city dispatch is a department that we sometimes overlook, but is a very crucial department. This department operates 24/7, 365 days a year,just like our fire department. Both of these departments are very important to the public safety of this community. Our supervisors continue to make strides in making these departments the best they can be. Animal control completed its first full year in its new location on College Street. Like all new facilities,there have been a few minor problems with the structure, but those little things have