2014-02-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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new vehicles. When the city purchases a new vehicle, often the one it replaces is moved to another department to get a few more years out of it and only the oldest of city vehicles are usually retired. Many of the city vehicles you see every day didn't cost as much as some may think. For example, the new Dodge four wheel drive, double cab, pickups we recently purchased for the Metro Division of the Sheriffs Department cost a little over$23,000.00 each and were cheaper than the cars they replaced! These vehicles are a necessity for our police officers in bad weather. Our leasing of"mission critical"vehicles, such as those who run daily commercial trash routes, has greatly reduced the "downtime"for repairs we used to experience. When the time came to prepare a budget for 2014, using a cautious approach, I budgeted a "zero increase in sales tax revenue" even though historically it increases nearly every year. 2013 revealed numerous successes. The Regional Archery Tournament brought a few thousand people to our community in February. The city's partnership with the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce resulted in the securing of a grant in April to extend the Greenway Trail from Riverside Park to Douglas Street. The beginning of the "Movies in the Park" program and the purchase of new firearms for our police officers using monies derived from the alcohol tax were a couple of other successes we saw. The city purchased a used fire truck specifically to improve fire fighting capabilities at the Batesville Regional Airport. Our Airport Commission successfully utilized grant funds to complete a major runway safety project and continues the development of additional hangar space for the growing fleet of aircraft based at our airport. In early 2013, 1 launched the "Mayor's Monthly Community Update Meetings". I felt the need to give our citizens, and especially our busy, business professionals, an opportunity to meet with their mayor and other elected officials in a relaxed and informal setting where they can get to know their elected officials better. Each month I provide updates on important city projects and other events of interest. These public meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month in various locations and have proven themselves worthwhile with over 140 in attendance at the February 2014 meeting in conjunction with the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce's Business After Hours event. Other"standout events" included the success of our White River Water Carnival at its new time and the overwhelming success of the annual Riverside Park Christmas Lights Display that drew visitors from all across Arkansas and other states to our community. The city's partnership on tourism with the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce produced a billboard on the four lane highway below Searcy that helped bring visitors to Batesville to view our magnificent display. I want to thank the citizens for the abundance of compliments and support for our display and the hugely popular horse drawn carriage rides through Riverside Park. This would certainly not be possible without the hard work and dedication of our landscape supervisor, Johnny Abbott and his crew. Our business community continues to provide support for additional lighting displays. Last, as 2013 drew to a close we witnessed new interest by individuals and new commitments by the Main Street Batesville Organization to bring new life and re-vitalization to our Historic Downtown. The construction of the new soccer complex and the new ball parks at the North Complex have been plagued with setbacks from bad weather, but they will soon be completed and the first baseball tournament, one of at least four tournaments already booked, is scheduled for the first weekend in May. There are 106 teams currently registered! This event will showcase our progressive community to an estimated 5,000 people that weekend from all over Arkansas and several states! The revitalized complex will also have a huge impact on area restaurants, hotels, convenience stores and other businesses in our community. Last week we awarded the bid for the construction of the new Batesville Community Center and Aquatics Facility.We have already had several inquiries wanting to reserve the facility for events even though completion is still 16-17 months away. Our ground breaking for the new facility is scheduled for March 3, at 2P.M. As far back as the very early 1900's, the City of Batesville recognized the need for a community center for the citizens of our community and now finally, over 100 years later, the dream is coming to fruition. The new center will be able to host six volleyball games at once on three, side by side, basketball courts, be a venue for RV, boat, gun and car shows, as well as many other community events including weddings, graduations, and parties of all sizes and types. The indoor walking track, exercise facilities and year round swimming and heated therapy pool facilities will