2013-02-26 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Engineer Damon Johnson addressed the council with his engineer's report. Mr. Johnson said he didn't have much to report since the last meeting. City street crews are busy clearing brush from the last ice storm and the utility construction department is having to deal with the wet conditions. C) STATE OF THE CITY Tonight I come before you to deliver my State of the City Address.2012 saw its share of challenges for our city but the successes continued moving our community forward. First and foremost,your city operated within its budget constraints and its financial condition is solid.When you elected me as your mayor I promised to end each year of my service with no budget deficit.We have met that goal every year and our departments continue to be frugal with your tax dollars.Though we continue to budget conservatively with only minimal increases in anticipated tax revenue,we are continually faced with increases in costs for everything the city purchases,especially health care.As I promised,we will continue upgrading city equipment and enacting new policies to enable your city to operate more efficiently. The mayor alone cannot solve all the problems, meet all the challenges or take advantage of all the opportunities presented to our city each year. I am thankful that you continue to elect city council members who are team players and who truly want what's best for our city. Each of them brings something unique to the discussion and at times they disagree but without being disagreeable.Their conviction to make a decision and move forward enables the city to continue progression. Highlights of 2012 saw the city wrestle with a railroad right of way extension request from a new sand company and a controversy over a homeless shelter.Three hangars and several airplanes were destroyed in a storm at the airport.The city's alcohol tax purchased bullet resistant vests and new.45 caliber pistols for police officers.A new Inter-local Law Enforcement Agreement with the county was approved.The 1988 fire truck was finally replaced with a new one. Row Lake was drained, cleaned and a new handicap accessible fishing pier added along with drainage and bank improvements.Grant money received by the city allowed Phase 2 of the Greenway Walking/Biking Trail to be completed from Row Lake to Riverside Park and extended to Pioneer Drive.The Community Garden parking lot was curbed and paved.The purchase of over 50 acres for the new soccer complex was completed.The city was approached by individuals about buying the 72 acres of the Batesville Country Club but no action was taken.The city continued its partnership with the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce for grant writing services and tourism development.The city expanded the Christmas lights display by partnering with area businesses to purchase several new features.Our Christmas light display is gaining statewide recognition and continues to be one of the best in the state.The Paul H.(Rocky)Willmuth Shooting Sports Complex hosted several tournaments which brought numerous visitors to our city. The city continued to support the White River Water Carnival and Parade,and the 2012 Water Carnival was one of the best Water Carnival weekends in recent memory. December witnessed the largest and best Christmas Parade in many years,largely as a result of mild weather, but just as the year was winding to a close, Mother Nature, as she often does, brought the city to a standstill with the Christmas night blizzard of 2012.With only minimal snow removal capabilities the city worked diligently to clear streets.The majority of our accomplishments could not have been completed without the dedication and hard work of our local Chamber of Commerce,city employees and numerous volunteers. I could continue with where we have been, but I want to use this opportunity to reiterate my vision for the future of our community. Six years ago you put your trust in me as your mayor to lead this community in becoming a progressive, prosperous,vibrant and growing community. I trust we all share a common purpose of making Batesville the best place to work,the best place to play and the best place to get an education and raise a family. To meet these goals my administration adopted a multi-faceted approach of improving infrastructure while simultaneously undertaking a plan of economic and community development. This goal was established in order to improve the quality of life for our citizens and thus improving our chances of attracting new jobs.Tonight I want to report on the progress that has been made in these critical areas. Wastewater Infrastructure In 2009,voters approved a bond issue,financed by a one-cent sales tax,in order to construct a new wastewater treatment plant and repair our wastewater collection system.When we proposed a gravity tunnel under the city golf course to carry wastewater to the treatment plant regulators were impressed by our"thinking outside the box"and awarded us a grant of over 6 million dollars.The low bid on the tunnel project was 5.6 million dollars saving taxpayers even more.Work continues on schedule at the new treatment plant and it is scheduled to go online in late 2014 or early 2015.The city was required to conduct a study of the collection system that took three years to complete.The actual rehabilitation of the collection system finally began a few weeks ago when the first contract was awarded. When the new wastewater treatment plant is completed, our wastewater treatment capacity will increase from 4.3 million gallons per day to approximately 10 million gallons per day. This will provide sufficient excess wastewater treatment capacity to attract new jobs to our community. Water Infrastructure When I took office,our 12 million gallon per day water treatment plant,built in 1967,was struggling to produce 7 million gallons of water per day. My administration immediately undertook repairs and I am happy to report that capacity has been increased to approximately 10 million gallons per day. In addition,some of the 1967 electrical components had become hazardous and the control system required modernizing.The electrical hazards have been corrected and control systems upgrades are in progress. In addition,our engineers are conducting an analysis of our water system in order to determine where increased storage and line capacities are needed to facilitate continued future growth.