2010-02-09 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Bryant moved to adopt the emergency clause. Councilmember Henley seconded and the roll call count was 7 for and 0 against. E) ENGINEER'S REPORT City Engineer Damon Johnson addressed the council. Mr. Johnson said all departments were running well even with all the snow. Mr. Johnson commended the employees who worked in the extreme conditions to keep the city's road cleared and to keep the city running as smooth as possible. Mr. Johnson said he had been working to get all the easements needed for the stoplight upgrades. The city needed to acquire 9 easements. Mr. Johnson said he has acquired 8 of the 9 and hoped to have the last one soon. He said he wanted to thank all the land owners for donating the easements to the city, thus saving the city several thousands of dollars. F) EXECUTIVE SESSION Councilmember Shetron moved to go into executive session. Councilmember Bryant seconded and all voted for. No decisions were made during the executive session. G) MAYOR'S STATE OF THE CITY Tonight it is my honor to be presenting to you the State of the City address. I take great pride in serving this wonderful community as your mayor. The State of Arkansas and the City Of Batesville have held their own and have been resilient during the nation's recent economic recession. Batesville and Independence County is made up of people who know how to"pull themselves up by their bootstraps". The city sales tax collection has shown growth over the past year and it is my hope that it will continue. I am extremely pleased to announce that our city budget has finished in the black for the last three years I have been in office. This could not have been possible without the commitment and hard work of your city council and all of our department supervisors. I firmly believe that the city has planted some valuable seeds during the past year, and I would like to reflect on some of those accomplishments. The citizens took another bold step in securing a prosperous future for our city by passing an economic development tax to enhance job growth and retention. In only a few short months, we have seen the unmistakable results of this effort with announcements involving Townsends, local retail stores, and most recently the exciting announcement that the Arkansas Department of Human Services has selected Batesville as the site for a new processing and call center. This site is expected to employ up to 100 people within just one year. I would like to acknowledge Mr. Ed Mabry, who was hired as the economic development director, and as you can very well see, he has hit the ground running.