The Rotary Club hosted the annual State of the City Address given by Mayor Joshua Marsh.
Mayor Marsh is proud that the Rotary Club hosts this every year and brought Clerk-Treasurer Amy Borns as a guest to the meeting. The Mayor was excited to share the accomplishments of the city through another COVID year, as the city has remained strong. Vaccines are readily available and school and businesses are back open as they should be. They are working to make sure the city runs full steam ahead into progress. There have been changes in public safety throughout the past year. They have been promoting and hiring both Fire and Police Officers and getting new equipment as well. There have been a few retirements including that of former Police Chief Brendan Bridges. They are continuing education and training- the Police Department did over 4,000 hours of training and the Fire Department held a training day for city officials. They plan to continue the Public Safety Cook Outs this coming year. The utilities offices has worked to make bill payments easier and the new water plant is open and doing well. Veterans Way has been completed and the city was awarded $1.2 million for continuing upgrades to the sidewalks and pavement. Externally they continue to partner with others such as the County with the Park Road Project and tourism with Pirate Park. They have also been working on the Inclusion Park which is an integral part of our community that allows for children with intellectual and physical disabilities to have a park easily accessible for them to play with other children. They finished renovations on City Hall and are excited for it to represent the city properly. The Make My Move continues to work. They had over 1,800 applicants for the 5 spots and 2 people have already moved in. 1 lives in the county and 1 lives in the city. They have 1 that will be moving here in March and another that won’t be back “until the snow melts”. There is one open spot still being considered. The Mayor stated that our community is one that lifts each other up and is thankful for that. They are excited for the future progress of our community.
The next Rotary Club Meeting will be held at the EMC.
Morgan Schofield
WTRE News
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