Mayor Williams’ State of the City address
Following is the text of the State of the City address Mayor Williams delivered at Tuesday’s night City Council meeting. He is also scheduled to speak about the City at the January 19 Chamber of Commerce meeting at noon at the Cintas Center. Click here for details.
January 12, 2010
Dear Madame President and Members of Council:
The City will move into 2010 in financially better condition than most other government entities. In the past, we have discussed the ramification of the economic downturn that this country has suffered. We, in the City of Norwood, have been through tough times and by working together, we have survived. We must continue to work together to prepare for the economic turnaround.
As always, we continue to maintain our efforts to make our City clean and safe. We must also continue to improve our streets and keep our word to the voters to invest in our streets. When financial times were tough, we continued to provide the first class emergency services to not only our residents but to the businesses also located in our City.
As financial times improved, we increased the enforcement of our building codes and even, for the first time in our history, started the process of removing blighted buildings that have for years lowered the quality of life in many of our neighborhoods. In the past, people that lived around the blighted properties had just heard talk but for the first time, the talked stopped and action was taken.
Recent changes have occurred to further improve the building enforcement efforts in our City. One such change is the coordination between the Police Department and the Building Department. Building Department inspectors and police officers go out together and target areas that have chronic problems with crime and building code violations. Once again, this is a new program that has never happened before in our City.
The Administration will continue to stay in contact with the business community and to use every tool at our disposal to not only maintain the businesses we have but to bring new businesses to our City. We have established our City as business friendly and to stress our accessibility and availability along with confidentiality that most businesses not only expect but demand.
As I stated previously, we must continue to not only maintain our City but to improve all aspects whether it be residential streets or parks. The services we provide are what separate us from other jurisdictions. When the snow falls, our streets are maintained. When you need paramedics or fire services, our response time is second to none. When you call the police, the response time is also second to none. The Health Department, working cooperatively with the school system, flawlessly handled the inoculation of school children.
These services are what make Norwood what it is today, a City that provides services second to none. A City that reviews all options regarding costs versus services and a City that learns from its mistakes. As usual, the Administration will continue to work with Council. With that said, the Administration will continue to protect funds that have taken years to accumulate and will not support those funds being allocated for purposes other than what they were intended. As we have learned in the past, when you use every dollar at your disposal it never has a good outcome.
Sincerely,
Thomas F. Williams, Mayor
City of Norwood
January 12, 2010
Dear Madame President and Members of Council:
The City will move into 2010 in financially better condition than most other government entities. In the past, we have discussed the ramification of the economic downturn that this country has suffered. We, in the City of Norwood, have been through tough times and by working together, we have survived. We must continue to work together to prepare for the economic turnaround.
As always, we continue to maintain our efforts to make our City clean and safe. We must also continue to improve our streets and keep our word to the voters to invest in our streets. When financial times were tough, we continued to provide the first class emergency services to not only our residents but to the businesses also located in our City.
As financial times improved, we increased the enforcement of our building codes and even, for the first time in our history, started the process of removing blighted buildings that have for years lowered the quality of life in many of our neighborhoods. In the past, people that lived around the blighted properties had just heard talk but for the first time, the talked stopped and action was taken.
Recent changes have occurred to further improve the building enforcement efforts in our City. One such change is the coordination between the Police Department and the Building Department. Building Department inspectors and police officers go out together and target areas that have chronic problems with crime and building code violations. Once again, this is a new program that has never happened before in our City.
The Administration will continue to stay in contact with the business community and to use every tool at our disposal to not only maintain the businesses we have but to bring new businesses to our City. We have established our City as business friendly and to stress our accessibility and availability along with confidentiality that most businesses not only expect but demand.
As I stated previously, we must continue to not only maintain our City but to improve all aspects whether it be residential streets or parks. The services we provide are what separate us from other jurisdictions. When the snow falls, our streets are maintained. When you need paramedics or fire services, our response time is second to none. When you call the police, the response time is also second to none. The Health Department, working cooperatively with the school system, flawlessly handled the inoculation of school children.
These services are what make Norwood what it is today, a City that provides services second to none. A City that reviews all options regarding costs versus services and a City that learns from its mistakes. As usual, the Administration will continue to work with Council. With that said, the Administration will continue to protect funds that have taken years to accumulate and will not support those funds being allocated for purposes other than what they were intended. As we have learned in the past, when you use every dollar at your disposal it never has a good outcome.
Sincerely,
Thomas F. Williams, Mayor
City of Norwood
posted by Citizens For A Better Norwood at
9:21 AM
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