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State of the City Address - 2009
The following is a transcript of the 'State of the City Address' presented by Mayor Rodgers at the Bonner Springs/Edwardsville Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting on January 20, 2009:
In a year that was historical in our state, nation, and around the globe due to the fall of economies worldwide, 2008 was the year of investment for our community: Investment by the city of Edwardsville, investment by its private citizens, and 12.2 million dollars worth of investment by businesses and industry.
Investment By The City Of Edwardsville
I would like to qualify these top 10 efforts (in no particular order) by pointing out that, although we depend on the help and support of all city employees, elected officials, and hired professionals, Edwardsville City Hall is run with a staff of four people (five if I happen to be at City Hall). I owe a great deal of gratitude to Tammie Burgoon, Michelle Bounds, and Phyllis Freeman working diligently under the excellent Management skills of our City Administrator, Michael Webb.
#1) The City made an excellent effort in the Kansas Lottery Gaming Commission’s Casino selection process that ended with the tie-breaking vote cast by the Chairman of the Kansas Gaming Review Board. That feat proved the professional and organized approach of this administration as well as our applicant.
#2) Edwardsville achieved the ranking of a City of the Second Class in the great state of Kansas. This was because of our increasing population and required evaluation of our form and type of government. After many work sessions and meetings, our City Council choose to continue with our present form of a Mayor and five Council-members elected at large with a City Administrator.
#3) We implemented a study of our park resources and resulted with a City Park Master Plan to ensure that investments in our parks will be consistent with our goals. (no pun intended)
#4) We are currently involved in a Space Study of the underutilized building that the city owns which houses City Hall offices, Police Department, as well as a few tenants so that changes will make more efficient use of that investment and will hopefully stimulate a revitalization of the downtown area.
#5) Legal Codification and formatting of our City Codes and Ordinances is currently taking place and the results should be available to everyone via the city’s website by July 4th of this year.
#6) Our financial situation has drastically improved from being ¼ million dollars in the red just two years ago to showing a positive balance for year-end 2008.
#7) The developer funded Regional Storm water Detention Basin was completed and proved to be successful in alleviating some of the flooding problems on the east side of the city which was built on our newly acquired developer-donated 38 acre tract south of 98th and Swartz.
#8) Surveying is now finished on Edwardsville drive /110th street. This is the first step in a major reconstruction project of that main arterial road. We should complete the engineering plan this year and will continue to push for additional funding sources.
#9) The planning commission has been working on updating the City’s Comprehensive Plan to assure we stay focused on an orderly growth of Edwardsville.
#10) And finally, Phase I of the Woodend Road widening and reconstruction project is almost complete as soon as the traffic signals are installed. Phase I came in under budget and was funded by $1.3 million of the bonds that the city took out in 2006. The KDOT project portion of that road (Phase II), which involves the road and signals up to and including the exit ramps of I-435, will begin this summer represents investment of another $600k of those same bonds along with $165k from the county and $800k from KDOT.
Investment By Its Private Citizens
Even in these tough economic times, our citizens and homebuilders continue to invest in Edwardsville. Building permits actually went up by 17% over 2007 to 70 being issued in 2008. That includes home improvements and nine new single-family residences.
12.2 Million Dollars Worth Of Investment By Businesses And Industry
Many new and some exiting businesses recognize that Edwardsville is a good investment. Here is some examples of the larger ones from just this past year.
JC Speedy Lube’s extreme makeover of the old carpet store on K-32. This was an investment of over $100k and a great effort by the owners to meet the new overlay district zoning standards.
McCray Lumber (who refurbished the old candy factory on 9th street two years ago) moved their Truss Manufacturing Division from Riverside, Missouri to the Edwardsville facility and made improvements totaling one-half a million dollars.
Kaw Valley Sand and Gravel is adding a 10,000 sq ft bagging material packaging facility to open in about 60 days. Another three-quarters of a million dollars invested.
Bonner Springs businessman, Del Coleman, built a multi-tenant office warehouse building along Woodend with up to six 2500 square foot spaces and represents a $850,000 investment.
Monosem Implement, manufacturer of pneumatic injection implements, remodeled the old Latern Building by our city park to the tune of a million dollars with plans for expansion later this year.
Plaza West finished six buildings totaling 40,000 sq ft and opened with full occupancy with a second phase to mirror image it to the west already being planned. That was four million dollars.
Okinite, the nations oldest wire/cable manufacturer (who’s early customers included Thomas Edison), is due to open their new 80,000 square foot distribution facility in Midpoint Corporate Center (located in our Industrial Park) March 1st. They are relocating their Chicago facility and have invested five million dollars.
You can see we’ve been busy in City Hall and welcome the hard work and long hours that it takes in order to facilitate these investments from our employees, residents, and industrial neighbors. I almost forgot to mention that we also wanted to ensure a continued fair and equitable work environment for our dedicated and faithful employees by forming and adopting an official Employee Manual.
So, I would have to agree with others when they prove that Edwardsville IS a GREAT INVESTMENT!
