Mayor Clyde Haulman delivered his State of the City address on Thursday, highlighting the city’s goals and initiatives for the next two years. Next week, offices will be closed for two days to observe the Thanksgiving holiday.
Mayor Delivers State of the City Address
Mayor Clyde Haulman delivered his second State of the City address to a standing room-only crowd at the Williamsburg Community Building on Thursday.
He highlighted the city’s plans that are outlined in the Goals, Initiatives and Outcomes, which were adopted by City Council at its Nov. 8 meeting.
The plans include a new focus on promoting a healthy community, which he said could be taken several different ways. It refers to keeping an eye on the aging housing stock to ensure the long-term stability and safety of the neighborhoods. It refers to environmental health, including drinking water, wastewater treatment and stormwater management. It refers to the employee-led wellness program that was implemented as an effort to reduce medical care costs for the city.
It also refers to the city’s plans to promote a more pedestrian- and bike-friendly community, which will be accomplished through the last round of five sidewalk projects that were recently completed and the pursuit of preserving the Country Road that extends from Mounts Bay to Colonial Williamsburg as a nature trail.
In addition, Vice Mayor Paul Freiling will chair a “Citizens Committee on Community Health,” which will consider what a healthier Williamsburg means and what public policies and actions can help reach that goal. The committee will report to City Council later in 2013.
To promote healthy relationships, the city will also work to adopt a statement of expectations, based on citizen input, called “Customs and Courtesies.” The statement will help establish what neighbors expect from neighbors, but will not be enforceable by law.
Haulman said one of the initiatives he is most looking forward to is the replacement of the 1967 Stryker Building sometime in the next two years. The city plans to partner with the Williamsburg Regional Library to build a new Stryker Center that will include Council Chambers, public meeting rooms, an exhibit gallery and offices.
While his speech focused on the city’s aims to improve, he also noted the economic realities he called “sobering.” Currently, 527 city families collect food stamps – an increase of 117 percent since the Great Recession began in 2008. The combination of annual city tax receipts from retail sales, overnight lodging and restaurant sales has dropped from a high of $15 million in 2008 to $13.9 million; the real estate tax base dropped from $1.89 billion in 2010 to $1.63 billion in 2012.
He noted that the recession both increased the demand for services, while decreasing the city’s ability to pay for them, but added, “We should be proud of how well city government has met the challenge by maintaining superior city services and ending each and every year in the black.”
Read the full text of his speech here.
Offices Closed for Thanksgiving
City of Williamsburg offices will be closed Nov. 22 and Nov. 23 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
In addition, the Quarterpath Recreation Center will be closed Thursday and Friday. Waller Mill Park will be closed Thursday.
Dominion Donates Money, Time to Waller Mill
Dominion Virginia Power donated $2,500 to the City of Williamsburg, as well as employee volunteer hours, to work on projects at Waller Mill Park.
On Thursday, the volunteers visited the park, where they worked to put in a fence for the new Giving Garden, which will serve as a community garden for the city’s residents. Dominion also provided new dock boxes, kayak racks, benches and picnic tables.
Entrepreneurs Invited to Start! Peninsula
Williamsburg area entrepreneurs are invited to attend Start! Peninsula from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 at Christopher Newport University.
Start! Peninsula aims to create almost a dozen businesses in one weekend and over the next three years to change the way people on the Peninsula and in the Hampton Roads region think about entrepreneurship, according to its website.
The ultimate goal is to bring all of the resources – ideas, technical expertise, business expertise and capital – together on one weekend to identify viable business ideas and invest resources.
Start! Peninsula begins at 6 p.m. Nov. 30 and will continue through the weekend at CNU. Find more information here.
