Last night, at the close of the organizational meeting, Common Council President Don Moore made a statement that had the flavor of a "State of the City" address. He touched on business growth, job creation, and public transportation. He congratulated the City for its 2011 budget and urged continued attention to efficiencies in all agencies. He lauded volunteers--mentioning in particular the volunteer fire department and the "virtually upaid" Common Council--and declared that careful spending and cooperation must be "our principles."
He announced that the City would soon sign a contract with "a highly respected property tax assessment firm" to "complete the city-wide revaluation." He expressed his delight that the Columbia County Chamber of Commerce would soon relocate to the "renovated historic Washington Hose building." He shared his expectation that the LWRP would be back from the Department of State "within a month or two" and announced his intention "with the mayor" to assemble "a group of active and dedicated people into a new LWRP Advisory Board to help the city solicit further mixed use development--commercial, residential, environmental, and recreational--on our waterfront." He mentioned the mayor's initiatives: a new configuration of programs for youth, programs for senior citizens, cooperative agreements with the county government to improve public transportation, "consideration of a new restaurant on the waterfront." He also expressed his concern for the "most vulnerable among us": the unemployed and people with inadequate housing or homeless. He concluded with this quote from Italian poet and activist Danilo Dolci: "Words don't move mountains. Work, exacting work, moves mountains."
For the full text of Moore's address, click here.
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