 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
State of the City - 2010(As delivered last month by Mayor Janice Peters to the Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce) I’ve been reading lots of 2009 wrap-up articles and the common theme seems to be "good riddance!" While we certainly acknowledge that it’s been a tough year, and we still face serious challenges, the City of Morro Bay has experienced some very positive things that I’d like to share with you. Our new city website is up and running, and includes an e-newsletter and the ability to notify our citizens on the status of particular issues. We continue to move forward with the review and reorganization suggestions from the Management Partners Report and the City Council reviews our goals on an annual basis. While our sales tax and TOT declined somewhat, our property taxes stayed steady. And while we are facing some retail closures, we also welcomed Bob’s Big Boy, The Pelican Grill, Toyko Joe’s Sushi, a pending new pharmacy on Morro Bay Blvd. and the opening of a long-needed Urgent Care facility. The Market street property is being sold and will hopefully be renovated and operational within a year. And the Coastal Commission approved the conference center plan, which is also moving forward. One major improvement this year was completion of the roundabout and the full repaving of Morro Bay Boulevard, for the first time in 25 years, creating a beautiful gateway into our city. We applied for and received American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) funding of over $10 million, which was used for Fire, Harbor, Transit and Transportation projects, including North Main Street rehabilitation and bikeway improvements. Morro Bay also has the most robust grant funded home rehabilitation program in the County, which is used on affordable housing projects. Our Building and Planning department is actively working on and encouraging "green" building standards for affordable housing, storm water management, and waste management. We have upgraded our Desal Plant and are on schedule with plans for the new wastewater treatment plant. Our Water Division staff is working hard to face the challenges of contamination in our groundwater basins and the expected State water delivery reductions. Our Engineering Division has completed a comprehensive evaluation of the City street and pavement conditions. While we continually budget street repairs on a priority basis, we have 53 road miles and an estimated cost of over $21 million to repair them all. Obviously transportation infrastructure remains a major challenge, not only here, but across the state and nation. State transit funds also continue to be reduced, just when they are most needed. We have so far been able to maintain our local transit services by increasing fares and eliminating weekend service. Through SLOCOG, we are working on a regional transit system that may be more cost effective. Our Recreation and Parks department is thriving. Kids' Club continues to have strong enrollment, and the Kids' Camp Enrollment was the largest it has been in 10 years. Rockies, The Morro Bay Teen Center, continues to be well-used, and now houses the skate park. Concerned about budget cuts, the teens rallied and eloquently voiced their stories about the importance of the Teen Center providing a safe and healthy environment. As a result, the Teen Advisory Committee was formed and local business people are offering funding support, with Barry Ross recently donating $5,000. The Morro Bay Seniors renewed their agreement to operate the Senior Center for another 20 years. We have three new sponsors for our Adopt-A-Park program. The Embarcadero Inn adopted Mariner Park; Central Coast Sport Fishing adopted Centennial Parkway; and The Rotary Club adopted the Round About. Those of us with 4-legged friends are excited to see the long-awaited opening of the Jody Giannini Family Dog Park, thanks to the cooperative efforts of Morro Bay Pups and the CCC. Our Police Department will be losing Chief DeRohan, when he retires this spring after eight years with our city. The Police Department has faced some difficult incidents this year, including the first homicide and first robbery in years, a suspicious death still under investigation, assault with a sword, a stabbing and other violent crimes. Our officers and support staff remained flexible and supportive, despite being short-staffed, continuing to provide full protection for our citizens. The Fire department staff was successful in winning some major grants this past year, and more grant applications are pending. Phase 2 of the fire station, including offices, training and living quarters, will break ground soon, with the cost reduced significantly by the ARRA FEMA Fire Station Grant award of $1.6 million. A USDA loan will fund the balance to complete the project. Our new Rescue vehicle was purchased thanks to donations from the Friends of the Morro Bay Fire Department, the Hoag Family Foundation, USDA and Homeland Security grants, and a Measure Q allocation. A new firefighter position was funded, and overtime and reserve firefighter staffing was approved so the department can maintain 3 full-time firefighters and 1 part-time firefighter on duty each day. This staffing increase enhances response levels across the board, and the department responded to nearly 1,700 calls in 2009, with their characteristic speed and efficiency. Harbor director Rick Algert will be retiring this summer after 20 years. Rick has been a very effective advocate in Sacramento and in Washington D.C., and we are very grateful for his work supporting our fishing industry and harbor maintenance needs. Thanks to the AARA funding, we are presently seeing the long overdue dredging of our harbor channels, extending into the back bay for the first time in many years. This work is essential to keep our harbor open for pleasure craft, commercial vessels and the Coast Guard fleet. Our Harbor Patrol responded to over 1200 calls in 2009. With funding assistance from the National Estuary Program and the Dept. of Boats and Waterways, we continue to remove and demolish derelict vessels, including 2 large trawlers and a commercial vessel this year. Due to the tremendous efforts of the Chamber of Commerce and our amazing wealth of volunteers, our local events remained successful in spite of the recession. Granted, our visitors weren’t spending as much money as in previous years, but they are still coming to enjoy the unique scenery and activities that Morro Bay has to offer. Considering all that, 2009 was a pretty good year for Morro Bay and I have every expectation that 2010 will be also. However, a major threat and challenge for all cities continues to come from the State, as the legislature attempts to balance their budget by further raids on local revenue. The League of California Cities is sponsoring a ballot initiative to put a stop to such raids and you will be hearing more about this in the next few weeks, and hopefully offering your support. Optimism can be difficult during challenging times, but that makes it all the more important to encourage. To become pessimistic is self-defeating. British social reformer Hannah More said, "Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal." Let’s all keep our eyes and our cooperative efforts on the goal of a constantly improving, vital Morro Bay…one that offers a happy haven for our residents and visitors alike.
Belted Kingfisher image on banner by Cleve Nash |
|---|
The Business of Our Towns |
It's Our Nature
|
Slo Coast Life |
Slo Coast Arts
|
|---|
