Easley City News, Spring & Summer 2009Mayor’s Message
Welcome to the latest edition of the Easley City News. I hope this edition finds you and your family doing well and looking forward to an enjoyable spring and summer. Not that I’m telling you anything many of you don’t already know, but a lot has changed within the Country and the City since our last edition of the Easley City News. I hope you will take a few minutes out of your busy lives and read this edition and see what the City has been up to over the last few months.
Obviously the biggest change has been the economy. Unfortunately this change in the economy has negatively affected many folks in our community. Like many families the City of Easley’s budget is also being negatively affected by the economy. As you will read later on, the City’s FY2009-2010 budget that begins on July 1, 2009 is expected to be 5% below this year’s budget. Despite the fact that the City is expecting a negative 5% budget for next year, the City is well positioned financially to whether these uncertain times.
In addition to the having a negative impact on the budget, probably the one biggest issue in the City that the negative economy has impacted is the Easley Town Center. Not a day goes by without someone asking me about this project and when is it going to get started. The good news is that the project is still moving forward, albeit slowly, but it is still progressing. The City is fully committed to this project and is working extremely hard to make this project a reality. Like many of you, the day this project really gets started cannot come soon enough for me.
As many of you know this project was awarded $6,000,000 in federal stimulus monies from the Federal government. While the City understands the controversy of the federal stimulus package we are very grateful that we will be able to benefit from it. However, in order to benefit from the monies we need to comply with certain federal guidelines before construction can begin and it is my sincere hope that we will be able to meet those guidelines as quickly as possible in order to the project underway as soon as we feasibly can.
Becoming a more bicycle and pedestrian friendly community is another initiative the City began a few months ago. Some of you participated in the bike rides and/or walking/jogging events recently held in conjunction with this year’s annual Spring Fling. I’d like to say thank you to all the hard working volunteers who helped make this happen, in particular I’d like to extend a special thanks to the Pickens County YMCA and the Downtown Business Association for their understanding and cooperation.
To further this initiative the City has contracted with Alta Planning & Design to complete a comprehensive bicycle and pedestrian master plan. As a part of this project there will be public meetings designed to solicit your feedback. Please watch the newspapers and the City’s website for these dates and please plan to attend these meetings.
Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter and when you see me out and about I encourage you to stop me and say hello and have a chat about Easley.
CLICK HERE to read entire Easley City News, Spring & Summer 2009
