“When we look back years from now, I believe that we will say that 2011 was clearly the year that the city of Woodstock turned the corner in our road to recovery from the Great Recession.”
Those were the words that began Woodstock Mayor Donnie Henriques’ State of the City address, delivered at the Jan. 23 City Council meeting.
Henriques said the numbers will show that the fiscal year, which ended June 30, was the last in a three-year-long process to correct “problems and errors from the past,” including the ill-financed $20 million bond issue for the wastewater treatment plant, based on a consultant’s belief that tap fees would generate enough revenue. He said the city was able to adopt a balanced budget for the current fiscal year and has begun the process of rebuilding the reserve fund, at the same time not having to “drastically reduce services to our residents and businesses.”
In the last 12 months, Henriques said one of the major financial highlights was the refinancing of a bond issue for the City Annex building on Ga. 92, which he said will result in a savings of more than a half million dollars over the next 12 years.
Other monetary achievements, he said, included the reduction of average property taxes by 4.02 percent and decrease in the general fund operating budget of 6.9 percent from the previous year.
Last year’s State of the City address listed Henriques’ top 10 wish list projects he hoped would become a reality in 2011. The city made headway on a lot of them: they included the LCI streetscape project completion (the first part from the old Priest’s Furniture store to Samson & Delilah’s Antiques was finished in February and the second portion on Main Street north of Arnold Mill Road/Towne Lake Parkway will get under way this year); construction on the Interstate 575 interchange at Rope Mill Road (is on target for completion this December); City Council meetings return to downtown (the newly-renovated Chambers at City Center opened in July); the Park at City Center upgrades are made (the council was shown detailed design plans for a new outdoor amphitheater in August); more businesses move downtown (Economic Development Director Billy Peppers reported that 26 new businesses opened in the last year); and commercial development at Ridgewalk (an outlet mall proposal by Horizon Group Properties was approved in December). Not achieved was an award of a bid proposal the city made for the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, which was rejected by the museum board; the cash-strapped museum ended up choosing no site and shuttered its doors in June.
Though Henriques said 2011 was a “busy and successful” year, he acknowledged that early planning had the city constructing and completing the majority of the new amphitheater as well as beginning the first phase of a new right turn lane at Towne Lake and Main.
“But, due to budgetary constraints, the council will have to make some decisions and choices at its upcoming retreat next month,” Henriques said.
He defended the city’s decision to hold the retreat, which is a strategic and forward-looking planning session with the council and mayor, away from home in Hiawassee Feb. 10-12, saying the city is not being foolish with taxpayer’s money for the trip’s expense.
“When I became mayor, the first thing I did was to attempt to hold our retreats locally, which we did for the first four years of my administration,” he said.
He added that the Ramada Inn where the council and city staff are staying is “not very high on the ‘star’ scale” and having the sessions off-site last year at Hiawassee led to officials having more focus, a worthwhile price to pay.
The mayor broke down the city’s brightest achievements in 2011 by departments.
In economic development, a total of 21 new businesses opened downtown from January to November 2011, creating 146 new jobs. There were also 26 new residential units constructed downtown, 24 building rehabilitations and a total of $9.2 million was accrued in public-private investment, Henriques said.
The aforementioned future amphitheater, which will house the city’s popular summer concert series and was planned for opening later this year, is being considered for naming rights. Three companies submitted bids by the Nov. 14 deadline: Acru Financial, LGE Credit Union and Northside Hospital-Cherokee. Acru’s package called for $275,000 over six years, LGE proposed paying $200,000 over five years and Northside said it would offer $300,000 over 10 years.
The city said the corporate naming partnership would benefit Woodstock in allowing the city to attract new concerts and special events, venue upgrades and continued facility capital improvements.
In the arena of public works, city crews cleaned up and removed 95 tons of debris after a tornado hit Deer Run and Brookshire in September. Related to weather, the department purchased four snow plows to help the city better respond to ice and snow conditions. The department also was responsible for demolition of the flood-ravaged Waldan Chase apartments off Dupree Road, which the city purchased with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The city has future plans to construct a trailhead and dog park on 11 acres.
“Public works repaved 2.2 miles of roads in the city and restriped 3.1 miles of roads,” Henriques said, adding “we purchased a street sweeper and began a regular sweeping program for city streets.”
The fire department celebrated the retention of a 3 ISO rating (Insurance Service Office), which determines what homeowners pay for insurance. ISO is rated from 1-10, with 1 being the best and 10 being the worst in fire protection.
“This is no small feat when you consider that the city’s population has more than doubled since the last rating in the 1990s,” Henriques said.
In the police department, Woodstock PD became the first public agency in Georgia to offer the Nation of Neighbors program, an online neighborhood watch program which now boasts 600 subscribers. Also, a new reserve officer program was launched. The very end of the year saw the retirement of Police Chief David Bores;
In parks and recreation, the city funded development of the second phase of the Taylor Randhal Mountain Bike Trails; the Explorer Loop is a 2.5-mile beginner-intermediate trail that was added. This past year also saw the completion of a pedestrian bridge over Little River, a project that the mayor said dated back to 2000.
In community development, the first senior facility constructed under the Senior Living Development Code was constructed with Hearthside, which contains 100 units. Walton Communities broke ground on Walton Woodstock, a 300-plus unit multi-family and commercial development downtown.
And, one of the biggest economic engines to come to Cherokee County in some time was approved in December – a 95-store outlet center at Ridgewalk, which is anticipated to create 800 construction jobs (construction is expected to start in the first half of this year), 1,300 full-time jobs and 1,600 part-time and seasonal jobs.
In other business at the City Council meeting:
• council committee appointments and reappointments were made. Ward 2 Councilman Chris Casdia, Ward 3 Councilman Bob Mueller and Ward 5 Councilman Bud Leonard reappointed each member of their respective committees; Ward 4 Councilwoman Liz Baxter appointed William Raike to the DDA, John Marion to Parks & Rec, Wendell Webb and Elizabeth Walsh to Ethics, Lee Zell to the Planning Commission; Ward 6 Councilwoman Tessa Basford reappointed each member to their respective committees, except for Dena Hamilton, who was named to Parks & Rec;
• a public hearing was held with no speakers, and adoption was approved 5-0, with Ward 1 Councilman Randy Brewer absent, of the 2011 update to the Capital Improvement Element and Short Term Work Program;
• a special event request for Streetfest March 24 to close streets was approved, 5-0;
• the consent agenda was approved 5-0, which includes a contract for Derrick Smith v. COW conflict waiver, fire department items to be surplussed and retired, change order request for Rubes Creek Trail and 2012 Summer Concert Series contracts;
• the council tabled, upon Casdia’s suggestion to allow more time for him to review, a budget amendment of impact fees;
• the council heard about a Parks and Recreation mission, vision and plan that will be inserted into the council policy manual;
• the council approved, 5-0, a 45-day extension to Walton Communities for infrastructure project construction due to weather conditions; and
• entered into executive session to discuss personnel, litigation and real estate, but took no action.
