Mayor & Partners Deliver State of the City 2018 Share

• email
• facebook
• linkedin
• twitter
• reddit
• google+
• pinterest

Mar­i­on May­or Jess Alum­baugh and spe­cial guests from vital com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions joined forces to give the address for the Mar­i­on-Grant Coun­ty Cham­ber of Commerce’s 2018 State of the City event.

This was May­or Alumbaugh’s third address to the city. He updat­ed guests, and lis­ten­ers of the live WBAT broad­cast, of the grow­ing part­ner­ships yield­ing more projects and pro­grams in the com­mu­ni­ty, and progress on cur­rent eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment efforts. The May­or said great things are the works to improve and revi­tal­ize down­town Mar­i­on, cit­ing Hal­stead Archi­tects’ recent pur­chase of a his­toric build­ing and court­yard for mixed use, IWU’s strong inter­est in cre­at­ing a pres­ence down­town, and the gain­ing momen­tum to pro­vide mar­ket-rate hous­ing, just as a cou­ple of examples.

Grant Coun­ty Eco­nom­ic Growth Coun­cil rep­re­sen­ta­tives pig­gy­backed on the Mayor’s down­town theme by shar­ing their new ini­tia­tive to help small busi­ness­es while improv­ing down­town build­ings through the CHARM Grant, while also explain­ing new pro­grams to con­nect peo­ple, improve skilled labor, and echo good things hap­pen­ing here to attract future residents.

Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion of Grant Coun­ty speak­ers talked about the ener­gy hap­pen­ing through Thriv­ing Fam­i­lies Thriv­ing Grant Coun­ty, which involves any­one who wants to get involved to work on projects aimed to help our entire coun­ty thrive social­ly, envi­ron­men­tal­ly, and more, all through col­lab­o­ra­tion for col­lec­tive impact.

Mar­i­on Util­i­ties updat­ed cit­i­zens of their con­tin­ued progress in uti­liz­ing renew­able ener­gy and increas­ing effi­cien­cy with their operations.

Before con­clud­ing, May­or Alum­baugh rec­og­nized all City of Mar­i­on employ­ees, not­ing a sparse work­force in efforts to save tax­pay­er dol­lars. He also thanked elect­ed offi­cials, busi­ness own­ers, com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, and State of the City organizers.