Hobgood: 2016 "Year Of Action" For City Of Canton

Editor’s note: the following is Mayor Gene Hobgood’s annual State of the City address, which was delivered at the Feb. 18 City Council meeting.

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This is the eighth State of the City address that I have given as your mayor. I want to thank you for allowing be to serve in this capacity and for the opportunity to begin my third term. I am humbled and honored to serve as your Mayor.

So many times when we watch television or read the political headlines, it is easy to see why America has fallen out of favor with its elected leaders. Stories of corruption, power, greed and a growing contradiction between politicians and the needs of the people they serve only add to the deepening distrust for government.

Unlike Washington and Atlanta, the decisions made here in Canton by your locally elected officials are made after talking with you first, hearing your concerns, seeing your vision and attempting to meet your needs. In 2015, in the hope of moving Canton forward, we took to the streets to listen to our community, offering opportunities to improve engagement And stepping back into the role of public servants to serve the community from the ground up.

I am excited as your mayor to provide you with the State of Our City tonight, because I have seen the growth in local excitement this past year and I am confident that Canton is not built on empty promises but is a city of action.

When I think about the movement of our city, I think about that progress in two broad areas: economic sustainability and the quality of life. I’d like to share some of the good news and success in those two areas and then take an opportunity to outline what I believe is the work ahead of us to keep Canton forward.

Before I do, I would like to recognize some very important people in the work and progress of our city. I’d like to start with you, the citizens. As our population continues to increase, you keep a hometown feeling about our city. You remain - courteous to each other, understanding of our growth challenges and generous with your time as you support your local government. Whether you have lived in Canton for six months or 60 years, you now have a tie to our community. The strength of that tie is dependent on you. We are all, residents and businesses alike, bound by a common thread as Cantonians.

I want to thank our business community for continuing to grow and stepping out on faith to expand even as we emerge from a period of recession. Through the growth of consumer spending, the expansion of industries, the new rooftops across our terrain and the entrepreneurial spirit, business is good in Canton.

I want to thank our elected and appointed officials. One might see the dais lined with the faces of our elected body and forget the countless committees, authorities, boards, and commissions it takes to move the work of this city forward.

I want to thank our Council for their passion to see Canton flourish as well as their families that support their efforts.

I want to thank the appointed representatives to various Boards for their volunteer spirit and their dedication to the cause.

Finally, I want to thank our fine staff of employees that keep our city going on a daily basis. Perhaps the most important and greatest success this past year was the hiring of Billy Peppers as our city manager. Billy has shown tremendous maturity and management leadership far beyond his tender age. He has moved methodically forward putting together a team to deliver city services efficiently. And for that I am grateful.

Our public safety staff, our public works crews and our City Hall administrative team work to meet every challenge with a willing heart and customer-first philosophy. We have assembled a great team for our city and it will only get better in the coming year.

I spoke a moment ago about the hardships of the recent recession. As you are well aware, the city of Canton had bold visions in the last decade, but little restraint on how to pay for those projects. In 2010, the combined debt of the city was $55.6 million. Even as we have added projects, at the end of 2015 our combined debt was $38.2 million or almost a third less & that is from just six years ago. More promising is that the debt load has dropped from around $2,400 per resident to $1,500 per resident, some 38 percent reduction.

In the last few months the city has paid-off the debt for the renovation of the Canton Theatre and also the debt used to renovate this City Hall. Within the next two years we will additionally pay off two 20-year notes & one 15-year note for water and sewer improvements as well as the note on the golf course at Laurel Canyon for an additional debt of nearly $3 million cleared from our books.

Skeptics will note that it is easy to service government debt when taxes are raised. To those, I am happy to report that this past budget year, Council reduced the millage rate to 5.85 mills, the lowest city tax rate in over two decades. It is also important to note that our millage rate has been reduced further than any other municipality in this county over the last five years.

During the last year, we saw an increase in SPLOST revenues of 7.5 percent and hotel tax revenues of 11.5 percent. Since 2011, our city’s general fund reserve has grown by 250 percent. Additionally, city utilities grew by 3.5 percent to over 9,100 active utility accounts.

Much of our ability to pay off our liabilities and cut taxes came from growth within our community and better management of our spending. Our City Council and staff works to ensure our city stays solvent, remains proactive, and is situated for future success.

There were 117 new business licenses in the city during 2015. Canton remains a great place to operate a business. Some of our newest businesses include Jimmy Johns, The Snug, Sweet Cake Bakery, Shellnut Law Firm, Northside Anesthesiology, Dunkin Donuts (two locations), Indigo & Oak, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and Mancini’s, just to mention a few.

In addition to new businesses choosing Canton as home, some of our older businesses are expanding. We greeted our Japanese friends for the ground-breaking of a new expansion to Piolax, located in the Canton – Cherokee Business & Industrial Park. This new 82,000-square-foot space will be supported by 30 new employees in this growing global operation. Northside Hospital has gone vertical on its $257 million replacement facility on Interstate 575. This project has been a boost to local hotel accommodations, provides additional daily traffic to local eateries, and is a shining star for our community as across the state regions are grappling with the closing of hospital facilities. In total, and this is Important, nearly 40 percent of Cherokee County’s industry expansions occurred in the city of Canton in 2015.

Our neighborhoods are rebounding in construction growth as people are choosing Canton for their next home. In 2015, the city Issued 257 new single family residential building permits. Total permits for development, construction and rehabs last year totaled 2,030. The city provided over 9,600 building inspections in 2015. The combination of new commercial and housing development has provided $679,000 in additional impact fees for capital projects in public safety, infrastructure and recreation, up about $30,000 from 2014. Canton also saw growth in non-traditional economic development areas.

In April, downtown Canton hosted Tyler Perry’s film crews for work related to “The Haves and the Have Nots.” Last June, Michael Keaton and the production crews for “The Founder” filmed at the historic Canton mill offices downtown. Canton continues to get monthly looks from flim producers looking to cash in on the beauty of our landscape and our architecture.

Speaking of the historic Canton mill office, the city of Canton took an innovative approach last Spring to save two of the most historic buildings in our downtown. Working with the Cherokee County School District, the deal to swap land at the Bluffs for a new school administration complex in exchange for the mill office and former Canton Grammar School property ensured the preservation of two recognizable building assets and provided for additional downtown parking. We are currently working to provide a clear marketable title on the property, which will be the cornerstone for our downtown revitalization.

In that vein, the city was awarded a $104,000 grant by the Atlanta Regional Commission for the creation of a downtown master plan. This process started last summer will develop a better land and transportation plan for downtown, the historic mill and mill villages and the Etowah River. The plan will be completed this summer and has received input from hundreds of citizens. Once completed, the planning process will be expanded to include all of our city.

This combination of solid growth and financial accountability have placed Canton in an excellent niche to not only move forward, but to dream again.

The other area I would like to highlight tonight is the quality of life that Canton has to offer our residents and visitors. The allure of Canton led to honors as #1 Best Place to Live in Georgia by Movoto, #3 Safest and Most Peaceful Place to Live in Georgia by OnlyInYourState.com and the #4 Top City in Georgia for Millennials by the North Atlanta Business Post.

Factors that make Canton a great place to plant roots include our vision for recreation, our dedication to public safety, and our commitment to hospitality.

In 2015, the city of Canton completed the Etowah River Park project. This new 58-acre park provides residents with a fantastic walking track, a new playground, a canoe launc and a future connection to our parks to trails system. Just last month, we broke ground on the new Etowah River Park to Heritage Park trail that is slated to be completed by summer.

Our Main Street program continues to thrive, bringing the community quality events, such as First Fridays and the Farmers Market. The organization has brought on new events, such as a Beer Walk, the Art & Wine Walk and Main Street Mornings. This past weekend they partnered for our first Ice Skating event. This brings excitement to the City and brings revenue to our businesses.

The Main Street Program provides façade grants, such as the one given this year to Stephanie Jones at Junk Drunk Jones downtown. Activities including Parades bring in families and children that will have life-long memories from their hometown square. We also welcomed aboard our new Main Street director. The Mayor and Council will continue to stay committed to preserving our history in 2016 and beyond with the approval last year and creation of our Historic Preservation Commission.

In the areas of public safety, the city is truly blessed to have a new direction for our men and women in blue. Chief Mark Mitchell and our Police Department are working tirelessly to bring honor and integrity to law enforcement while serving your family through community policing opportunities.

Some of the initiatives undertaken this year have included the deployment of body cameras to assure the proper interaction between our officers and our citizens, concentrated efforts in areas of the city that might be experiencing a spike in activity, and a quickly growing social media presence that both informs and engages our citizens. Our department has been featured by CNN for its work in Community Policing and hosts the ever-popular Coffee with a Cop providing an informal opportunity for dialogue. The department answered 26,725 calls for service in 2015, down about 1,000 calls from 2014. Our Municipal Court under Judge Tom Roach dealt with 4,866 citations and filings in 2015 and finished the year with over 5,200 dispositions.

Our Fire Department received a major boost in personnel in 2015. Since the start of fiscal year 2015, the city of Canton added nine new firefighter positions and a training officer position to the department. The total number of calls for service increased by 30 percent last year to nearly 3,900 calls. The fire marshal conducted 331 fire inspections for existing businesses. Over 2,000 children were provided with fire safety education during the month of October. Three new cardiac monitors were deployed in the department to assist in early detection of heat attacks during calls.

As our city continues to grow, we must continually maintain and upgrade our infrastructure to meet demands. In 2015 the city continued an $8 million expansion to the Waste Water Treatment Facility. Additionally, an infiltration and inflow study was begun and will help the city in reducing the amount of stormwater flow that enters the sewer system.

In the area of water, the city added a certified water testing lab to the water plant to ensure quality and speed up testing related to any low pressure situations. This will reduce the time required for any boil water advisory. Our most expensive water asset, the Hickory Log Creek Reservoir, underwent maintenance and improvements in 2015. A boat house was added for patrolling and monitoring the reservoir.

Last fall, the dam underwent routine maintenance to assure its long-term stability. During routine maintenance while the water levels were down, the city improved the boat ramp at the public access area on the reservoir off Bluffs Parkway to allow both kayak and boat deployment. This is a very popular area for recreation.

With regard to streets, the city utilized state grants to resurface numerous streets with additional striping projects throughout the city. Additionally, last fall the city resurfaced Riverbend Way in the River Green neighborhood, making this area near Knox Elementary School much safer. The city is currently working to correct issues on several other city streets. In the current budget, the City Council allocated $1.6 million in paving funds, the largest appropriation that has ever been approved in the city. This will help put a capital improvement and maintenance plan in place for city streets, protecting one of our most expensive and valuable infrastructure assets.

Other notable improvements in the area of public works includes the completion of a brine system for pre-treating roads for ice events, the purchase of a new street-sweeper and the completion of Phase 2 closure of the Ridge Road landfill.

From an organizational standpoint, the city of Canton hired an experienced recreation director. The city also hired a senior building inspector, a result in the spike in development. The city hired an experienced stormwater manager to better utilize the stormwater utility program. The Mayor and Council approved a compensation for our city staff and not only listened to the plan, but implemented it in this current budget.

Pablo Picasso said, “Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.”

We have had many years in the city of Canton where we have had to defer dreams and goals to react to the needs of the day. 2016 will not be a year of simply studying and planning. 2016 will become the year of action for Canton. In 2016 we will resolve to move our city forward, but we will do so with the determination to see projects completed.

The State of our City is good, but it can be great. We are in better shape financially than we have ever been. We are still attractive for growth and we are convenient for living. This is our year. We will not settle for just being good. But we will set the bar high & meet the challenges to become even better.

2016 will be the year that Canton takes hold of our aging infrastructure and puts in place the wherewithal to not only improve it but keep improvement and maintenance constantly at the forefront of our daily work.

This is the year where we re-surface more streets than we ever have. This is the year we begin to finish neighborhood streets left unfinished by the development community during the recession.

2016 will be the year that trails are not imagined and housed on CD’s to distribute as a dream, but the year children begin walking on them because we acted.

This is the year that the city moves forward with downtown revitalization because we take the lead in making it happen, not just hoping it occurs from the sideline.

This is the year that the city of Canton holds our investments accountable to the vision that created them. This city gave away a $10 million building to the YMCA only to see just over 500 residents using it (2 percent residents/20 percent of memberships). This is the year that we partner with the Y to make sure that our city taxpayers that are funding the building at approximately $600,000 per year, have affordable access to use it as part of their daily lives.

This is the year that we prepare ourselves for the development that remains on the books from former administrations. The city will make tough decisions as it relates to the type of housing we are willing to welcome making our community better through quality and not just quantity.

This is the year that we hold our partners with the county and GDOT accountable for the improvement of Highway 20 for safety and accessibility.

This is the year that we plan the future of fire services to better serve our population and our boundaries.

This is the Year that we make definitive plans and take action to enhance the cultural opportunities for our citizens, by moving forward with our vision of the city of Canton Cultural Arts Center & History Museum. 2016 is full of promise because we have a mayor and Council committed to working together for the best options for Canton’s future. We will move forward with discussions to improve our water supply, our parks, our trails and our roads.

We will use this year to set the benchmarks for dealing with blight and improve code enforcement for a cleaner, safer City. We will not only set the tone for how we are viewed in the region with a new brand, but we will write our own narrative of making sure the Can in Canton outweighs the Cant. Let’s keep moving #CantonForward and add a new hashtag: #CanDoCanton.

Herb Caen, a San Francisco Journalist stated that, “A city is not gauged by its length and width, but by the broadness of its vision and the height of its dreams.”

The State of our City is improving, because the dreamers are willing to engage with the doers and work is getting done. You are each vital to moving our city forward, to creating the place we all dream for, to making our community better for another generation. Join me, your Council and your staff in 2016 in talking less and acting more.

In the words of Nike, let’s “Just Do It.”

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