Woodstock Mayor Looking Forward To "Successful" 2017

Editor's note: the following is Woodstock Mayor Donnie Henriques' State of the City address for 2017, which was delivered during the City Council's Jan. 23 meeting.

2016 continued to build on the successes we have had as a city over the past decade. Our downtown continues to be recognized as a model across the state of Georgia and the Southeast. We continue to be recognized as a great place to “Live, Work and Play."

To that point, we were just recognized by the Georgia Municipal Association this past weekend as one of the nine best cities to “Live, Work, Play” in the state of Georgia. This was the first year of the award program and we were honored to be selected.

Looking back on the past decade, I think there are a lot of reasons for our success. A series of City Councils who stuck with the vision through thick and thin of what our community could be and not cheapening the vision during the Great Recession. Countless residents and business owners who pour their heart and soul into our community through programs such as Main Street and Elm Street, for example. And the quality of our dedicated staff that we have had over the past decade.

As President Ronald Reagan once said, “Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.” Council, I think we have done a good job in that area over the years.

Let’s look back at 2016’s accomplishments.

General Administration

We started the year with Tracy Collins (Ward 4), Rob Usher (Ward 6) and David Potts (Ward 2) being sworn in at our first meeting in January. It’s good to have the three of you here.

From the Human Resources Department, we acknowledged our first “30-year” employee, Sgt. Robert Bryant in the Fire Department. Lt. Mark Hand graduated from the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and Sgt. Ron Hughes graduated from the National Forensic Academy. Crystal Welch graduated from Leadership Cherokee and Katie O’Connor graduated from the ARC’s Regional Leadership Institute. Brittany Duncan was also promoted to become our first citywide public information officer. For our police and firefighters, we approved the 25-year retirement plan as part of our pension program.

We also lost Elaine Hubbard, beloved lifelong citizen, friend and Library/Election advocate in November, as well as Charlotte Leonard, wife of Council Member Bud Leonard in August. Longtime city advocate and DDA Board Chairman Jimmy Long retired from the DDA Board in 2016. Jimmy, thank you for your service.

Our Finance Department received the Government Finance Officers Association Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the 23rd consecutive year. In addition, we were awarded the Distinguished Budget Award for 2016, the first time the city has received this award since 1998. We added $1.8 million to our general fund reserves during fiscal year 2016, and reduced our debt by $1.1 million during the same period. We also refinanced other outstanding debt to lower interest rates which will have significant savings in the coming years.

As a result of these actions, Standard and Poor upgraded our bond rating from AA- to AA due to the “city’s very strong economic metrics as wells as strong budgetary performance over the last three years."

On the environmental front, we upgraded our Green Communities Certification from the ARC from “Silver” to “Gold” level, received our 17th Tree City USA designation, and won the Mayor Recycling Challenge for the fourth year in a row. Woodstock recycled over 567,000 pounds of material in June and July. As always, thank you for recycling.

Community Development Department

The Woodstock Community Development Department permitted a wide array of residential and commercial projects in 2016, with an aggregate valuation approaching $200 million for the second year in a row. The city collected more than a half million dollars from residential impacts fees, which are used for the expansion of the Parks and Recreation Department.

Single family residential construction remained strong during 2016, with 332 permits issued – the second highest year by number of permits in the past 6 years (behind only 2015).

Sixteen new commercial projects were begun in 2016, valued at greater than $25 million. Two of these projects are hotels, which will add some 166 hotel rooms for Woodstock. Among the commercial projects that were begun in 2016 are Carriage Kia, Holiday Inn Express, Fairfield Inn and Suites, Bojangles in Towne Lake and Space Shop Self Storage on Highway 92, which will include over 100,000 square feet of climate controlled storage.

Plans were also approved in 2016 for Sprouts Farmers Market and Krispy Kreme Donuts, as well as Costco receiving zoning approval.

The Community Development Department performed 10,135 inspections, issued 4,407 permits and 309 new businesses were permitted in 2016. Quite a busy year indeed.

Economic Development Services/DDA/Main Street Program

2016 saw the Cherokee Office of Economic Development (COED) relocate to the newly renovated Chattahoochee Tech campus in downtown Woodstock. Our own Economic Development/DDA/Main Street offices relocated to Chatt Tech as well. In partnership with COED, we developed The Circuit, a unique collaborative work space that will allow students and businesses to collide and provide opportunity for start-up companies to locate in downtown Woodstock.

We welcomed Stacy Brown as our new marketing and tourism coordinator. We also developed and launched a Woodstock brand story and exciting marketing campaign to recruit residents, businesses and visitors – the City Unexpected campaign has been very successful.

Our Visitor’s Center had another record year by welcoming over 14,000 guests. We also had a record 150 scarecrows take part in the popular Main Street Scarecrow Invasion which raised money for Downtown beautification. The Discover Woodstock Scavenger Hunt received the Historic High Country Award for Association Excellence for Best Event with Attendance of 1,000 or less. Main Street Gives Program raised over $8,000 for the Woodstock Public Safety Foundation, which included directed fund to the Shop with a Hero Program. We also created the Entertainment District in downtown.

Downtown Woodstock and our partners hosted over 220 events with attendance of over 110,000 in 2016. There were more than 58,000 volunteer hours logged through our programs and our partners. The total amount of public/private investment in downtown Woodstock in 2016 was over $42 million dollars. These are just some of the reasons why we have a successful downtown.

Fire Department

The Woodstock Fire Department responded to 5,497 calls for service in 2016, an increase of 11 percent from the prior year. Each of our firefighters received 298 hours of training on average and we had two firefighters begin Paramedic school at the new Cherokee County Training Center. WFD conducted 1,928 Life Safety Inspections, 311 construction inspections and performed over 400 plan reviews.

Fire Personnel also reached over 41,500 people through various outreach efforts, including performing fire alarm blitzes at the Cottages of Woodstock and The Willows Senior Living Community.

Renovations were begun at Stations 10 and 14 and we purchased a new Fire Engine 14 to replace an engine originally purchased in 1992.

Information Technology

We started the year of by welcoming Jeff Smith as our new IT director. IT completed an upgrade of our hardware infrastructure, to include installation of a new storage area network, along with upgrading our telephone system to create redundancy in case of a disaster. IT worked with various departments to complete the roll out of the new citywide software modules, which has now been completed.

In addition, they worked with PD to implement the ability for police cars to use a wireless connection to automatically upload video from the in-car cameras to network storage, as well as the initial setup of the system for the new body cameras for our officers.

Parks and Recreation

Construction of the Northside Hospital-Cherokee Amphitheater was completed in November. The city hosted the grand opening concert on Nov. 12 featuring local country music artist Mark Wills with the Thomas Fountain band opening. This new facility, which was funded by SPLOST and impact fees, will be the flagship of the department for years to come.

The city’s annual Greenstock Day was held in April. The annual recycling event collected over 15,000 pounds of electronics, 560 pounds of batteries, saw some 9,000 pounds of paper shredded and over 3 tons of other recyclables collected.

In August, the city hosted the Tracks on Main Music Festival. The event featured over 14 music acts on 3 stages and was very well received. On Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016, the city hosted the annual 9/11 Day of Remembrance with the Woodstock Jaycees. This year’s ceremony featured the unveiling of the Woodstock 9/11 Memorial. The memorial features 2 subway tracks that were recovered from beneath the World Trade Center. If you haven’t seen the memorial yet, please take time to do so.

Our Senior Center’s membership grew to 670 members, reflecting a growth of 116 new members in 2016. Plans were completed for the expansion of the Center. We anticipate that the addition will be completed in 2017. We also purchased a new 28 passenger bus for the center which was funded by a Community Development Block Grant.

The construction of the Rubes Creek Trail was completed in 2016. Plans for an extension of the trail to connect to Arnold Mill Road were completed and construction will commence in the Spring. Plans for the Towne Lake Pass Trail were completed in 2016. The city of Woodstock and Cherokee County issued a joint resolution dedicating the trail in loving memory of Council Member Mary Tessa Basford, who passed away while in office in October 2014.

The joint resolution states “Council Member Basford was very instrumental in the support and implementation of the Greenprints Plan. Her leadership, love for family, community and those she so graciously served is a legacy too inspirational not to be immortalized." Groundbreaking on the trail will be held in March. This 2-mile trail addition will provide a connection from Woofstock Park to Towne Lake Hills South.

Police Department

The Woodstock Police Department responded to 34,000 calls for service in 2016. Throughout the year, Woodstock Police officers made 1,480 arrests, an increase of 13 percent from 2015. Of the 1,480 arrests, 372 involved one or more drug related charges as compared to 224 drug related arrests in 2015. We also made 282 arrests for impaired drivers – an increase of 36 percent from 2015.

During the year, officers conducted 1,307 foot patrols and numerous bike patrols to promote more direct citizen-officer contact. In addition, two classes of the Citizens’ Public Safety Academy graduated 49 citizens, bringing the total to nearly 500 graduates since the inception of the program. The Department also participated in 133 community, HOA and other special events.

The all-volunteer Woodstock Police Auxiliary Unit and Reserve Officer Unit continued to provide exemplary support during the year by donating over 1,800 hours of deployment time in 2016.

Woodstock Explorer Post 1609 participated in 3 major competitions during the year, competing against 145 Explorer Posts from throughout the country. WPD Explorers received first place awards in Written Exams and the Active Shooter Response at two of these competitions. They also received several other 2 nd and 3 rd place awards.

The Woodstock Public Safety Foundation raised over $80,000 in 2016. WPD supports the Shop with a Hero Program which helped 118 children this year. Funds are also used to help WPD and WFD in obtaining unbudgeted equipment, as well as for emergency support for officers and firefighters injured in the line of duty.

WPD also received a federal grant in the amount of $60,000 for body cameras, which will be implemented in early 2017. WPD personnel underwent 3,890 hours of training in a variety of topics last year. On a related noted, Chief Moss was appointed as chair of the Statewide Training Committee of the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police for a second year.

Public Works Department

In July, Rob Hogan was promoted to Assistant Public Works director. Rob has done an outstanding job with our utility billing system and we were glad to welcome him in his new role.

Woodstock Public Works Department restriped over 5.2 miles of roadways, completed the resurfacing and curb installation on Dobbs Road, completed the addition of an 8-foot sidewalk with curb and gutter on Dupree Road between Reeves Street and Goshen Lane, and constructed the Trolley Stop at City Center during 2016. Parking lot expansions at City Center added 26 parking spaces, Olde Rope Mill Park added 30 spaces and the new lot on Mill Street adjacent to the Elm Street Event Green added 18 spaces.

In the Water/Sewer Division, non-tap revenue increased in 2016 by 18 percent during the year – without a rate increase I might add. Permits were issued for the city’s new water wells and the project was put out to bid. Wells will come on line in 2017, helping to reduce the cost of water acquisition.

At the Rubes Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant, installation of the water reuse system was completed, allowing for the use of plant effluent for operations at the plant, thereby reducing the amount of potable water the city has to purchase. We now have some 6,500 individually metered water taps in our system, with several thousand more “customers” within master-metered complexes.

Our Stormwater Division was awarded the 2016 Governmental Partnership Award from Rivers Alive for the Annual Little River Stream Clean-up efforts. Some 100 bags of debris weighing over 1 ton were removed from a 6-mile stretch of the Little River during this year’s event. The Bring One for the Chipper program yielded 286 Christmas trees and turned them into usable mulch. Our street sweeper swept 99,914 pounds of debris during the year. We received a Community Development Block Grant from Cherokee County to replace stormwater pipes and structures on Goshen Lane. We also replaced stormwater pipes and structures under Ann Court in the Driftwood Subdivision.

Closing

The items I have included really only scratch the surface of the things that were accomplished in 2016. It’s easy to hit the high points, but we shouldn’t lose sight of what is accomplished on a daily basis. Police officers and firefighters responding to a wreck or call for service, a water leak that is repaired, a building inspection that is done to ensure the safety of a building, trash that is picked-up along a trail, and those who work behind a desk to provide excellent customer service and keep the city operating efficiently.

We don’t often talk about services such as these because frankly, they aren’t that glamorous. But the reality is that 90 percent of what we do on a daily basis are these types of services. We shouldn’t lose sight of these accomplishments as well.

In 2017, we’ll have a municipal election. We will discuss a SPLOST renewal with our residents. We have a new administration in Washington and we’ll start the process of selecting a new governor in Georgia. 2017 will be quite an exciting year I’m sure. At our retreat in a couple of weeks, we’ll have the opportunity to talk about the future of our city. But tonight is about what we have accomplished.

In closing, I would like to leave you with a quote from President Abraham Lincoln: “I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.” Thank you all very much. Here’s to a successful 2017.

Image via Shutterstock