State of the City

Hi,

Thursday, March 3rd is the anniversary of the birth of E.G. Lewis, the founder of University City. About a month ago, I was asked to take part in an event to honor that date.

I got a call from Elsie Glickert, a life-long resident of University City; former Councilmember; and member of the Historical Society of University City. She said the Historical Society wanted to honor Mr. Lewis’ birthday by sponsoring a State of the City address. She asked if I would be interested in doing this. I said yes. I have thought in the past, when watching a Presidential State of the Union, or a similar state event, that it would be nice to have something like that on a local basis. So I am honored and pleased to be asked to take part.

Former U.S. House Speaker Tip O’Neill, from the great state of Massachusetts, said many years ago that all politics are local.  It’s a mantra I kept in mind in my years in the news business – knowing that no matter what news event I covered I had to connect it, somehow, with the lives of our listeners and viewers.  Often that was easy – a proposed tax hike would affect local pocketbooks.  A contract for building a plane might affect jobs in the region.  Other times it was more difficult – how on a local newscast did we “bring home” the impact of a fight over water rights in the west?  or a bombing in Lebanon?

I still keep O’Neill’s words in mind even though I am no longer in the news business.  I’m in the most local of jobs – as a local government official.  And I am working with other members of Council, and our City administration, on issues that affect the lives of each and every resident of this community of just over 35,000.  (NOTE: We lost 5.5% of our population since the last census.  Last time we lost 6%, so I am viewing these latest numbers as our having halted the downward trend.)  But I know most people in our community do not follow the day-to-day workings of the City and Council – they have elected representatives to do this business.  Except for a relative few, most people, after the emotion of an election, step back and leave the day-to-day stuff of city government to the people whom the majority of the voters put in office.  They tend to follow the “big” stuff, but not all the rest.

I feel it’s important, though, that people DO have a sense of the challenges we are facing; how we plan to deal with them; how we are trying to improve the quality of life in our community; and what we are doing to secure a long-term better future for the city founded by E.G. Lewis 105 years ago.

So in my State of the City address I want to summarize all of this. I want to bring everyone up to date on the doings at City Hall and throughout the City, which can impact each and every resident. City Manager Lehman Walker will also be part of this program and he will focus his attention on the fiscal condition of University City.

The State of the City event is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 3rd in the Council Chamber.

Light refreshments will be served.

On another note….

On March 5th the people of University City will officially bid farewell to who retires on February 28th after thirty years at the library. There will be a celebration in her honor at the library on Saturday, March 5th. Check out the invitation to the event at:

http://www.ucpl.lib.mo.us/doc/LindaBallardInvite.pdf

Hope to see you on Thursday and Saturday.

Mayor Shelley Welsch