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Mayor Williams attends the inaugural Mayors Conference on Entrepreneurship which was a conference that was invitation only. It focused on increasing small businesses, especially those with cultural foundations. Huntington was the smallest city invited.
Huntington and Marshall bring in an expert to talk about sustainable growth. He advocates slow growth with a focus on improving infrastructure rather than big project expansion. This expert argues that big projects aren't sustainable and actually hurt more long term.
I love seeing this. There will be big-ticket projects in the future (see: ballpark), but the real, sustainable growth will occur with investments in the future, and that comes about through infrastructure. Stormwater control, upgraded fiberoptic networks, city-wide wifi, good transportation, and the like are all key to building a great city. It's like getting in shape - a five-minute butt-buster workout is never going to work. You need to methodically change your diet and exercise habits bit by bit, day by day. It might take a while, but before you know it, you're a whole new person (or in this case, city).
I was down in Huntington today and saw on 4Th Avenue that many of the sidewalks and curbs are being replaced. This is much needed and glad to see some progress on them.
Once they finish that section, they will only need the section between 10th-12th Streets to have the Old Main Corridor completely done from 16th St to 8th Street. With the new sidewalks and street lights, it'll be quite an improvement.
I love seeing this. There will be big-ticket projects in the future (see: ballpark), but the real, sustainable growth will occur with investments in the future, and that comes about through infrastructure. Stormwater control, upgraded fiberoptic networks, city-wide wifi, good transportation, and the like are all key to building a great city. It's like getting in shape - a five-minute butt-buster workout is never going to work. You need to methodically change your diet and exercise habits bit by bit, day by day. It might take a while, but before you know it, you're a whole new person (or in this case, city).
The future is definitely looking bright for Huntington with proactive leadership and a much better attitude of the citizenry!
Earlier this week, council members voted to accept a nearly $900,000 federal grant to make it happen.
"With these increased numbers, we're going to have more people on patrol, more people into individual departments, this can only help," said Huntington City Councilman Dave Ball.
The three-year grant will mean Huntington's police force will have 111 officers.
Department leaders said that's the highest in 30 years.
The proposed fee would generate $1.2 million a year for the city's Stormwater Program through a tiered rate structure based on the square footage of buildings on a property. That amount would allow the city to immediately hire personnel and purchase equipment for street sweeping and unclogging catch basins as well as study how to approach long-standing issues like the underpass and localized street flooding which often occurs during heavy rains.
Of course there will be those who complain and act like it will somehow break their budget, just like with the sales tax. Some people just have to complain about anything they can. There's even an exemption for those who truly have financial difficulty.
In the end though, it won't be a big burden on the residents and it will do the city a world of good. We either pay once in the process of fixing these issues or we pay twice through fines and then having to fix it anyway.
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