Mayor Stewart presents State of the City to Common Council

March 8, 2006

STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS BY MAYOR TIMOTHY STEWART, MARCH 8, 2006

Members of the Common Council, Department heads and city employees, my fellow citizens: every year, by charter and by custom, we meet here to consider the state of the City.

Whether Democrat or Republican, the Mayor and the members of the Common Council seek to do the best we can on behalf of the residents of our community, to make New Britain a vital and vibrant city where people want to live, work and pursue happiness.

We each bring our own style of leadership to meet the challenges that we face. For me, local government should be the kind of leadership that puts results above rhetoric, cooperation above confrontation and partnership above partisanship.

This type of performance based leadership, has at its heart a commitment to service improvement by becoming a learning organization. If we learn from our experience, we can make a positive impact in the lives of our citizens. As we begin to confront the issues we face in an urban community such as ours, we must recognize that we can make significant progress although it takes planning, commitment, determination and patience.

As we consider the state of our City in March of 2006, I believe it is accurate to say that things are good and getting better. Our streets are safer, our schools are in great shape, essential city services have been preserved, our public is more informed and our grand list is growing. These are the issues that really matter to the general public.

Since I addressed you a year ago on the state of the City, much has been accomplished to make New Britain even better. Opportunities for families, businesses and the city continue to evolve. Let me list for you some of the positive accomplishments of the past twelve months:

We have continued to sell city owned properties to employers and entrepreneurs who are building and expanding to create new jobs for New Britain's workers. The old New Britain Machine property on newly developed Commerce Circle has been sold to three local, family-owned businesses that have a long history of commitment to our community. Dattco Transportation, Guida's Dairy and Siracusa Moving and Storage will transform this once empty tract of land into revenue producing structures that will add to our Grand List which will mean additional property tax revenues for our City.

Papa's Dodge/Jeep has invested millions of dollars in a state of the art auto dealership and service center unlike any other in New England. With hundreds of vehicles on their lot, a barbershop, diner, museum and video game center inside the massive building, Papa's will become a magnet that draws thousands of people to New Britain.

The good news on jobs and business will continue in 2006 due to the commitment from the state of Connecticut to return 60 acres of land from the former Pinnacle Heights to use for economic development purposes. This will provide us with a great opportunity to bring new business to our community and ultimately grow our ever-expanding grand list.

Another success story on vacant city property is the upcoming Habitat for Humanity Building Blitz the week of June 5th. New Britain's participation in this national effort will take 6 formerly city owned lots on the corner of Oak and Putnam streets and turn them into 6 single family home ownership opportunities to those neighborhood residents who could otherwise not afford them.

A new supermarket has opened right in the center of New Britain bringing hundreds of shoppers to our downtown area and bringing back memories of the good old days when downtown New Britain was filled with shoppers every day. The new C-town is a welcome new partner in our efforts to revitalize New Britain and to make downtown a place where local residents want to be.

Other developments will also help to bring new life and vitality to our downtown as the Hole in the Wall Theater opens at its new Main Street location. Along with Trinity-on -Main, these two cultural centers will bring more and more people downtown who we hope will also want to eat in some of our local restaurants or shop in downtown businesses.

Yet another development that will add to downtown activity will occur in May when the all new Holiday Inn opens on Bank Street along with Famous Dave's restaurant which will certainly draw many people to the central business district.

Central Connecticut State University has expanded its operations in the downtown also by providing more educational opportunities for its students at the ITBD center. And discussions are presently underway to bring an additional higher education component to the Main Street area.

A study funded by the state Department of Economic and Community Development will allow us to expand on these positive developments in our downtown. The momentum is also fueled by the new Downtown Visitors Center which shares its new home with the Greater New Britain Arts Alliance.

2006 brings us two reasons to celebrate on the leisure and recreational front. In April, the New Britain Museum of American Art reopens its doors with a spectacular $26 million renovation and expansion. This cultural gem will now attract even more visitors to our City.

And visitors to our City will have many more years of the New Britain Rock Cats thanks to the lease signed last month. Additional parking opportunities as well as enhancements to the facility will make everyone's experience at New Britain Municipal Stadium certainly one to remember.

The long awaited upgrade of Northend School is almost complete bringing to a conclusion the overhaul of all of New Britain's schools that had begun more than twenty years ago. We now will embark on planning and completion of the new addition to New Britain High School that will ease overcrowding and provide new and better facilities for our City's high school students and faculty as well as the Alternative Behavioral Center. Goodwin Technical School on Osgood Avenue is also receiving a long overdue renovation by the state department of education.

Several overhauls to our aging infrastructure made significant progress during the past year, including the White Oaks storm and sanitary sewer project and the next phase of the reconstruction of Broad Street. Critical issues affecting the basic necessities of city service like solid and liquid waste removal programs are currently being analyzed. We are partnering with the state on long-term solutions for our region that will ultimately ease the burden on the taxpayers of New Britain.

We continue to be innovative in our provision of public safety and emergency services. The First Responder system has been fully implemented bringing quicker response times and saving more lives. Our City's residents can feel safer and more secure knowing that emergency medical assistance will arrive sooner when they call 911. Our dispatchers have been highly trained to handle any emergency that presents itself to them.

New Britain's own Police Academy graduated a new class of police officers adding to the number of public safety personnel protecting our residents. An additional class is currently being trained and will be ready to hit the streets this summer. The Police Facilities Committee continues to work toward a new cutting edge police headquarters. And we've also added more canine officers to the department that have already proven their worth to the community.

And, on the financial side, 2005 was a very good year for the residents of New Britain.

A very significant development in October was the upgrading of the City's bond rating from A- to A by Standard and Poor's. In addition to significant savings on debt services, this was a national recognition of our efforts at enhanced fiscal management, including tighter controls on spending and increasing our Grand List and associated revenues.

Also in October, we entered into an agreement to sell an option to the Bank of Montreal for a rate swap on $58 million of the City's outstanding bonds sold to finance the fire and police department pension funds. In return, the City received an up front payment of $1 million, a windfall that reduces the cost of running the City and saving taxpayers real dollars.

And most importantly, we cut local property taxes for the second year in a row something no other city in Connecticut has been able to do during this decade.

While the State of the City is good and looking up, we do not take lightly the many challenges facing us in the year ahead. Given the belt tightening that took place over the past few years, it will be a difficult budget year, and the demand for city services is ever increasing. We need to hold the line on spending, while continuing to address the challenges of an urban community: quality education, creation of jobs, affordable housing, our aging roads and infrastructure, just to name a few.

New Britain has been home to hundreds of thousands of people since it was first incorporated in 1871. Those who came here looking for a new home and a better way of life found a community that offered wonderful opportunities. New Britain is still full of those opportunities.

It is now up to us to make New Britain even better...to make it a place where future generations will want to live, work, worship and play. Working together...the Council, the Mayor, our city employees and the good citizens of New Britain can and will build a better city for ourselves and for those who follow us.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to address you tonight on the state of the City and my vision for our City's future.