Building a Connected and Thriving Community: Insights from Walker's Mayor Gary Carey

Curious about how a city transforms communication and community engagement in the modern age? Join us as we kick off the Made in Walker podcast with an enlightening conversation featuring Walker’s very own Mayor Gary Carey. We promise you’ll uncover the secrets behind Walker’s strategic initiatives to enhance transparency and connectivity with its residents. From innovative platforms like podcasts and live-streamed meetings to new infrastructure ventures such as the Fruit Ridge Bridge and a state-of-the-art library, this episode is packed with insights into Walker’s roadmap for 2024 and beyond.

Our dialogue doesn’t stop at infrastructure; we take a closer look at how Walker is shaping a more welcoming community. Discover the ambitious plans to tackle housing needs, expand parks, and bolster recreation programs, making Walker not just a place to live but a community to thrive in. Mayor Carey also shares the city’s commitment to safety through cutting-edge virtual reality training and an advanced drone program. As we discuss the significance of civic engagement, you’ll learn about opportunities like the Mayor's Youth Academy and the next-gen program designed for younger adults. Amid changes in the city commission due to term limits, this episode offers a comprehensive look at how Walker is fostering community spirit and preparing future leaders.

Transcript

 Building a Connected and Thriving Community: Insights from Walker's Mayor Gary Carey

Steve Kelso Announcement

00:07

Welcome to Made in Walker, a podcast that connects you to the people, the stories and the ideas shaping our community, from local innovators to everyday changemakers. We're diving deep into what makes Walker a great place to live, work and grow. Here's your host, Nicole DiDonato. 

Nicole DiDonato Host

00:26

Well, thank you so much for tuning in to Walker's very first podcast. My name is Nicole DiDonato, I'm the communications manager for the city of Walker and this is just another way for us to connect with our residents, our business owners, the visitors who come into Walker and just hear the why behind some of the decisions and the things that are happening in our city, and I'm thrilled to be joined today by Mayor Gary Carey of the City of Walker. Thank you so much for being here. 

Mayor Gary Carey JR.Guest

00:52

Thank you for having me. 

Nicole DiDonato Host

00:53

All right, wonderful, and we know that podcast is not new to the public, but it definitely is for the city, isn't it? 

Mayor Gary Carey JR.Guest

01:00

It is, but it's consistent with that theme of we're trying to bring new and innovative really means of communicating with our community out there and we were one of the earlier cities that adopted live streaming of our meetings and putting those meetings out there just to be transparent with our community. You know we jumped on the social media bandwagon very early on and as that continues to hit its maturity phases and sometimes can be a little bit more challenging to wrestle with because everybody's a subject matter expert on certain things, I'll call that one out. But you know the podcast is being able to put you know factual material out there in an informal discussion here and allow people to be able to listen to in the comfort of their cars while they're driving. Maybe sit by the fireplace this time of the year, staying warm and instead of the book, just listening to the soothing voices of the two of us. 

Nicole DiDonato Host

01:49

Yes, and we know, you know city government. It's not sexy, it's not glamorous, but important decisions are made, affects everybody and it's important that they know the reasons why behind that. 

Mayor Gary Carey JR.Guest

01:58

Well, and one of the strongest things with Walker is that sense of community that we have and people just feel so attached, but not over the top, in that it's just a great place to live, work and grow, and I know that's our city tagline and the brand, if you will, we've created. But it's another one of those things that people just feel connected and they know what's going on. There is a trust with the local government and it's, quite frankly, sometimes why don't we get people that attend our meetings and come out there and actually have discussions with us? And why do I not get 5 million resident phone calls, like a lot of other mayors do, in any given time period? And it's just because people feel like they're informed. There is, again, that trust level that is built over time. This is just another one of those ways of getting that messaging out, and we have a lot of good stuff going on. So I'm super excited about what 2025 holds for us. 

Nicole DiDonato Host 

02:48

Yes, yes, and it's a great time to actually start this kind of podcast. We had a huge year in 2024, some big road projects. We're going into 2025 with some other pretty significant ones that will affect the entire community. 

Mayor Gary Carey JR.Guest

03:00

Oh, you look at road infrastructure and building projects, I mean there's just I mean, where do you begin with this? You know, hats off to our city staff, specifically our city engineer, scott Connors. He oversaw just probably the biggest year of road construction in decades, maybe in the city's history that any of us can remember. We had so many projects going on at the same time. We know there were some short-term pain that we're going to have this summer and we got through it and we're better off because of it. And some of them, like the Walker Avenue and Four Mile Project, as you go through there, you know wow, I mean this is really cool that we've gotten to this point from what it used to be. And when you look to what it's going to happen in 2025, you've got the Fruit Ridge Bridge project coming. That intersection becomes very important to us because it's going to be a main thoroughfare, because that bridge is going to be closed from March and through late fall of next year. So having that foresight of being able to look forward and say we need to get these things done, just to be better prepared for it, are a big bet. 

03:57

So many good projects. We've put a lot on our public works team second to none in the area, and there's some very good teams at the other communities, municipalities, but just being able to juggle all the things that we have throughout the throughout the course of the year and construction season, you know, then, as we get to the end of construction season, on the roads and infrastructure, we break ground on the new library, so what's getting to be almost frozen ground? They're tearing that apart, taking down some of the the structures that were out there where the new building is going to go. So just a lot of exciting things and we're going to be very busy in the coming year. I don't think we're going to be lacking for new material for the podcast. 

Nicole DiDonatoHost

04:35

Exactly, and I want folks to know that while we are explaining some of these projects high level we will be going into them deeper, going forward as we continue our podcast journey. So very excited to go into that and the big thing, I think, is you know why this is important to do. This is that you have some pillars that are important to you and the community and we're going to try to hit all of those throughout the year as we discuss on our podcasts. 

Mayor Gary Carey JR.Guest

04:56

Sure, and when I think of when, you know, when I think of what is going on within the city and I come back from the state of the city that we do every year the same five pillars that I've had as a mayor that are from the community, it's the um, you know, being in touch with the community, whether I'm at Sobe meets and I hear stuff, when I'm picking up the weekly order of stuff there or I'm in the Walker barber shop, um, and you hear what's going on while sitting in the chair. Um, you know you're hearing from the community that there are five things that are really important to them. They're incredibly consistent and they're in a very specific order. Public safety by far is the single most important thing in Walker and it's why we have a safe community. We feel safe and secure in our yards and our houses, but even in our stores when we're out and about and stuff. Just, our public safety personnel, both in the police and fire departments just there's a special place in heaven for them and what they do. But we've made investments to help make their job easier and things like our police command vehicle that we just put into service recently. And then we have on order our second platform truck for our fire department. Most communities our size don't even have one platform truck. We've made investments in two of them. We continue to look forward and we know that there is a need for increased staffing for full-time for a fire department. That model that has served Walker for decades, throughout our history, has really evolved and changed and we're making some decisions that are strategic in that. So we're addressing the public safety. So there's a lot of cool things going on there, a lot of investment in technology on the city's part to make sure that our public safety, that not only are we taking care of our community, but I want to make sure that our public safety teams at the city are protected and they go home to their families at night. That's of paramount importance. 

06:40

I think the second thing is there is this economic stability that the city has is so important and we call it fiscal responsibility. It's one of the pillars of the state of the city and when you look at where Walker's at right now, we have no long-term debt. It's very uncommon for a municipal organization of our size to not have something like that that's allowing us to do some things with the library and maybe look at some other potential projects here in the near future. And one of the things with that fiscal responsibility we put ourselves on the spot to be able to do things and make investments and quite frankly, it reflects Walker and how we run our checkbooks at home, how we do our grocery shopping and with the increased costs that take place with going to the grocery store, the restaurants nowadays you're still going to go there because you have to, but you're being fiscally responsible maybe in what you're doing and how you're doing it. So we're modeling the behavior of what our community expects of us. 

07:41

I think, when I look at the third thing that is really the catalyst for that fiscal stability is the commercial and industrial development in the city. We're a city income tax city. These new jobs that come into the city are of paramount importance to us because it allows us to add more firefighters, add more police officers, more public works employees, more people in different departments in the city, and allows us to make investments in our parks and grounds and things like that. So that's just really important that we not lose sight of. We have to continue to make those investments so that those jobs don't ever leave the community. There will be a point in time probably in the future, not too distant future that we start to plateau on the increased jobs, but we want to keep stability with what we have in the community. So it's important to stay connected to the businesses and get out and reach to the business leaders within the community. What can we do to be doing better for you? 

08:37

And then you know, really, the thing that we're all, as civic leaders in the United States right now is more housing. We want more people moving to Walker to experience what a great community is, and we talk about it being a nice, a great place to live, work and grow. And we want people to come in here, not just to shop, not just come in here to work. We want them to come live here, maybe raise families, put the roots down, but you know, right now the housing is just not there to meet the demands to come into people that want to come into the community. So we're trying to make it as easy as possible but make sure that the decision-making that we have are very sound. 

09:18

And I think the fifth thing of that pillars that we're going to talk about during the podcast is the quality of life that we have, and it's things like the new library breaking ground for that that. 

09:27

It's not just a library, it's a community gathering place, it's a beacon for the community for those to be able to see, and all are welcome there, and we want to make sure that we are emphasizing that. And then I think that goes to the parks and recreation components of our community and the special events that we do. Those have grown exponentially in the last five, six years and the types of things that we do and how many that we're doing, because every time that we find another way we can connect with our community and we don't just see city limits. The west side's the west side, and if they want to come from the east side over the river, great. If they want to come from Ottawa County, great, they're all welcome here and we just want this to be a welcoming place. So, really, those five things we have a lot going on in 2025, a lot of things to talk about this coming year. 

Nicole DiDonatoHost

10:12

Yeah, definitely, and a lot of things are going on and you want these people to be part of it as well. It's important to be part of these committees that help make decisions or volunteer this and that. 

Mayor Gary Carey JR.Guest

10:23

Well, and you bring up another thing. So just this morning, just going through a 2025 committee appointment this morning that I'll submit to the city commission for approval here coming up, and you know, one of the things in going through these is we need more people involved. You know, one of the latest things that we started just this fall is a Mayor's Youth Academy, and this came out of the genesis of our old youth commission that we had many, many years ago and it had kind of grown a little bit stagnant over time. And you know, being a recovering high school football coach, I really wanted to make sure that we had a curriculum that was ongoing. So we have, over the course of the year we'll end up in May with the other students and and we have got just a rock solid group of high school students taking part of it. 

11:07

And actually last night was our third monthly meeting and we actually experienced the police department last night and they got a behind the scenes tour of a lot of the things the police department the general public doesn't get to see. And they got to experience some of the new technology we've made investments in last night and they got to experience some of the new technology we've made investments in. Last night we did some virtual reality training. That helps our officers, you know, stay out of harm's way. It helps us interact with the community better. But these students got to experience that last night. That's just not something that you really get to do a whole lot. And then we also had the. 

11:38

You know we are very proud of our investment in our drone program and how it's been able to benefit our community, and it's not just for a public safety perspective. We use it for growth and development in the city. We use it for special events of, you know, gauging I mean looking at, maybe, areas how can we do this better? And the city's adopted this cadence. When we do these special events or these programs, you know, when we get done, we sit there and take a pause and reflect on what went well, what didn't, what can we do better. And being able to have some real-time footage of that, be able to reflect back to, really does help. So the students got to see that last night and we were actually doing it at nighttime, so we showed how the infrared worked and everything, and so, heaven forbid you would ever, ever kid, wander away from the house at night. I mean that you're able to find things even in the densest of brush and really, again, it goes back to that theme of public safety, keeping everybody arms away. 

12:28

So a lot of good things going on, but we definitely we're starting to reflect as we look in 2025. 

12:33

And in a couple of years you're going to have a city commission that turns over in half, and that's the impact of term limits, whether you're in favor of it or not, and you know it. 

12:43

Just it's something that we're going to have to be very aware of that. We're going to have to have people come in and we're trying to get people that are willing to serve the community, not because of a hidden agenda, but they want to serve the community because they have that commitment to civic service. And we feel that if we we believe that if we can get them at the high school age starting to think about these things, we're developing that pipeline for the future. And I'll give a little teaser that what we're doing with the Mayor's Youth Academy we're actually going to be doing with younger adults coming up here as part of a next-gen program, coming up after the first of the year as well, to get to people that are already, maybe early, into their professional careers, or whatever life has taken direction, has taken them in, getting them involved as adults, where they might be really be willing at this point to step onto a community maybe step into public office after some community or committee service there? 

Nicole DiDonatoHost

13:35

Sure, sure, and this is so exciting and we could probably talk forever about this. Of course, we have plenty more episodes to go, so thank you so much, mayor Carey, for helping us introduce this podcast as well. Just another way for us to connect with the residents, visitors, business owners of our city. We look forward to you tuning in next time. 

Steve Kelso Announcement

13:54

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Maiden Walker podcast. If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop us an email at podcast at walkercity. Made in Walker is the official podcast of the city of Walker, michigan. You can find Made in Walker wherever you get your podcasts.