State of the City - #008

This is a special episode—this week, we're featuring Mayor Hilligoss' annual State of the City speech. Here, he casts vision and dreams for Lake Wales and thanks each of our wonderful city staff members who work tirelessly to help Lake Wales reach and maintain its highest potential. 

Transcript

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Hello, Lake Wales, and welcome to episode number eight of the Mayor and the Manager, a podcast produced by Providence Voice, the media ministry of High Point Church. We created this podcast so that the citizens of Lake Wales can stay up to date on topics of importance to our city and so that you could get to know the people who you elect and pay to serve you. My name is Jack Hilligost, and I am the currently seated mayor of the City of Lake Wales. And in this episode of the Mayor and the Manager, we're doing something a little bit different. If you've been listening, you know that typically we try and spend our time interviewing one of our city leaders, most often our city manager, James Layton. But on March the 27th, the Lake Wales Economic Development Council and Chamber of Commerce hosted its annual State of the City luncheon at Vanguard School. And I delivered the State of the City speech. So what you're going to be listening to today on our podcast is a recording of that speech, which is full of updates on things that we have accomplished in the year that has just passed, and some of our big priorities for the coming year. I hope that you enjoy it. This is my fourth state of the city speech, and it's always an honor to do this. But after three, I have to tell you that I've been looking for new motivation. And so when I learned that our president's State of the Union speech lasted for one hour and 48 minutes, I thought, there you go. I promise that I'm not serious about that. My father used to say that, Jack, there's a fine line between a speech and a hostage negotiation. So I could talk a long time, really, about the exciting things that are happening in the city of Lake Wales and the opportunities and the challenges that we have before us. But as the great American poet Jerry Reid says, we've got a long way to go in a short time to get there. So I am going to try to be as efficient and succinct as possible with you today. If you have those uh reports that our city staff put together, probably 75% of what I'm going to say is in there anyhow, anyhow. But I do want to frame uh the minutes that I have with you here with a quote. Thomas Hood said that many of the great failures in life come from reining in one's horse just as he is leaping. One of the many of the great failures in life come from reigning in one's horse just as he is leaping. And I think that that quote captures perfectly, in my estimation, the state of the city of Lake Wales right now. We're in the process of leaping into a fantastic future, and we're tempted by old agendas and new demands, and airbrushed nostalgia, and uninformed agendas and unfair recriminations and inevitable conflict, this future foreshadows to possibly pull in the reins at the worst possible times. Here are some examples of the great momentum that we are experiencing and enjoying. I I was elected mayor in in 2022. And in October of 2022, the commission and the staff spent a day and a half together setting strategic planning and work priorities for the future of the city. And those priorities were long-range planning, improving the quality of life, economic development, um, community redevelopment, and higher quality housing development in our city. So each year, when I've stood up here, I'm trying to walk through every one of those priorities and share with you the actions that we've taken to try and pursue those goals. And I think we've stayed the course well this last year. When it comes to long-range planning, and I won't give as much time to this today, but it does need to be mentioned because all of the accomplishments that we're experiencing are the result of the hard work and the foresight that our city leadership put into these long-range plans. So I mentioned these strategic plans that were completed and are being pursued. We've done the Lake Wales Connected Plan. We did a 180 utility service area, multimodal transportation plan, Lake Wales Envision Plan. We have an economic development strategic plan, retail recruitment strategic plan, an airport master plan, parks and recreation master plan, water, wastewater, and stormwater master plan. All of those have been completed in the last several years, and we have been pursuing them over the last few years. Lake Wales has never been led in such an intentional way, and it has positioned us to reap the benefits that growth brings while minimizing the impacts that bro that growth sometimes also brings. The Lake Wales Connected Plan has been and continues to be effectively implemented. Our historic downtown has never looked better. Since we cut the ribbon on the newly renovated Park Avenue and Market Plaza, every event that our city conducts has been enhanced and elevated. This year the City Commission uh approved a PDP for a major once-in-a-lifetime redevelopment of Grove Manor apartments in conjunction with HUD. Last month we all stood together for the groundbreaking of work on First Street. We stood there for the groundbreaking last month, and the work has already begun on that project. So not only great planning, but rapid deployment. And both of those concepts are almost unheard of when it comes to government work. And we have the funding already in hand to see this kind of work continue and be finished on Orange, Crystal, Market, all of our historic downtown. The multimodal transportation plan that was enacted. That's a two-decade plan that we have to make our s uh to make our city in a garden a high quality environment for peddlers, pedestrians, public transit. It's already produced well over one million dollars for local use under local control. It was critical to our city receiving another one million dollars plus in grants for design and construction of the Ridge Sening Highway, uh Connector Trail, Tower Boulevard Trail, uh the Kawanis Loop Trail, as well as all of the new sidewalks and street tree landscaping throughout the Northwest neighborhoods. Sidewalks, trails, and transit, all multiplied ways that our city, our citizens can get around and enjoy our city. Then there was the Air Force Airport Master Plan. One of the highlights of our commission meetings is whenever we see Amanda, our airport director, show up because she's constantly asking us to approve projects for which the federal government's paying 95 to 100% of the cost. Those are easy votes. And our airport has received almost$600,000 in state and federal grants this year to improve signage, lights, markings, beacons, and has already secured millions more for runway rehabilitation, wildlife management, access roads, and ramp extensions. Those resources do not come to a city unless there's good planning and good leadership doing their jobs. The Economic Development Plan and Retail Recruitment Plans, by the way, which was awarded the Alice Ann Woolbrook National Association of Development Organizations award, has led us to bringing several national franchises to our city. This year we saw the opening of a Starbucks and a Chipotle in Lake Wales. I still have a nine-year-old girl who's pestering me about a Chick-fil-A, but she was mollified a little bit by these other two. And um, and and it has inspired, I think, some concerted efforts to annex and rezone large tracts of land as well as rework codes so that Lake Wales can attract some large-scale good-paying employers. This includes a 1,287-acre multi-de um development called Stone Ridge, which includes 4 million square feet dedicated for industrial use and it's adjacent to our airport. And I am very confident that we are going to see uh dramatic and positive results from those efforts in the coming year. So I'd listed nine strategic plans. Those are the ones that I'm gonna concentrate on and expand on here. But let me restate that everything that you're experiencing, everything else, every accomplishment in every area, almost without exception, was enabled in some way by planning that began years ago and has been diligently pursued. And so I just want to congratulate our city manager and all of our staff who have done that work and positioned us to benefit so well from their efforts. Another strategic priority at Lake Wales has been community redevelopment. And most of the work here falls under the auspices of our CRA, which is chaired by our Deputy Mayor Robin Gibson. And the work of the CRA has led to the revitalization of our downtown, the Northwest Sidewalks and streetscape programs. Last year we completed that was completed along 13 established roadways, and this year work began on eight more of those roadways. We have a home rehabilitation program that saw three homes served this year, as well as a legacy housing program, which provides eligible seniors who have lived all of their lives in our historic areas complementary home improvements that they cannot afford to do on their own. This year we did 19 of those. And that means that over the last four or five years, we have served 74 senior citizens in the city of Lake Wales so that they could stay in homes that some of them have lived in for decades. That's been a part of our work in the CRA. We also have a developer incentive program that offers assistance to builders committed to building affordable homes in our core improvement area. And five applicants took us up on that offer and began building down there this year. And our code compliance program, which helps struggling homeowners remedy code liens. Four property owners were helped through that program. The CRA has assisted our women's club with improvements to their main room, their ceiling, 12 windows, and interior walls. We also continued our restaurant incentive program, investing in Vibe and Vinny's, which I think most of you have probably enjoyed at least once, as well as Lady Bee's Tea Parlor. The CRA invested in the Oakley Park pollinator and sculpture garden downtown, a bad house sculpture and a new mural on First Street. And by the way, what a tremendous upgrade to our downtown has Oakley Park been. And uh there's two reasons, two uh things that I want to mention while I'm talking about Oakley Park. First, um, the investment of Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Oakley in that garden. Of course, that displays their generosity, but it also is a testimony to the growing confidence and public leadership from our private citizens here in Lake Wales. And the second uh mention, the second thing uh that Oakley Park gives me a chance to talk about or to applaud is the outstanding work of our holder horticulture department under the leadership of Kevin Polk, who I saw him raise his hands. Kevin and his group have done a great job for our city. Go ahead and applaud for him one more time. I'll circle back to them in just a minute, but we adapted the vision a few years ago of becoming a city and a garden, and their work has been indispensable in making that vision become a reality. The investments made by the CRA into our four districts have led to property value increases across the board, an increase of seven hundred and ten thousand dollars in local revenue in just this past year, and nearly three million dollars in the past six years. And those numbers, impressive as they are, are small potatoes compared to what will be coming in future years. Because, of course, the granddaddy accomplishment of this past year was our reacquisition of the Wales Built Hotel and our contracting with Restore St. Louis to restore and reopen that historic building. And again, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This is a generational opportunity that has come to us. It would be difficult for me to overstate the risk and the rewards that are attached to this. Now, before I move on, I've mentioned the CRA, and our CRA has been chaired and championed by our deputy mayor Robin Gibson for quite a while. And um, he has been doing a fantastic job, and his time on our commission will be coming to an end in just a little while. But I will tell you that the city of Lake Wales has never had a better champion than Mr. Robin Gibson. And so I think it would be appropriate for us to say thank you to Mr. Gibson for the service. We also talked a great deal and work a great deal to try and improve the quality of life, and honestly, all of the work that we do in city government should fall under that heading. But I will address some specific things here: safety and services, parks and recreation, and again, some of that our horticulture department has done. Under safety, we understand how fortunate we are to be served by a well-staffed and well-led police and fire department. Um, that understanding is shown in our continued commitment to invest in these departments, making sure that they have the training and the resources that they need. Our police, under our chief Chris Velasquez, last year, our Lake Wales Police Department responded to over 22,000 calls for service, spent nearly 5,000 hours training officers. They are one of very few local police departments to be fully accredited, and they are preparing for their reaccreditation in the coming year. Not only do they show up for work and do their jobs well, but they continue to invest in and build strong relationships with our citizens. I'm always proud to see the Lake Wales Police Department showing up at programs like our legacy housing ribbon cuttings and night to shine and proud to hear about the volunteer hours that they give to help with the work around town. I love seeing the reports of their programs like the Shop with a Cop event. And this past year, Lake Wales invested in our Lake Wales PD and our citizens' public safety by initiating a traffic camera speed enforcement around our schools and by purchasing a new building for our police annex on Tillman Avenue, which we just had the ribbon cutting for this past week. And that new building is going to enhance the ability of the Lake Wales Police Department to do its work with even more excellence for decades to come. Then there's our fire department under Chief Smith. We said goodbye to Fire Chief Jenkins and welcomed our new chief, who has continued to lead this department seamlessly. Over 60% of our firefighters are certified as paramedics, and that is an outstanding level of training for any department. And we are especially blessed in our city to have that. And that is projected to rise to 66% of our firefighters in the coming year. They've responded over 4,000 calls for service. Last year conducted over 1,200 fire safety inspections, and they also are constantly engaged in our community, conducting fire prevention month programs in all of our schools, hosting an annual fishing with a firefighter event for the youth in our city. And we continue to make investments in this department. In the last year, we added three new firefighters. We expanded our North Fire Station. We're securing land for building a third fire station on the south side of the city in the coming year. Then there's public works. So we're Sarah Addins. There you go. Thank you, Sarah, for the work that they did. Last year, they received the Florida Rural Water Association Association Small Water Public System of the Year Award. And we have a gentleman named Doug Reisenbach, one of our team members who was awarded the Florida Water and Pollution Control Operators Raymond Bordner Award for Outstanding Personal Performance. These awards, how are they getting all that on the trophies? I don't know. But uh I mentioned this department. Uh they put together an excellent and comprehensive stormwater and wastewater master plan a few years ago, and they continue to pursue it and implement it. In the past year, they have completed pipe planning and laying projects along Mammoth Grow Road, Hunt Brothers Road, Buckmore Road. They've restored necessary stormwater elements on Tillman Avenue, Russell Avenue, made plans to improve stormwater service on Campbell and along Highway 27 and Marietta Street, along with assisting in capital improvements to City Hall, the City Rec Center, and our new police annex. Public Works has also provided leadership for the work on a lot of roadway projects here in our city. And this last year we saw two more miles of downtown streets repaved and added 12 more miles of city streets that we have jurisdiction over, as well as designing plans to expand Memorial Garden Cemetery in the coming year. Now let's talk about Lake Wales Library. Again, I would say I don't know that we understand how unusual it is and important it is for a city like Lake Wales to have such a well-resourced, well-run, and active local library. So I want to acknowledge that what they contribute to our city under the leadership of Bell Reynosa, who I think I saw come in. Bell, thank you for your work at our library and all of your staff. The Lake Wales Library has continued to serve us well with a growing list of um a growing list of programs and services. Our library was visited nearly 190,000 times last year. That's an increase of nearly 50% in usage, over 16,000 new borrowers, over 14,000 participants in the programs that are offered by the library, and 40,000 uses of our library's computers. And all of this is the result of an energetic commitment, a new commitment, I think, for them to be visible and engaged in the city. If you look around, you'll see our library at the farmers markets and the fairs and the local universities and neck deep in all of our community events like Make It Magical and Pioneer Days. And this engagement and expansions of service is something that we appreciate very much from our Lake Wales Library. Then there's parks and recreation in our horticulture department. The Parks and Rec department, under the leadership of Stephanie Lutton, deserves a huge shout out for their work. I think Stephanie's here. So if Yeah, there's Stephanie. Thank you. Great list of work from them. Design work began this last year on Crystal Lake, Kowanas Park, and Ridge Scenic Highway Connectors Trail, as well as Tower Boulevard Trail. Not to mention some design work on a BMX All-Wheels facility, which will be an incredible addition to our city. I mentioned that we celebrated the grand opening of Oakley Park, installed more rentable recreation equipment to enable our citizens to enjoy both the parks and the newly renovated market plaza. Lake Wales this year received the designation as Tree City USA, and we earned that designation with over 200 trees that have been planted in the city and uh trimmed and treated or removed and over, I think I got this right, over 4,000 new plants that y'all put in the ground. Yeah, 4,000 new plants. So God bless you. Um, and you can thank him for the pollen. So um, this department has also worked extensively in improving and enhancing the surfing surface conditions of our athletic fields. This department is constantly uh implementing opportunities to enhance the quality of life for the people of Lake Wales. Events like Bark on the Park and Flickin' Floats and Rockin' the Ridge and Spooky Night Cinemas and Polk Senior Games and uh fitness classes and adventure clubs and art classes, it is a long and impressive list. We also have made a commitment to higher quality development and economic development. A big accomplishment this year were the approvals of both Lake Wales Commons and Stone Ridge, uh, which, despite the usual protestations from the usual suspects, are well planned projects. They will provide high quality housing and they will bring greater economic development to our city. So quickly, I want to give a shout out. I don't know if she's here, to Autumn Coachella for her continued passionate, excellent leadership of our planning department and our code enforcement department, led by Jose Lazeta. He has they have a high rate of compliance in the city from property owners. They partner with Key Polk Beautiful to host the Dump Your Junk, which has made our city look better. The City Commission also approved the annexation of 173 acres of land this year and assigned them industrial zoning to enable future economic development on those sites. And I really don't believe that there's a municipality in Polk County that has done a better job of positioning its citizens to reap the benefits of growth while minimizing the impacts. And before I finish, I have to applaud some other departments and staff that keep this city functioning so well. I want to say thank you to our IT department, which is led by Kevin Sundal. And I don't know who all's in the room. So if Kevin's here, if not, I just want y'all to know that the IT department is the pen in the grenade. If it gets pulled, everything blows up. And so thousands of hours of service requests and increased internet capacity and modernized payment systems and the patience that you show from all of us who stare at a computer screen like a cow stares at a new gate. Thanks for making sure everything we need is always at our fingertips and for showing us how to get it. Our finance department. A mentor of mine once asked me, uh, Jack, how much ministry can your church do for$100? And I thought he was looking for a big faith answer, and he said, you can do$100 worth. So that's why your finance department is important. Our finance department brings that sort of wisdom and focus to the city all of the time. But what I have grown to respect is that unlike many finance departments, they don't just answer yes or no. Often they help us find the answer to the question, how? It feels to me like we get more than$100 worth out of the$100 that are invested. In this last year, our finance department, led by Dorothy Abbott, was honored with the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for the 15th consecutive year. And they received, they received the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the fifth time. I also want to mention our human resources department under Sandra Davis. I think Sandra's here. And um, she has continued to negotiate good working relationships with all of our emergency responders and make sure that our employees are receiving the best benefits possible, as well as searching for, recruiting, and onboarding new employees, and we appreciate the professionalism of that department. I want to mention the communications department under Eric Marshall, especially because they have control of my microphone at this moment. But I really uh sincerely say because of your work and what you do here, Lake Wales is no longer the best kept secret on the ridge. Uh I think maybe even the best kept secret in the state. Um, from the experienced Lake Wales digital campaign that they put together this year to the creative brief for the State Road 60 project, to representing our city at the Polk's Arts and Cultural Alliance, to coordinating our parades and assisting our emergency responders to exponentially increasing our presence on social media, to getting our downtown featured on Tampa Bay 28. You are the city's cheerleaders and champions. It is easy to brag, it is difficult to brag with class. And you've bragged with class, and we appreciate it. Keep bragging. All of you, all of the work, all of this great planning, and I'm convinced it's done with a love for our city that has created tremendous momentum for Lake Wales. That momentum has brought us to the brink of a new future. That momentum that may also provoke us to the temptation now to pull in our reins at the worst possible time. Nothing symbolizes that opportunity and temptation like the Dixie Wales built hotel. This is without a doubt the most consequential event of the past year. The reacquisition of that historic building, the heart of our downtown. I have been here a long time, and most of you, many of you have been here a lot longer than me in that hotel built nearly a century ago, with the personal investments of citizens who believe deeply in the potential and the greatness of this city. And they took a leap. And it has stood there empty for decades as a silent caution, and I think a question now for us, and the question is, do you mean it? Do we seriously think that Lake Wales can become what we thought it could be? Or if after all of this work, will we continue to ignore that elephant in our downtown and try to pretend that it doesn't exist amidst all of the beautification that we've done? Everybody has an opinion about the whales built. Many people have made promises about our downtown. But opinions are cheap, especially when you can share them on Facebook from the safety of your living room. And promises are cheap, especially when there's no possibility that you may be asked to keep the promises that you've made. But action when it becomes this possible Well, and I think it's become necessary, action is expensive, not just financially, but emotionally and spiritually and personally. But folks, I would tell you that I'm convinced, and I think the numbers will back me up. It will cost us and the generations after us much, much more if we rein in the horse now. This is a once-in-a-lifetime challenge and a once-in-a-generation opportunity. And again, it's not just a financial opportunity, but it's also an opportunity for all of us who have lived here and looked at that building for years to finally respond to a challenge. It's an opportunity for families and businesses and organizations who have sworn their love and their hope for the city to show it and to support and cooperate and even share some in the sacrifice. The time has arrived. The days for opinions and professions of commitment to the good of the city are all gone now. The currency is action. We've had to fight. We've had to fight the temptation to pull in the reins a few times before. We do as leaders because we understand that when fear and project and protectionism drives the agenda, it doesn't save a city, it just slowly destroys a city through increased housing cost and reduced tax bases and loss of economic vitality and service industry strain and structural structural deficits. Fear destroys cities, destroys everything. And the problem is that fear is the most ready emotion for candidates and commissioners to play to, but when it's done, it leaves nothing good behind. And eventually, if we continue to give in to it, we will give up control of our own destiny to other authorities. This project is unique, but the issues and the questions are always the same. The world will not wait for us to be comfortable with what we have to do. Will we maintain control? Will we show the courage? Will we take the risk? Will we make the decisions that need to be made? Decisions that have needed to be made for a long time. That our work as well as history has laid at our feet to be made, or will we continue to act like we can just ignore this and play small? My time as the mayor of the city has convinced me that the city of Lake Wales can do this. We can do this. And I pray that the ones elected and paid to lead you will be willing to leap into the great future that is in front of us. Thank you, folks. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Mayor and the Manager. The goal of this podcast is to keep you up to date on all that is happening in the great city of Lake Wales. To that end, we would love to take questions from you and take the time to answer them. So if you have any questions, just click on submit a question in the description above this podcast.