By Joseph Slacian
jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com
WABASH – The City of Wabash is fiscally sound, Mayor Scott Long told the Wabash City Council and about a dozen citizens and department heads on Monday, Feb. 13.
Long’s remarks came at the end of his first State of the City address.
“We’ve got a healthy General Fund reserve that we try not to dip into,” he told The Paper of Wabash County following the address. “We try to increase it on an annual basis. We were able to do that this year, not by a lot but by a little bit.”
However, Long noted, even though the budget is $17 million this year, department heads keep an eye on their spending.
“Just because we budget it doesn’t mean we’re going to spend it,” he said.
In addition, Long noted that many projects are in the planning stages or will begin this year.
Those include the Wabash Street widening project, the 13-15 corridor project (a Stellar Project), sidewalk repair and replacement, the second phase of the combined sewer separation project and continued street repaving work throughout the city.
During the talk, the mayor highlighted various success the various departments had in 2016.
Those include:
The Park Department became one of 10 departments in Indiana to implement the Google Trekker program, allowing the parks and trails to be seen on Google Maps.
The Wabash Fire Department implemented a mentoring program for new hires and newly promoted personnel.
There was $30,582,899 investment in the city in new construction overseen by the building commissioner.
The Street Department completed 14 paving projects around the city. In addition, it started the right of way acquisition for the second phase of the Alber Street project.
The Wastewater Department completed the $2.3 million headworks project replacing pumps, a new building and new mechanical bar screens.
The Wabash Police Department responded to 422 9-1-1 calls and 411 9-1-1 hang-up calls.
The Drug Task Force initiated 95 cases in 2016, the second highest total since it was formed. The highest total was 109 in 2015.
For more, see the Feb. 22 issue of The Paper of Wabash County.