January 30, 2017 - Members of the business community, chamber ambassadors and leadership, and citizens of Center filled the room at the inaugural State of the City Address, sponsored by Drewery Construction and hosted by the Shelby County Chamber of Commerce, on Wednesday, January 18, 2017 at the John D. Windham Civic Center.
Meg Camp, Shelby County Chamber of Commerce President, gave a welcoming address and then introduced City of Center Mayor David Chadwick, "So, today, we will hear from the City of Center and Mayor David Chadwick in regards to accomplishments, challenges, as well as an outlook for the future. Center is fortunate to have a mayor that sees the many components involved in City government and that same city being an environment that is multifaceted for the citizens."
"I am overwhelmed with the attendance today and the city is pleased to be here and tell you a little bit about what we are doing," said Mayor Chadwick.
Giving a little history about the City of Center, the mayor said, "One of the most important things that happened to our city was back in 1984, in April of '84, we became a home rule city. Now for those of you who were not here in 1984, before we had been all council people at large, and we did not have a true city manager, did not have a true organized leadership plan with how we would go about things."
"When we moved to that form of government, it allowed us to establish districts in our city, and we have four districts. And then we were to elect six council people to serve, one from each of the districts that would be elected by the citizens in that particular district, and then two would run at large, and that would give us the council. Then the mayor was to run at large also. That is what we have followed in our pattern ever since 1984. The charter itself was written by the citizens of Center, a committee was appointed."
Mayor Chadwick then recognized two citizens attending the luncheon who served on the committee tasked with writing the city's charter and they were Portia Gaines and Buster Bounds.
He continued, "[The Council had a] completely different responsibility. How important that was because all of a sudden the council looked at the city as a whole. It wasn't my 'pet' project, it wasn't my street, my water tap. We saw a growth; we saw a plan. We're challenged with a plan to develop the city in a way that would take us into the future."
Mayor Chadwick then introduced the council members: Mayor Pro Tem Leigh Porterfield, Joyce Johnson, Dr. Randy Collard, Howell Howard, Terry Scull, and Jerry Lathan. Mayor Chadwick then introduced the City Manager, Chad Nehring, who is the only person the City Council hires. All other city employees are hired through the city manager.
Nehring spoke about the city employees, "I do get the privilege and honor of serving with them, a number of incredible professionals that are really dedicated to doing better, making more, and making this community better every day." He then introduced department heads and employees attending: Police Chief Jim Albers, Fire Department Chief Keith Byndom, Jim Gibson, Michael Boyd, Barbara Boyd, Keith Oliver, Lucas Cougler, Jason Mitchell, and Marcus Cameron. "I always like to highlight that our utility system is not necessarily a facet of our size. Marcus's outfit produces roughly 4 million gallons a day. To give you adequate correlation, Nacogdoches produces about 6 to 7 million gallons a day. So relative to our size, we run a much bigger operation on the utility side and we do all of this with about 79 total employees. I just want to thank each and every one of them," finished Nehring.
Mayor Chadwick then recognized advisory groups which are comprised of citizens selected by the council. They are Economic Development Committee (EDC), EDC Street Committee, Parks and Recreation Committee, two Zoning Committees (Planning Committee and Adjustment Committee), Hotel/Motel Tax Committee, and Airport Advisory Committee.
"I've mentioned all these people that are part of our community there and I want to now refer to an oath, it's an Athenian Oath, that one of the very first councils ever took and something that I believe you will find valuable to listen to, 'That thus, in all these ways, we will transmit this City not only, not less, but greater, better, and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.' "
Chadwick said, "I want to assure you guys that everyone who you were introduced to today, has that same feeling, has taken that same oath, that we leave this community that we're living in, not less than when we got it, but we leave it greater, we leave it better, and we leave it more beautiful than it is and has been."
He gave examples of projects the city has done over the years. Thirty-five years ago the city developed the wastewater treatment plant the city is using today. Thirty years ago the Pinkston Water Plant in Aiken was renovated and expanded. Twenty years ago the EDC election took place and the sales tax was increased by half a cent and was designated solely to streets which the city has an annual designation of streets for repair. Sixteen years ago Mill Creek Plant and the Portacool tower were put in place.
Fourteen years ago the city started their serious approach towards city parks starting with the park located behind the tennis courts at the high school. The park was possible due to donations, support of the school and college, city and businesses. The city received a grant because the project was providing quality of life and then Armstrong received a safety award which turned out to be park equipment which was installed in the new city park by Armstrong employees and City Council members.
Twelve years ago the new police department facility was built. Ten years ago the city voted to do zoning which gave the city a long-term view of how we can develop our community in a better way. Five years ago the Center Mini Park was redone. Three years ago the Community House and City Hall both historic locations were renovated. The current location of City Hall was once the youth center during Mayor Chadwick's childhood. Two years ago the city annexed the south loop bringing more people into the community which made it a stronger, better community.
"We have a budget of about $13 million in annual budget, to be exact it's 12.93, part of that is the 1.35 which includes the EDC with the street and the economic development there. Thirteen million dollars it takes to run our city; that's a lot of money. Next question, where does it come from? Major contributor is our sales tax, $3.2 million. We don't even know we pay sales tax, we pay it everywhere else. That comes from us buying locally. That comes from people who are building projects here and buying from our local vendors. It comes from people passing through town buying merchandise in our stores and clothes in our stores, and food and what-not that may have a tax attached to it. That money comes back to us. Again, part of that goes back to EDC and we are able to turn that in and the rest of it goes to the city itself." Mayor Chadwick notated that the last three years sales tax didn't see much growth. After the dip in Oil and Gas, the city adjusted which included having to decrease number of employees and back off on some projects but the city stayed on budget. The City was able to increase their budget by about 1% last year and so far this year's sales tax numbers are still showing a small increase.
"$1.5 million of our budget comes from property tax. When you look at the $13 million, a million and a half is not an awful amount of money when you consider that. We put $900,000 of that into our general fund; we address the other [$600,000] that goes into debt retirement." Chadwick continued to explain the revenue for the $13 million dollar. About 65% of our tax revenue comes from commercial and industrial property tax. Three million dollars comes from utility fees, water and wastewater treatment.
The city has about $9 million in debt which the Mayor touched on, "That's a lot of money guys. Don't think we don't think about that every July when we start that budget. We have a philosophy that we don't want any more debt than we can comfortably pay. We have seen that dip and realized that the debt still had to be paid. We did not want to be in a position that we are having to constantly refinance, extend, not be able to make our need because we are rated as a city by how well we handle our debt. So we feel that around $10 million to $12 million, we can comfortably service that debt with the income we currently have."
Chadwick mentioned accomplishments in our community in the last year. Center Motor Company finished in January of 2016 their new complex on Hurst Street and also celebrated their 65th Anniversary in April. In January, updated parks and recreation by hiring a new director, Jason Mitchell, to oversee and coordinate the use of the ball parks with the volunteer group. A new business came to the community, Sustainable Solids, which came into the old E.L. Bruce plant. Hallmark Center Fixture Operations received the prestigious Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Award.
In March, Portacool Park became a reality and is currently under construction. As part of the Portacool Park project Childs Street connecting Tenaha Street and Malone Drive is under construction but should be completed soon weather permitting.
The city is currently working on a major sewer treatment plant project, $1.2 million in volume, coming in from the south Loop 500. Also, the city has a $2 million project to work on the 35-year old wastewater treatment system to meet the needs the city has now and to assist Tyson and their future needs. Solar panels are being installed at Lake Pinkston Water Plant. The annual street maintenance and replacement project is underway for this year.
Next year, the city plans to finalize the plans for the downtown renovation of the sidewalks, parking, and planting that is there. The city will be adding another water retaining tank on a corner lot at Hwy 7 and Loop 500. The city will also be restoring the water tower on McSwain Hill which with both projects the city will have 4 surface holding tanks. EDC is working on several interesting projects to bring some new businesses to town.
Mayor Chadwick spoke to business owners about two incentive programs the city offers, "We have a small business assistance which is to help with the exterior facade of our businesses to plant, to renovate the exterior of a building, to add with some of the planting to make it again a warmer place. That is done through application with our EDC committee and we encourage any business to talk to the city about that and take advantage of that opportunity. And then we also have an entrepreneurial program which we are trying to develop businesses that need assistance, need some direction, need to find a location, need some understanding of how to seek finance, and to develop some work with them and help them with their startup of new businesses there."
"I think we are moving in the right direction and I hope you feel that we're moving in the right direction," said Chadwick before closing the meeting with his favorite story - Stone Soup. He reminisced hearing Captain Kangaroo tell the story which involved hungry soldiers who convinced the people of a town to share some of their food in order to make a meal which they all could come together and enjoy. "Building a city is a lot like stone soup. The vessel is the city. The water is our infrastructure. It's heated. It's warm. The personalities of the carrot, the potato, the cabbage, the peas, the corn - it's what gives the city the personality, gives it a flavor of its own, gives it a growth, gives it recognition. I leave you with one question, 'Do you have a potato, you got a carrot? We've got a city.' "
