State of the City Address-Preview

Mayor Steve Williams will address the state of the city at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 17. This will be Williams’ third state of the city address since being elected in 2012.

Williams is expected to cover the city’s budget, on going development projects, jobs, efforts to keep citizens in the city and efforts to make downtown safer.

Williams said that over the past two years, the city has had a great deal of success and that there is no changing course now.

Williams said that the current budget structure will not change and that no new taxes or fees will be added in the next year, as well as no lay-offs.

“The city budget for the fiscal year of 2015 is $43.4 million which is down from the 45.8 million of last years. We have been operating on a structure of $42 million so the structure for the new budget will not affect us any,” Williams said.

Williams said that slowed business and revenue is to be expected with the completion of some projects such as the Visual Arts Center and the new Engineering building for Marshall, but there are going to be more projects, some that have already begun.

One current development is the demolition being done on Hal Greer Boulevard at the Northcott Court housing area. Plans are for the 130 some families to be living in updated housing as well as the addition of retail and commercial properties bringing in more jobs.

“From Charleston Avenue to Ninth Avenue and Hal Greer Blvd back to Minton Street we expect to have commercial, retail and housing built there that will create ample opportunity and construction jobs to ensure that there can be apprenticeships for individuals who are looking to be in the construction trade so that they have the opportunity for jobs,” Williams said.

Williams said another development projects is the 14^th Street West area, which is less than a quarter of a mile from the interstate and has about 10 million cars a year that drive by Huntington. The idea is to bring business and warehousing facilities to this area since it is so close to the interstate.

One other development is in the Highlawn area off of Third Avenue. The idea is to reform the area for more hotels, ball fields, businesses, etc.

The mayor has also said that that there is the idea of Friday Nite where all shops open and host activities to draw people downtown. Along with this, the weekends will have more police on duty in the area from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. to ensure a safer environment.

With these project developments in place to happen it will likely keep citizens in the city due to the expected job growth and activities set for the downtown area.