2006 State of the City Address

I have to open with the fact that the City is doing very well, and it is because of the people we have. I'd like to recognize some of those people, because they are the foundations of our success.

First & foremost, the real bosses: Citizens, both private & corporate, who now number over 15,600.

Next, the City Council, who elect the mayor from amongst themselves to represent the whole Council at events such as this.

And finally, the staff who carry out the will of the Council (recognize those present individually).

Ten years - a decade of progress. It is astonishing what ten years can mean to a community.

2005 was a milestone of our progress in many ways. It capped the last decade of the City's incorporated history, and the first decade under the Council Manger form of government. It marked the midpoint in the city's first growth plan, and the greatest year of success since the City came into existence.

In preparing for today I was searching for the right way to express the State of the City. Progress quickly emerged as part of the theme. And progress is definitely what the last decade delivered. Allow me to give you a few highlights:

In 1995, there was 5000 people living here; today we have over 15,000. Then, we were the 4th largest city in the county; this year we expect to be the second largest. We've become a proactive, progressive, stable and successful community.

The Battle Ground of today has been built on the youth and promise of new families, the stability of open and accountable government, and fueled by the opportunity of a safe community and a growing local economy.

Ten years ago you might have had to leave town to access services, such as shopping working or recreation; today, we have 692,000 square feet of new retail and commercial space to serve our citizens, including 32 restaurants, and 2 new grocery stores.

In 1990 the average age in our city was 33, in 2000 it was 27.

Then, the average house price was approximately $115,000, today it is nearly $220,000.

Then, there were 2 developed Parks and 17 acres of parkland in our service area, today there are_8 developed parks, 122 acres of parkland, and 66 acres of open space. Ten years ago we held our City Council meetings in the Senior Center, today, well, look were we are now!

In 1995 the City was 1879 acres, in 2005 the City was 2896 acres.

Over the last ten years, we have invested millions of dollars in new and improved transportation, sewer, water and drainage systems, and private development has invested hundreds of millions more.

We have acquired a new City Hall, built a new Police Station; which you are all invited to celebrate it's opening with us at an open house scheduled for March 22nd, we've expanded our operations center, dedicated six new parks and secured hundreds of acres of park lands and open space for the community.

Then, Battle Ground was a detour, now it is a destination.

We have invested in the essential underpinnings of public service for the community in a manner that will serve us for decades to come, and we have done so in a way that respects the values of the community: creativity, prudence, sustainability.

We have brought credibility and accountability to city hall and the offices of your elected leaders.

We have invited and guided private investment to the community in a way that does and will continue to serve our citizens well.

We have moved ever so much closer to economic independence, and our citizens can now do nearly everything in the City: live, work, play, shop, enjoy culture.

It is because of these things that we are attracting families like the Kings, a family that was recently highlighted in the Columbian newspaper. They moved here from Colorado, and could have chosen any of the 30 other cities in the greater metropolitan area, but chose Battle Ground for what it offers - a high quality of life, friendly, small town feel, good schools for their daughters, Zoe and Emily, and a place where you can see the stars at night.

As Ryan King was quoted in the Columbian article as saying, "In Battle Ground, we're close to everything that is important to us." In April, a new cinema opened in the City, anchoring the Gardner Center, a 100,000 square foot retail center. The only thing you can't do in town is buy lumber or a new car, and we're working on that.

But our real purpose here as a City is to partner with our citizen shareholders - both families and businesses - to make Battle Ground a community of choice. What will make our community unique, a destination for the region and a source of pride for our citizens is cultivating and celebrating our own culture; our own uniqueness; our own sense of place. This cannot happen without prosperity, and therein lies the City's challenge.

The single largest investment most of us make in our lives is our home or our business. The return we get on our investment is directly related to the quality of life in our community. But quality of life is defined by so many things: how good or bad is traffic? How close are good parks? Do I have good shopping choices? Can I take my family out to dinner, or see a movie? Will we be safe when we do? How good are the schools? Is the library good? Can I work near home? But all of these things share a common thread: they are influenced by or a direct product of how we govern.

We as a City - and I mean we - you, us, our corporate citizens, our city staff - the shareholders of this community, are faced with this challenge of building Battle Ground to the unique greatness its potential holds. I believe we are we are ready and able to embrace this challenge. When I look to the horizon, I see a Battle Ground of vibrancy, opportunity and prosperity. One where both our grandparents and our grandchildren can chose to live in health and comfort. One where our investment in our homes and our families is also our investment in our community.

So what about tomorrow? We are at the dawn of a new age of prosperity for the City of Battle Ground. Your city is doing its part to prepare to take advantage of this opportunity. As I mentioned earlier, the city is just wrapping up an aggressive capital investment program in essential public facilities, such a city hall, police station and operations center. Even with this, we will continue to invest in the other essential underpinnings of a strong economy and healthy city: conversion the old police station into a full, dedicated fire station; investment in new and better roads; safe, reliable and sustainable water supplies and sewage disposal systems; drainage and flood control systems to protect life and property. In addition, the City remains committed to a progressive and proactive growth management strategy to guide private investment in the City. Most of these efforts go undetected by our citizens - another sign of success.

With and these bricks laid in the foundation of our system of public service, we will be able to serve our current and future citizens for years to come and are now poised to invest in the more refined ingredients of our growing and future prosperity.

In 2006 and beyond, we will see tens of millions invested in our community to even further improve our quality of life.

The City will invest $1 million in renovating Kiwanis Park, making it one of the marquee elements of our parks system. We will complete the first phase of what will be the Renaissance of Fairgrounds Park, which will include a world class skate park, new restrooms and a new entry to the Park. This investment will position us to complete the renaissance of the park, completely renovating it to add a multi-use community building, interactive water fountain, outdoor performance venue and other alternative sports amenities, such as a rock climbing and bouldering field, and connection to a regional hiking and biking trail system. These investments will not only make Fairgrounds our flagship park, but a destination for the region, and anchor for our East End and downtown, and a showcase of what quality of life Battle Ground has to offer.

To compliment our existing facilities, we will invest in other recreation amenities as well: a new sports field complex to replace fields displaced with the renaissance of Fairgrounds Park; a trail system throughout the 60 acres of the Remy property that will be converted into an enhanced wetland and natural preserve, and the assemblage of hundreds of acres to the east of the city on Tukes Mountain to develop into a system of hiking, biking and equestrian trails linking our downtown with BG lake and beyond to the East Fork Greenway.

Over $100 million of state and federal funding will be invested in giving our city a direct connection to interstate 5, widening SR 502 to 4 lanes all the way to a new freeway interchange. Construction on the interchange will begin in 2007, and the widening in 2011. Thank you to the leadership of our legislative delegation, and especially to Senator Joe Zarelli, who gracefully made a difficult decision that ultimately brought funding for these crucial improvements.

We will also continue to see more private investments in the community. Lloyds Grill opened January 7, near Bombe Gelato in the Gardner Center Cinema complex, bringing additional family style entertainment venues to the City. The new hotel and commercial center will be completed this year, and more jobs and services are on the way: Trail Tech Manufacturing breaks ground this spring. A new health club and retail center totaling 56,000 square feet is expected to break ground this summer. The City is annexing nearly 300 acres of land, and is on the verge of striking a new agreement with Gold Medal Group to build a new mixed use village on the east side.

Even with these new public and private investments in our City, there are additional opportunities within our community that I would like to invite others to take advantage of. While I mentioned our city proper has grown to over 15,000, our service area from all around the city has a population that tops 70,000, or almost 20% of the population of this county. We are ripe for more retail and commercial investment, and look forward to the addition of more variety and diversity in the retail landscape in the coming years.

An example of how our City serves the greater north county region can be told through the Mt. View Medical Urgent Care Clinic. I'd like to introduce Dr. Beth Lee and Dr. Arthur Simons, who recently opened the Mt. View Urgent Care Clinic, and last year saw over 10,000 patients and maintain over 6,500 active charts. That is 2/3 of our total city population, in one small urgent care practice.

Battle Ground is also home to the 13th largest high school in the state , and the 4th largest high school in Clark County, illustrating yet another opportunity to develop satellite programs for higher learning in the City. We need more and better access to these services for our citizens, such as primary care practitioners and post secondary education, and want to invite these professionals and institutions to become part of our community. We will continue to work hard towards this end.

I was elected to the City Council in 1996 as part of the first council after the voters changed our form of government. For the last four years, I have had the great fortune of my fellow council members electing me to serve as your mayor, and look forward to continuing as your Mayor for two more years. But as an old saying goes, we only stand on the shoulders of the work of those before us. I cannot let this opportunity pass without recognizing the work of one of our citizens who planted the seed that has made the successes of the last decade possible. He was elected to the City Council in 1994, and spearheaded the political campaign to change in our form of government in 1996. He was re-elected to council then, served as our first mayor under the new form of government, and I had the pleasure then of serving as Deputy Mayor during his last two years. He has brought a consistent tenacity and energy to the leadership of this community. He represents Battle Ground's and other cities interest throughout the region and state on boards such as the Regional Transportation Council, the state Transportation Improvement Board, the Clark County Railroad Advisory Board, and the CTRAN board. He has grown to become our "elder statesman" on the City Council, and a continuing champion for the City. Without his efforts to be a catalyst for change, we would not have realized this last decade of progress. William J. Ganley: Citizen of the Decade.

One of William Ganley's most impressive contributions to our community has been his dedication to educating our community's youth through his long career as a high school teacher at Battle Ground High School.

It is the future success and prosperity of our youth that proves that we have ultimately achieved our goal as a community. With that considered, it is important that we invest and focus on services such as our library and recognize the importance of the grassroots fundraising efforts of others such as the Friends of the Battle Ground Library, led by Jane and Don Higgins, and their partnership they have achieved with the Gold Medal Group to bring a new, state of the art library to our community in the near future - A stellar investment towards the enrichment of our community.

I would be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to Thank our voters for supporting our community's youth though their approval of the School District Bond, through which, the Battle Ground School District will build and renovate the schools in our community beginning this spring.

It is also important that we invest in recreational opportunities for our youth, including those just young at heart. That said, we will be bringing a new skate park to Fairgrounds Park which will break ground this summer and a new Sports Complex in the near future. Jon Ciraulo and Andrew Kent are here today to showcase our aspiring youth in our community who will benefit from and appreciate these long-term investments in our community.

Our community's grandparents, who have seen tremendous change in Battle Ground, show their support for our leadership through their commitment as volunteers. Ruthie Brown and Louise Tucker are just two examples of the glue that binds our neighborhoods through their many volunteer capacities, including but not limited to the North County Food Bank, the Rose Float, the Senior Center and others. A testament to our community's vibrancy is the opportunities for people like Ruthie and Louise to engage in our community through meaningful volunteer posts, such as our Planning Commission and Parks Advisory Board (Mention their attendance)É

Certainly many of the things I have mentioned today, such as our investments, our growth, the countless volunteer hours, etc. have led to the success of our community. Together, we have made Battle Ground a city of progress and prosperity.

Thank you!