2022 State of the City
2022 STATE OF THE CITY
Presented by Mayor David Rhoads
February 28, 2022
2021 STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS
Presented by Mayor David Rhoads
February 28, 2022
Good evening. As I begin my State of the City address after completing my second year as Mayor of the City of Washington, I see many things within our community that continued to move forward in 2021. I will be addressing a few of them throughout my address.
As most everyone knows from last year’s report, this administration had acquired two major projects. The first being the Business 50 Project. This project started with Phase I, on the eastside section roundabout, which had already been completed. Phase II, the westside section of this project. This portion began at S.E. 3rd Street and proceeded west stopping near 900 W. National Hwy. In March 2020 we began the bid process for the $4.2 million dollar project. In April 2020 the city was awarded $408,302 from the Community Crossings Matching Grant funds. The project got underway in June 2020 and was completed in October 2021.
The next major project was the completion of the $1.7 million dollar Wastewater Phosphorus Removal facility, completed in July 2021. Both projects came in under budget, but with that said, we are unfortunately facing other costly upgrades to this facility that have been neglected for several years.
Other 2021 Projects: The completion of the Combined Dispatch Agreement was implemented on January 1st,2022. The downtown Commons Project is underway with the design process, the demolition of the Napa building, and the laundromat relocation. There were a few other business projects and relocations that took place in 2021 as well.
* True Scripts Expansion * Main Street Nutrition new location * It’s A Wonderful Life relocation * Daviess County Museum Expansion * Bowling Alley re-construction * CSX Railroad - 12 new constructed crossings * Street paving totaling another $350,000 in 2021 * Sidewalk Replacement Program is still vital to our citizens * Domino’s Pizza New Building
* Daily’s Furniture expansion * New Pickleball courts at Longfellow Park * William’s Bros. True Rx * New Dog Park at South Park * New Salt Barn
As you see we continue to be very busy in 2021 accomplishing more of the goals I had after taking office. We will continue to make great strides going into 2022 and in the coming years helping to improve our community.
Next are some brief highlights from the department annual reports that I wanted to share. This is just a small portion of their accomplishments throughout 2021. If you would like a completed copy of the Department Head’s Annual Reports for 2021, please let my office know. We will be happy to make that happen.
* Animal Control Dept. - 700 animals were brought into the facility in 2021, with 55% coming from the City of Washington and 45% from surrounding areas. There were 34 dogs and cats adopted out from the shelter, and an additional 222 dogs and 27 cats were sent to rescue.
* Electric Dept. - continues to upgrade our city’s current electric grid and with the current Highway 50 Project, the relocation of existing power lines, and the installation of a 3 phase for a new business on highway 257 and the I-69 area, the projects totaled approximately $300,000 combined. A new dedicated line will be completed for the Industrial Park area this spring which will help eliminate power outages that could cost our commercial customers money in their everyday business operations. With IMPA’s help we were able to change out the thirty-six-year-old main breaker on 21st Street. This will solve problems with power outages that we have had over the past several years.
* Fire Dept. - responded to 822 runs in 2021; 458 being EMS related, 146 fire alarms, 37 vehicle accidents,29 public service calls and 155 other related runs. The fire department completed 1100 hours of fire training which included 3 firefighters attending rope rescue technician class in Indianapolis.
* Parks Dept.- as always, the park crew was very busy again in 2021, not to mention the daily maintenance of the parks, Eastside, Longfellow and South Park which consists of cleaning, mowing, trimming, trash control etc. They also manage to help the Rotary Club with their Annual Cherry Tree Event. There were 25 additional Cherry Trees planted throughout the park in 2021. Of course, at Christmas time they work hard on the decorating and hung 85,000+ lights throughout the park. The department hosted several events in 2021, which are always a big hit! A few of those being Food Truck Tuesday’s, the 4th of July Celebration and Christmas in the Park. Also, in 2021 the Eastside Park parking lot was completely re-paved, the park office and Community Building roofs were replaced. New Pickleball Courts were added with 8 playing services and a new Dog Park was completed at South Park. This crew also maintains the operations and grounds for the Waterpark during the summer season which re-opened in 2021 after being closed due to COVID in 2020.
* Police Dept. –in 2021 officers responded to 14,076 complaints, 1,330- 911 calls, 666 EMS calls, 475 accidents, 1,020 total arrests with 1,507 charges filed and 3074 total tickets issued. The Assistant Chief’s report showed he had 61.95 training hours, secured over $16,000 in two different grants, and made 5 trips to the Evansville ISP to transport evidence. The Detective Division has 3 detectives and they logged 368.5 hours of continuing education, worked 211 investigations, and completed 204 arrests at a 96.6% rate. They had 17 callouts working 872 combined overtime hours and a total of 430 training hours. Detective Sergeant Garland continues working with the DEA Task Force logging 588 hours overtime in 2021 that led to the seizure of multiple amounts of drugs that were likely to supply Daviess County. Total training hours was 3,434.
* Street, MVH Depts. – the crews continue to provide a great service to the citizens keeping the city clean from trash, leaves, limbs, and all other household waste. In 2021 we continued with approximately $350,000 in street paving, re-striped Main Street and crosswalks helping to keep the downtown area safe as well as clean and fresh for potential businesses. A new salt barn was constructed at a cost of $150,000 as well as updating the current breakroom and shop area to a more efficient usage of storage and workspace. Also, in 2021 for the first time, the city began preservation treatments on newly paved streets. Approximately 6.4 miles of crack seal was put in place on city streets.
*Garbage & Trash- In 2021 we continued to provide a great service to our citizens, with providing services of limb removal, leaf collection as well as collecting 147 Christmas trees to be used in local ponds. 280 tons of grass was recycled, 428 tons of wood chip and 243 tons of compost. 769 trips were made to the landfill with 5130 tons of household trash. All done with a budget balance of 8.6%. It was a great management of their budget.
* Transit Dept. – Last year GPS was installed on all 3 buses last year giving dispatch real time data on the location of the bus while improving the safety of the driver and passengers. There were 247 operating days logged and a total of 7928 riders. This was up slightly in 2021, Covid-19 has impacted daily transit routines.
* Recycle Dept. - 7465 residents and businesses utilized the recycling center in 2021. This was up 134 customers from 2020 with appx. 85 tons of cardboard, plastics, paper, books, steel, aluminum cans and newspapers collected. All kept from going to the landfill, which was down slightly from 2020.
*Stormwater Dept.- Completed 5 projects in 2021, at an approximate cost of $45,000. They also kept busy with their everyday CSO work schedule, which consists of lift station repairs, sinkhole repairs, manholes, sewer cleanouts, jet vac mains, catch basin cleanouts, wetland maintenance etc. They recorded 161 overtime callouts with a total of 376-man hours in 2021. The street sweeper collected 294 loads, maintaining 3,554 miles of city streets.
* Utilities Office. - there were 98,466 bills processed in this department. They continue to log gas and diesel usage for off road fuel tax refunds totally $4562.44 going back to the city. The Utility office wrote off $78,051.14 in uncollectable accounts for 2014, 2015, 2016 which includes accidents, bankruptcies, and deceased customers’ accounts. $3719.38 collected in small claim court and sewer liens and they recovered $4432.66 in small claims, $10,59.46 in sewer bills, and $1734.93 in outstanding accounts. Credit cards had a 35% increase in use from 2020. Also collected was $34,250.89 in Trecs (Tax refund exchange and compliance system) in 2021.
* Water Dept. – In 2021 there were several maintenance issues addressed, the installation of a new roof on the water plant, and on the lower administration/ shop building that was overdue. There were also 34 normal leaks and the installation of 39 new services lines and the replacement of 6 valves. Well field maintenance and cleaning of the south well fields and was also completed.
* HHW Dept. - in 2021 the COVID-19 pandemic dampened our ways of doing business and reflected our ability of how we disposed of the HHW products but saying that we still handled 47.538 tons total of hazard waste which is about half of 2020 numbers. This service that we provide for our community cost us approximately $31,000.00 to ship out chemicals, but the most important part of this service is keeping this product out of our local landfill.
* Wastewater/Stormwater Dept. - This report is like so many other departments with this year’s COVID-19 with maintenance being a key component; with the retirement of our wastewater superintendent in October, the city is dealing with several issues by re-structuring the department. We needed to process 220,000 pounds of sludge so that we can manage this product with our own centrifuge. We repaired 4 water leaks on the property that will save the department roughly $4,000 a month in utility savings. We started an electrical maintenance upgrade program that should help reduce equipment failures. We have contacted our maintenance provider for a 3-year plan to bring the Wetlands up to current standards with IDEM. This is all costly but very much needed or required. With this all said, we completed the new wastewater facility and moved into it in June 2021.
* Building Commissioner - as I highlight this report, 2021 was a productive year with permits totaling 323, 32 new home constructions, with an additional 44 home additions and a total of 10 commercial buildings with an estimated value of 4.8 million dollars. This was the eighth year of the sidewalk program with an increase to 13 residents taking advantage of this program with a total cost share split of $52,426.17 dollars. Over 250 inspections were made, and this department did 30 demolition permits in 2021. These are just a few things that were accomplished in Washington 2021. Not counting the work, we do for Daviess County with issuing another 129 permits.
* Code Enforcement – Again this is a thankless job and Brandt has done a great job. There were 974 clean-up orders, 642 done by our citizens and 232 completed by our street department. We had 285 trash orders. I think this shows our dedication in keeping Washington a cleaner and “better place to live”. He issued 255 abandoned vehicle notices with only 11 having to be towed, this showing we are continuing to clean the city up.
* I.T Dept.- had 5 major projects in 2021 which included a City Hall and Utility Office project which was quite extensive. This makes dealing with the everyday needs from all departments throughout the city quite demanding. We also hired new I.T. director.
Throughout my State of the City address we continued talking about COVID-19 which began in late February 2020. It is something that I never could have seen coming and couldn’t imagine that after two years we would still be dealing with it. There were over 140 Daviess County citizens that lost their life due to COVID-19, but we continue working hard through these challenges. I look for big things happening in 2022 for the City of Washington.
Thank you to our City Council, Board of Public Works & Safety, our Clerk Treasurer, and her staff and to our City Attorney for their support. I would also like to give a big thanks to all my Department Heads, as well as all our city employees who all serve this community so well. A continued thank you goes out to my wife Darlene and all my family for their continuing support.
I truly believe in our community and its future and will continue to work with state and county government for our citizens in 2022. Let us ALL truly believe in our community, with all of us “Working for a better Washington”. May God continue to bless the City of Washington and the United States of America.
Mayor David E. Rhoads
City of Washington, Indiana
