The following is the text of the speech given by Mayor Bruce Chuluda at his inauguration Monday night.
Good evening everyone. Welcome Reverend Delong. Thank you for your spiritual words. Welcome elected officials, both past and present. A warm welcome to my family and to the families of those taking office this evening, and welcome to you, our audience, honored guests and friends. It is a great privilege to stand before you this evening, having taken the oath of office to serve as your mayor for another two years. Once again, I thank you for your support. I am humbled by it and will work diligently to reward your faith in me and my administration.
Tonight we cap off what I consider to be two very successful years in the rich history of our great city, and we embark upon what I expect to be two more years of working together to keep Westbrook the city all of you want it to be. I’m going to first take a moment to thank a few people who are leaving elected office and then I’ll speak a little bit about our recent successes and some of the challenges we face in the coming months and years.
I’d like to thank Jim Violette for his leadership as City Council president for the past six years and I’d also like to thank Ann Peoples for her service as City Councilor. Our city owes these two individuals a debt of gratitude for the time and energy they provided to us. Thanks also go to Cheryl Roma for her service to the School Committee. Working to preserve and improve the quality of education for our young people is something that we all want and Cheryl did an excellent job during her time on the School Committee.
This evening we have once again sworn in a new City Council and a new School Committee. Fortunately, we have many returning elected officials who I’m sure will help the new members get familiar with the challenges ahead. I look forward to working closely with the City Council and the School Department to keep Westbrook moving in a positive direction and ultimately, serving you, our residents. We are here to make the best decisions possible in an effort to serve the greatest numbers. I’ve governed under that premise for the past two years and will continue to do.
Let’s take a quick look at the past two years. We have much to be thankful for in Westbrook. The last two years have been an exciting time of opportunity. We have seen continued growth in our downtown with the renovations of the former Sebago Shoe and Stockhouse 5 buildings, and the reconstruction work currently underway at the former Warren Furniture building. The economic development in our downtown has been steady and sure, moving at a pace that allows for growth in a manageable fashion.
In the last two years we have seen many successes in commercial growth throughout our city. In 2004 and 2005 combined, we granted over 20 million dollars in commercial permits. These successes allow us to continue to diversify our tax base and bring strength to our community. A strong and successful business community is a key element in continuing to move Westbrook forward.
I am pleased to report that Westbrook was one of only a handful of communities in Maine to provide some modicum of property tax relief to its residents last year. Although there is still much to do in this area, we took a step forward in our last budget and we will continue to look at responsible spending in this year’s budget. I want to thank our City Council and our department heads for their hard work and I look forward to working with the new council in this year’s budget process.
We are truly living in an exciting time for Westbrook. As Greater Portland and the entire state of Maine seek to find ways to bring economic vibrancy to the region, Westbrook is poised to be a major player in this effort. Our geography makes us truly the heart of the Greater Portland region. We must use this advantage to attract new business that creates quality jobs for our residents and plays a role in strengthening our city.
Our goals for the next two years remain essentially the same. Our vision for Westbrook continues to be to keep our city economically vibrant and affordable. We must work to broaden the city’s commercial tax base, reducing our dependency on residential property taxes. We must continue to thoroughly analyze our budget, seeking to find areas where we can streamline and perhaps further consolidate not only departments but also how we provide services to you, our residents. We must do all this while maintaining our commitment to continue to provide the quality city services that we have all come to depend upon.
We must continue to encourage responsible residential development that fosters growth across the economic spectrum. This growth must be consistent with our comprehensive plan and it must meet the straight face test. We must continue to foster strong relationships between our city, the Westbrook Housing Authority, PROP and private property owners to create affordable new housing. This challenge may be our most pressing and our most difficult, but we must meet it head on for our city to continue to move forward.
Lastly, we will continue to provide an open government where our actions are transparent and our residents have confidence that they have the access they need to address issues and concerns. I will continue to hold Saturday morning office hours the first Saturday of every month and I will host my monthly call-in show on our cable TV channel to help keep you informed.
Pursuant to our city charter and as a part of my duties this evening, I am pleased to make the following annual mayoral appointments to the following administrative offices: City Administrator, Jerre Bryant; City Assessor, Elizabeth Sawyer; Police Chief, Paul McCarthy; Fire Chief, Gary Littlefield; Director of Public Services, Tom Eldridge; City Engineer, Eric Dudley; City Planner, Brooks More; City Solicitor, William Dale; Code Enforcement Officer, Richard Gouzie; Director of Economic & Community Development, Erik Carson; Director of Emergency Management, Ron Jones; Director of Finance, Susan Rossignol; Director of Human Resources, Tina Crellin; Director of Recreation, Randy Peters and Electrical Inspector, Stephen Corey
I’m pleased to have such a distinguished group working for our city.
I’d like to finish this evening by letting everyone know that I will be forming a broad based community committee to study the present Wescott Junior High School facility in an effort to determine its possible use if turned over to the city. This possibility comes about because Westbrook has been rated as the ninth most in need of a new school in the state. We have a great opportunity in front of us as we look at what to do with our present junior high and work towards planning for possibly a new building for our students. More info will be forthcoming. And finally, we are planning for an Inaugural Gala to be held on Feb. 11. There will be more information on that soon.
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