2024 State of The City Address

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joint meeting of the city council and school committee will come to order clerk will call the RO Council kadim here Deon here har here kby here here Pony here Roso here Samson here president CRA here pursuing to the open meeting law any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit this meeting through any medium attendees are therefore advis that such recordings or

Transmissions are being made whether perceived or unperceived by those present and not deemed acknowledged and permissible school committee would please call rooll thank you I'd like to open this joint meeting of the city council and school committee Deb can we get a rooll Mr Agia Mr Bailey here Mr Cory here M larv here M Pereira here Mr Rodrick mayor cougan thank you we'll begin with the state of the

city Address given by mayor The Honorable Paul

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great so let's go good evening council president honorable members of the council and school committee state auditor daglia members of our State Legislative delegation Sheriff hu register ad Deeds BJ McDonald it is my pleasure to be with you this evening as I deliver this year's state of the city thank you to the members of our business Community our city department heads our division managers our board

and commission members and residents who are joining us here tonight thank you all for being a part of the extended for of a team that works day in and day out on common goals and Creative Solutions to move our city forward I am also extremely grateful for my partners in government our federal delegation Senators Marky and Warren and representative Jake Ashen Claus to that end I want to make an off the Record

announcement we've just received two earmarks from the federal government $1.6 million for Pleasant Street Renovations and $960,000 for the fery street Pump Station money that doesn't go to taxpayers we just received notification today our governor morah and lieutenant governor Kim Driscoll and our state delegation that I work with extremely closely uh Senator Michael Rodricks and our Representatives Carol Fiola Alan

Sylvia and Paul Schmidt and of course our school committee our city council and our city employees I also want to acknowledge our Public Safety team was with us tonight police chief Paul Garvin fire chief Jeff bacon EMS director Tim Olivera and EMA director Rick agar together we continue to work to address public safety concerns within our community on a personal note I want to

thank all my supporters my family and of course my wife Judy for all her love and support she's my partner and there is no way I could do this job without her support as many of you in this room know there's a new Buzz surrounding Fall River over the last several years we have experienced unprecedented growth and renewed in interest in our community the change is visible with major major residential and Commercial

infrastructure projects going on across the city Fall River is recognized for its potential and it has been my honor to serve as mayor during this important time in our history we have seen our rainy day funds grow from 10 million when I took office in 2020 to to $26 million today that is an increase of over $15 million our Moody credit rating is at A3 stable the word stable designates a

positive change that reflects our improved Financial Health working together with our finance team our goal is to increase fund balances while paying down outstanding debt to continue to improve our future credit rating we know that the cost of living has been steadily climbing in Fall River as it has across the country and it is my promise to taxpayers that my Administration will continue to do all

we can to reduce the burden on them arpa funding has been crucial to improve city services without increasing the financial burden on residents of the 69 million received in our federal arpa funds all has been committed to Public Health initiatives assistance to households small businesses and nonprofits our public sector initiatives our upgrades in water and sewer infrastructure and Municipal Improvement

projects across the city and I also want to thank the city council for working together with our Administration to create a cohesive and strategic plan for the $16 million for we received in arpa funds from Bristol County thank you guys our new growth numbers have remained positive there there are well over a thousand residential units under construction are in the permitting process revenue from building permits to

date is over 690,000 which which puts us on target to surpass last year's numbers for years the city has been faced with many abandoned Mill buildings and other properties that are Public Safety hazards these buildings like the Mills on house Street Alden Street Chase Street are now being converted into beautiful new residential units in addition the Community Development agency has continued their

efforts to add up to Affordable H housing stock with 54 units that have recently come online these projects will continue with private investment to grow our Workforce housing stock our economic growth is due in large part to an increased interest in investment from developers both locally and Statewide they see for River's potential and they are investing in our future and investment is not just limited to

housing new and existing companies are seeking space and Fall River to build or expand their current operations this is thanks to our City's reputation as an affordable Community with topnotch dedicated Workforce for example inigin Pharmaceuticals in addition to investing 5.7 million in their existing facility they recently made plans to expand to a second location on Airport Road this Pro

project is a $2 million investment that will create 20 30 to 50 jobs over the next eight years nant Tucket Sound Seafood officially opened its doors in the fall of 23 they currently employ between 45 to 55 people in the processing plant an ice cube currently occupies an 880,000 square foot facility on current road and recently purchased 24 acres of land to construct a new 200 200,000 squ foot building this new

facility will reflect a $20 million investment and will employ about 35 people additionally other projects in the work include expansion of South Coast hospitals teos expansion on Pleasant Street as well as a new 100,000 sq foot business condominium complex on a street and the renovation of mixed use buildings on toy Troy Street in addition small businesses are springing up in all corners of our

city to meet the needs of our growing Community we must continue to maintain and invest in infrastructure projects to that end we have received in the past 5 years almost $70 million in alternative funding from Grants principal reductions on loan or state and federal earmarks resulting in funds our rate payers do not need to pay back we have moved into our new water maintenance facility on

Bedford Street and have completed the Wilson Road drinking water and wastewater station plus we have completed the replacement of 481 lead service lines this year last year with an additional 600 planned for this year approximately 18,000 Square ft of water mains have been replaced and also including at the same time we're reconstructing the streets and the sidewalks for 2024 my Administration has

committed 3.9 million for Road reconstruction projects and $624,000 to complete sidewalk Replacements we have also committed $2.5 million of arpa money in funding to transform Oak grve Avenue and Jefferson Street two streets in need of much repair also with arpa funding we have added street sweepers a graffiti removal machine and infrared hot boxes to repair potholes and trenches in our

roads and over 300 tree stumps have been removed from Parks and neighborhoods throughout the city that project will also continue this year our Parks have seen much needed improvements the cougan administration and CDA will be adding new playground equipment at Columbus Park and we have already constructed new tennis pickle ball and volleyball courts at Kennedy britland Park now has new basketball

courts pickle ball courts and a brand new fitness center two of the biggest infrastructure projects in Fall River's recent history are the South Coast Rail Project and the 100 35 million Route 79 Deval Street project which will transform our Waterfront and bring even more investment into the community except for the East Taunton Station South Coast rail construction will be substantially completed this

month the Fall River Line Construction has been done for some time but there REM remains testing to be done to ensure safe and reliable service the summer of 24 is now the target for service to start the project has been a catalyst for economic growth grow and renewed interest in our city and the for of Redevelopment Authority received a planning Grant from the state to help support the

development of a master plan for those 19 Acres created by the removal of Route 79 the master plan will include proposals for housing commercial and Retail development as well as parking and we are already witnessing growth on the waterfront with the addition of two new restaurants coming this summer we're taking steps to improve the the availability of Transportation on our Waterfront with the addition of our

trolley service and our water taxi this will allow visitors to visit the Waterfront and connect to downtown the trolley service was made possible by funding from the Massachusetts office of travel and tourism and some aror money the goal of the trolley service is to boost tourism in Fall River by highlighting the different historical cultural and recreational attractions that make this city so

unique on the waterfront improvements continued at Norton City Pier a dock system has been constructed that will accommodate up to 14 boats and that was funded in part by a grant from the seaport Economic Council the docks will be open for transient dockage in May and the addition of three moing fields that Northfield point also part of the City Pier project will offer informal walking

path places for recreational fishing and opportunities to sit and relax by the water the Redevelopment authorities working on plans for expansion of the downtown historic district to South Main Street documents have been submitted to the state's historical commission to propose this expansion and a task force continues to work with a consultant to create this new District sorry a draft urban renewal plan and

road map for neighborhood revitalization in the Flint has been in the work since 2022 and it will be submitted to the city council and state agencies for approval recommendations will be provided for addressing vacant properties improving streets and sidewalks new stores restaurants and improved housing opportunities on Pleasant Street the plans have begun with a major facelift of several storefronts on

Pleasant Street through a storefront Improvement program administered by Fall Rivers Community Development agency Rehabilitation of properties in the Flint are expected to yield over 200 additional housing units and of course everything mentioned thus far matters little if our residents business owners and visitors do not feel safe in our community Public Safety must be a top priority and making certain

that our Public Safety officials have the necessary state-of-the-art tools to perform their jobs is critically important I am pleased to say that the for River Police Department received their fifth award for national accreditation in November of 23 and reviewing the crime data for 22 and 23 crime has gone down by 23.6% the F frpd have added 51 new officers to their ranks since 2021 and

in order to ass assist with their recruitment the city in 23 began to offer an incentive to cover the cost of training and equipment for our recruits and the fpd has seen the full implementation of body warn cameras this initiative has resulted in the number of complaints being filed against our officers and the department by 50% since 2022 arpa was used to purchase those body cameras tasers camera systems and

cell phone technology which has allowed the F frpd to keep our 10-year murder clearance rate at 100% and thanks to our federal Cara Grant the city has created the first ever co-response program fast that provides a full-time mental health condition condition and Recovery coach to work along side the police when dealing with mental health or substance abuse calls this has proven to be a very

effective way of responding to mental health and substance abuse incidents having a professional to handle mental health and substance abuse issues has been essential in giving our officers more time to stay on

patrol the fast team so far has received 558 referrals for mental health or substance issues and provided services to 448 individuals with the commitment compassion and dedication of these hardworking individuals involved in the battle against opioids I am pleased to inform you that we have seen a decrease in overdoses in our city in 2018 there were over a thousand overdoses in 2023 we saw less than 500 that's

awesome we have also seen a substantial decrease in fatal overdoses as well in July of 23 the city launched the first ever database that joins calls from police EMS into one location to track the number of those suffering from mental health and substance abuse the city of Fall River received a $1 million opioid settlement funding Grant and we have created a 10p person opioid advisory committee made up of

individuals from multiple sectors throughout our community the committee will make recommendations to the mayor and the city council about how best to use these funds and my commitment is the majority of this funding will stay with Fall River residents to allow them to receive the benefits our the fire department like our Police Department also has a new Chief and thanks to oper and CDA funding we've been able to

purchase a new command vehicle a new forestry firefighting truck which will be utilized utilized to fight br and Wildland fires in and around the city while two new apparatus a pump and a ladder are in order upgrades to firehouses have also been made and we've renovated some old backup pieces also the Emergency Medical Services has upgraded all ambulances with state-of-the-art cardiac monitors they

have also started an accredited EMT school to engage our residents interested in public safety and Medicine EMS Community medicine team has been has collaborated with us school department to create a vaccination program for students the first of its kind in the state this program has allowed enrolled students to be able to start school at a much quicker timeline than in the past another partner in a reference to

better serve our community has of course been our school department they have done a tremendous job adapting to changing conditions of learning after covid we are investing in better facilities and better resources to support our students but first I want to thank our superintendent Maria Pon for many years of dedicated service to the fora public schools and I want to wish her the very best

to I'm going to miss her today our enrollment is at 11,000 students an increase of over a thousand students since 2021 while other districts are losing students Fall River continues to grow I am happy to report on the progress in our schools which is all made possible by the hard work and commitment of the staff of the for public schools and we are seeing it every day we have a 12% decrease in our

chronic absenteeism rates we now have a 91% teacher retention rate we have added 69 prek seats for the 2324 school year and 64 positions have been added over the last four years to support the growing social and emotional needs of our students the PACE Center is all offering classes to parents of ESL and our family Academy series is fostering relationships between families and schools across the

district I'm especially pleased to announce that dery's early college program has successfully helped students earn over 2,000 college credits from our three Partners at Bridgewater State University UMass Dartmouth and Bristol Community College and

most and most of the students in the early college program enter College one or two semesters ahead of typical students and are more likely to pursue higher education than a state average with arpa funding the Fara public Li library now has a bookmobile the goal of the book mobile is in to increase visibility for and access to library Services Reading Is Fundamental to our youth and having a mobile library is

crucial to expand access to more of our residents and it's already been out across the district and of course we wouldn't be here today talking about these issues without the brave sacrifice that generations of men and women have made to protect our freedoms the city's veteran service office serves over 200 veteran families and over a thousand veterans receive VA benefits the department has recently

revamped the city's van service and has doubled the number of rides given assisting over a thousand people and this year we have added several events for our veteran Community making sure we memorialize our braved armed forces and ensure that veterans have what they need around the holidays we have also connected with veterans Transitional services to help with placement and employment opportunities for

veterans and to that end using Bristol County Opera money the city council allocated $250,000 to increase the veterans assistant program to help veterans in need of utilities rent transportation and food support the city of Fall River like many other communities still faces a whole host of serious challenges like identifying funding for the new diamond combating homelessness creating more

affordable housing and addressing addressing the potential sale of our only for-profit Hospital St ANS these are a few of my administration's priority matters but most of these challenges are not unique to our community we will continue to look for the best practices in other municipalities and we will continue to collaborate with our federal state county and local government officials to find

Solutions the state of our city is very strong new businesses Industries and investors are choosing Fall River bringing well-paying jobs that will sustain our residents for years to come our streets and recreational spaces are one by one being improved so that we may all live in a city we're proud of our recovery from Decades of economic trouble is happening right before our eyes and Arch and culture is breathing

new life into our community our schools are making great strides and our Waterfront along with our downtown and Pleasant Street will soon be transformed I urge all of you to trust in a brighter tomorrow for Fall River and to treat others with respect and dignity as we go forward I once again promise that I will continue to work hard act out of my deep love for the city and commit my Administration to

integrity and transparency I will continue to turn to our tremendous leaders like the people in this room for their guidance and support I am truly honored to lead the city of Fall River and I thank you for your Relentless faith in my leadership I look forward to another year of continued growth and progress good night and God bless the great city of Fall River thank you

thank you at least I got rid of

Paul my mom put this ice Cofe she brought an ice coffee and MIM said I now ask the school committee to I am your viair proceed in the journal I will I move to I ask for a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second all in favor I motion to adjourn motion is made in second and all in favor I any opposed motion carries this meeting is now adjourned and the next meeting will begin in five

minutes