Mayor Mills delivers state of the city
I am excited to share with you all the many projects and accomplishments my office has been involved in this past year, and highlight the many projects that have been completed, are in process, and on the horizon.
Time sure does fly when you are having fun. Every day is a new adventure and opportunity for me to make our community a better place. I am truly humbled to be the mayor of my hometown for another four-year term and will continue to see the many projects and upgrades through, as well as come up with creative ideas to take Coshocton to the next level. I couldn’t do any of this without the support of the voters and want to begin with a big Thank You!
The wheels of progress are greased daily by my administrative staff, Max Crown, and Bob Beaumont, and I would also like to thank all department heads and staff that work hard every day to serve the residents of our great city. Thanks to my family as well for your patience and understanding and support during those complicated days I may have every once in a while. Thanks, Ginger, for always knowing what’s for dinner.
I would like to report to you that our city is in good financial shape with our general fund ending in the black at $1.52 million, despite an estimate from 2022 that predicted a deficit of nearly $500,000 for 2023. Income tax collections were up 5.3% for the year. This is a joint effort of successfully negotiating contracts, department heads spending funding wisely, merging a department with the county, the auditor making some great financial moves and just being fiscally conservative with your hard-earned tax dollars. It takes a team, and I am super thankful to be leading it. I am happy to report that I do take the city’s finances seriously and will make sound decisions to keep us afloat, through good times and not so good times.
Many projects were completed and started this year to improve infrastructure within our city. New waterlines and faucets were installed at South Lawn Cemetery by our cemetery department. In Roscoe Village, trees were removed, and brick sidewalks were repaired. The public works department replaced curbs and striped freshly paved Whitewoman Street. Our distribution department also started a $2.4 million dollar water meter replacement program, where every meter will be replaced, updating decades old equipment. With help from our government affairs team at Strategic Public Partners, we have secured $1 million for the Chestnut Street waterline repair, which will begin mid to late summer as well as over $10 million in funding from our state and federal partners to regionalize our water system further to our neighbors in Warsaw. We are in the preliminary stages of engineering to run water and sewer to Conesville, expediting the development of the former AEP site now owned by the Frontier Group. Within the next couple of years, you will notice upgrades to traffic signals, thanks to our partners at ODOT from the Small Cities grant totaling $1million. Late last year my administration proposed a storm water utility program and with council approval and the communities help, we will generate $600,000 to $700,000 to upgrade storm basins and piping that have been unimproved or nonexistent for a century.
Our crews will continue alley paving, another improvement that has waited roughly four decades. Funding has also been secured for a complete sidewalk on South Second Street from Vine Street (Dollar General) connecting to the new sidewalk on Browns Lane. Trees will also be improved around town thanks to the work of Deb Wallace and Tom Heading who helped secure a USDA Urban Forestry Grant.
Cleaning up Coshocton will always be a top priority of my administration, and with the hard work of my property code enforcement officer Mark Sharrock we towed more than 250 junk vehicles, cleaned up 20 properties, and mowed unkept properties 95 times, creating more than $25,000 in assessments that will be attached to property owners’ taxes. Multiple structures were razed with help from funding through the Coshocton Port Authority from the Ohio Department of Development. The city will continue to secure funding to demo both of our former glove factories. We will continue our pursuit to return our 1,000th Carnegie Library to public use and pursue owners of other vacant buildings to improve them or sell them to someone who will make them shine once more.
Housing development is something that hasn’t occurred in many years in our community. It is very exciting to see single family homes being built on once vacant lots, as well as second story apartments downtown. I am currently focused on a couple of areas within the city to make a large residential neighborhood a reality.
Downtown is coming alive again with building improvements, business expansions, activities, and entertainment. This year the Frew Building has gone through the renovation process with four commercial storefronts and 10 luxury apartments. The old Sue’s Hallmark (The Honey House) is nearing completion with two storefronts and five beautiful luxury apartments. Many businesses are continuing to thrive and invest in the downtown area, a fine example is Rust Decor. We established a community entertainment district downtown, opening up the possibilities of more restaurants. The Coshocton County Commissioners did an amazing job with the help of the Coshocton Foundation on the holiday light show, which will continue to grow each year. Last but certainly not least, the summer concert series. Our Town Coshocton and Councilman Johnson have done an amazing job booking and setting up some great entertainment, through funding from the Coshocton Foundation, (and local sponsors) that has brought our community together, and made us dance in the street, like never before.
One of the most time consuming yet rewarding projects I have been working on this year is for a piece of $500 million in funding through the Governor’s Office of Appalachia. The Coshocton Collaborative, which is located in the front portion of the former Pastime Theatre has been awarded $4.8 million in the first round of funding, in the second round Skip’s Landing with a complete downtown streetscape overhaul with a price tag of $15.8 million has been requested and we should find out very soon if our project will be awarded this much needed funding, along with a $9million request to finish out the Pastime Theatre downtown. This has truly been a team effort between the city, county, and port authority.
Our fire department upgraded equipment as well this year and has big plans for a training facility on Poplar Street Chief Dreher purchased a new SUV locally, which was also marked, and lighting was installed by a local company. A drone was purchased with help from the Coshocton Foundation and has already been put into service. They answered 560 calls for service.
We have always known our area is a beautiful place, this year it was solidified by a couple of great accomplishments. Coshocton was one of five communities awarded with the Scenic Ohio Award, which awards communities who work to improve the visual qualities, distinctive culture, and historical character. Madison Miller was named Miss Ohio this year and represented Coshocton and Ohio amazingly on the national stage at Miss America.
I could talk for hours on the great things going on within our community and may have forgot to mention a person or organization, so if I have, thanks for your commitment to making our area great and I am looking forward to working with everyone to continue the progress. Please remember I cannot fix everything that has been neglected for decades, I am not perfect, and will always be a work in progress, just like my hometown.
Category: Government
