I had the honor to give the State of the City address last night, my fourth such speech. My thanks to the Board of Trade, who sponsor the event annually. I have attached the speech as a pdf, but will try to highlight some key points here. Despite the imposition of a mid year cut of about $680,000 from the State Methuen will have no layoffs in FY 2009. That is a huge achievement, and will be achieved through painful cuts for the rest of the fiscal year. I will be able to list the departmental cuts by the first City Council meeting in March. I have also, for FY2009, exempted both the Methuen Senior Center and the Nevins Library from the potential for cuts. A note of thanks to Methuen’s Firefighters Union, who have allowed me to take some steps outside of their collective bargaining unit that will save the City money on overtime.
I was able to announce the purchase of six new police vehicles last night. We have started the paperwork for this purchase, and I hope to have new line vehicles in place shortly. Chief Lavigne and Patrolman’s Union President Larry May deserve credit for working so hard on this issue.

Methuen’s High School project was discussed, and I announced that I have submitted a $2 million dollar loan order for City Council approval for this coming Tuesday. This initial funding request, which will be re-imbursed by the Massachusetts School Building Authority at a rate of 61.26%, will enable Methuen to get through the schematic design phase of this project. Our Building Committee, headed by Suzanne Lamoureux, has hired the Owners Project Manager for this project, KBA/Trident. I have also submitted to City Council a contract for the services of KBA/Trident, as well as the school building agreement between the City and the M.S.B.A. My thanks to Suzanne for all of her hard work already, (with much more to come) and a big thank you to State Treasurer Tim Cahill and M.S.B.A. Executive Director Katherine Craven, who have been outstanding in their professional support for this project.

The speech discusses our very large hole in the FY2010 budget, with the State imposing another cut of about $1.9 million, which would drive our budget shortfall to about $2.5 million. We will work with the unions to develop proposals to help to shorten that gap, with all aspects of municipal compensation outside of base salary on the table for discussion.

Let me know if you have any questions, criticisms, or concerns.

state-of-the-city-address-09