Gravette State of the City Address

Gravette Mayor Byron Warren gave the following State of the City address at the February regular meeting of the Gravette City Council:

"To the Honorable Gravette City Council and Recorder Mike Von Ree, thank you for joining me tonight.

The new year here in the City of Gravette, the place we call home, has already started out with hard tasks. Electrical storms recently took out our water lines and snow storms continue to slow down our roads. I am proud to say, however, that as a city we've handled the adversities well, and will continue to do so. Without the support of our city council, staff and citizens our workers would not be able to get the job done.

Looking back at 2013 the city had many challenges also. We experienced unexpected staff changes. We endured incessant downpours that resulted in thousands of dollars of damage to the roads east of town. But not all of 2013 was discouraging; we welcomed two new faces to our city council, we hired a police chief and sergeant. The Water Department made great strides upgrading more water lines and diligently continued work to the sewer plant and also in the field by adding new sewer lines to the system. The Street and Parks Departments worked a massive cleanup from the storms and are currently performing preventive maintenance in preparation for any future heavy rains. In addition, the city built the new skate park for the kids and had another successful season at our local city pool. This past year we also presented a fireworks show featuring a live band and served free hotdogs in the park. The city hosted a watermelon feed in the park along with some good old-time country music to celebrate friendship and trust among our neighbors which I feel is what our community is all about. The library's gala was a great success in raising monies for our new library/technology center.

After looking back at 2013 I am pleased the city accomplished a multitude of great projects, and we continue to forge new and exciting paths to a more prosperous Gravette. During the past month and a half I have appreciated the opportunity to sit with and observe our City Council. As Mayor of this fine city I feel like, for the first time in a long time, city officials are working in unison, welcoming positive debate and open dialogue. Every day this city has to learn how to face new challenges as our borders have grown extensively. I am grateful and proud that Gravette has a wonderful and professional working planning commission that is willing to ensure our standards and ordinances are up to code as we determine to manage this new growth.

Though it has taken a bit of time to find everyone's roles and everyone's strengths within the city, the moment has finally arrived where there is open communication between groups in our community who have committed to work together for Gravette and to secure its community pride.

It is an honor to serve as your Mayor in 2014. I look forward to building up Gravette infrastructure. Evermore I look forward to building up our communications with our citizens and civic organizations. Most of all, however, I look forward to building our community to the envy of Northwest Arkansas.