A State of Recovery and a Renaissance
By Robin Vinci | Editor at March 10, 2024 | 6:30 pm | Print
Mayor Stewart Delivers Enthusiastic State of the City
Mayor Erin Stewart presented the first ever State of the City address given electronically on Wednesday night.
“We are on the way to a new place: a state of recovery and a renaissance. New Britain is rising! The state of the city is strong and we have a front row seat to watch its rebirth,” said Stewart. “The courage and will to tackle tough decisions is being accomplished by a team of dedicated public servants who join me in our passion to put New Britain back on track.”
The Mayor first mentioned the budget and the rainy day fund saying the City had $14.9 million in the bank and more savings to come.
“That money is our safety net, an emergency reserve that we hope to never touch. Our goal is to maintain a safe yield of 10 percent of the city’s total budget in savings, but we aren’t there yet. Much like maintaining a personal savings account, the city needs to do the same. And prevent what was happening before – wasteful spending,” she said. “We have been steadily building a foundation of solid financial practices. It started with pulling apart a budget full of extras. We reduced nearly 20 percent of the city budget, raised revenues and worked with our union brothers and sisters to find concrete solutions. These were not easy choices but necessary and lasting ones – ones that worked and continue to work to this day.”
Mayor Stewart spoke about her vision highlighting five key principles.
- Being fiscally responsible;
- Being transparent in all of our dealings;
- Ensuring our children have access to the education they deserve;
- Enabling New Britain to truly be “open for business”; and
- Delivering the leadership needed to be most responsive to our residents.
“I will continue to keep that vision alive with the help of our City Council,” she said. “Communication is key and for that I will always invite everyone to have a seat at my table.”
She then focused on economic development. She highlighted such businesses as Frisbees on Farmington Ave., Polymer Precision and Admill Machine.
She said, “The rebirth of New Britain will be marked by our ability to transform our old buildings, and find adequate adaptive reuses for them.”
She said no longer did the City have to settle.
“No longer should we let people look at investing in our city any differently - than they would look at investing in our neighboring towns - we deserve the best development for that space and I’m going to make sure that we get it,” Stewart added.
Ribbons have been cut on 34 new businesses and the creation of about 683 new job took place in the past few years.
Stewart told the audience that a new and improved Central Park is going to allow pedestrians to walk and enjoy downtown.
“I have created the Mayor’s energy and innovation committee to oversee New Britain’s SMART city initiative. This group will help transform the old hardware city into a new and improved “Hardware” city. We have begun many projects that all aim to save the city money in our energy costs and reduce our carbon footprint. We are aiming to be a model for the entire state,” Stewart said. “While the energy & innovation committee is exciting, we can’t forget about basic human services. A labor of love which is near to my heart is also moving ahead. Building Hope Together - New Britain’s work plan to end homelessness is now in its 9th year - and after we took the plan - overhauled old practices and brought new ones in, we are seeing the benefits.”
Stewart said although the City has a lot to offer, it has to be careful.
“Our financial house may be in order but we are definitely not out of the woods yet,” she concluded. “We need to stay smart and stay the course on not spending more than we make. We are in this together and will continue to make tough choices for the greater good of the community.”
“I think it is great to use mechanisms like Youtube videos and social media to reach out to citizens. It goes to show how and transparent this administration is,” said Ald. Jamie Giantonio. “I think we are moving in the right direction. We have surpluses and new businesses coming into town. Things are on the right path.”
