In the Town of Cary we enter 2007 with great optimism. Our sense of community is strong, just read the N&O blogs and you can see how united our parents are over MYR; our quality of life is vibrant; our economy is growing; and together we can celebrate the success of the town we call home.
What makes Cary a great community in which to live, work, and raise a family?
For our children, it's the opportunity to play in acres of parks and participate in a variety of recreational opportunities, and to attend schools in one of the nation's top-rated educational systems. If your children are here long enough, our county's regular redistricting will allow them to attend many such schools. They will also benefit from the opportunity to become more independent as our new MYR format will reduce the time they have to spend with their own families.
For singles and parents alike, it's the opportunity to build rewarding careers, enjoy safe neighborhoods, indulge in great shopping and restaurants, and live in a community with expanding cultural and entertainment options. Of course, actually driving to any of these options may take some time with our traffic being what it is.
For our seniors, it's the opportunity to choose from a variety of residential settings and a senior center and programs that engage seniors as active and valued members of our community.
For existing businesses and prospective companies, Cary offers an unbeatable combination of highly-educated and talented workers and professionals; stable and predictable long-range planning; reasonable costs; low taxes and strong leadership in the private and public sectors alike. Just ask the developers, they love it here. In Cary we have the resources and a quality of life that makes us competitive nationally and in the world economy.
Cary is truly an award-winning community, with top ten ratings from Money Magazine, Frommer's, Consumer Reports, the USTA, and the Morgan-Quitno annual survey of the safest towns in America, just to name a few.
All of these attributes have been earned over decades of hard work. Our continuing challenge is to be good stewards of what we have inherited and do our best to make it even better for future generations. Accordingly, in this year’s State of the Town address I will focus on several areas that you have told me are critically important for our future.
Transportation
As many of you know, the Town of Cary has been aggressively working to address our road and transportation needs. We are benefiting from the recent completion of several major projects including the widening of Highway 55, Davis Drive and significant improvements to US 1/64. We are continuing to move forward with a number of major projects including the widening of Chapel Hill Road, Kildaire Farm Road, High House Road, Southwest Maynard Road and the final Cary section of Tryon Road, as well as completing our traffic synchronization project. At some point hopefully we'll get caught up with the growth we have had over the past three years. We will sustain this commitment as evidenced by the current 2006-2007 budget, which doubled our capital spending on both road and park projects.
Facilities and Infrastructure
Cary's over-crowded roads lead to some of the Triangle's most outstanding facilities for recreation, competition and entertainment. As I mentioned earlier, the United States Tennis Association rated us as one of the top five municipal facilities in the nation. SAS Soccer Park has hosted both the men's and women's NCAA College Cup tournaments and will this year see the inaugural season of men's professional soccer in the Triangle as the Carolina Railhawks begin play. USA Baseball also makes its home in Cary and will be up and running during 2007. The Koka Booth Amphitheater just completed another stellar season and continues to attract world-class entertainers to Cary in addition to hosting cultural festivals and an array of other community events. Our outstanding facilities also include a new regional library, and as a member of the Western Wake Regional Partnership, we are building a state of the art wastewater treatment plant to meet the needs of Cary and our region for years to come, as well as years that have passed. Each of these facilities contributes in its own way to the success of our town.
Economic Development
A strong economy is the engine that keeps our community healthy and vibrant. After a great deal of work and careful consideration, we have developed a comprehensive economic development plan and strategy for Cary. We have hired our first Economic Development Director to implement our plan and coordinate our strategy with the business community with state and county initiatives and resources. This will assure the continued economic prosperity of our town, which is critical for our long-term success.
Fiscal Responsibility
As I said back in 2003, fiscal responsibility is the key to putting our local financial house on a solid and sustainable footing while ensuring we have the resources to maintain and enhance our community's quality of life. Our reduction of impact fees was a great first step. We have restored Cary's long-term fiscal health, maintained our AAA bond rating, and kept our property tax rate low, all while refocusing our resources on our highest priorities.
What are the challenges we must address to keep us successful in the future?
The most important is to maintain our commitment to long-term fiscal discipline. In 2009, we will have to address debt issues incurred earlier in this decade. We can meet this financial challenge by setting priorities, keeping current spending under control, and continuing to build our local economy and tax base. Our first step will be to build a new aquatics center costing $30M.
We also have exciting new opportunities to partner with the private sector. We anticipate strong participation from private resources as we plan for the cultural and performing arts centers downtown and the new regional aquatics facility. In particular, I am excited about our plans to enhance downtown Cary as a destination for community and cultural activities, entertainment, shopping and dining. The financial model we have put in place for these projects is based on our commitment to having significant participation from the private sector in projects that serve our citizens and make our community more attractive. Oops, left out the part where we partner with Wake County to advocate for the children of Cary, so that they may receive a quality education without having their families fractured by MYR.
Economic Development and high quality jobs will continue to be a major focus as we implement our plan and see the fruits of returning to a model of close cooperation and collaboration between your Council and the business community.
In the area of transportation, we are committed to doing all in our power to move forward with the 1-540 Western Wake Expressway and Southern Loop. This major regional project is crucial to addressing our long-term transit needs in Cary and in the Triangle. We can build houses even faster once this is open.
All growing communities have to keep a vigilant focus on public safety. This past year we were again honored as one of the safest places to live in America; nevertheless, we know the daily challenges facing our law enforcement officers and first responders require a sustained commitment. We have added officers and operational capability in recent years, and I am committed to ensuring our police force has the resources it needs to keep our streets and neighborhoods safe. I have nothing but respect for the Cary Police, they do a great job.
The state of our town is strong, vibrant, growing and successful. In 2007 our commitment is to stay focused on the fundamentals that will ensure our success is sustained for the long-term.
As I enter my fourth (and last?) year as Mayor of Cary, I can reflect on the progress we have made over the last three years, and, more importantly, look forward to the expanding opportunities we have in the future. Time and again, you, the citizens of Cary, have provided the leadership, the volunteers, the vision, resources, and commitment to improving our town. We are successful because we have great partnerships, a strong sense of community, and a spirit of cooperation and shared responsibilities. It continues to be my honor to serve as your mayor and to lead a town with the citizen participation and commitment we have in Cary.
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