| A Letter From Mayor Ted Alexander |
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I have been blessed and it has been my privilege to serve the City of Shelby as your mayor for the past 7 years. During this time we have seen the Council, City staff and our wonderful citizens rise to the many challenges that have faced us in order to forge achievements that will carry the city forward into the next decade.
The City has made strides in crime reduction, with crime rates falling from the second highest in the state in 2003 according to The Star to now having the lowest levels since the 1980’s when Ronald Reagan was president. Correspondingly we have made great strides in neighborhood revitalization, starting with the Mayor’s Vibrant Neighborhood Task Force leading to a comprehensive Neighborhood Revitalization plan, the reinstitution of the Crime Stopper’s program, and from there ramping up of Neighborhood Watch programs and the introduction of the Weed and Seed and Project Safe Neighborhood, Citizen’s Police Academy Project Call-In programs, greater enforcement of ordinances addressing nuisance properties, and many others..
Together, Council, the city manager, staff and you the citizens have worked to increase economic development and opportunity through business recruitment and retention via cooperation with and support of Cleveland County, the Cleveland County Economic Development Partnership, Chamber and Uptown Shelby Association. The City Council has begun work on the Foothills Commerce Center and a spec building that will fill a much needed and requested space requirement; made improvements to our airport facility; constructed a new airport terminal, and made numerous “invisible” yet farsighted utility improvements that positions the city to both protect the environment and allow for economic opportunity. The landing of the Clearwater Paper Plant speaks volumes about the united efforts of both the city and the county and how we have learned that working together is the very competitive edge that makes for success.
The City has been aggressive about remaining fiscally sound while implementing plans and projects such as roll-out trash, selling surplus on the web, and investing in electric peak shaving generators to create better efficiency and keep, all with a focus of keeping our tax and utility rates as low as reasonably possible, while still providing the high degree of quality services that tax payers and rate payers expect and demand. At a time when many municipal governments are in a crisis mode, we are in much better shape than many of our piers.
The willingness of Council to pursue grants both large and small such as the Golden Leaf Foundation, Clean Water Management Trust Fund, Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, Urgent Repair Grants, CDBG, Safe Routes to School, to name only a few have allowed our community to leverage projects that will help ensure the long term economic and community development viability and our city’s fiscal soundness and growth while improving our citizen’s living conditions. Over the past seven years the City has managed to leverage almost $20 million in grant funding for various needed projects.
We have lived up to our reputation as a community that works together to solve its problems. Witness the cooperation displayed between the city and county and other municipal governments on a number of other projects including the new fuel farm, electrical provision to both the new Shelby Middle School and the Community College’s new Conference Center, and as was earlier mentioned the recruitment of Clearwater. In addition, churches and civic clubs and private businesses have stepped up to the cooperation plate in a big way to bring renewal to the spirit of our city through various neighborhood initiatives: working to break the cycle of homelessness, bringing Nicky Cruz to town to combat gang activity; building new and rehabbing older homes in our historic neighborhoods. The participation of many churches has worked to transform not only the physical aspects of our city but most importantly the spiritual dimension. The soon- to –be- completed NC Baptist Men Mission Training Center will have far reaching implications towards rebuilding the physical and spiritual nature of our inner city neighborhoods.
We have all worked hard to improve the overall appearance and quality of life for our citizens through a revamped Keep Shelby Beautiful Commission; major improvements to the facilities at Holly Oak and Shelby City Park—as well as creative partnerships with churches and other groups to revamp our once “mothballed” neighborhood parks such as Palmer, Jefferson and the Olsen Court Center at Plaster Park.
The absolutely astonishing work of Destination Cleveland County, along with the Chamber’s Travel Council, USA, Historic Shelby Foundation the joint City – County Agritourism Task Force and new Farmers Market council and of course the “game changing attraction of the American Legion World Series, have all laid the groundwork for a new yet vitally important component to any community that wishes to diversify its economic activity: that of travel and tourism.
As your mayor I have watched like a proud father the many far thinking plans that have been developed and the resulting accomplishments that the city has made and which God has so richly blessed us with over the past several years. Thus it is with a great deal of satisfaction in seeing these many accomplishments that makes my decision not to seek re-election as mayor in 2011 a less difficult one.
God grants each one of us an important role to play at any given time in the larger story of our own life and the life of our community. Many times, once one of God’s assignments is completed, it is time to move on to other pursuits. And so it is with me. My family and friends have been tremendously supportive of me personally during these years and I would be remiss if I did not thank Patti, Will and Christina for joining me on this voyage and for the sacrifices that they have made on behalf of my schedule and for the overall betterment of Shelby. We have had the opportunity together to meet and work with some of the best people God has set on the planet—who knew starting out that so many of them lived right here in Shelby and Cleveland County!
There still remains many challenges that we must face together: a still high unemployment rate and anemic tax base growth; low homeownership rates, ever increasing pressure from the Federal and State governments in terms of regulation and requirements and mounting unfunded mandates, and an aging infrastructure-- all of which puts great stress on our general fund budget and its resulting day to day services, as well as the cost of providing utilities. Yet, I look forward to the upcoming year and the many exciting prospects it will offer. There is no doubt in my mind that Shelbians, including their City Council, Manager , staff and all our citizens who are known for their foresight, generosity, caring, cooperation, compassion, leadership and Christ-like decency will rise to the occasion and excel in meeting these challenges . There is no doubt in my mind that God is at work in this community and that He will honor the efforts that are made on His behalf while relying on His principles. His handiwork is no small part of the positive things that are occurring in Shelby and Cleveland County.
I look forward to with great anticipation to see Shelby continue to thrive and I thank all who have allowed me this great opportunity to serve you as your mayor. May God bless each of you now and in the future.
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