Connersville Mayor Chad Frank
Hello, and welcome to the 2025 State of the City of Connersville. 2024 proved to be a challenging year for the city, yet at the same time, we saw very good growth. There was significant AV growth of 18% and one of our most significant business financial investments in the old Visteon Plant that will generate over 120 good jobs. Nova Circular Solutions is now operating with full operations scheduled for the end of this year. Reid Hospital was the second largest investment of 100 million in their Connersville campus, and it will employ many from our community. New construction has ramped up over the past five years, and we are still driving opportunities for more.
Some projects faced multiple challenges, slowing down the timelines for completion, but they are now on track to be enjoyed by all. There are four projects I have received comments on about taking too long to complete, so I want to spend a few minutes explaining why. One thing about me is that I don't talk about it when I am in the middle of negotiations. I know today’s society wants instant information, but that is the one single thing that can harm negotiations.
2nd Street Park was started by volunteers who worked diligently to raise funds and design the park. They found businesses and individuals to donate their time, offsetting the project's total cost. Unfortunately, some of those volunteers could not complete the portion of the project they were looking to help with. This led to the group having to try and find other volunteers, which was not easy. Some stepped up to help by donating their time and equipment, keeping the cost down, but ultimately, the park was empty for long periods. Material costs during this time were skyrocketing, leading to an increase in total expenses. Fortunately, the Redevelopment Commission stepped up, providing funds to complete the park.
The Longwood Bridge was another project that took much longer than anticipated due to two areas extending the timeline to complete this project. The first was materials. When the bridge was being disassembled, damage was found from when the bridge was originally installed because it was not done correctly. When the bridge was assembled the first time, extra holes were drilled into the structural beams instead of utilizing the original holes, which caused internal rotting that could not be seen until the wood was removed. The only choice was to replace the wood with new, but lumber yards did not stock what was needed. The lumber had to be sourced from a forest, milled to the specifications, delivered, and carefully joined with the existing beams. Another piece that slowed down the project was holding the contractor accountable for honoring their quote. Too often, contractors think they can add extra cost to government projects once they are started, with the expectation that the government will pay it; in most cases, they do. I didn’t talk about this before because I had two goals: holding the contractor accountable to honor their word and ensuring they didn’t walk away from the project because of their knowledge and skill in covered bridge construction. It was even mentioned in one of our meetings that I would want the political pressure to go away and give in, which was wrong. Even though the project took much longer, both goals were accomplished, and the bridge can now be enjoyed by future generations.
A third project, Market Street Plaza, took much longer to get off the ground than we had hoped. The main delay in starting construction was that the price almost doubled when it was bid, when inflation was out of control. This was unanticipated during the design process, but construction projects everywhere faced similar challenges, including increased costs. We had to find creative solutions to make this project a reality and so local contractors could still do the work. One solution was to utilize the street department to assist in removing the old debris. Since no one has ever been trained to run a backhoe effectively, and I grew up in that business, I trained an employee to dig to grade with the backhoe. If you saw me operating the backhoe at Market Street Plaza, that's why. We also kept this project within budget by handling the electrical work ourselves. The concrete work has begun by a local contractor, and the stage will be ready for its first use at the Celebration in the Ville this May! If you have a desire to help organize more events for Market Street Plaza, please contact me, as I am looking to establish a group to help organize and host events throughout the year.
The last project I received comments on was River's Edge. This project began in 2017, with the intention of relocating the baseball fields out of the floodplain. The DNR awarded the city a grant to install the canoe launch, build the playground, build the buildings, and install some trails. The problem we faced was that the project wasn't completed according to the grant requirements, and the playground did not meet any recognized playground standards. When I came into office, I was informed we could not apply for more DNR grants until the project was completed properly. We determined that the project would require a significant amount of money to fulfill the grant requirements and complete the baseball fields, parking, playground, and stormwater requirements, which were estimated to be between eight and ten million dollars. The City doesn’t have the bonding capacity to borrow the funds for this size of project, and the general fund is not able to afford the payments even if we could bond the money. Also, when you see the Parks department receiving a grant for the park, we cannot just use that money anywhere since the Grants are very specific as to where the money must be used. The last obstacle we had to overcome was a previous administration had the solar panels installed directly where the baseball fields were intended to be located, completely altering the building's configuration and potential use.
The funding solution originated from Adam Stone of Stone Municipal. Adam is our consulting controller, an expert in government finances and knows how to get things done by using creative measures to fund projects. We have experienced significant Assessed Value growth recently, but the State Legislature capped the amount we could collect from that growth. This put us in a precarious financial position, especially with inflation reaching unprecedented highs and our wages not being competitive. In short, we were able to fund 6.25 million dollars for Rivers Edge by establishing a Building Corporation and doing a lease/bond to finance the project. The payment does not affect the general fund and is paid outside of it due to the growth we have experienced. This method also maintained the tax rates for property owners at a flat level. This money cannot be used for salaries; it is only for projects like Rivers Edge. The designers are currently working on ensuring everything fits and are hopeful of commencing construction this year. This will not complete Rivers Edge, but it will be sufficient for baseball to be relocated out of the floodplain and provide much-needed parking.
Since the State Legislature capped our growth and just passed legislation to restrict our income significantly, I would like to take a few minutes to explain the impact. The largest portion of the general fund expense is employees at 78%, leaving only 22% for everything else. If we had been able to collect our growth, we would have seen an increase of 1.7 to 1.8 million dollars in new revenue. With the legislated cap, we received only $270,000 to be distributed among all departments. There is a lot of misunderstanding leading to misinformation about your property tax bills I would like to address. I hear and see people making the statement that the City raised their property taxes. We did not, rather, we made financial decisions that kept the property tax rate flat. Property taxes are paid in arrears, meaning the taxes paid in the current year represent the taxes owed for the previous year. The rate you pay is set by the city, but the amount you pay is based on your assessed value. We all experienced significant inflationary expenses last year along with a booming real estate market leading to a significant increase in home values. That is why some saw an increase in their property taxes. Then the question is why the city didn’t see such an increase in our income. We have a large percentage of properties already at the tax caps which means they don’t pay any more than the cap. The remainder of the properties not at their cap is who saw the largest increase. Again, none of which the city has control over. The problem across the entire state is how rapidly the home values escalated, which is where the real problem lies and the one the legislature is not dealing with. This is why we saw an increase to our general fund of only $270,000. The inflationary increase in materials and utilities alone left little, if anything at all, for employees. We already have an attraction and retention problem due to our low pay, and this would have ultimately led to service cuts, which is why we implemented the public safety tax to help attract and retain first responders. Even with this tax in place, we are well short of the surrounding communities' pay.
Why is that? Since our pay is always compared to the surrounding counties and property tax is the major source of income, let's compare the differences. If you examine the age demographics between Decatur, Henry, Wayne, Rush, and Franklin Counties, and Fayette, they are not that different. We do have a slightly larger population age 65 and older, but every other age is very similar. There is a more significant difference in median family income, with us being the lowest. The largest impact is the tax revenues. Indiana Gateway shows that in 2024, Decatur County’s assessed value is 1.96 billion, Henry's is 1.98 billion, Wayne's 2.71 billion, Rush's 1.28 billion, Franklin County's 1.28 billion, and Fayette County's 919 million. The assessed value of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Real Estate is: Decatur 163 million, Henry 115 million, Wayne 156 million, Rush 14 million, Franklin County 23 million, and Fayette 9 million. One major difference is the money from the one TIF we have goes back to the property owner and doesn’t stay with the City like other counties so there is zero impact. The other counties have had TIF, public safety tax, and some a jail tax in place for several years allowing them the ability to afford more. We just passed TIF in the first quarter of 2024 and the public safety tax in the fall to help. TIF will take many years to see benefits while the public safety tax helps out immediately. Unfortunately, the current legislation to reduce property taxes creates a new cap that will artificially lower the property tax rate. TIF projects are tied to that rate, so if it goes down, the general fund will be required to pay the bonds. Since our general fund cannot handle that, I am not looking to pursue any TIF projects until we see how this will play out. This puts us back in a position before TIF without any viable tools for attraction, so growth going forward will be negatively impacted.
Other expenses added outside of our control include state-controlled pension increases, utility increases such as those from Duke Energy, which recently received approval from the IURC for a 16% increase by 2026, and other inflationary increases we are all experiencing. Another costly addition to the City by the State Legislature is the new livestreaming law that takes effect June 1st. I love the idea and intent of the law, but they offered no help in paying for it; rather, they just demanded we figure out a way. Fortunately, we already have TV3, which live streams the Board of Works, City Council, and Park Board; however, the law requires many more meetings to be live-streamed. TV3 has traditionally been funded through cable franchise fees paid by cable providers; however, with the rise of internet TV, these fees are declining rapidly. We were forced to find a way to fund TV3 outside of the cable franchise fees, and the new increased expense resulting from the law, combined with the cap on revenue imposed by the State Legislature, made it even more challenging. In order to not defund any departments or TV3, I decided to cut my office first ,as I have done from day one. Any time we need to reduce I always start with my office first, so I removed the secretary position entirely from the budget and am operating completely by myself in order to fund TV3 for the new live-streaming law. If you call my office, you will be directed to leave a message, as I cannot answer the phone. If you stop by, the office door may be closed and locked, with a sign indicating that a meeting is in progress. And, if you do leave me a message or email, please be patient, as it might take me some time to respond. We do not know what the future holds for our income, but we do know that the State Legislature and Governor Braun have committed to reducing it further without any replacement source. We do not know what this will look like, but we are paying very close attention so we can prepare and plan accordingly.
Now we are facing another blow to TV3 with HB 1427 that will reduce the cable franchise fees 20% to 50% creating even greater strain on our general fund. With the decline in cable users and reduced franchise fees, we are getting closer to having to fund TV3 almost entirely from the general fund. TV3 already runs on a shoestring budget and great volunteers and students that help provide wonderful programming. With the number of required livestream meetings and significant reduction in income, we will be forced to look at reducing the amount of outside programming we will be able to provide like education and sports.
When I first came into office, one of my goals was to stop the “kicking of the can down the road” for someone else to figure out. Our equipment was old and broken, the facilities had been neglected without maintenance, and base pay increases had not occurred for years. Failing to replace equipment and maintain facilities ultimately leads to increased costs and the inability of employees to complete their daily tasks. Not giving pay increases leads to low morale and animosity. It also makes it very difficult and impossible for us to catch up, leading to many employees leaving for higher-paid jobs in surrounding communities. We began by having each department inventory items that need to be replaced so we could establish a replacement cycle. This exposed the severity of the problem and the high cost of establishing a cycle. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government distributed ARPA funds, which we utilized to initiate the replacement cycle. We used these funds as match money where possible to secure outside grants, thereby increasing our ability to purchase more. Although each department has significant and expensive needs, the parks department is among the highest. They have several old facilities to manage and a large amount of grounds to maintain. They also provide a wide range of services to the community for all ages. The Parks is also the most significant contributor to placemaking, which is a driving force for community growth. As soon as the Federal Government dispersed the ARPA money, the State funded a program through OCRA to match those dollars up to 1 million. We committed a full 1 million and were awarded the match. With our health ranking being one of the lowest in the state, we focused on projects that aim to improve both mental and physical health while providing placemaking opportunities. Several groups have conducted sessions to determine what they would like to see in our community. We utilized the data from these sessions to develop a fitness park in Offutt’s Park and a skatepark/pump track in Roberts Park. We also have very old playground equipment that needs to be replaced, so we began exploring other revenue streams to fund its replacement. While doing this, we received a grant to fund our 5-year Parks Master Plan, which identified more projects that the community desires. The community engagement sessions showed the community desires more trails for walking, jogging, and biking, and better playgrounds, Rivers Edge development, upgraded playgrounds, and upgraded tennis and basketball courts system-wide. During this process, we found out our community has a higher-than-average population with mental and physical disabilities, which led us to focus on an inclusive park. The Offutt’s Park fitness park has been awarded, and the contractor will begin when the weather breaks. The skate park/pump track is in the final design stage, while the trails and inclusive playground are in the beginning phase of design.
When we applied for the Lilly Endowment grant, we initially inquired about using it to fund Rivers Edge. They quickly informed us that they would no longer fund baseball complexes, so we shifted our focus to trails and an inclusive park. This year-long process took many hours and many people, but the Fayette Community Foundation and the City of Connersville were jointly awarded the grant for these two projects. The parks will see Offutt’s Park Fitness Park at $1 million, the Skate Park/Pump Track at $1 million, Rivers Edge at $6.25 million, and the $5 million Lilly Endowment grant for the inclusive park and trails, totaling $13.25 million. If you include 2nd Street Park and Market Street Plaza, our community will see a total of around $14 million in placemaking projects! This number is huge, especially knowing it is 80% of our normal budget!
Other accomplishments for the Parks Department were the second year of a beautiful Christmas in the Park event. We had double the number of participants that helped create a beautiful Christmas atmosphere in our park. Just driving by one couldn’t help noticing the beautiful lights all throughout the park. Let's double it again this year and make Roberts Park a winter destination for visitors to enjoy!
Another project that was not completed properly under a previous administration was the floor joist in the Roberts building. At some point, the floor began to sag, and someone attempted to fix it without consulting a structural engineer to assess the issue and design a proper solution based on the load. When we discovered it was constructed wrong, we hired an engineer to design a proper fix so the building would be safe once again. The construction is now in process, ensuring the safety and longevity of the building. Instead of using experts who know how to engineer and design the right way, prior administrations opted to do things with a band-aid approach to save money, ultimately costing the community more to rectify the mistakes.
In 2023, the Living Well, Aging Well program launched to offer individuals aged 50 and over organized activities that focus on both mental and physical health, ultimately fostering a healthier and more connected community. The Reid Health Community Benefit Program decided to participate to help fund the program. Last year, the program expanded to include 16 different activities, enjoyed by over 1,200 participants.
The parks also offer a wide range of activities, including spring and fall soccer, baseball, T-ball, softball, basketball, adult basketball, and adult co-ed softball. Other events hosted by the Parks Department included Summer Discovery, Bunnies and Brownies, Renaissance Fair, First Responders Trunk-or-Treat, and Christmas in the Park. The key to placemaking is having quality of life programs for all ages, which the parks have intensely focused on over the past two years. It is exciting to watch the social interaction with one another while enjoying all the parks have to offer.
We made investments in the Police Department using some remaining ARPA funds, opioid non-restricted funds, and grants, providing updates to outdated equipment and making investments in much-needed equipment. When I discovered that we only had four AR-15s and the ones officers carried were their personal ones, we used the funds to purchase a department-issued AR-15 for every officer. We also invested in drone technology to help our officers do their jobs more safely and efficiently. The first drone is a SWAT drone designed to fly inside buildings without the typical GPS barriers that drones have. This specialty drone can fly where no other drone can go and flip itself upright if it gets knocked over. The second drone purchased is an autonomous drone that does not require a licensed pilot, but one can take control in the field if necessary. Both drones feature thermal technology to aid in tracking and locating individuals during SWAT incidents, warrant-serving vehicle accidents, and house fires. We have had people on the run before, creating dangerous situations for officers and the public without any aerial device to help find them. Also, with the increased river activity, drones can also aid in search and rescue in the event of an accident.
The police department took in 385 grams of heroin/fentanyl, 859 grams of marijuana, 398 grams of meth, 112 grams of cocaine, 1,503 pills, 216 grams of mushrooms, 1,016 needles, and 32 guns off the streets. A two-milligram dose of fentanyl can cause death for an average-sized adult. Since it is primarily mixed with heroin, the number of lethal doses are difficult to calculate, but the amount seized by the CPD is enough to wipe out our entire county!
Our ordinance enforcement officer addressed 1,012 violations. For the most part, once the officer communicates the issue, people usually take care of the problem. Some individuals appear to know how to work the system, making it extremely difficult and time-consuming to resolve the issue. Some even address the issue and then revert to the way it was before, causing the process to start all over again. When I took office, we had only a part-time enforcer who primarily focused on grass violations. Now, with a full-time officer addressing multiple ordinances, things are improving; but he is still just one person. Mr. Wulff is extremely organized and does an excellent job of explaining violations to people, following up on a schedule, and ensuring issues are properly resolved. There are more issues than one person can handle, but he is doing a great job staying focused on cleaning up our city and keeping it that way!
The fire department plays a critical role in not just fire and rescue but also in keeping your insurance rates low. Chief Jones and Assistant Chief Stevens worked together for over a year to learn how to reduce our ISO (Insurance Services Office) rating. An ISO rating is a score that measures how well a community is protected by its fire department, with a rating of 1 being the best and a rating of 10 meaning the fire department did not meet the minimum requirements. This rating is what the insurance industry uses to set premium rates. After going through the rigorous process, the City of Connersville went from ISO of 4 to 3. There are not many communities with a rating of 3, so we can all take pride in what our fire department does for City residents.
We secured partial funding through a grant and utilized ARPA funds to cover the remaining cost of providing SCBAs or respirators to the entire department. The old SCBAs were approaching the end of their usable life, with no funding or savings set aside for their replacement. The cost of the SCBAs was approximately $380,000, and they have a lifespan of 15 years before requiring replacement. The original SCBAs we ordered had issues, so they were replaced with another type of mask, resulting in a vendor credit. We were able to utilize this credit to order a rescue boat for the river, increasing the speed and efficacy of water rescues. The river has seen an increase in activity, with a business now established next to it, further boosting usage. Other items purchased using ARPA money were battery-powered extrication tools to speed up the rescue process, gear lockers to store and protect the expensive gear they wear, and securing funding for a new fire truck. We still use a truck daily that is over 30 years old! Used trucks have been purchased in the past and we have found we were buying someone else’s problem. In 2023, we had good growth and were able to keep tax rates flat while using that growth to do a lease/bond purchase of a new truck. When we initially priced the truck, it was around $900,000. However, due to inflation, the price rose to $1.4 million by the time we were able to secure it, and there was a 3-year wait for its construction. Running a fire department is expensive, but it provides the city a secure safety net for when you have a serious life-threatening situation, and they are able to quickly be there to help protect lives and property.
EMS responded to 4,111 calls for service, a 235-call increase from last year. While these calls generated over a million dollars in revenue, the cost of operating EMS exceeds revenue by over a million dollars, with the shortfall covered by tax dollars. Revenue is directly related to population and call volume. On average, seven to ten percent of the population, by volume, uses an emergency ambulance in any given year. With a county population of 23,300, the annual call volume is expected to range from 1,600 to 2,300.However, we received over 4,100 calls, with only 2,417 of them being billable. Even though those calls are billable, it does not mean we collect the full amount billed. We billed around 2.7 million and received 1.13 million of that due to mandatory adjustments with Medicare, Medicaid, and some insurance carriers. In most EMS systems, the average Medicaid and Medicare patients comprise over 50% of call volumes while the remaining is insurance and private pay. We have a disproportionate share of 89% of our call volumes being Medicare and Medicaid, increasing the overall cost to taxpayers and driving the high number of calls.
We used ARPA money combined with reserves set back to purchase two new much-needed ambulances. The build time took over 3 years, and we are now awaiting delivery of the first ambulance any time now. Fortunately, we were able to secure the ambulance price before it almost doubled last year.
The Utilities finished the year by bringing the 22-million-dollar stormwater separation headworks project online. This project was due to an IDEM agreement to spend 30 million dollars over 30 years for stormwater separation. This was another “can” that got kicked down the road, which was coming to its deadline and had to be completed. We decided that the most efficient and economical way was to build the headworks plant with overflow retention rather than tear up the streets and install a stormwater system. The cost to tear up the streets would have been significantly more than the 22-million-dollar plant. Building the headworks plant helped keep rates significantly lower compared to the expense of street excavation and stormwater pipe installation. Other projects completed were the new water well #6, updating two lift stations, repairing and upgrading the 9th Street Water Treatment Plant and the Park Road Water Plant, and completing phase 1 of the IDEM required lead line inventory. We also contracted a company to help locate water main leaks using specialized equipment, thereby avoiding the need to tear up streets based on assumptions. This process allowed us to find and repair many leaks, but with some pipes being over 150 years old and leaks popping up regularly, we engaged engineers to help formulate a water main replacement program so we don’t have a significant issue and to help future administrations from having to do several large expensive projects at the same time.
The street department has made significant progress in replacing old equipment, but still needs more. Two pieces of equipment that were old and constantly breaking down were the backhoe and the loader. We utilized ARPA funds, combined with some non-recurring funds saved for equipment purchases, to acquire a new backhoe, articulating loader, and anew heavy-duty pickup truck equipped with a snowplow and salt box.
TV3 is a tremendously valuable resource that our community is blessed to have, which most communities in Indiana do not have. When the State Legislature passed House Enrolled Act 1167, communities all over the state struggled with how to implement it and how to fund paying for it since legislature did not provide a funding solution. Fortunately, TV3 already had most of the mechanisms in place to implement the law, but was facing quickly declining income from cable franchise fees with the rise of internet-based tv services that do not contribute to the franchise fees. We had already begun a steady approach to replacing outdated equipment and setting up City Hall with new cameras during the COVID-19 pandemic, as we recognized the need to invest in technology going forward. We studied the new law in detail and met with one of the bill's authors to ensure we fully understood the compliance requirements. The number of meetings that must be live-streamed is extensive. The law requires the agendas and minutes to be posted on our website and the meeting to be archived for 90 days. With the significant increase in labor required, TV3 faced and still faces a significant funding problem with decreased income. As I mentioned earlier, from day one in office, if cuts had to be made in the budget, I started with my office before touching any other department. To fund TV3 to comply with the law, the City had to find general fund money to offset the cost. The problem we faced was with the cap legislature put on our growth, our employees already underpaid, and short-staffed finding money is difficult. My office was in transition with a secretary already, so I decided to remove the position from my budget and fund TV3, so no other departments were impacted. If you call my office the phone system has been changed to a menu option, and you can leave a message. Please do not expect an immediate response as my schedule is already very full, usually booked 6 to 8 weeks out, or you can email me. If you come to my office and the door is shut with the lights out and a sign on the door, I am in a meeting and unavailable. Please understand that my responses might take some time so please be patient.
Last year, with the cap on income, we faced the challenge of attraction and retention with our first responders. We lost several employees to surrounding departments due to lower pay and not attracting many qualified candidates to fill empty positions. If we had been allowed to capture our increased AV, we could have increased our pay to remain competitive; however, since the State Legislature capped our growth income, we had to explore alternative measures, such as the public safety tax. I did not like adding another tax to hard-working people, but the alternative would have been reduced public safety services. The Public Safety Tax helped get us closer, but our pay is still lower than most surrounding departments.
My answer from the first day in office was that we must grow our way out of our financial woes. We suffered through many years of no growth and people leaving our community. We have finally seen growth year after year with new business that would have provided much-needed money. State Legislature has cut us off at the knees, not allowing us to capture the growth. Every time we bring something new in, it creates more services we must provide, increasing our expenses. With the 4% cap well below our growth and inflationary rate, we cannot provide those increases in services. Now, Legislation has been introduced that will significantly reduce property taxes, which will have a devastating impact on our income. Over 78% of our budget goes to employee expenses leaving 22% for everything else. They already added expense with the live streaming law telling us it was our problem to figure out how to pay for it while reducing our income. Now, they are looking to significantly reduce our income even more, with no option so far on how to offset those losses. Property taxes fund only local governments, libraries, and schools, not the State.
A second area of change is a bill introduced that will disqualify us from the Community Crossing Matching Grant program if we do not implement a City Wheel Tax. Yes, there is a County Wheel Tax already, but that doesn’t count. We collect, on average, $160,000 a year in the wheel tax, contributing around $215,000, totaling $375,000 for a 50% Community Crossings Grant match, giving us $750,000 in paving funds. We averaged the cost of past paving divided by 75 miles of City Streets, giving us over an 80-year paving cycle. This includes no alleys since they don’t qualify for the Community Crossing Grant. Recent years' inflation, a cap on our current income, and now a reduction in property taxes will significantly impact how much paving we can complete, ultimately increasing the 80-year paving cycle. If we do not pass a City Wheel Tax, that new paving cycle would instantly be doubled. I know that the National, State, and sometimes local perception often involves wasteful spending and doing more with less. I don’t necessarily disagree with that statement, but I have focused every single year on being effective and efficient with taxpayer dollars, fixing all the cans that got kicked down the road, and providing placemaking opportunities to attract and retain people and businesses. The Governor held a fireside chat during the exact same time as the committee hearing on the SB1 property tax reduction, calling “many local governments who have raised concerns about the proposed tax cut “disingenuous” in their discussions with impacted Hoosiers. I think what I just explained is extremely genuine, no fluff, no exaggeration, no opinions. Ultimately, the reduction in property taxes will force a reduction in services. What services and how much will depend on how much the legislature decides to reduce our income. A second fallout will be due to not being able to provide increased services, we will not be able to attract growth in two ways: population and businesses. Dr. Michael Hicks from Ball State has done a county-by-county study of the entire country, showing where people are moving to. His study shows people move to communities because of services provided and are even willing to pay more to get them. They are no longer driven to move somewhere because the cost of living is low as was in the past. Placemaking is the number one factor in deciding where to locate. Businesses are the same. When I grew up, it was attracting business, and people would come. Now, businesses go where the people are, and if they are willing to live in the community themselves. We have worked hard to provide placemaking opportunities and have finally seen significant growth in our city. It pains me to take a step backward once again due to circumstances beyond our local control. This is not a disingenuous narrative as the Governor has stated; rather, it lets the facts tell the story. We will continue to live within our means, as we have always done, but be prepared for what that will entail. I do not want to discourage you, but I hope the facts presented highlight the problems we are facing. All in all, the City of Connersville is moving forward and continuing to grow. We have made strategic investments and found opportunities to help make Connersville a place where people and businesses want to make their home. The obstacles have increased, but we will continue finding creative ways to help facilitate that growth. Do not give up hope, the future is bright with some of our best days ahead of us. I will not relent and am committed more than ever to finding solutions, so our city is a place people and businesses want to be in. Our community pride is increasing. The naysayers are decreasing. Businesses are growing. New businesses have come. Opportunities have been created. More opportunities are being pursed. Connersville is beginning to thrive once again. Get involved! Let's thrive together!