Happy New Year to all our citizens. We have turned the page from a productive and successful 2016 and now it is time to look forward to a new year and new beginnings. 2017 shapes up to be a very exciting year with many projects coming on line and others in the planning and vision phase. 2017 will be my last full year as mayor and I intend to spend a good deal of time working on the transition phase as new leadership will be elected in April 2018.

Major projects under construction that will be completed in 2017 include the Cape Girardeau Sportsplex, the Drury Plaza Hotel and Convention Center, new Fire Station 4, SIO3 Manufacturing facility at our Business Park and Transportation Trust Fund projects of Bloomfield Road, South Sprigg Street bridge, Main Street and the next phase of Veterans Memorial Drive. Other projects that will be nearing completion include the Marriott Courtyard Hotel downtown and our new police station on Maria Louise.

Purpose Built Community

We will continue to move forward with the formation of a strategic plan for the southern areas of our city. We had our first visit from the Atlanta Purpose Built Community group. We anticipate our next visit within the next 6-8 weeks. Their concept of community re-vitalization has been very successful in Atlanta and they are now expanding their network around the nation with success. The two communities closest to our size that have been accepted into the network are Rome, Georgia, and Spartanburg, South Carolina. This project is longterm and that will extend over the next decade or longer. I am hopeful to be accepted into the network over the next year and complete the strategic re-vitalization initiative plan in 2018. We will need the support and participation of many of our citizens as we move through this process. We will communicate progress on this initiative throughout the year.

Community Strategic Plan

Council and staff will be updating our Community Strategic Plan early in 2017. We want this update to include citizen input and direction. Therefore we are scheduling six town hall meetings during February by ward. Each of the six wards will have a separate meeting so that we can include a broad cross section of our citizenry. We will then collate all the comments into our current strategic plan, thus giving staff and council guidance on any updated changes and thrusts needed to move the plan ahead over the next years.

PRS-2 Parks, Recreation & Storm Water

We have made much progress in Parks, Recreation and Storm Water over the past 10 years thanks to our citizen's approval of PRS1 in 2008.

There are many exciting projects that loom ahead as we approach the extension of PRS in 2018. Staff and council are reviewing the needs and projects and will determine the priorities by the end of 2017, anticipating a renewal vote of the citizens in April of 2018.

City Hall

We have addressed critical infrastructure and many facility needs over recent years. Now it is time to begin to plan for the future of our City Hall. The former school on Independence has served our city well but has major infrastructure needs and remains insufficient for disability needs. We have no revenue stream to support a move at this time, but it is my desire to have a future plan in place by the time I leave office in April of 2018. We feel it is right to remain within the downtown area. The possible options at the present time (there may be others) include a new building somewhere in the Fountain-Sprigg corridor or reconfiguring the iconic Common Pleas Courthouse when the county vacates the building in 2020-2021. Council and staff will have planning and visionary discussions on this subject in 2017.

I would certainly welcome comments and suggestions from citizens on any of the above mentioned projects. I thank you for your continued support of our community. We definitely live in an expanding and exciting time here in our great city.

Harry E. Rediger is the mayor of Cape Girardeau.