By Katie Ryan
With a new year in sight, Mayor Jeff Mulligan is excited to hit the ground running.
But before the city welcomes 2010, the recently elected mayor reflected on the challenges and accomplishments of the past year. The impact of the recession was splashed across the headlines around the world, but closer to home, according to Mulligan, business carried on.
“There was a recession, no question, but Lloydminster still boasted a pretty healthy building environment,” he said. More than 370 building permits were purchased, totaling $46 million.
“That’s impressive in and of itself,” said Mulligan. “We did quite a bit of work on Highway 16, I would say that would be a major accomplishment as we look at the year in review.”
Each department at city hall has much to report from 2009 said Mulligan. Highlights from the year include work completed beneath the ground – 390 metres of water main and 330 metres of sanitary sewer line replaced – and the completion of the master plan for the storm water drainage and water distribution.
“Those are all things that people don’t see but when you start thinking of what’s underneath the roads and the things we take for granted like water and sewer, there were tremendous inroads made this year,” said Mulligan, referring to the 2009 Water and Sanitary Sewer Main Replacement Program.
The 2009 Municipal Census results revealed Lloydminster grew by almost four per cent since the last census two years prior, and now has a population of 26,502. Hand in hand with growth is development; the city invested in new playgrounds, a new midget ball diamond and new trail systems leading into Bud Miller Park. The Parks and Recreation department also invested $20,000 in planting new trees in various neighbourhoods, parks and boulevards. Corporate Affairs also had a good year, said the mayor.
“I don’t know if people will see this as a highlight or not but we’ve completed our first full year of the photo traffic enforcement process,” he said. “The reason that is a highlight is all of our data indicates that our streets are safer and drivers’ behaviour patterns have changed as a result of the enforcement of the photo radar and also the video photo enforcement that we have.”
Near the top of Mulligan’s list of highlights for 2009 is Oct. 28, election day.
“Yeah, that was a pretty big day,” he chuckled.
Mulligan defeated Ken Baker in the municipal election, ending Baker’s third term as mayor.
“For me,” continued Mulligan, “one of the single biggest highlights was the move of our RCMP administration to K Division and that also opened the door to us for getting new services including the police dogs.”
As far as the new year goes, Mulligan said not only departmental priorities will include completing projects and improving programs, but 2010 will see changes to city hall’s operating philosophies and a higher level of engagement of the community with city hall.
“My focus is really going to be about fulfilling many of the discussions that occurred during the election and it’s going to be about creating a much higher level of community connectedness,” he said.
The new year will both herald a “culture shift” at city hall and embrace a new service mentality said Mulligan.
“The very good people who work here at city hall need to be engaged in a way where they can take ownership of our destiny and partner with public,” he continued, adding that the councilors and administration are also looking forward to 2010 with renewed energy.
“There is a real sense of enthusiasm about us being able to make change happen and I think that’s a good thing.”