25 reasons to vote bocks for mayor
Did You Know…
We approved over 1200 new housing units with 34% affordable for our workforce residents?
We invested over $70 million in new public infrastructure each of the last three fiscal years?
We passed a comprehensive Ordinance Against Discrimination, protecting everyone’s rights equally in the areas of Housing, Employment, and Public Accommodations?
We built a brand new Waverly Road Fire Station and rebuilt the Kollen Park Fire Station, $500,000 UNDER budget?
We added three new full-time firefighter positions?
We have a new state of the art interactive trainer, body cameras, and Mobile Command Unit for our public safety officers?
Our new City Wide, High Speed Fiber Broadband is more than half complete and we are providing 2GB Service for only $45 per month? That is TWICE the SPEED at HALF the COST we initially estimated!
We expanded snowmelt to Sixth Street from Columbia to College and Sixth Street sidewalks from Columbia to River Avenue and the entire $9 million cost was reimbursed through Brownfield Redevelopment funds? City taxpayers did not pay a penny!
Our new $11.5 million Ice Park was supported by $9.5 million in private donations and state and federal grants? And it opens on November 14!
The over $20 million dollars in street and sidewalk improvements on Sixth Street and the Ice Park construction only cost Holland taxpayers $2 million?
We created a Downtown Social District that helps ensure the success of our downtown restaurants and shops?
We generate more electricity than we can use, so we sell it on the open market, generating millions of dollars for the city every year? This year alone that was over $8 million to the city!
We paid off our $240 million, high efficiency, combined cycle natural gas, electric generating plant four years early, saving $40 million dollars in interest payments and lowering everyone’s electric rates by 10%?
Holland has the lowest combined electric rates in the State of Michigan? Approximately 23% lower than Consumers Energy!
Our Community Updated Community Energy Plan has us scheduled to meet our Carbon Reduction Goals 10 years earlier than before?
Our $34 million Anaerobic Digester (that big gray ball downtown) won an Envision Gold Award for sustainable infrastructure and that in reduces our solid waste by 60%, saving $1 million a year in trucking and disposal costs? And we received state and federal grants and incentives that paid for more than half of the cost of building it!
We balance our budget every year? Most years ending with a surplus!
Our city budget process is so good that we have won the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award over 20 years in a row?
We are so dedicated to transparency in our financial reporting that we not only make our full 400+ page budget available online, but we also produce a shorter, award-winning, Popular Annual Financial Report (PAFR for short), an even shorter, Budget in Brief, and a single business card sized summary of the city’s financial health?
Our planning and budgeting process includes a detailed business plan with quarterly reports to council and every single action council takes directly references not only the budget and the business plan, but the specific priority of council the action advances?
We have NOT raised the tax rate for over 14 years in a row?
We have a funded 50 year Municipal Capital Improvement Plan and 20 year financial forecasting tools to help us make good decisions?
We rewrote our Zoning and Planning Code from the ground up, winning a Project Excellence Award for Best Practices in Zoning and paved the way for Holland to become a “Redevelopment Ready Community?
We created a Blueprint for Flourishing Neighborhoods to help residents make community connections and help our great city neighborhoods thrive.
We have new, easy to use recycling containers, and our recycling rates have dramatically increased?
Whew…