MAYOR'S MESSAGE

Craig A. Stough 1/7/2005

"Sylvania – A Great Place for 2005"

The start of a new year is a good time to step back and look at the big picture of our great community. Sylvania is a very special place to live, work, and raise a family. Our quality of life is among the best in Ohio because we have:

- Excellent schools with many opportunities and challenges for our children.

- Wonderful recreation programs with something for everyone including an active new Senior Center.

- Safety – both for our property and our persons, even to be out and around at night.

- Dependable City services – police, recycling, trash pickup, leaf collection and snow removal.

- A healthy environment as a Tree City, USA with many park and recreation sites.

- A balanced City budget with low local income taxes – 1½% as compared to 2¼% in some nearby communities.

Sylvania does have several challenges and opportunities coming for 2005:

- Consolidated Services Study – The Sylvania Community Improvement Corporation is finishing up a citizen initiated study of consolidating more City and Township services to improve efficiency. The study will be out early this year and deserves open minded community discussion about our future.

- Fire Service Tax Levies – Fire service for the City is provided by the Sylvania Township Fire Department. The Sylvania Township Trustees are studying the need for additional fire personnel and improvements to their fire stations, both to be funded by new property tax levies. Watch for more information from the Trustees about the needs and sizable costs of these proposed new property tax levies.

- Water Contract – The City continues in negotiation with the City of Toledo to stabilize our water supply costs for future years versus building an independent system. The atmosphere for cooperative negotiation has improved over past years.

- Infrastructure Improvements – The City will continue rebuilding neighborhood streets and utilities to keep our neighborhoods attractive and desirable, without tax assessments to the property owners.

- Business Development – In conjunction with the Sylvania Community Improvement Corporation, Sylvania continues working to redevelop underutilized commercial sites in our City to provide more jobs and more tax support for our schools and community services.

Talking to your elected officials about these and other issues can have a real impact on community goals and decision making. In addition, 2005 is an election year for several local government officials: mayor, three city councilmembers, two Sylvania Township Trustees, and three school board members. I look forward to your ideas and help for improving our great Sylvania community.