A Word From the Village President
From Sturtevant
2010 STATE OF THE VILLAGE ADDRESS
May 17, 2010
To Honorable Trustee's, Staff, Village employees & Residents. Once again let's take a little time to look back & look forward too. Congratulations to those of you who just won re-election for another term. I'm value your service to our community. I look forward to working with you all in our future endeavors. What's a right path? We all hear & read the State of things & many times it's all the same. Strong, sustainable, heading in the right direction & all. No doubt the challenges we face, not just as a Village, but as a Country in general can make one wonder how sustainable it all is. How strong are we & are we heading in the right direction? As a Village we've taken the steps needed to economize were we could in this economy. Holding the line on taxes, spending & all is important more than ever today. I feel that the choices moving forward will still require that same diligence that we've shown. Since our Village received zero stimulus money, I would predict that we shouldn't look forward to any bail out from the State or Washington. This economy is still forefront with most. All of us have been affected one way or another or know some who have lost jobs, homes & dreams. How we restore that is a complicated answer. While signs around us point to a recovery, what type of recovery are we seeing? Many businesses are hanging on by a tread. Many are not hiring. The confidence of the people, old & young right now is about as bad as I've seen it in my lifetime. Their distrust of anything that comes out of Washington or Madison has to be at an all time high. It seems as if those higher up haven't gotten the message. Stop the run away spending! The spending path is unsustainable. People are tired of getting nibble to death by all the taxes, fees & the whole litany of rules forced our way. People generally are beginning to fear for our Nation & that we are headed in the wrong direction. The strength of any Nation is really the strength & resolve of its people, not the strength or size of its Government. With the growth of the Tea Parties & just the mood of the people you can sense a tidal wave of anti establishment that many of us have never seen in our lifetime.
We've balanced our books for the 4th year in a row now. We know we still have work to do. If we can end this current year in the black, we could possibly finally rid ourselves of our General fund deficit. We must be aware of some of the warning signs ahead. One is the lack of growth. Next year's budget should reflect the possibility of no major construction projects within our Village. Two would be a freeze or substantial cuts in shared revenue & transportation aids. Three would be the declining valuations of housing & industrial & commercial properties. Four will be a rising property tax mill rate. None of these are pleasant to think about, but is a possible reality. We must prepare for those possibilities anyway we can. Like I said last year, we need to govern from the position of needs over wants. While we want it all & certain things can't be done or happen fast enough, it all comes at a cost. Certain investments we have made do make sense though. Like our support of Public Safety, DPW equipment, road & park improvements. We need to continue those as best as possible. I want to thank all of our current Village employees for doing more with less. I recognize how difficult that can be. It will be awhile before more staffing is added in all areas. Without your true dedication & professionalism we would surely be lost. Thank you. To the current board, thank you also. I have appreciated working with you all over the years. We have come a long way. I'm very proud of all our accomplishments & those still yet to come. It's been an honor to serve with such fine upstanding citizens. You're all good people too with the heart in the right place. I hope I'm wrong with some of my gloomy outlook. But I look at with some sense of realism. We fought battles before in this great Country & were made stronger from them. I hope for the same, far all of us. The citizens demand & want good leadership. Let's show them that we are capable & competent to deal the challenges facing us today & build a better future for all of us.
Respectfully,
Steven D. Jansen, Village President
