Zanesville Mayor Mason Reports on State of the City

(Speech delivered Monday March 22 )

Good evening
to members of the City Council, elected and appointed officials and our dear
friends in Zanesville. It is difficult to compare 2020 to any prior year since
so many changes were forced upon us in order to mitigate the effects of the
pandemic. There were weeks when people were at home, not working or driving,
not enjoying  recreation,  nor shopping,  many were unable to visit loved ones, mourn
the loss of a friend of family member, enjoy family gatherings such as weddings
and graduations. Medical, dental, salon appointments were cancelled. Sad that
our children did not have the excitement of a prom, a parade, a party.

We were not
living life to the fullest.

In 2020,
despite COVID, the City was able to restore many of our city parks such as
Goddard Park and Cutty Dixon neighborhood parks, and Riverside Park. The public
positively responded by calling us, making post on social media and thanking
city employees for all the improvements. Our cemeteries were mowed and
maintained by Easter. Again, we received calls and sincere appreciation from
the public. In September, we promoted a new Superintendent of Streets and Sanitation
and he launched a program to run our street sweepers 80 hours a week, when
possible. Our snow plowing was able to get to side streets and alleys within a
day, and after the snow melted, our crews swept the streets.

In the
summer of 2020, the City took over ownership of 2200 Linden Avenue and started
the clean up by removing burned out equipment and vehicles, the torn and
tattered fencing was removed and some cleanup started. Recently, we have had
frank and fruitful discussions with Ohio EPA and USEPA and are drafting plans
for cleanup in compliance with federal and state laws. We should be moving
forward soon.

In 2020, we
began the design of ‘Dug Road” and it is our hopes to go out to bid soon. We
are waiting to see the status of a two possible sources of funding for that
project.

In 2020, the
City paved streets and alleys to a price of approximately $1.7 million. We are
now preparing the 2021-2022 paving programs.

In 2020, we
established a very warm relationship with ODOT District 5 and, together we are
working on matters of mutual concern so that when I-70 is rebuilt, the
disruption to the public will be minimal. By the way, please notice that I-70
is being swept by our crews.

In 2020, we
received over $2.2 million of CARES Act funds, which we successfully invested
in Zanesville businesses, social service organizations and city government. We
are presently, reviewing guidelines for another $4.9 million of CARES Act
funding for 2021. To be specific, we are determining what infrastructure
projects are eligible. In 2021, I am expected to start replacing water meters
throughout the city, separate the combined sewers in the Putnam area, built a
new water tower east of the Muskingum River and north of I-70.

I would be
remiss if I did not thank the hundreds of volunteers who helped provide food
and clothing to those in need. We used Secrest Auditorium and Music Hall to
gather and distribute food to those in need.

On the
matter of public lands, we are in the process of acquiring several acres south
of the Licking River where we plan to clean up the neighborhood and create
‘Y-Bridge Confluence Park’ as a visible sign that the City believes in the area
and our goal is to stimulate other investment in the neighborhood.

Rather than
examine and comparing 2020 to prior years, I’m going to focus on where our
thoughts need to be if we are to grow our city and improve the quality of
life for all Zanesvillians.

When I was
in State government, on a semiannual basis and prior to budgeting, we would do
a SWOT analyses of our respective divisions. SWOT stands for Strengths-Weaknesses- Opportunities-
Threats.

I would like
to apply those principles to city government. Strengths are things that our city does well or resources which may
give us a comparative advantage over another community. I think about Riverside
Ballpark, Interstate 70, our rich history and traditions linked to the founding
of Ohio. Access to Zane State, Ohio University Zanesville, Muskingum University
and Mid-East Ohio Career Center.

Weaknesses are those things which may be
unpleasant of detrimental to the long term health or quality of life in
Zanesville. Weakness are those internal matters which affect future growth. We
can include our aging infrastructure, the shortage of owner occupied homes, and
shortage of housing at all levels from starter homes to retirement homes. We
are lacking safe rental properties at sub market prices.  Furthermore,
the disparity of financially affordable access to high speed internet within
the city, coupled with an educational divide will endanger the employability of
today’s children as future adults.

Looking back
at our housing in 1990, we had 11,770 housing units with 4715 rental. In 2010,
our city had 10,864 household an average of 2.2 persons per rental households
and 2.3 persons per owner occupied house. Compared that to 2019 where we had
10,636 households with roughly the same amount of people living in both rental
and occupied structures. Total households within the city dropped despite the
construction of housing in the far north area of our city. An examination of
the numbers leads one to understand that the core of our city is losing homes. Vacant lots replace once thriving
neighborhoods.  I am still
looking at numbers and noted in 2000, that in contrast, the County had 23,897
owner occupied and 8,621 rental housing. I am still crunching those numbers but
it is important to note the high majority of owner occupied housing County
wide.

Opportunities are openings or chances for
something good to happen to our community if we do something to cause that
event to happen. Examples include; maintaining a great public lands
infrastructure so that more recreational activities will take place, creating
opportunity zones, special tax and improvement districts so private interest is
encouraged to invest capital. Opportunities
include having entertainment facilities so that others may book shows, dances,
civic events, musicals and other events which bring people together. Maintaining
a beautiful riverfront so that the public can boat or invest in riverfront
properties is another example.

Threats usually arise from situations outside
our control and require an awareness as to what might happen in the future. They
might arise from developments or trends in society, on a local, regional or
national scale. The drug epidemic, COVID pandemic, influx or criminal activity
from metropolitan communities on Interstate 70 are all examples of threats.

So as we budget for 2021 and beyond
we should keep ‘SWOT’ in our minds as we invest in infrastructure, train
diversified workforces, replace aging infrastructure, expand housing stock, and
enforce safer roads and neighborhoods.

Decisions
made this year will have a long term impact on the growth of Zanesville. I am
very concerned that out city continues to
drop in population. The housing vacancy rate is approximately 1.5%, which
means that absent meaningful initiatives and programs, new housing is the only
answer to growing our community.  It is difficult to reverse this trend unless
we can encourage new housing construction, housing rehabilitation and the
development of additional subdivisions.

But out of
all of the weaknesses and threats to Zanesville, I see a great deal of
opportunity and strength in our community.

 Although COVID-19 derailed some plans, we were
able to pivot and invest in what makes this community great: the people.

As a
community, we banded together to help those who could not help themselves.
Through public-private partnerships, we kept families in their home, food on
their tables, and gave their children safe places to learn. All the while, we
continued to work on issues such as housing, public facility enhancements, and
infrastructure improvements.

2020 showed
us is that our City’s strength is its resiliency when facing unprecedented
hardships. More so we have seen that a strong sense of community pride is
present in each Zanesville resident. We will build and invest in our community
to continue to strengthen our neighborhoods. This includes facilitating
community events such as ghost walks of the Historic Putnam Neighborhood and
neighborhood cleanup days. But this also means investing in youth and adult
recreational activities such as multi use trails, softball, pickle ball, flag
football and soccer.  Last year we learned that we need to invest
in passive and active recreational activities for all ages.

The
decisions we make this year will have a lasting impact on the future of our
City. We know what issues we have in our community range from drug abuse to
lack of housing. We will work on addressing our most critical issues to
continue to build on the strides we made last year. Zanesville is directly on
the path to revitalization, we just need to continue moving forward.

To
summarize, we have been through a lot together and if we keep working together
I believe that 2021 and 2022 will lead to great achievements. Replacing water
lines and aging infrastructure, improving the environment, diversifying our
workforce, providing recreational opportunities, stimulating private investment
in homes and apartments and making Zanesville a safer community all are within
our grasp.

In closing,
I would like to thank City Council, other elected and appointed officials and
all the non-profit organizations which make our city great.