State of the City
January 13, 2021
2020 was a challenging year for everyone due to the outbreak of Covid19 and all the restrictions that were placed on our city and our businesses. Despite those challenges, we were able to accomplish several things.
First I want to welcome Danny Scott, our new Alderman, and welcome back all of our incumbents.
Once again we passed our “Compliance Audit” and our water department audit. These audits are designed to inspect our files and assure they meet state guide lines.
We continue to struggle with very old water mains and have repaired numerous leaks as well as a major rupture when the fire hydrant was struck resulting in a complete system shutdown. We are in the process of a major water system upgrade to help alleviate some of the leak issues as well as improving our water quality. We updated our treatment efforts at a cost of over $50,000.00 and have seen some improvement of the sediment levels in the system. The water department continues to rely on general fund subsidies in order to meet monthly expenses. The Storm Warning system has needed repair several times and repairs have been completed. We also repaired large portions of the city streets after repairing water leaks.
Financially the city is in better condition than some other cities around us. We have maintained good revenues from our sales tax due to new laws that require online sellers to pay local sales tax on purchases made in Weiner. An increase in solid waste disposal fees will be required this year (the last increase was 10 years ago). While dealing with the pandemic has been stressful on us all, I was able to claim over $28,000.00 in “Cares Act” funding which will allow us to make some upgrades to our police vehicle. The Fire Department continues to receive funding from Act 833 as well as donations and subsidies from the general fund.
Plans for this year include the $1.4 million water project, major street work funded by the State Street Aid ($300,000.00 max funding), a new animal control building and new playground equipment. I am very excited about the new playground equipment and we
are actively seeking grant monies to complete this project. Community involvement is very important when applying for grants, so please let us know how you might help. The Animal Control project took a major leap forward when the school gave the city the old “hog barn”. While it looks pretty ugly, the building its self will work well for the cities purpose.
As we head into this New Year, it is my hope that the council can continue to work together making our city a great place to live, work and raise our kids. We all need to take pride in our city and strive to make it an even better place to live.
Respectfully submitted
Michael R. Frasier
Mayor
The City of Weiner
Last modified: January 10, 2022