CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE
WEEKLY MEMORANDUM
TO: Mayor MacLean, Councilors and Department Heads
FROM: Anne Davis, Interim City Manager
DATE: January 14, 2010
RE: Weekly Memo
UPCOMING MEETINGS
Next Week's City Meetings are available on our Calendar
Last Wednesday, we celebrated the inauguration of our four Gardiner District Councilors. The positive energy and sense of celebration continued throughout the evening with a personalized invocation by Reverend Choi from the United Methodist Church in Gardiner.
Our new councilors will have some very tough decisions to make as we enter into 2010 with an economy that is less than robust and a community of people striving to make ends meet. In his remarks to Gardiner City Council, Mayor Andrew MacLean charged this new council to be thoughtful and responsible as they begin their tenure as our city’s elected officials. We know that state revenue sharing will be dramatically decreased due to the economic woes on a state level. The news from Augusta is that Gardiner will probably have almost $140,000 less in revenue sharing then we received this fiscal year. This shortfall does not include the decrease in state education aid.
When the economy flounders our residents look towards city government for assistance. Unfortunately, statistics show that when the economy is soft, our community experiences many more incidents of domestic violence and our police force gets called out on these very volatile cases. Higher unemployment means that more people will look to Gardiner’s general assistance programs so that they can get heat in their homes and food on their plates. When there is less money in a household, preventative medical care becomes too expensive and ambulance calls increase. Libraries get busier because people rely on them for accessing information on an array of topics that include resume writing, tax preparation and home repair. Our winters seem to be getting longer and the snowstorms harsher. Our
residents still expect to have safe and clear roads when they need to drive.
We should be proud that Gardiner still offers all these services to the residents and visitors who rely upon them. We have experienced no “shutdown days”, furlough days nor enacted any “pay as you play” models to make up the gap. This year, our Gardiner City Council members need to hear from their constituents as we begin to look towards next year’s fiscal budget. Please let your councilors know what needs to be done so that Gardiner remains a municipality that brags to be the city “where history and progress meet.” Until this economic downturn reverses, our elected officials need help from their residents as they may be forced to make some hard decisions. We should be grateful that they are willing to take on this task.
| 
