Mayor D.C. Reeves’s message will be two-fold when he gives this annual State of the City address at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 5, at the Saenger Theatre, 118 S. Palafox St. He plans to set the table and show the public what his administration intends to do over the next year.
“Number one is we have set these pins up to knock them down, and after two years, we continue to hone our focus,” he said on (we don’t) color on the dog. “We’re going to always look for opportunity. We’re going to look for grant funds, and that doesn’t mean we put blinders on and we’re only going to focus on these things…We’re going to be spending millions and millions of dollars on park revitalization, community center revitalization and maintenance.”
Mayor Reeves continued, “I will speak about these generational projects that will have an impact well beyond me being in this office – what those are, and where that direction forward is. So after two years, I want us to hone our focus and dovetail with the strategic plan.”
The mayor will not rehash every detail of the strategic plan. “But I see these two things (generational projects and strategic plan) converging…The citizens have told us what they want.”
- He added, “We aren’t going to put blinders on, but I do want to set the table for our citizens to say, ‘Here are the major things that we are working on, and this is what you should expect for me to implement and execute.'”
GENERATIONAL PROJECTS: For “Knocking the Pins Down,” Mayor Reeves listed the projects: He said, “We have generational projects from American Magic to Hollice T. Williams Park to the Fricker Center to Baptist Hospital to the SUN Trail, on and on. I think we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us. We’ve got a hundred million dollars in grant funds, and it’s time to get going.”
In 2025, Mayor Reeves expects to begin building the new airport terminal, complete the Hollice T. Williams Park Project design and finish the construction of American Magic’s headquarters. “As for Baptist Hospital, if everything goes according to plan, its buildings will be down this year. We’re not looking for a whole lot of new projects. We’re looking to execute and implement the ones we’ve got.”
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