By Mayor Harvey Schmidt
As your Mayor, as I put down on paper my thoughts on the State of the City for what will be my last opportunity to do so, it is important to look first at what has happened to us in that last year and try to put into perspective the effect these things will have on us in the future.
We have much to be grateful for in our community. Perhaps the first thing that we have the most reason to be joyful about is the announcement that the Consolidated Biscuit Company of Macomb, Ohio completed the purchase of the former manufacturing facility that was home to the Tecumseh Products Company. The promise of 500 new jobs has put us in an enviable position among small cities in Michigan. While we applaud the investment that Consolidated Biscuit is making in our community we are equally pleased that the Tecumseh Products Company continues to maintain a presence in Tecumseh. In 2009, Tecumseh Products and the Tecumseh community celebrated the 75th anniversary of the company coming to our town. It is our hope that we can work with the company to build on that presence in the months and years to come. While we were working hard to bring Consolidated Biscuit to Tecumseh, we did not ignore the existing job base within the city. In the early days of 2009, our City Manager and Economic Development Director worked with the management and union representatives at Lenawee Stamping to complete a union contract that was responsible for the creation of 75 new jobs and a five million dollar investment in the facility. It is expected that the plant will be running at full capacity in the next year.
In February 2009, the City partnered with South Central Michigan Works to put on a “Career Boot Camp” to assist job seekers in preparation for their job search. Participants gained new insight on interviewing skills, resume writing, basic computer knowledge and much more. This event came about as the result of the large amount of interest shown in the new jobs proposed to be created by the Consolidated Biscuit project.
Because we are a progressive community, your City Council and staff have continued the process of developing our Business & Technology Campus on the eastern edge of the city. We have solicited and received bids for infrastructure development of Phase I of the development, set to begin in March of 2010. Our vision is that we will be in a unique position to be ready for what ever comes our way as the economy in Michigan rebounds from the global recession of the past few years. It has long been my belief that the viability of a community can best be measured by the vitality of its downtown.
Art Trail Tecumseh’s 2nd installment of public art sculptures in and around downtown arrived in May to great reviews. Fifteen sculptures were commissioned through assistance from the DDA, the Sage Foundation, and Michigan Council for Arts & Cultural Affairs, and local business support. Plans are currently underway for a 3rd year program. The downtown merchants hosted their annual “Art Walk” in May. This was held during the evening hours on a Friday from 6-8 p.m. The DDA worked with the Lenawee Council for the Visual Arts to recruit artists to come into local businesses to demonstrate their craft and sell their art. This (despite horrid weather conditions) was very well attended and well received by artists and businesses alike.
The City, working in conjunction with the Tecumseh Public Schools, Herrick Medical Center, Tecumseh Public Library, United Bank and Trust, area realtors, and the Tecumseh Herald, embarked on a marketing campaign to promote Tecumseh to a broader audience. This effort supplements what the DDA and City do regularly to promote the community to out of town visitors and to recruit businesses to town. Our efforts have not gone unnoticed because in the summer of 2009, Tecumseh made its debut on CNN /Money Magazine’s list of America’s Top 100 Small Cities, in which to live.
Though we have much to celebrate in our city, there are also challenges that we must deal with in the future. Maintaining a balanced budget is on the forefront of these challenges. Factors that are creating these challenges to our budget are reductions in state shared revenue, declining property values, reduction in investment income as well as a decrease in personal property investments.
Our City Manager and City Council have worked diligently to monitor both the revenue and expense sides of our budget, making changes when necessary throughout the year to ensure that there are no surprises at the end of the budget year. A great deal of credit needs to go to our city employees who have understood that difficult times call for difficult solutions, and to that end, voluntarily gave up negotiated pay increases in 2009. With sacrifices like this, we have been successful in our efforts to maintain a balanced budget by cutting expenses without reducing services; however it is not clear how long this can be the case. We must renew our efforts to bring new business and visitors to Tecumseh. We continue to follow up on any and all business prospects that come our way and the fact that we are seeing a fair amount of interest in our community is a significant sign that our efforts are not in vain.
In November I will end what has been an amazing 25 years as an elected official in Tecumseh. With the exception of a period of time in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, I have had the honor of serving as either a City Councilman or as Mayor, since 1980. As an elected official, I have also served on many city boards and committees. There have been a great number of changes in our city throughout these years, but there has also been a overriding constant. That constant is that the citizens of this community are some of the most giving people on the face of the earth. They give their money. They give their time. They give their all to the greater good of our community. This is true of the elected officials, the volunteers who sit on commissions and boards, the employees, and the citizens. Tecumseh is not what it is today without the hard work and dedication of those who live work and play in our community. I am honored to have been given the opportunity to be a part of it.