The elections are over, and I am proud of our Kirtland residents for another strong demonstration in citizenship. In addition to voting on local, state and national candidates, Kirtland voters’ voices were also heard on three Charter Amendments. I want to thank our residents for their consideration on these issues but I also want to further express my gratitude to our Charter Review Committee. I want to thank all of the folks on the Committee for working diligently to help complete this process as prescribed in our City Charter.

A reminder that there is a new autumn city wide brush pickup of branches and twigs. Wards 1 & 3 were scheduled for the week of November 2nd and Wards 2 & 4 for the week of November 9. The persistent rains of the last week of October put our collection behind a week. Hopefully this gives everyone a little more time to get those fallen sticks and branches out to the roadside. Please see Recent News on the city website for updates and guidelines.

This month, City Council and I will continue our quest to develop a Comprehensive Road Program and funding strategy.  Over the past several months, our Service Director and City Engineer have outlined a long-term plan to revive our roadways. The strategy includes a Citizens Task Force that will work annually to recommend the best approaches to execute each year’s paving and maintenance plan. This plan will also include project prioritization resulting from visual and sub-surface analysis, the need for critical drainage corrections and how best to spend each year’s road budget dollars. Additionally, I am speaking to neighboring communities to gain economies of scale by packaging our competitively bid projects together to garner the best possible pricing.

In order to begin our comprehensive paving program in 2021, I have asked City Council to evaluate a handful of funding options presented by our Finance Director. As City Council works with the Administration to select a preferred funding path, I am working on a community communication plan. With COVID in mind, I will seek ways to hold forums and neighborhood meetings that helps explain the ultimate strategy while seeking community feedback. Please stay tuned.

Finally, over the next several weeks, we will be interviewing candidates for the recently posted Community & Senior Coordinator position. I anticipate a great process that considers the needs of our entire community.

Thank you,

 

Kevin Potter