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The end of a year always presents a good opportunity for people to assess what they achieved for the past 12 months.
Folks can look back and see if they accomplished goals, such as losing weight, performing a home improvement project, or going back to church after a spiritual dry spell.
Similar to people, local government entities also can take time in late December to reflect on significant projects or tasks that they completed in a given year.
Area government leaders have been highlighting some of these accomplishments in year-end stories that are being written by News-Herald reporters.
It’s interesting to read about what was achieved by various community governments.
For example, one of the things that the city of Wickliffe focused on in 2023 was continuing its storefront renovation program. This initiative resulted in more than $300,000 in total upgrades for nearly 20 businesses along Euclid Avenue.
“A lot of people reach out to us saying we need to do something on Euclid Avenue with some of the rundown buildings,” Wickliffe Mayor Joe Sakacs said. “We have made milestones on what’s being done.”
For the storefront renovation program, the city has offered a $50,000 reimbursement grant for businesses in need of a new parking lot, signage, facade or hardscape to the front of their building.
“We’re able to give a little bit to give them incentive to make some change and we had way more success this past year,” Sakacs said. “The previous year, we only had a few businesses. We were able to almost fulfill every applicant (in 2023).”
In Highland Heights, Mayor Chuck Brunello Jr. said he believes that the city’s major achievement for 2023 was remodeling its Police and Fire Station.
The nearly 40-year-old station was outdated and needed a major overhaul. According to Brunello, finishing the project is one step forward in his vision for a better Highland Heights.
“We had some lag time getting some of the materials, but it was only a couple days or a week out,” he said. “But for the most part, I have nothing to complain about as far as the time it took to get the job done. The workmanship on the project, I think it came out really, really, nice.
“I’m pretty pleased and I think the chiefs are pleased and I think the personnel are pleased, as well.” he added. “All of our buildings here were approaching 40 years of age, and there’s only so long that you can kick the can down the road with these things.”
For Mayfield Heights, the past year has been challenging, but also rewarding, City Council President Diane Snider said.
She said that she feels like Mayfield Heights is steadily developing and hopes that one sign of that development in 2023 was the opening of the Mayfield Heights Aquatic and Community Center.
Snider said that constructing the center was a challenge, since City Council had to agree on many aspects of it before it was finalized. But she said that the struggle was worth it.
“I think that getting the pool up and running, and getting the community center done and getting that to completion was major,” she said. “We’ve never had anything like this in our city before. Tackling some of the issues that came along with that and having everyone be in favor of those decisions at council, sometimes that was a struggle.
“Of course, we are always worried about the financial portion of that and that we can move forward in being able to pay for what we’ve built without it being a problem to the community,” she added. “But we are looking forward to the residents appreciating what we’ve done for them, and we are hoping it won’t burden us.”
As 2023 draws to a close, The News-Herald salutes local government entities for notable projects that they completed and significant programs that they carried out over the past year.
Hopefully, the success of these initiatives will provide inspiration to achieve more major goals in 2024.
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