Laserfiche WebLink
ourselves on and/or adopt. And of course, should the City Council direct that any issue, or any <br />portion of town, take priority over others, we will redirect resources as appropriate. <br />It is important to note that not all concerns expressed are ones that the city can address, or at the <br />very least address in the near future or without significant cost. Several examples: 1) the topic of <br />homeless and/or squatters is a rather complicated legal issue, 2) utility rates are indeed high on <br />account of the Waste Water Treatment Plant project and while we have implemented several <br />actions to help alleviate this for our ratepayers, we unfortunately cannot decrease the rates, 3) <br />installation of sidewalks is indeed an ongoing desire for the City, however the sheer cost to do this <br />in mass makes it challenging; 4) like sidewalks, as we recently learned regarding Tributaries 4 and <br />6, the issue of drainage is also very expensive to address outside of isolated instances of clean up, <br />and 5) trash being picked up once a week was addressed in our recent bidding process for solid <br />waste services. In addition, we will try to investigate the concerns raised to determine that 1) we <br />truly captured the issue being expressed and 2) we are in fact able to address the matter. Some <br />issues may be civil matters (ex: some drainage issues are on private property instead of public). <br />There is much more that could be said, but these are generic overall statements from the concerns <br />raised. We have not prepared a point by point listing of whether each item is one we can or cannot <br />address. I also cannot state that we will "follow up" with every individual on any and all concerns <br />they have expressed in these town halls as that is not always efficient given the dynamic demands <br />we are up against daily. I would however encourage anyone seeking communication on an issue <br />to reach out to my office and we will get you in touch with the appropriate staff person. With this <br />all being said, we are (and have been) going to try and address as many of the concerns raised as <br />possible because 1) if they are indeed public issues, 2) if we have the budgeted funds and 3) we <br />don't have more critical matters needing attention first, then it is part of our job to address them. <br />Furthermore, we are working on making available to the public an online portal where individuals <br />can submit concerns for our investigation. We envision this portal to offer better opportunities for <br />the citizen to interact and even track progress. <br />CONCLUDING REMARKS: <br />In terms of development and infrastructure, portions of west Paris are older than much of the rest <br />of Paris. I believe we are going to learn more about this at the conclusion of our Housing Study, <br />but with aged portions of town there is a reasonable expectation to experience a greater number of <br />nuisance issues and infrastructure concerns as compared to newer portions of the city. One way to <br />stimulate change is to see new development, particularly in residential remodels and/or new <br />construction. Our Five in Five Program is one such initiative designed to target much of west Paris <br />for the purpose of encouraging rehabilitation in the area via new housing construction. We hope <br />that the Housing Study will provide us additional ideas on how we might further stimulate change <br />all throughout town, including west Paris. This however does not happen overnight. In the <br />Page 6 of 12 <br />