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ARTESIA HOSTS STATE OF THE CITY AT NEW ARTESIA LIBRARY

Rich Mathis, Golden State Water and Artesia Councilman Victor Manalo.

BY TAMMYE MCDUFF

The annual Artesia State of the City luncheon was held this past Friday September 6, 2018 in the sparkling new events room of the Artesia Library.

Mayor Sally Flowers addressed businesses and local leaders on the City’s efforts to offer increased public safety, special events, recreation programs, and the “sharper focus on requests from property owners.” 

“The city has worked diligently to increase non-tax City revenue over the years – including $3.3 million that was used to increase financial stability and expenditures on public services, with no financial impact to our residents,” said Flowers, “to further increase our services, the City has successfully sought and received grant funding for city projects to the tune of $3.5 million.”

The City has approved investments in rehabilitating and replacing its’ infrastructure including 56 new street lights, 14 new stop signs, repaired and installed new storm water facilities and widened sidewalks, improving 83 percent of the arterial streets of the City in the last four years.

The quality of life for Artesia residents has greatly improved. Overall crime rates are down 27 percent in the last year alone. The focus on bringing smart development to Artesia has resulted in nearly $700,000 in new revenue from projects such as Artesia Live I, Artesia Christian Home Memory Care Facility, Jollibee, the Serenity Project, Popeye’s Chicken, and 7 Leaves Café.

Further emphasizing the City’s stability, Council and Staff have presented a balanced budget for the past five years, reduced its operational costs each year, while increasing City reserves from zero to 120 percent. 

 

 Artesia Mayor Pro Tem Tony Lima  with Arnaldo Baptista of Radio / Television Artesia

Reducing the carbon footprint has been another top priority for the Council. The city has been able to reduce its emissions by planting 115 new trees throughout the City. Energy consumption and electrical costs have been reduced by 60 percent, interior lighting in all City facilities has been converted to LED bulbs, the 30-year-old vehicles in the Maintenance Department were replaced with new trucks, and the City has earned an achievement award from the Beacon Program for its reduced electrical consumption.

The City’s increased financial stability has allowed for the award of several mini grants to nonprofits through the Community Benefit Grant Program including a resolution enabling residents to take advantage of the Property Assessed Clean Energy Program (PACE) to make improvements to their property, offering a $500,000 grant program for income qualified residents.

Artesia funds 58 special events for its residents, “it has been said, that the most diverse state in the nation is California and the most varied county is LA County, however, out of all the cities in the county, Artesia is the most diverse with 51 ethnic heritages being represented,” said Flowers. “We are a City on the move,” commented Flowers.