State of the City - Predictions

Two major points Mayor Steve Williams will make in his State of the City Address Tuesday at 3 p.m. in City Hall will be the exact budget and his three major development projects.

The budget for 2015 will be $43.3 million down from last year’s budget of $45.1 million. Williams said revenues will be down 5 percent from last year, and there will be reduction in operations but absolutely no layoffs.

Williams said he will not be raising any fees and things aren’t going down for the city.

“We passed the stress test,” he said. “We’re being tested a little more now.”

Williams said the past two years would give an idea of what is going to come for Huntington in the next two years. However, he added that he hopes to keep making progress on his three major development projects around the city.

Williams listed his three major development plans to be the public housing demolition taking place on Hal Greer to create a commercial/retail area, River to Rail development to draw visitors in from the interstate, the ACF property (east of the football stadium) development to include possibly a baseball field, hotel and commercial/retail buildings, according to Williams.

He would also like to implement high-speed broadband Internet for the entire city — a project Williams called the “virtual-ribbon” connecting all of the other developmental projects together.

The three major projects have already begun and Williams said being part of the America’s Best Community’s contest has moved the completion of the projects up five years by his estimates.

Williams also cited the new Visual Arts Center as a catalyst of change happening in downtown Huntington. His goal is to “make downtown feel more safe” by implementing more weekend and night police shifts and keeping the city clean.

His goals in the coming years are going to by very project-oriented, and he has plans to address the drug problem in Huntington.

“We’re not taking this anymore,” Williams said in reference to the drug problem. “We all have a role in this.”

Williams will conclude the State of the City is “strong, vibrant and at the start of a renaissance.”