By Mayor Jeff Whitaker
All the goals I continue to have as Mayor of Greenville aim at continuing to provide our residents with those services they expect and deserve as hardworking, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens.
At the top of that list is always providing for the safety and security of our families with strong, effective police and fire protection. Those that serve as first responders are greatly appreciated and are to be highly commended for their service and sacrifice. They will always have our full support in carrying out those tasks.
We want to ensure that Greenville residents have the ample supply of clean, safe, and healthy drinking water they require, as well as the utmost in sanitary wastewater treatment. This will always receive the highest level of attention. It is far too vital to our health to tolerate any sort of circumstance that might compromise the integrity and safety of our supply of drinking water, putting our health at risk.
We will always prioritize the maintenance of our streets, sidewalks, and all our city’s infrastructure to the very best of our financial capability. As Greenville’s number one physical asset, it’s imperative that we take the very best possible care of it.
We’ll always continue, as we have in the past, to be most judicious with the spending of our hard-earned taxpayer dollars, striving to remain financially strong as a city. We will, as it becomes available, continue to seek grant funding and loans at the lowest interest rates possible. in making our available funds stretch even further in providing the current level of services, as well as any other additional projects, services, or amenities in the future that will add to what we offer our residents.
A key element to the focus, progress, and success of the City of Greenville is our recently updated Comprehensive Plan. This is a long-range planning document, a plan of action, so to speak, which outlines the city’s vision, goals, objectives, policies, and strategies for our future growth. It also addresses the importance of maintaining property values, deals with the outline of infrastructure for the future, any future housing developments, economic development, the aesthetics and overall community image, as well as community development. This document expresses our values and preferences regarding these subjects and is the foundation for future development decisions.
Since living here, I’ve always taken notice of the tremendous amount of generosity and conscious effort on behalf of so many people willing to give of their time, talent, and personal finances in making sure those in need are given care. I find incredible the abundance of programs and services within the City of Greenville and throughout Darke County that are available in helping those in need, be it providing shelter for the homeless, food for the hungry, clothing for those that need it, counseling for those with various addictions, and help and encouragement in seeking employment.
All of us should recognize that it takes an ongoing effort from everyone in bringing community together, in keeping Greenville strong and vibrant, safe and clean. We encourage each other to do our best, in supporting our businesses, in keeping up our properties, and in being a community that sticks together. We want to see to it that Greenville is a safe, healthy, comfortable, and most enjoyable place to live, work, and raise our families.