Wade Troxell has been a Fort Collins City Council member since 2007 and Mayor since 2015. Wednesday April 22, Mayor Wade started his presentation with a video, “A Day in the Life of Fort Collins”, highlighting some of the recent developments in the city (as of the end of January, 2020) as well as some of the plans for the future as they existed at that time. For those who would like to view that entire video, it can be found on YouTube at:
In introducing Mayor Wade, President Rob pointed out that he is proud of the fact that the city received the Malcolm Baldrige award (2017) for innovation, leadership, and operational excellence. Dr. Troxell has been on the Mechanical Engineering faculty at CSU for some 35 years.
A few of the features and developments in Fort Collins highlighted include:
- Installation of 900 miles of fiber optic cable for Connexion;
- Some 1800 miles of electric lines (mostly underground) serving 70,500 locations;
- Some 200 traffic signals are connected to traffic operations center;
- Transfort operates 51 buses across 22 routes; some 5000 MAX riders daily;
- Some 30% of waste is diverted from landfill; some 300 visits to Recycling Center daily;
- 10 recreation facilities served 1.3 million participants in 2019;
- There are 44 Natural Areas comprising some 37000 acres and 129 miles of trails;
- There are some 13,800 sales tax licenses; 98% of businesses are small;
- Sewage system handles some 29 million gallons of waste water daily;
- Affordable housing: 373 available, 248 under construction;
- Some 170,000 residents and 5200 businesses are served by some 2500 city employees including some 220 police officers and 189 uniformed fire fighters.
However, he pointed out that the advent of Covid-19 since the video was created has resulted in considerable changes in the city. There are some tentative ideas about how to maintain Covid-19 practices in the future, perhaps starting in the summer. It is unclear how PSD will function in the coming school year. Restaurants may be restricted to take-out, curb-side, and drive-through. The marked reduction in traffic may continue. How this plays out will depend on how responsible our residents are with respect to staying at home and social distancing.
Fort Collins is working cooperatively with adjacent counties (esp. providing health-care assistance to Weld Co.) and other municipalities (sharing best practices and experiences), the State (several conversations with Governor Polis), and the Federal Government (especially through Representative Joe Neguse). He commented on the caring nature of our community, mentioning several groups and businesses that are stepping up to help others or the community as a whole. He mentioned several web sites with good information including fcgov.com/coronavirus. He expects that the transition from Covid-19 will be long and slow and that things will ultimately be different than they were before. He hopes that the city will continue to be welcoming and that the slowed-down pace of life will continue to allow more time for families/home.
Depending on whether the recovery is “V” shaped or “U” shaped, the hit on the City budget may be some $10 million to $50 million dollars. Whereas in the past the City budget has been for a two-year period, the next budget may be a one-year Covid-19 budget and numerous changes can be expected.