Lincoln East Rotary Club welcomed Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and Jennifer Brinkman who is Chief of Staff. The Mayor Gaylor Baird touched on three different topics: Covid-19, Budget and Victory Park. 
Covid-19: It has been difficult to try and keep everyone safe, but through vaccinations, wearing masks our community is doing well. With the new Delta variant, we are finding many hot spots. One of the things is getting anyone 16 and up vaccinated so that our younger kids don’t get the virus. Currently, we have 57% of people 16 and up vaccinated and more clinics are being scheduled to help get more vaccinated. There is many signs around in neighborhoods recognizing the First responders, hospital personnel and even teachers who have helped keep us safe. The City of Lincoln is working in trying to get information out to people to get vaccinated.
Jennifer mentioned that we don’t want to have to wait 35 years to get the virus gone like we have had to do to eradicate polio. We still have two countries that have the polio virus, plus these countries are also fighting the Covid-19 virus too.
Budget: The City of Lincoln usually does a two-year budget, but because of the pandemic they have done only a one-year budget in 2020-21 and again this year for 2021-22. The budget will soon be going before the City Council for their approval. They were some things that had to be cut because of the pandemic. Doing the pandemic, we had City employees living in a trailer out at the Ashland Water Plant to keep our water flowing. LFR, and LPD had to set up new policies during the pandemic to keep people safe. Sixteen cents of our taxes go toward our safety in the city. Mayor Gaylor Baird said that the outlook is a bit rosy, because all the have helped.
In the budget for 2021-22 there will be new police officers and one new 911 dispatcher. There will be no property tax increase. The city sales taxes bouncing back and that is the #1 resource for helping maintain all the programs that the City of Lincoln provides. There will be one new school officer because of the new school that is being built. She wants to grow our paramedics, continuing to have health specialists, recognize veterans and be able to provide good mental health providers.
Each year they are trying to get 7 miles of new water lines in the city, repair sidewalks, and streets. Get all the city lighting converted to LED lights. She wants to have good support so that our community can live the good life. Our Mayor Gaylor Baird would like to see more affordable housing for those on low-income. Aging Partners will next year be able to use the old Veterans hospital at Victory Park for their many programs.
Jennifer mentioned that are working on getting protection from cyber-attacks. Our libraries were able to stay open or work with people so they could get books during the pandemic by adjusting hours. Between two Rotary Clubs (Club 14 and Lincoln East) they were able to plant 350 trees and raise $16,200 for those trees.
Mayor Gaylor Baird talked about the extensive process they went through recently in getting a new Police Chief for Lincoln. The City Council recently approved Theresa Edwins as our new Police Chief. She will be starting in August.
Victory Park: The old Veterans hospital is being renovated to house Aging Partners. The City of Lincoln got procession of the building on July 1. The design is about finished on how they will be renovating it. It will include a dinning area, fitness area, education rooms and many other modern facilities for the Seniors of Lincoln.
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