Good evening, how we feel about that Lion's win.
Woo woo. Somebody stopped me
and said, Hey, are you wearing that?
Because the lions won.
I was like, nah, not really, but I loved it
and it's what we need in our city.
So, good evening. My name is Ou Jabari, along
with my partner Rhonda Hall,
who is probably somewhere out there in the hallway.
And we are your community
Outreach director for the City of Warren.
It is an honor to stand
before you tonight as we gather for this important occasion,
the state of the city address.
This is time for reflection, unity,
and progress as we continue working together
for the future of Warren.
Tonight, I have the privilege of introducing someone
who represents not only the strengths of leadership,
but also a defining moment in our city's history.
Councilwoman Melody McGee made history
as the first African American woman elected
to the Warren City Council.
Let's give a big round of applause,
her presence on this.
Council mark, a new chapter of inclusion, representation,
and progress in our city.
She is a passionate advocate, a thoughtful leader,
and a dedicated voice for her constituents
and for the people of Warren as a whole.
Her service reminds us that representation matters,
and that together we are building a city
that reflects the diversity, strength,
and unity of our entire community.
Please join me in welcoming city of Warren's.
First African American woman elected to the city.
Warren's Council, Councilwoman vice President, melody McGee.
Thank you for that introduction. Hello Warren.
Hello, Macomb.
I know you're here and I know it's
other cities in the house.
Good evening, everyone.
It's my honor and privilege to welcome you all here today.
On behalf of the Warren City Council, as vice president
of the Council, I'm proud to stand
before you in the city that continues to grow,
adapt, and move forward.
Thanks. In no small part to strong
visionary leadership today, I have a distinct pleasure
of introducing someone who's truly committed her career
to public service, to advocacy for our residents,
and to building a stronger, more vibrant,
worn mere.
Lori Stone is a lifelong resident of the community,
a educator, and a dedicated public servant.
Since taking office, she worked timelessly
to bring transparency, accountability, and in
and invocation to city government.
Under her leadership, we've seen progress in public safety,
infrastructure and community engagement.
She's leading, listening
and acting on behalf of all warm residents to ensure our
city remains a place where family strive
business grows,
and everyone has a voice working together for Warren.
Please join me in welcoming the mayor of the city
of Warren Lori M. Stone.
Thank you. Thank You.
Good evening everyone.
Thank you for joining me this evening
for my second annual State of the City address.
This is part of my commitment to providing our community
with transparency and accountability in local government.
I would like to start by recognizing
and thanking a few people that help make this event happen.
Thank you to my incredibly hardworking community outreach
staff for organizing tonight's event from invitations
to a taste of worn.
This takes weeks of preparation,
and I want to also thank the businesses
that generously volunteered their time donated food.
And I always appreciate the opportunity to feature
restaurants in our community.
I believe you can eat your way around the world
and warn food.
Tourism is an economic driver
for communities, and I want more.
I want to invite more people to visit warn restaurants.
Thank you to our many student volunteers that help
to set up staff vendor tables for businesses
that could not be here in person.
Um, help to usher and we'll be helping to tear down
and clean up as well.
Thank you to the communication department for hosting us,
promoting, prepping, streaming,
and recording the state of the city address.
For those who cannot be here with us in person, I would like
to thank the locally elected leadership for Warren, those
who are elected to represent our community at every level
of government as well as local leaders in our community.
While you maintain demanding schedules,
you continuously show up for our community.
So I thank you. A special thank you
to Warren's civil servants under the leadership
of their hardworking department.
Heads you provide the dependable services
residents expect and appreciate.
Without you everyday efforts, I would have nothing
to celebrate tonight.
Tonight is all about what you help accomplish.
And I could not possibly pack all that is done in the course
of a year in the city of Warren into one speech.
We would be here indefinitely,
but I want you to know that I see what you do every day
and appreciate all that you do for our city.
Just completing my second year as mayor
of Warren has been an honor
and a privilege working together with
so many in the community to make Warren a better place
to live, work, play, and grow.
Leading the third largest city in Michigan has brought me
many joyful and jubilant experiences,
and it has also brought challenges and surprises.
I have learned to expect the unexpected
and endless inspiration to wake up each day
with a positive mindset committed to meeting the needs
of our community.
Six, six months ago, we were here to have a,
a conversation about the costs
and investments that it takes to provide the services
and fulfill the functions of local government.
The city council adopted a fiscally responsible balanced
budget for how your tax dollars
and revenue will be invested and put to work.
And I thank them. I can testify to the fact
that in every department in the city of Warren,
there are good stewards of your tax dollars,
providing the best possible return on your investment,
leveraging tax cooperatively, collaboratively,
and collectively whenever possible,
and drawing down grant dollars
to help tax dollars go farther.
When you elected me mayor two years ago, I had thousands
of discussions with residents about what they loved
about their city as well as their concerns
and opportunities for improvement.
And I committed to continuing these conversations, helping
neighbors with constituent services, providing opportunities
for civic engagement, and providing community outreach.
So every member of our community knows government is
so much more than City Hall in government.
It is said you go slow to go fast.
Building effective policies
and procedures, building a team, changing culture,
reflection of what is, what working is working well
and what could be working better.
Developing relationships.
These are all parts of the foundation
to move Warren's priorities forward.
Two years ago, you joined me for listening sessions
on our priorities.
So myself, council members
and department heads would have firsthand the chance
to hear the concerns
and ideas about public safety, economic development,
and investing in infrastructure parks, recreation
and environmental sustainability.
So tonight I'm glad to have the state of the city
to showcase, highlight,
and update progress being made toward these priorities.
My department heads and staff will tell you
that I do not miss an opportunity to celebrate.
There are so many good things happening.
While there are plenty of problems that need to be solved,
taking the time to reflect on those things
that we have accomplished, not only to boosts morale,
but centers us in the fact that we can,
because we have, we can solve problems
because we have, we can do difficult things
because we already have.
We can come up with innovative solutions
because we have, we can work together because we have
and we can accomplish great things because we already have.
I wanted to talk about a little bit about what
as serving as mayor,
the team I built in my office has been tasked with
and we have been busy working together
to serve this community, helping residents,
filling commissions
and fulfilling community outreach,
delivering on the priorities
that residents have established so far.
In 2025, our constituent services have assisted
with 3074 cases to date.
And I will not be surprised if we cross the 4,000 case mark
before the end of the year.
I pride myself on serving our community.
I recognize that government can be tricky to navigate
along with myself.
My constituent service team works every day
to answer questions, solve problems,
and so far, in 2025, we've handled
over 97% of our cases with a completion.
But we don't stop until we got 'em all
at the city level, we have 31 boards in commission.
No small task. Uh, we have
filled 15 of these boards in commissions completely,
but we still have openings on 16
of these boards and commissions.
We could use you Tacoma Board, volunteer your time
and talents and passions if you have an interest in
beautification historical knowledge
or senior healthcare.
And there are many, many other positions available.
Well, it looks like there should be half
of these positions open.
There is not. Of the 215 appointed positions,
172 po 72 positions are filled.
We have filled 80% of these positions
and have about 43 left.
The mayor's office have received 185 applications.
I've interviewed 171 and 57.
Applicants are still pending.
About one third of the appointed positions are up
for consideration each year.
If you are interested in volunteering your time
for a commission, an application can be found
at the city website.
And here are just a few of our appointees
and Reapp appointees serving the community,
working together with the city council.
During my administration, 92 people have been appointed
to boards and commissions.
42 have been Reappointments and 50 are new appointments.
There is a lot of interest.
Mostly people just don't know what they exist, how,
how they exist or how to get involved.
Another important service is community outreach.
I have a team that shows up every day,
invested in our community, looking
for ways to make it better.
And that looks like community engagement.
In the last year, they've organized 43 events
that's averaging at least three a month.
They have engaged with 1,960 event
participants, 125.
Our Youth Volunteers 85, our Business Connections,
13, our community partnerships.
We can't do it alone.
We've done community check-ins, civic engagement,
veteran services, community, um, celebrations,
skilled trades fair, and so much more.
And my staff keeps telling me to stop telling people
that we're going to go walk eight mile.
But you know what, if it gets someone to pay attention,
um, um, it's worth it.
What community Outreach does is placemaking.
It is bringing people together. It is making connections.
It's building community
and making sure that people see themselves
in their community.
Another point of pride is empowering civic engagement.
This has totally been ripped off from a combination of our,
uh, police, uh, citizens, police Academy,
and other communities who have found it beneficial
to get community members engaged in local government.
All the things that when it's being done so well,
you don't even have to think twice about it.
But it reached out to department heads
and said, I need you to help me show the community
what you do and where their tax dollars go.
And we had fun.
We visited with Communications, water
Wastewater, treatment, parks
and Recreation, department of Public Works,
economic Development, fire sanitation.
And you know what, every time people came, they said,
I learned something new.
I had a good time. And when's that next one?
So, I'm looking forward in 2026
to selecting a few more departments to showcase
And we can only be successful when we're working together.
Working together with schools to recruit future civic, um,
sorry, civil service members.
We don't talk about careers in civil service.
So it's important to engage and talk about career pathways.
It's important that when our city council president gets up
and talks to Chambers, they're promoting our community
and explaining what is happening right and worn,
and why people should engage here.
It is important working
with our school super superintendents
and being able to partner them with such community resources
as our FBI who does, um, education
and security lessons
and having a good time,
but also for a good cause, like collecting gifts
for our kids who families are struggling,
whether we're helping our community understand the process
of how taxation works,
or we're building relationships across, um, community lines
and we don't, our,
our community's interests don't stop at a border,
helping our community celebrate what is special.
And even having international relations when you realize
that cities across the border have the same interests,
and by working together we can make an impact.
These are all ways that we get to our first priority,
which is fueling our economic ecosystem.
I often hear there's nothing happening in Warren
unless it's a gas station, a car wash, a storage,
self storage or um, dollar store.
Well, I'm here to tell you pay attention
'cause that's not all.
First of all, I would like to celebrate our community
and economic development department head, Tom Bato.
Tom was honored by the Michigan Economic Development
Association as their 2025 MEDA medalist
of the year, having distinguished contributions to the field
of economic development.
Tom led the team that is responsible
for implementing economic development functions,
including Warren's Downtown Development Authority,
the Tax Increment Financing Authority,
eight Mile Boulevard Association,
brownfield Authority Community Development Block
Grant, and so much more.
He doesn't do it alone.
He has built a reliable team
and they are helping to fuel our economic future.
Economic development initiatives were showcased during
showcased during our August Empowering Civic
engagement series.
And what we realized is we could probably do a whole series
just on the economic development functions.
I wanna, I'm really proud that I get
to brag about the Arsenal Alliance.
This is a partnership with Sterling Heights, committed
to the preservation
and expansion of our shared
$6.5 billion defense corridor.
We are stronger together in growing military
and defense assets, providing opportunities
for manufacturing to adapt to a changing mobility landscape.
Building on defense. As a guest
of the Macomb County Chamber, I joined federal, state,
and local government representation
during Operation Northern Strike at Camp Grayling.
The big picture is that beyond the Detroit Arsenal
and the Defense Corridor state statewide, military
and defense are built on layers from Selfridge
to Camp Grayling.
And only by working together across levels of government
will we work to maintain our valuable military assets.
And the state of Michigan has recognized that one
of our challenges is not enough affordable housing.
We know that simply the supplies that you buy
to build a house when you assemble the house do not equal
what you re you know, we coop in value.
So we have a challenge.
We have a challenge working together to
utilize economic development tools in partnership with state
and federal financing
and working with our local developers to build more housing.
Faye Baker and Baker Associates has broken ground
and is getting ready for the placement of modular housing,
uh, at west of Van D**e, north of Topfer.
And that's just the start.
Warren is working with developers on 700 plus
workforce housing units.
The first housing development
that we've seen here in Warren in 30 years.
This will make housing more affordable for everyone.
It's a problem when we have to compete
for the same housing stock.
Lemme tell you about a few more, um, things
that are going well and worn.
As a city leader, I have the unique privilege to join with
business owners that who who have invested in our community
to celebrate and welcome them to our community.
And here's just a handful of some of our new faces.
Um, I had the opportunity
to welcome New York City Halal Eats.
They know their community because they know we like halal
and we also like good food.
And it's not all about new builds.
Sometimes it's about reinvestment.
So I was very happy to join with LA Fitness
for their grand reopening.
After undergoing a significant investment into remodeling
and upgrades, as well as their member appreciation,
we'd welcomed a new business
that is offering immigration legal services.
This is an important field in our community,
welcoming a Time Together Adult Day Center.
This is a unique business that provides care
and companionship, prevents social isolation,
and offers respite for caregivers.
They expanded their business to include a second location
and located it in Worn.
It definitely meets a need of our aging rec residents.
And I can't tell you how excited I was to pull up
for a grand opening for Sherman's, Tennessee Hot Crackers,
um, and discovered Chuck Fanta
and his daughter Pam, who I go back all the way
to elementary school with when they decided
to relocate their production facility from St.
Clair Shores back home to Warren,
repurposing a manufacturing facility as part
of a family bus based small business.
And we still need our cars washed. Welcome to All Car Wash.
We have some really innovative businesses.
Recoup technology offers a, um, technology that is able
to break down food waste faster than, um, uh,
composting down.
They break down food waste to a liquid for disposal.
It saves unsolid waste from landfills
and it has taken root in cruise ships.
But there are so many more opportunities for restaurants
and others to take this up.
Maven Commercial Cleaning, not your house cleaning.
They work on, uh, computers.
We are part of a collective of all the communities that, uh,
share a boundary with Eight Mile.
And so we have the opportunity to connect
and remind ourselves that by investing, by
keeping up with our infrastructure,
eight Mile is an essential economic corridor.
We should take pride in that and remind ourselves.
I have been walking eight Mile with my team at least,
uh, for six visits.
And our, with our goal to make it from Hayes to,
uh, Dender.
And I can't tell you how many businesses
that we've come across that have been located there
for 30, 40, 50, 80 years.
And I'm very proud to announce that Semcog,
the Southeast Michigan Council of Government,
awarded us a $32,740 grant
for the Stevens Road Greenway Planning Assistance.
This funding supports a collaborative that allows Warren,
along with neighbors of East Point Center line and St.
Clair Shores to take an important step towards a shared
vision for safer, more connected
and more sustainable public spaces.
Assist our communities in conducting feasibility
assessments, identifying shared goals,
and developing a framework
for potential future investments in improvements.
Examine opportunities to enhance public spaces,
provide environmental
and storm water benefits,
increase mo non-motorized connectivity,
and improve aesthetic character along the corridor.
Thoughtful planning today helps
to ensure our communities remain vibrant
and resilient for generations to come.
We are creating a cohesive, energized economic corridor.
And I'll take the opportunity to reannounce
and share the good news that was shared with us that our,
uh, that STIs, a warn truck assembly plant,
has announced their plans to develop some new vehicles,
including an all new range exte extending EV
and an internal combustion engine SUV
that will be produced here in Warren.
This, they're committing to a nearly $100 million investment
to retool this facility,
and they're anticipating adding 900 jobs to this plant.
I think the economic future is bright here in Warrenton.
Let's talk about investing in infrastructure.
When I say invest in infra infrastructure,
the first thing people think of is roads.
And I'll tell you, our engineering department has been
working hard, paving big roads, working with, um,
county to pave roads, small roads, pavement,
patching, helping make our road quality go further.
But there's so much more to infrastructure than roads.
So let's talk about building maintenance.
Building maintenance keeps up more than
19 buildings for city.
Um, use.
This year a big investment in a 20 plus year old building
of city hall was recarpeting the whole
building, all four floors.
And we added right around Christmas last year, new furniture
to our atrium.
And it brings me such joy to walk around, walk
through the atrium and watch students studying,
parents having snacks with kids, families getting together,
people taking meetings, or just taking the time to relax.
City Hall is the community's house,
and I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity
to occupy it.
But building maintenance also is responsible
for a DA improvements to city Hall,
the 37th district court building
and Warren Police Department.
They worked on retrip and w weather shipping
and clock tower repairs to the parks parking structure.
Let's talk about property management
because in the summer I talk
to more Warren residents about property
management than anything else.
And let me tell you, we have a, a dedicated
determined team of pr, property management,
property maintenance, blight enforcement,
uh, in our community.
They work on residential properties and commercial.
They, uh, they participate in random sweeps as well
as in response to complaints of ordinance violation.
When our council adopted the noxious weed ordinance,
they were able
to give our property maintenance team a greater enforcement
tool that allowed that to people to keep up their property
with greater efficiency.
And they're also in for the big projects too.
So when I have my public service director show up
and say, we got a problem, we're ready to tackle it,
and we got a plan,
I have absolute faith when they pull out 120 plus vehicles,
spend three days, um, cleaning up a property,
and the property owner is responsible for the cleanup costs.
When we talk about, um, I can, um, infrastructure,
it's also blighted buildings
and our community development block grant gives us the
funding to purchase two blighted buildings homes every year,
fix them and then offer them to community members
who fit the eligibility.
Uh, I believe it's 120% of the average medium income,
and allow them to be home owners in homes
that they can be proud of.
When you say infrastructure, think about drinking water,
think about lead service replacement.
To date. This year,
our water department has replaced 50 lead service
lead services adding
to the 420 total lead service line replaced as part
of an ongoing program.
This is, and I'm very proud to announce that the results
of our annual lead sampling collected between July 1st
and September 30th remain well below action level set
by Eagle
Water also looks like fire hydrants responsibility
for maintenance of the city's 5,225 fire hydrants was
transferred from fire to the water division,
and the maintenance includes regular flushing repair
winterization to ensure year-round operational readiness
when the fire department needs it.
Residential cross connection.
When I started, I had no idea what it means, but now I do.
Beginning October 1st, 2025,
our water division staff will begin conducting
residential inspections.
As part of the state of Michigan's Eagle
mandated cross connection control program, they're ensuring
that the protection of the public water supply is from, um,
being prevented from potential contamination risk.
And so these inspections are, have been expanded
to include the 4 8 0 8 8 zip code.
And in the first week, um, it was shared
that the crew visited 88 homes
and was able to complete 33 inspections.
Residents responded positively
with strong cooperation citywide.
There's a new Dropbox installed at the water garage
for convenient return of, of surveys,
and an online form will be coming to coming soon to make,
uh, reporting even easier.
Let's talk about technology as infrastructure.
Our SCADA system is a platform computer, a
computer based platform,
and this system provides real time monitoring
and control of system pressures contributing
to fewer water main breaks and improved system performance.
The proactive maintenance
of our water department has really paid off
with the fluctuations and water pressure.
Many communities have been ravaged by water main breaks
and Warren has not had that because of our water department.
So thank you.
I get to take another lap on the Stevens Road
Detention Basin.
And when you spend this much money on infrastructure,
say it again and again and again and again.
We invested in a pump house
and water main replacement as well as in this cutting edge,
um, state-of-the-art equipment
2025 brought the completion
of a three-phase infrastructure investment
that allows the city of Warren to
actively manage extreme rain events,
which has already proven to be a significant improvement.
When I started and there was flooding, the only thing
that we could do is wait for gravity.
That was our only option.
And now on several occasions,
the Stevens Road Detention Basin has been utilized
to pump water from inundated storm sewers to create space
and time for our wor uh, water treatment,
waste water treatment plant to function as designed,
reducing the amount of incomplete discharges into our
Clinton River watershed during storms.
And more importantly,
this infrastructure has reduced the incidents
of basement flooding, saving homeowners from the cost
of flood recovery and the stress of basement cleanups.
Warren, we did that. We did that
February 24th, 2025 ribbon cutting ceremony
for the grand opening of the Stevens Road.
Um, sanitary sewer detention basin took place.
It holds 22 million gallons.
And I arguably there is not, um,
too many of these out there.
This is something that is really unique to what we do.
And I take this and I, and I highlight this
because no sooner do we finish one
landmark making, uh, accomplishment,
then we still have other things.
When your city's going on 70 years old,
we've got some maintenance to do.
But I'm very proud
that we have a wastewater treatment department
that is proactive.
They got grant funding to start evaluating
and looking for equipments.
And that, uh, was approaching the end of life function so
that we are not a community asking for someone to come
and bail us out and save us from a crisis.
Because we can be proactive, we can plan ahead,
we can do the smart things,
and we can make sure that we are set up to do good things.
Running a wastewater treatment, um, operation is expensive,
but it saves you as water wastewater users
in the end because we have impact on what those rates are.
So we know that our incident waste incinerator
is at that end of the line.
I think we had three
or four, um, issues that needed to repair this year.
And so I am appreciative
of all the groundwork that was laid before.
It started with years when I was in the legislature getting
a call and saying, we need this funding.
What can you do? Can you get,
can you get together and help us?
So we were able to secure a hundred million
in low interest savings to taxpayers
through a clean water state revolving fund loan.
I believe it's 2% that we're able to fundraise.
We are able to, um, uh,
fund at which is significantly less than any other
interest rate that we would get funding for.
And we will be able to, um, construct a state of the art
next generation wastewater treatment, um,
incineration project.
And not only that,
we also are receiving 9,000,227
in loan forgiveness.
So that's a nice little help from the state of Michigan.
And so I, I have to express my appreciation
to our delegation.
Thank you for partnering with us.
Thank you for helping our advocates.
Thank you for raising the voice.
When people said incinerator, what are those?
We don't do that anymore.
Um, and giving us an opportunity to make a case
for why this technology is cleaner, more efficient
and, um, is how our community manages our waste byproducts.
We're doing some incredible things
and it's my privilege to shout out work that is being done.
The city of Warren has completed our draft
of our American With Disability Act transition plan.
This is our communi our commitment, our promise
to the community that any buildings
or any parks that are a public that
we are working towards making sure
that they're inclusive and accessible.
We have already hosted two public engagement presentations
this month, but we're not done because I need your help.
We've recorded these presentations for anyone
who could not attend in person,
and they're available on the city web website as well
as the language for this draft transition plan.
But we need public input on these surveys.
Anything that we might have a blind spot on, anything
that you see that isn't meeting the mark we have
till the end of October.
And the feedback that is
provided by our community will be taken into consideration
as we finalize our plan.
Help us spread the word
we've been busy studying.
Uh, we have our active mobility plan.
This is a plan that will help us build safer, walkable,
better connected community, provide
for greater accessibility benefits for everyone,
and helps to foster economic stimulation.
So this plan has been rolled out to the planning department,
I'm sorry, planning commission
and will be presented to council.
If you have not heard what is included in this,
I encourage you to take the opportunity
to check out the recordings and help move it along.
And significant investment from
emco Tap Transportation Alternative pr uh, program
will provide us with, uh, a significant investment in a big,
uh, piece of infrastructure essential for this activity.
Uh, active mobility plan
it this $1,000,256
and 704 740 $2 grant
will help in building a bridge from Chicago Road
to connect residents to the Warren Community Center
that will help us navigate parks, um,
more safely and move faster.
This will be a significant piece
of our active mobility plan, creating safer connections,
and thank you to everyone who collaborated
and on securing funding our economic development team,
our engineering team, uh,
we can make our tax dollars go further without raising taxes
when we have the opportunity to draw down these funds.
Let's talk about parks and recreation.
Are you getting your money's worth out of your parks
and recreation millage dollars?
Are you getting your money's worth out
of library millage dollars?
If you have not visited any
of the destination parks in Warren, you are missing out.
Warren is one of the only cities I know in the state
of Michigan that you can visit a different park every day
of the month without repeating.
If you are not attending free
programming, you are missing out.
If you are not utilizing library services
beyond books, you are missing out.
Warn residents have access to numerous events
that are at no additional cost because we invest upfront
and many communities residents pay as you go
and everyday activity comes with a registration in a fee
warn, are you getting your return on investment?
There is no excuse for missing out on hours of entertainment
programming because of overwhelming demand.
Our Warren today is back in print.
Library parks programming is available
and mailed home to homes, um,
and we're seeing it pay off an increased registration.
In participation.
The Warren Community Center, we, we listened when you asked
for what you wanted to see improve in change in parks
that you wanted increased staffing levels.
And so we've been hiring you wanted longer hours
and try to work towards pre COVID
levels and we're working on it.
We've restored public swim on Sundays
and we've replaced nearly a million dollars in
pool equipment.
So everything old is new again.
I think Warren's answer to the farmer's market
is the city square street fair with foam fountain parties,
free kids, entertainment vendors, food trucks,
and free family movies.
There is a lot of fun to be had.
It is the last Wednesday of every month
through the summer months,
and I encourage you, if you missed out this
year, come back next year.
Our parks have been of the 30 parks, we've got a lot of work
to do, but I'm really part proud of the work.
The completion of work at Lich Park.
Lich improvements includes accessible play structures,
improvements to the walking paths and bathrooms.
If you haven't been lately, pay a visit.
And we are committing to three parks at a quarter
of a million dollars a piece this coming year.
Ultra Mat, pa Park, it has two, um, two play structures
that have aged out and are ready to be replaced.
And it will be a sensory
experience park including a sensory wave, seat swings
and expression seating for parents
and infants, um, slides,
music including drums, bongos bells
and train whistles, climbers, um, uh,
challenge bridge, gizmo panel, and so much more.
So check it out. Another quarter million is
going to JC Park.
JC Park is going to see climbers swings, expression,
swing seating nets for climbing, uh, lit a leaf seat,
double slide, double zip slides,
and, um, an overlook climber.
And at Res Park we're also replacing the, the peace stone
gravel surface, which will, with a new surface
that will get us to a DA compliant
and make it more accessible.
And a DA transfer accessible structure with swings,
expression, swing, um, seesaws
wall climbers, um, slides, slides and more slides
and high capacity spinning net.
So if you haven't visited Ultra Mat JC
or rents in a while, it's time to give 'em another visit.
When you think of Parks
and Recreation, you might not be thinking about our cultural
commissions, concerts at the square.
Countless hours of entertainment
and enjoyment free of charge for enjoyment.
You might not realize that wor in Center Line Parks
and Recreation joined in an intergovernmental agreement.
Center line helps warn by helping to offset the costs
of funding for maintenance
and upkeep of pool, pool facilities.
And we have the opportunity
to participate in Center Lines programming
and trips as residents at residential rate.
I encourage you to take it up.
Parks and Recreation is also senior housing.
When we sat down with our seniors at senior housing,
they said, we want to be mobile, we want outings
and we want to be social.
So we've been able to partner up
with our Smart Bus services, providing outings
to Tiger Games, the Detroit Zoo, the right museum, breakfast
and lunch outings and trips to the store.
This provides our seniors greater independence
and our actions and adventurers.
And we celebrated our 50th anniversary
of Stillwell Manner at the beginning of October.
And congratulations to the team that staffs every day.
They, they work so hard to take care of our residents,
provide them safe, comfortable,
affordable living experiences,
and they put on some really spectacular events.
Library programming is Parks and Recreation.
Our library,
um, earned a $7,000 grant
from the Will Eisner Innovation novel, graphic novel grant.
Our, our libraries partnered
with students at Chatterton Middle School.
Um, they were able to purchase a graphic novel collection
for our teens, and they were able
to bring in three presenters, um,
who are graphic artists to help the students.
And the students at Chatterton
produced their first graphic novel called First Panels
Voices from the Margins.
So let's talk about environment.
Environmental sustainability was an issue that is close
to the heart for many different people for many reasons.
And it looks like our first electric fleet vehicle
water division has added the seat.
The city's first electric fleet vehicle,
a 2025 GM Chevy Bright drop work van.
And that will be helping to support our meter division.
We're making leaps and bounds. Guys.
I have to commend our wastewater treatment plants Industrial
pre-treatment program, uh, the department,
environmental Great Environment, great Lakes and Energy.
Recognize Warren's, um, IPPE program for 40 years
of participation in partnership in
protecting our environment.
And for those of you who aren't familiar
with the term environment, uh,
the in industrial pre-treatment program,
these are individuals who work with our industry that, um,
use toxic chemicals to make sure that they're well managed,
disposed of appropriately.
Don't enter our water supply,
don't water enter our water treatment plant.
And when there is an incident
or a crisis, they're the first on the scene to respond
and we're very appreciative of what they do.
Environmental sustainability is hazardous waste collection.
Our sanitation department has ADD has offered, um,
a hazardous waste collection opportunity every year.
And this keeps toxic chemicals out of households, out
of waste collection, out of waste water treatment
and our waterways.
But this comes at an investment of 20 to $30,000 a year.
But I'll tell you, the people who are sitting in line
and waiting and will wait till 3:00 PM
to make sure they take care of these in appropriate way.
Appreciative Appreciate it.
And sanitation,
re recognizing the demand in our community is greater.
Has committed to offering a second serving, um, service
in the spring in addition to our fall service.
So we really appreciate that.
And having conversations
and recognizing that there are a lot of communities,
this is not an option and it, it matters.
Park cleanups. We have an annual
Earth Day cleanup.
Our community outreach team brought together over 125
community volunteers and partnership with Parks
and Recreation to clean up all our parks
and give them a nice little sprucing up.
Before the weather, uh, turned, we partnered up
with Meyers Stronger Together volunteer initiative
to spend the day working in beautifying JC Park
with our parks and recreation team.
The community outreach team in my department, um,
has partnered with Clinton River Watershed Council,
solid Waste Prevention team.
They brought volunteers together to clean up Mound Road.
Between 12 and 13 Mile.
Meyer helped by providing volunteers and dumpsters
and they collected over 500 pounds of litter.
And these, this is waste that, um,
we need it out of the way.
And finally, as part of our Eight Mile Boulevard Association
and our commitments to keeping eight Mile Beautiful, um,
our team, along with volunteers throughout the communities,
um, the Border eight mile got out
and gave it a, a little sprucing up as well.
Tree Canopy has been an issue for our community.
Uh, Warren had only about 19% tree canopy.
We're very urban, we're very industrial, we're very
concrete, and we have been committed to planting trees.
And we have passed out 200 free saplings
for our Arbor Day celebration,
and we are committed to keeping that going.
So if you have not got your free sample, uh, sap, please,
um, stop by, uh, on our next Arbor day.
And know that the city provides a tree
on your easement if yours had to be removed for any reason.
So if that is the case for you, please reach out
to my office DPW
and let them know that you're ready
to have a tree planted again.
And Warren is now home to a micro forest.
We had a very industrious young lady, um, Nathan Fund
for Eska who grew up and worn
and has since moved to Macomb Township.
But, uh, is a four H student who's passionate about climate
and tree canopy cover.
She said that she wanted to work with Warren
because she knew the thir being the third largest city in
the state, it would make an impact.
And so with the support of DPW planning Parks
and Recreation, um, we identified Julius Park Circle
as a prime candidate as part
of our Green Wave planting initiative.
Um, DDPW tore it up
and made sure that there was nothing that would be growing
that wasn't supposed to be there.
Parks and Recreation created a
mini nursery on the bocce ball courts at the community
center to foster 500 plants through the summer.
So they didn't dry out.
And with a three, two
to three day planting window at the beginning of September,
we had close to 4,000 plants planted on Julius Park Circle.
And, um, this is prime time to plant
because they go dormant, they'll be dormant
through the winter and they'll be ready to come alive
with summer rainstorms.
We are so appreciative of our partners, Macomb County
and, uh, everyone locally who helped us.
We could not have done this.
This was a significant investment. Um, but it does show us.
This was after one day this.
Yeah, this was pretty much right away.
Um, as we were going these, um,
micro forest conditions grow 10 times faster
than a normal plant.
So I believe it is a red oak
that is the centerpiece of this planting.
Um, would, should reach its max height within 10 years.
Trees are important and I've heard said plenty.
We always study, we do these studies.
Why are we keep studying them?
Studies are important
because studies create baselines that qualify you
for grant dollars.
If you don't have them, you don't qualify.
So by conducting these studies, we have partnered
or we hired EOE and they've been out in the community.
I've seen it on Facebook, people talking with them
as they come and evaluate.
We're assessing 30,000 trees in our public rights
of way in parks.
We are collecting information on the health age
and diversity of our plant population.
And this provides the baseline data for those grants
and making sure that we're keeping
a healthy population going forward.
Climate Action Plan is something close to many hearts.
Um, Warren has selected a contractor
that will be providing our baseline
and game plan for our climate action plan.
The initial study involves gathering data
and compiling research.
We will have established a baseline greenhouse gas inventory
and they will engage in community engagement.
Um, they will recommend how we can reduce emissions
and what those targets should look like.
Our selection is being finalized
and you can expect an announcement coming soon.
And our final priority in the city is providing
for the public safety.
This year, just about a year from now,
or a year ago, we welcomed Commissioner Hawkins
to the Warren Police Department.
He's pulled his team together to address issues
of recruiting, hiring, and promotions.
We've been innovative. We've been thinking
outside of the box.
We've had made 18 hires in the last year.
Um, we have six people that we are putting through
the academy.
We have, we're following the fires footprint
of Grow Your Own.
And so they've been very successful in filling the ranks
of the fire department and it just made sense
that we would try to repeat that through,
um, the police academy.
And we're seeing crime rates
that help keep neighborhoods safe.
Our violent crime is down 9%
and our property crime is down 11 this year.
We make progress in keeping neighborhoods safe.
This means fewer families experiencing trauma of violence
and fewer residents dealing with break-ins or theft.
These aren't just numbers.
They represent real people who are safer in their homes.
In our community.
An innovative program Operations Cycle break came out
of mining data
and looking at what is happening in our community
and where can we make an impact.
Many people think that, um, violence is random acts,
um, and that they need to be concerned,
but data tells us otherwise.
Data tells us that most of the crime,
violent crime is connected to domestic violence.
After research and proactive policing approaches to domestic
domestic violence, Warren PD developed a response
that works for Warren.
Working with Turning Point McComb 37th District courts,
city attorney's office
and partnership with Wayne State University.
A comprehensive approach has been implemented.
Early intervention requiring offenders to get counseling,
connecting domestic violence survivors with
resources and support.
Following up with our community policing units
sends the message that domestic violence has no place in
warn our warn police department has been a leader on this.
Our courts have come to the table committing one day,
docket day to, to meet those so
that they don't get the cases,
don't get pushed down the road.
And they also created space for us to, um, accommodate
any survivors or witnesses.
As part of operational cycle breaks initiative, survivors
of domestic violence are provided direct support services
and resources from Turning Point on site at the 37th
District Court as well as well, they're,
they have a space created for while they're awaiting trials
or a hearing in court.
37th district court building was generous.
And this with the support
of Gardner White created a comfortable space with furnishing
for our survivors.
It's just one small way to make this process easier.
We're so appreciative.
Trust grows when we're present in the community.
And that is why we host events like community walks.
We've gotten together six times this summer.
These aren't just photo opportunities.
They're about showing up, having conversations, listening,
sharing information,
and being part of the neighborhoods that are served.
That's how we build relationships
and that's how we keep our city strong and safe.
Not only that,
but we have community policing officers
who see needs in the community
and step up and take initiative.
So when it was realized how much need for back to school
backpacks, school supplies, haircuts, um,
and just building relationships with parents
to encourage student participating,
our Warren Police Department held a school supply drive,
found funding for backpacks.
We served 700 students, um, in partnership
with Warren Fitzgerald Public Schools
and Van D**e Public Schools.
But we had students coming
from many different communities when
they realized what was available.
We appreciate all the ti the people
who volunteered their talents
and our student volunteers that made this event happen.
Thank you to our Warren Police Department.
So we talked about careers in civil service.
Let's talk about careers in law enforcement
and first responders.
Our Warren Police Department.
As part of that Grow Your Own Mentality offers a
police Explorers program.
I believe we have 21 young people
who have interest in law enforcement careers.
They get hands-on first, um, first person experience
with the mentorship and guidance
of police officers in Warren.
They also help us by volunteering
and staffing community events.
And this is a great experience.
It gives them the opportunity to know what they wanna do
and hopefully pursue that career here at Warren.
And we've been very blessed in so many ways.
Um, and I'm always reminded
how our first responders are family first.
Um, when one of our officers were, was injured tragically
it didn't take but a minute for people to step up
and surround the family.
And the the family of Officer Nick Kott was adopted
by Mojo in the morning as part of their breaking
and entering, uh, for Christmas.
Um, our community came together
to provide them a holiday parade
for his son when he was not, um,
when Nick could not be there with him.
And so he took the opportunity to reach back out
to Mojo in the morning and express our sincere appreciation
and offer a proclamation of thanks.
Police aren't in this alone. Fire aren't in this alone.
Safety in a community is a responsibility of everyone.
The responsibility of our crime commission, responsibility
of our CI citizen emergency response team responsibility
of neighborhood watches.
But we also, um, have the opportunity to bring in a group
of citizens every year for eight week program.
They get to have firsthand experiences, do simulations,
um, and, and we have even found police officers
through this process.
And so we really appreciate the time and dedication over
and above the service they provide to,
to build those relationships in our community.
And there's always a rev rivalry between police
and fire, but it's okay.
Fire got two brand new buildings, um,
at $10 million, roughly $10 million each, um, funded
by our downtown Development authority.
And the these are much appreciated state
of the art buildings.
And, and these were not our only investments.
Every, um, house station, house in the city got upgrades.
Um, along with these,
we had seven new EMS squads delivered.
Um, it was not poor planning.
It was a breakdown in supply chain that four,
five years we've been waiting four.
Yes. Um,
but it does remind you, uh, that these take planning.
This isn't something that you can just
order and have delivered.
It takes, um, funding planning
and making sure that the lifespans on these vehicles
for the sheer amount of responses they respond
to in our community are not as long as, uh,
the vehicle you drive at home.
We're always appreciative of the efforts
our fire department put on for our community to be safer.
We have public safety days.
Um, we have, uh, uh, firehouse replica
so kids can have the experience of what
that might look like if that happens in their house.
And last year we had the opportunity
to bring in a holiday fire, uh, safety demonstration
to show you the difference.
And they'll tell you this is with sprinklers
and without sprinklers,
but closing your bedroom door at night
can make the difference.
Our Warren Crime Commission stepped up
and organized a family safety day at Hol Mitch Park.
They offered CPR training
and emergency management and a good time.
We really appreciate our crime commission along with all
of our commissioners that dedicate their time
and efforts to making their community a safer place.
Warren is invested in being a safer city.
And I say that because on the November 4th ballot, Warren,
we have a police and fire millage renewal.
It is not a rate increase.
Our departments police respond
to over 81,000 calls annually,
or fire for fi for structured fires responds
to 21,000 plus calls
and for medical runs, that's 16,000 calls annually.
This millage funds 20% of our police and fire services.
It funds apparatus, equipment, training personnel.
And this is information that if you didn't have before
or questions you have, please reach out
and get what you need before you vote.
And where Warren goes, we go together.
Thank you.