2017/07/24 - Mayor's Column: Recap of My First Town Hall Meeting

“An Open Door to O’Fallon”
A Weekly Note from O’Fallon Mayor Herb Roach

Last week, I held my first town hall meeting as Mayor. Thank you to everyone who showed up and asked questions, and to those who watched through Facebook. If you missed the town hall meeting, you can still watch it on the City’s Facebook Page. If you don’t have Facebook, don’t fret, I plan on recapping the town hall in this week’s column!

The largest topic of discussion was the ongoing construction projects in O’Fallon. O’Fallon’s City Administrator, Walter Denton, gave a very good summary of the current construction projects at the town hall meeting and again in his weekly blog. I encourage you to read his blog to learn about the road projects.

At the meeting, we also discussed O’Fallon’s continued residential growth. O’Fallon’s most recent special census shows that our population is now 30,440. We expect approximately 150 homes to be built this year in more than a dozen active developments, with more currently in the preliminary planning stages.

Commercial development continues at a very positive pace and in addition to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, which is scheduled to open on November 4th, there are numerous new restaurants, offices, and other commercial projects currently under construction all over O’Fallon. I covered many of them in my weekly column on July 10, 2017.

Downtown O’Fallon continues to have a positive buzz. Multiple buildings are under renovation and we continue to work towards making the downtown area more inviting and attractive. We are looking at possible locations for additional parking, better lighting, and event spaces.

Keeping with my campaign promise, I announced that when it comes time for the City of O’Fallon to submit property tax information to the County, I will ask the City Council to use city reserves or other means in order to lower the City’s portion of property tax.

I also announced that we will soon be evaluating the following items: an ordinance allowing residents to keep chickens in residential areas, the return of a city-led community event, similar to a homecoming or picnic, whether to spray for mosquitos, and setting term limits for the City’s elected officials.

As you can see, we covered a lot of information, all in little more than one hour. I plan to host these town hall meetings quarterly, so there will be many more opportunities to attend, learn, and ask questions.

As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open!