2021/12/06 - Mayor's Column: It is Holiday Season
“AN OPEN DOOR TO O’FALLON”
A WEEKLY NOTE FROM MAYOR HERB ROACH
I hope you didn’t miss out on the Holiday Illuminated Parade on Nov. 27th. But if you did , you missed an excellent way to bring in the Holiday Season. Beth Spradling Ortega and her band of Elves did a great job on this year’s parade. Even if you missed the parade, there is still plenty of time to enjoy the many festive activities that are occurring downtown and around the city over the next month.
The Christmas decorations in O’Fallon are up. We have started to replace many of the old decorations that have served us well over the years.
There are many events coming up: there are Christmas Carolers, Tinsel Around Town with the Downtown Businesses, story tellers, horse drawn carriage rides, the Holiday Market at the O’Fallon Station, various activities with the restaurants & bars, Santa Claus and much more!
In addition to these activities, our City Council continues to look ahead and is busy working on some changes with our city tax structures that will make our tax structures more equitable and set up finances that will help finance the future growth needs of our community. This is a result of over a year of work on a 20-year city plan that looked at all elements under the direct control of the City Council. It may be the first time that the city has did this detailed of an in-depth study of our city’s tax structure. I also think that we will have some other good information to share from our 2021 Fiscal Audit.
We will have a Town Hall Meeting on December 8th at 6:30 PM at City Hall. At the meeting, we will go over the audit of the city’s 2020-2021 Fiscal Year and discuss the restructuring of the City Taxes for 2022 and going forward.
Last, but certainly not least, we were recently told that the City’s O’Fallon Station/Vine Street Market would be receiving the “Most Engaged Community Partner Award” from the State of Illinois’ Tourism Office. More information will be coming when the award makes it way to O’Fallon! But, I want to thank all of those individuals who made this possible, including Sarah Burton and our entire Parks & Recreation Department, IllinoiSouth Tourism, Vendors of the Market, the Downtown District and the O’Fallon-Shiloh Chamber of Commerce, O’Fallon Rotary Clubs, and countless others that have made the O’Fallon Station such a great amenity for O’Fallon and the State of Illinois.
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.