Jefferson Mayor Craig Berry was pleased with how everything ran in 2012 and looks for 2013 to finish all the major projects.

One particular area Mayor Berry expressed interest in continuing is the demolition projects.  He says that Jefferson started out with about $250,000-$300,000 initially from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program which was administered from Region XII in Carroll.  After the other counties-Carroll and Sac-along with some parts of Illinois didn’t want to do anything with their funds, Jefferson ended up absorbing the money and had over $700,000 to use for demolition purposes.  Mayor Berry is thrilled with how the city used the funds and would like to see the federal government extend the NSP program so the city can keep benefitting from it.

“They called us a poster child for Iowa because of the way the city and Mike Wright (Jefferson Building Inspector) especially use these funds to get these properties torn down.”

Another topic that Mayor Berry touched on for goals in 2013 is the budget.  He explains that the department heads from the city collaborate and establish their budgets in December, then submit them to the city staff and they do their reviews and put it all together and it is presented to the board later this year.  The city budget must be submitted to the State by March 15th.  Last year, Mayor Berry points out that the city did an exceptional job with the budget.

“Last year, the council did an excellent job of looking at the budget as did the city staff in developing it.  And we did not raise the property tax levy anything last year over what was the previous year.”

He hopes for the same thing to happen this year.  Right now, the City Council is hearing organizations and community groups present funding requests.  Mayor Berry comments that whatever was given last year, they have a good chance of getting funded again this year.  Mayor Berry is looking for a bright future in 2013 for the city of Jefferson.