As we begin 2010, Cary is blessed to remain one of the safest, most enviable places in America to live, work, and raise a family. In 2009 Cary continued to receive accolades including #6 Best Places to Live and Work for Young Professionals, #5 Metro for Best Quality of Life, and Strongest Metro Area in North Carolina.

Despite being in the depths of a recession, Cary’s planning and policy decisions allowed the town to remain financially strong, become more efficient in operations, and make advances in infrastructure, economic development, technology, the environment, and the arts.

We are well positioned to lead the region in the long slow recovery process. Economic indicators such as the unemployment rate, job recruitment, economic development, and an increasing population all show that Cary may have begun to move out of the recession into recovery.

While the economy had a significant impact on jobs in Cary, we weathered the worst of the recession fairly well. Our unemployment rate reached a peak of 6.9 percent in July of 2009 but has continued to drop ever since. The latest figures have us at 6.2 percent compared with over 10 percent for the state. Experts report that the data suggest unemployment will continue to drop in 2010.

Another indicator of our local economy’s health is the ability to attract jobs. During 2009 we were able to attract several businesses and their high paying jobs to Cary including Deutsche Bank, which plans to hire over 300 technology professionals. Having a successful worldwide corporation choose to expand in Cary during a recession speaks volumes about our positive position for recovery. 2010 looks promising for bringing more high paying jobs to Cary. We are continuing to pursue economic development opportunities and have several in the pipeline.

Hand in hand with job growth is population growth. In 2009 Cary’s population continued to increase despite the down housing market. Our estimate as of October has the population at just over 137,000 -- a 3.6 percent increase over the last year, putting Cary right at our target for a healthy population growth rate. Permitting data for new construction -- an indicator of future population growth -- shows that population will continue to increase in 2010 at a slow to moderate rate.

Even so, it will take a long time – years -- to get us back to where we would have been under normal conditions. Over just the last two years, Cary has experienced a serious drop in sales tax revenues. Building activity is also down, and the value of what is being constructed is less than in previous years, which means slower tax base growth. As a result, the Town now has about $13 million or 10 percent less to work with than it would have had under normal economic times – equal to about 7 cents on the property tax rate.

This is significant because Cary Town Councils have a long history of not raising taxes. Unlike most other communities, we have been fortunate to be able to afford pretty much what we have wanted when we have wanted it, and our ability to pay for that without raising taxes has been tied directly to increasing revenues from sales tax and new development.

However, in today’s economic reality and for the first time in recent memory, we’ve had to choose to delay projects, hold vacant positions open, and cut spending to avoid raising your taxes. Fortunately, our staff has found ways to cut back that minimize the impacts on our residents and businesses, and the entire Council is grateful for their efforts. Just how long we’re able to do this without impacting you will depend on the pace and robustness of the economic recovery, along with your patience and support.

A boost to our local economy has been the great sporting events we’ve hosted this year. Cary’s designation as a NCAA Championship City allowed us to host major national and state events at our 3 major sports venues, including the NCAA Division I soccer championships, ACC soccer championships, the Division II baseball championships, several tournaments at the USA Baseball National Training Complex, and several tournaments at the Cary Tennis Park. These events brought millions of dollars in economic benefit to the area. As one example, the NCAA Division I soccer championships combined with the CASL showcase was estimated to have pumped over $3 million into the local economy in just one week.

In 2009 Cary was once again recognized as one of the safest places to live in the nation. But our excellent Police Department continues to look for better ways to serve. In 2009 GeoPolicing was introduced, which divided Cary into three districts. This new district approach enables our officers to become experts on the needs, issues, and concerns of the people within a specific area they serve.

Crime statistics in 2009 not only confirmed Cary’s safest city ranking but suggested that in some ways we were getting even safer. Statistics showed that Cary had a 16 percent reduction in violent crimes such as murder, rape, and assault. With the addition of new officers to our excellent police department, new programs, and GeoPolicing, we can expect Cary to remain safe and secure throughout 2010.

In 2009 Cary saw several advances in technology. We demonstrated that we are indeed a technology town by launching several programs. These included software that allows on-line surveys and feedback on development projects, portable wireless surveillance cameras for the Police Department to allow surveillance in areas where problems arise, and a Voice Over Internet Protocol telephone system that is more efficient with substantial cost savings over the conventional phone system.

We will continue to improve technology with new programs in 2010. These include on-line job applications, a virtual interactive planning tool that helps citizens navigate our complex development process, improvements to our radio system to enable better communications between agencies, new software for fire and police to provide more detailed information, and new software to improve efficiency and cost for the Town’s field staff.

Aquastar will also move ahead in 2010. This advanced meter reading system will replace monthly manual meter reads with a wireless system that collects multiple remote meter reads per day. By moving to Aquastar now -- and even when we include its $17.9 million cost -- the Town’s utility system will conservatively see a $2.4 million savings, and those savings will help us keep utility rates as low as possible.

In addition to the clear business case for moving to Aquastar, the system will also reduce our impact on the environment by eliminating the need for nearly a dozen people to travel over 71,000 miles and use more than 7000 gallons of gas each year to read over 50,000 meters in Cary and Morrisville each month. It will enhance our ability to help utility customers quickly detect and stop costly leaks, which is especially important during tough economic times. And, Aquastar will help citizens better meet their own conservation goals as we all do our part to live within the finite water supply bounds of Jordan Lake.

Cary became greener in 2009 by improving our recycling program and starting SPRUCE. Our new recycling carts were delivered to all residents within three months, and we began collecting many more different types of recyclables. Since that time our recycling volumes have increased by over 20 percent; that’s over 100 tons less a month going into the landfill. We also launched our beautification and litter reduction program called SPRUCE in April of 2009. Over 650 of our citizens have picked up over 10,000 pounds of litter in just half a year. Both of these programs have shown great progress in just a few months, and they should have an increasingly green impact as we move into this year.

In addition to the town’s recycling and litter reduction programs, the town is using federal funding to hire a new sustainability manager and has created the Environmental Advisory Board. These two initiatives should help the town lead by example in 2010. By increasing the environmental stewardship of the community, we will enhance the quality of life of all who live and work in the town by making it cleaner, more pleasant and healthier.

As we begin 2010 the town continues to plan and prepare for the future of our utilities focusing on efficiency, capacity, and excellence of service. Our water production capacity is at a level that should serve us well into the future with the town producing only a little over half our ultimate allotment. Our current allotment should last at least five years with our conservation efforts. In the future we have the ability to ask to draw more water from Jordan Lake which is our main water source. And once treated, that water from Jordan Lake is consistently ranked as some of the best-tasting in the state, taking first place in 2009.

In 2009 we continued moving forward in the approval process for the new Western Wake Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility. This facility is a key, long-term investment for our community and will eventually provide needed wastewater capacity for Cary as well as our partners in Apex, Morrisville, Holly Springs, and part of the Research Triangle Park. We expect to get final approval from state and federal regulators for the facility this year and begin construction as soon as possible thereafter.

The recession caused us to make hard choices in 2009. We revisited each of the Town’s 384 active capital projects, and in December, the Council decided to postpone over $20 million of them. We will take cash earmarked for those projects to move forward with higher priority projects without increasing debt and related interest payments. In addition to the postponements, we decided to delay over $68 million in projects. These critical projects include road maintenance, sidewalk improvements, radio system upgrades, a fire station, the town center park, open space, just to name a few. In all, over $413 million in capital improvements are continuing.

With the reprioritization of capital projects and the commitment to limiting debt the town hopes to maintain good levels of service without raising taxes for the next two years. We begin 2010 financially strong with debt service levels under 12 percent which is below our self imposed ceiling of 15 percent. We continue to have a strong fund balance in excess of four month minimum. In 2009 we reduced our operating costs to function at an extremely efficient level with roughly 8.5 employees per thousand residents as opposed to 11, which is the average number of the six largest NC municipalities.

As we begin the long, slow recovery from the recession, we are blessed with an excellent Council and staff. We have one of the lowest tax rates in the region and the highest quality of life in the state. Be assured that your Council will continue advocating for Cary citizens to the school board, Turnpike authority, the Department of Transportation, and the legislature. What is important to you is important to us, and we keep that foremost in our minds each and every day.

Despite our individual and collective struggles and hardships, I am optimistic about our future and believe we can and will work together to lead the region into a new period of prosperity.

I appreciate your trust and belief in me, and I am honored and humbled to serve as your Mayor. Thank you for the opportunity to play a small role in helping make Cary even greater than it is today. Bless you all in this New Year, and as always, thanks for calling Cary home.

Watch the State of the Town Address online or on Cary TV 11 throughout the month of January.