Town Talk with the Mayor

What a summer we have had! Our Friday Nights have been wildly successful, with 9 evenings of cruise-ins, concerts, and vendors in the park. We all owe a huge thank you to the DCDA and the volunteers who show up each week to keep things running smoothly. Our historic Old Timers weekend brought in over 1,000 attendees, despite temperatures over 100 degrees. Our parade, this year, was a really fun one with 6 pirate ship floats and many other participants sharing bubbles, candy, popsicles, and more with our community. We crowned Queen Vera Sullivan and King Juan Palacios in a coronation to honor their longterm service and contributions to Dayton. We also added WWII Veteran Vic Banke as our Grand Marshal. There were opportunities to play BINGO, reunite with neighbors, classmates, and family in the park and we enjoyed the return of the Fire District chicken BBQ, which the City sponsored this year to ensure purchases would benefit the Fire District. I am so proud of our community events, our beautiful downtown, our thoughtful parks, our collaborative networks, and our restored structures. I hope to see these events and gatherings continue as our City develops so that we will always have opportunities to connect as neighbors. This requires intentional planning and work.

As many of you know, I will be leaving the Dayton City Council at the end of this year, so I have been doing some reflecting. Goals I once thought were impossible have come to fruition but we still have much more work ahead. During my years on our City Council, we have created and adopted master plans to keep us on track. We have aggressively pursued grants to stretch our dollars, never raising taxes. The picnic shelter, bandstand, and historic blockhouse have all gone through restorations. The fountain was rebuilt. We have implemented new park designs and equipment at Courthouse square park downtown and the Andrew Smith park on 11th street. We also cleared and opened Alderman park as a dog-friendly facility, which will be fenced with an added water feature this fall. Our downtown sidewalks have all been rebuilt with added accessible ramps, street friendly trees, and custom touches. Building facades have been improved with cost-sharing programs the City sponsored. The Veteran’s Memorial was completed outside our Council Chambers. The Palmer Creek Lodge was purchased and remodeled (with grant funds) to provide our first-ever community center and has been a popular rental for graduation parties, weddings, birthdays, reunions, and quinceaneras. It also hosts our local VFW and additional community meetings and events. We have laid new streets in several locations and added sidewalks to improve safety and accessibility, including our latest stretch from 9th street to Flower lane, paid for entirely with grant funds. (continued on page 4)

We have reimagined communication by replacing our website, adding an app, and of course, creating this quarterly newsletter. And there has been lots of work that is less visible. The new sewer pump station and line upgrades were a critical part of securing sewer service for the next decade. New water lines into town from our springs significantly reduced waste. The purchase and transfer of water rights from the former Fisher Farms property covers our water needs for the next generation. And recently, the Council accomplished something huge. After 10 years of work: planning, researching, and networking with stakeholders, we completed a Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) swap, only the second in the state, although many other cities are trying to replicate our success. This will improve our housing index and allow Dayton to expand west, rather than north into the Foster road area, which would have been difficult and expensive because of infrastructure challenges. During the height of COVID, when businesses were struggling and events were a near impossibility, we designed Dayton’s “Bands on the Run,” the “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” community dinner, “Bunny on the Run” and our economic development programs that reduced utility bills for patronizing local establishments and Dayton Dollars that worked like cash for residents and were reimbursed at 150% for businesses to give a needed cash injection. We have worked hard - for you, for us, for Dayton. I could go on - but I want to share a future project our current council is planning. Several years ago, we implemented a lodging tax, which is paid by visitors when they stay at the Vintages or in a handful of vacation rentals in the commercial areas of town. This type of tax is partly prescribed, which means that much of the collection has to go back into the industry, but part of it is discretionary and is intended to be invested back in the local community. We saved the discretionary portion for 6 years and just transferred $136k into our parks fund! This is huge, as we generally do not have a revenue source for parks so improvements usually have to come solely from grants. This means that later this year, the Council will consider applying that funding to a major park project like a splash pad or upgrades to existing facilities. Additionally, we will have that funding source for future park improvements. I am especially proud of this accomplishment because park improvements have been a focus, but are always a challenge, because of the funding. And now, we have found a way to leverage the lodging tax so that visitors can, going forward, financially con tribute to the community in a way that benefits us all. This announcement is bittersweet for me as I have advocated for investments in our public spaces and I am so excited that more are on the horizon, but as I will be off the City Council, a new Mayor will cut the ribbon on a park I’ve dreamed of for years. A new Mayor will open the new footbridge when it is completed. And a new Mayor will welcome businesses to our downtown as the historic buildings are revamped over the next 18 months (construction starting soon). I have spent my entire adult life serving and loving Dayton and while I will continue to find ways to do both, it will no longer be as your Mayor. Serving as the Mayor of my hometown has been the greatest honor of my life and brought so much joy. As you select your new leadership, please remember that local leaders matter, elections matter, experience matters, and choose people over politics. These decisions will shape how Dayton will change for the next decade. Reach out, have conversations, participate, and vote. I’ll be seeing you around!

Mayor Wytoski