Hazards, Pesticides, and Budgets, Oh My!
It’s been a busy month (plus) since my last post, so it’s time for some updates. While there’s lots more than what’s included here, I thought updates on the Dover Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan, the newly passed resolution on commitment to organic land management practices, upcoming budget discussions, and ways to make your voice heard would be a good mix.
General Updates:
Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan - On February 28, the Council approved the updated Dover Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan. This is an important planning document for the City, but also includes useful information for residents about how the City prepares for hazard events (storms, heat waves, etc.). I encourage you to watch the video from the workshop on the plan (February 21, start at the marker at 17 min) or skim the plan itself. The bottom line is that the City is doing a lot to prepare for these events, but we also need to get ourselves prepared and check in on our neighbors if the event of an emergency. Ready.gov also has some great planning tools to get your family prepared. Stay safe out there!
Organic Land Management - Also on February 28, the Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution to move the City away from the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers with a “Commitment to Organic Land Management Practices” on City property. While this does not set any requirements on private citizens, the hope is that it also provides a model for how our residents might rethink their own lawn care practices. The full resolution is available online and Foster’s also published several articles on the discussions. We appreciate all those in the community who contacted the Council and attended meetings to share their views.
Youth Voices - One of the very interesting aspects of serving on the Council is reading and listening to input that members of our community send to the council. We were delighted to get three letters from 4th graders at the Horne Street School recently. Thank you to the students for sharing your concerns and views with us. I was also glad to see the peaceful and respectful approaches to the school walk outs on March 14 and I want to thank the students, along with the teachers, school administrators, and local law enforcement who helped ensure that these protests were an opportunity to respectfully and safely share their views. I am heartened to see our younger residents engaging in these issues and hope they continue to do so.
Upcoming Meetings:
FY2019 Budgets - Budget season is nearly upon us as well. We will get our first overview of the proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 budget from the City Manager on March 21, followed by a series of workshops for individual departments in the ensuing weeks. Please consider attending a session to speak and/or submitting comments to City Council via email to make known your views on where Dover should invest. I will share a list of budget workshop meeting dates by department once I have the details. Community feedback is very important for us to consider when faced with difficult decisions about the budget. More details on the overall budget process can be found here as well as some initial information about FY2019 here. Also on March 21, the City Council will have a workshop with state level elected officials to discuss the potential budget impacts of legislation proposed at the state level.
State of the City - On April 17, the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce will host the 2018 “State of the City” forum in the McConnell Center with speakers from Dover City leadership. More information is available here.
Citizen Engagement - Lastly, there are a few Boards and Commissions that are in need of community members. Take a look and if one seems interesting to you, fill out an application!. There are also still several seats open on the Dover 400th Celebration Planning Committee (2023 will be here before we know it!). And if you don’t want to commit long-term, you can volunteer to help transcribe old city records (some back to the very earliest days of European settlement).
Thank You!
Please don't hesitate to reach out with any comments, concerns, questions, or ideas about topics in front of City Council or that you'd like to see addressed. If you don't already get alerts from the City, sign up for City Alerts and other City email lists as well to stay up to date on the latest news and alerts. Minutes and materials from all meetings are always available on the City Council website and you can watch videos of past meetings and workshops on demand. Thank you all.