GH weathers downturn with workers, volunteers

Chuck Hunter

Special to the Gateway

The adage, “Every cloud has a silver lining,” could not be more true than here in Gig Harbor. The most punishing economic downturn in half a century has had far-reaching impacts, not only on the city’s budget and services but for nearly all of our citizens and businesses.

Yet, in spite of these impacts, I have been more than pleased to see how our city employees, businesses and residents have stepped up to meet these challenges and help each other and the city as a whole.

Our employees have saved the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in looking for and implementing ways to cut costs. Whether it was combining resources to realize economies of scale with neighboring jurisdictions, cutting consultant costs and performing work in-house, reducing overtime or extending the life of supplies and equipment, our employees have done an outstanding job in creatively keeping costs down.

Civic engagement and volunteerism have also played an important role in getting us through these difficult economic times. I have been thrilled to see how citizens and businesses have come forward to offer their support, ideas and resources to the city.

For example, when we were looking at cutting downtown flower baskets (among other non-essential services) to balance the budget, the downtown merchants organization, Gig Harbor Historic Waterfront Association, rose to the occasion and enlisted a corps of volunteers to assemble the baskets and perform the daily watering all summer long.

That flower basket project turned out to be a great example of a public-private partnership in which the city provided the watering truck and the local businesses and citizens stepped up to provide the volunteer labor.

Another example is the community vegetable garden at Wilkinson Farm Park. Our own Gig Harbor chapter of Healthy Communities of Pierce County planted and cared for a robust vegetable garden that not only beautifies the park but provides food for our local food bank.

Healthy Communities also donated the time and resources to install the pedestrian mile markers on our Harborview Drive sidewalks.

To provide yet another example, public-private partnering efforts were stepped up more than ever this year as major sponsors Centurytel, St. Anthony Hospital and MultiCare fully funded our major city-run events, including the weekly summer concerts at Skansie Brothers Park, the weekly summer Cinema Gig at Donkey Creek and Skansie parks, the Christmas tree lighting event and the Street Scramble in May.

On the revenue side of the equation, our employees have been more aggressive than ever in seeking out grant funds. For example, most of the costs of the environmental cleanup of the tidelands at Eddon Boat Park were funded by grants and other external sources.

Other grant funding success stories include one for $286,436 under the federal Cops Hiring Recovery Program for the police department, a $980,000 state heritage grant for the Eddon Boatyard Building restoration, $3.5 million in state funding for the wastewater system’s outfall expansion and extension project, federal funding for the Donkey Creek Daylighting project, park improvement grants (Kenneth L. Marvin Veterans Memorial Park, Crescent Creek Park, etc.), as well as state funding for several road projects (Olympic Drive, Canterwood Boulevard, etc.).

Similar to other crises we read about elsewhere, I believe the economic downturn, at least here in Gig Harbor, has generally brought out the best in people. I am convinced that we will come out of this recession wiser, stronger and overall better for it.

We look forward to 2010. My staff and I have drafted a balanced 2010 budget for the city council to review and consider in the coming weeks. This draft budget includes a general fund ending reserve balance of about $1.1 million, which is more than 13 percent of general fund operating revenues.

We encourage public input and participation as we go through the budget approval process.

Thank you for all you do to contribute to this great community.

Gig Harbor Mayor Chuck Hunter can be reached by e-mail at hunterc@cityofgigharbor.net.