2 weeks Ago
What a year it has been! My first year as mayor has been an eventful one — for me, for members of my administration and for the residents of Greenfield. And although we do not have a formal state of the union message process for our city, I wanted to take this time to review 2024. We have had challenges this year and I am pleased to say that we, as a community, have risen to the occasion.
A new administration must hit the ground running. Our fiscal 2025 budget, for the year that starts July 1, 2024, was due to the City Council in March. We not only made the deadline but submitted a balanced budget that has been our guide throughout this fiscal year.
I worked closely with the city’s administrative staff and the department heads to ensure that we had a fiscally sound and workable budget. It takes a village to develop a balanced budget. Throughout this process, we also reinvented our annual budget book to include in-depth financial information on each department.
This was an important step to ensure a transparent budget process with which everyone in our community could engage in. Tackling financial challenges was an immediate goal of mine, and we’ve made strong progress in some areas. The city integrated its highest new growth total in years following a New Growth Study conducted in tandem with my office and the Board of Assessors.
In addition, we have established our lowest tax rate since the fiscal year 2012. With every decision I make, I am mindful of the challenging economic circumstances many in our community face due to inflation and rising expenses. I remain committed to making Greenfield a more affordable place to live, work and call home, especially for our senior and at-risk populations.
We are looking to accomplish this, in part, by supporting various housing endeavors, many of which feature market-rate and low-income housing. It is imperative that we make sure we have enough housing resources that meet the needs of our community. When I took office, I wanted to make sure that everyone in the community would have as much access to government operations as possible.
We firmly committed to that promise from day one, expanding our hybrid/recorded meetings by integrating the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, Board of Assessors, Parking and Traffic Commission, Agriculture Commission and several other boards and commissions into this model. The new format provides great opportunities for community members to learn more about what is going on in their city. We are proud to be a leader in meeting access, and will continue to grow that commitment in time.
All meetings can be found on the GCTV YouTube page. Article continues after..
. Cross|Word Flipart Typeshift SpellTower Really Bad Chess Being mayor of Greenfield also means being a leader in Franklin County. This is a role I truly took to heart in advocating on our region’s behalf for several initiatives.
I submitted testimonies in support of the Northern Tier Passenger Rail Study, which would provide rail service from Greenfield to Boston. A project like this would reinvent the transportation and accessibility in our region, and I believe it is essential to show my support for the project’s potential. Connecting with all of you is equally important in developing a transparent government.
We started two “Walk with the Mayor” series, one at the Senior Center and one in partnership with Greenfield Recreation. Both featured fantastic questions and comments from you all. I shared many conversations that I take to heart and truly enlighten my perspective on what is happening in our city.
I will continue to be committed to fostering community-driven events like this, and we are working to develop some additional outreach efforts for 2025. Other tools for connection include our city’s social media page, our quarterly newsletter and our city website. Social media is growing into a particularly strong community tool, with our Facebook page reaching around 500,000 people, a new record for the city.
We remain one of the only local communities committed to sharing weekly COVID-19 updates, daily traffic updates and other important information. In addition, we are doing our best to make sure that you have all the information you need to be informed and engaged citizens by hosting programs designed to help citizens understand how property taxes are computed and how our assessing works. The voices of the community are the most important voices we can listen to, and we are happy to listen.
The year brought many changes in our community, but I could not be more thrilled about the team we have assembled. Our new finance director, Stephen Nembirkow, brings over 20 years of financial leadership experience in a municipal setting, including several years as the chief executive officer for Greenfield Public Schools. I was honored to name Todd Dodge our new chief for the Greenfield Police Department.
Since serving as acting chief in February, Todd and his team have made tremendous strides in making our police department a community-centered agency through the new Community Impact Unit and the continued development of a downtown police substation. We also addressed leadership vacancies in our health and energy departments with the hiring of Michael Theroux and the return of Carole Collins. These individuals, along with long-standing stalwart employees of the city and other new faces, are committed to making Greenfield the best place it can be.
And we had fun! We came together as a community to enjoy ice sculptures in February. We planted trees together with the Greenfield Tree Committee. We opened our new bocce courts at Beacon Field.
We celebrated Franklin County Pride, Juneteenth, Beefest, Vintage Days and the Franklin County Fair. We looked back at our history through the Abolitionist Art Walk, the Community Preservation Committee’s funding of Peter Miller’s archive of Greenfield history, and the museum at the Fire Station. We played Buddy Baseball at the Middle School and had fun at Mutts and Mayhem.
The High School revived its Drama Club. We welcomed new businesses including Common Ground Fitness Center, Posada’s and Rubber Duck Tech Repair. We welcomed visits from Sens.
Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Jim McGovern, Gov. Maura Healey, State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, and, of course, state Sen.
Jo Comerford and state Reps. Natalie Blais and Susannah Whipps. Perhaps most importantly, we opened a brand-new fire station that provides the Greenfield Fire Department with state-of-the-art amenities to preserve and protect our community.
As I look forward to 2025, I am pleased to say that we are moving ahead together as a community. We are sharing our concerns in public meetings and in private discussions. We are finding solutions to long-standing problems and new ones that have recently landed on our doorstep.
When I look back on this year, I am both amazed at what we have accomplished and proud and humbled to be able to serve you in this position. We accomplished a great deal in 2024. I expect 2025 to be even better.
Virigina “Ginny” Desorgher is the mayor of Greenfield..
