Greetings fellow Modestans,
I have talked for quite some time about budget difficulties facing our City. We have known what was lying ahead of us regarding retirement and medical insurance liabilities for some time now. What could not have been foreseen is the COVID-19 pandemic we are in, and our City is facing severe budget shortfalls as a result. Our efforts to flatten the COVID-19 curve have paid off. Restaurants are beginning to reopen with modified inside dining and most retail establishments are reopening to inside customer shopping and sales. Our places of worship, theaters, ballparks, gyms, galleries, and other places of gathering must open, and your continued efforts will assure this happens.
This point in time is an opportunity to reset, rebuild our local economy, and build upon the positive in our community by putting our energy into:
· The upcoming Ace Train connection to the Silicon Valley. Incentivize and entice Silicon Valley technology companies to locate their businesses and offices in Modesto.
· Creating partnerships with Modesto Junior College, Stanislaus State University, and University of California – Merced to locate campuses in Modesto and provide the computer sciences degreed workforce required to bring the Silicon Valley businesses here.
· Combining our new technology connection with our world-famous agriculture heritage and make Modesto the agriculture technology center of the world.
· Continuing to develop a sustainable revitalized downtown with population density that will support our downtown now and into the future.
· Pursuing and streamlining development projects like the new County Courthouse, investigating re-use options of the existing Courthouse site, and the proposed mixed use/hotel project in the Modesto Centre Plaza east parking lot.
Our City has been through tough times before. Modesto is one-hundred-and-fifty-years strong this year! We have always united and risen to the challenge as Citizen of Modesto, and we will again.
I am proud of our City, and honored to be Modesto’s Mayor.
Ted Brandvold, Mayor
