If Wall Street crashes, does Main Street follow? Not necessarily.
—Ben Bernanke

Despite grim economic forecasts,  your City is continuing to complete projects that provide continuing local employment and solutions for long-standing problems.

• The McLoughlin Boulevard Enhancement project will be completed late this summer. This long-awaited connection between our downtown and the Willamette River will have safe pedestrian crossings, a multi-use riverside path, a plaza overlooking the river with three large, lighted public art pieces, and abundant landscaping.
• Because we approved the new library district in November, our City library will be open 7 days a week for at least 50 hours starting July 1, with a full-time library director on board. What a service improvement over our current 5–day, 35–hour operation!
• We will recycle the old McLean Clinic and create a new city hall this summer. Both our sewer plant (Tri-City Wastewater Treatment) and our water plant (South Fork Water) are undergoing large expansions. All three projects are using banked funds saved to provide for growth.
• South End Fire Station has been open only 8 months, but four people are alive today as a direct result of Clackamas Fire District’s decision to open the station in July 2008 rather than February 2009. Response times have improved by about two minutes per call and cardiac arrest save rates by our fire district are some of the best in the nation.
• Using Metro Natural Areas Bond Local Share funding and Parks SDCs, your City purchased nine acres near the high school and Glen Oak Road for a future park to serve an area with few public open spaces.
• Under newly-named Police Chief Mike Conrad, our police department will continue to grow and will finally settle into more acceptable quarters when the current city hall is vacated.

Our energies and your tax dollars are directed toward serving the needs of a revitalizing community and providing the infrastructure needed for economic success, public safety, and environmental protection. I am proud to live in a City that works together through hard times to support the basic needs of our residents.