Abilene State of the City address topics
During Monday’s fifth State of the City address, Mayor Norm Archibald and Abilene ISD Superintendent Heath Burns highlighted projects and successes from the previous 12 months, including:
Pine Street corridor: the recently completed landscaped median “is going to be a big improvement to a corridor that is always changing,” Archibald said.
New tower at Abilene Regional Airport: Construction on the $9.24 million new tower, paid for by the Federal Aviation Administration, is the equivalent of a 10-story building and should be commissioned this spring.
Animal adoptions: The adoption rate at the Abilene Animal Shelter has nearly doubled the past two years thanks to increased focus on finding animals new homes.
Sales tax receipts up: Three weeks before the state releases sales tax receipts for December, which should show the typical Christmas boom, sales tax receipts are up 26.8 percent year to date.
Sign ordinance: The city’s proposed ordinance to regulate signs has encountered flak from business owners who say it will increase their cost of doing business. But Archibald lobbied for another perspective. “We’ve got a lot of old, crummy signs that need to come down,” he said. “I think we need an aesthetically good-looking city.”
Homeless students: AISD serves 587 homeless students, something that astounds many people, Burns said.
Completion rates: Completion rates for all students increased about 7 percent last school year over the previous year, to 93.2 percent.
On-par teacher pay: AISD teachers in their first year make about the same, $36,000, as the state average, while experienced teachers average $44,952, about $4,000 less than the state average.
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