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Welcome to Rome
The coming year will be a challenging year for the City of Rome. One of our top priorities remains revitalizing our neighborhoods, and particularly the important key corridors in South Rome and West Rome. In 2009, one of the city’s biggest successes -- over the past 20 years – has been the start of construction on the Canal Village housing complex. In addition to helping end decades of erosion, it provides opportunities for residents that before didn’t exist.
We are working closely with the Rome Housing Authority, Assemblywoman Destito, the NYS Dept. of Housing and Community Renewal and Gov. David Paterson's office on an application to provide new opportunities as well at the Liberty Gardens housing complex. This project would not only renovate this complex but improve the entire neighborhood. Years ago, this neighborhood had many thriving shops and stores. By investing in this complex, we hope to spur additional investment in this entire area.
We have - and will - cut costs whether it is police overtime or trash collection. We will study garbage limits as a way to lower costs. By applying conservative fiscal principles, we have put ourselves in a better position than most to deal with the state’s financial downturn. But these reductions do not necessarily mean a reduction in services or programs, in fact, by prioritizing better and by aggressively pursuing available grants for these projects; this administration has put together an ambitious list for the coming year.
We must continue to strive to increase customer service at all levels of City Hall, including using existing technology more efficiently and effectively to benefit residents. In 2009, we undertook a major overhaul of our webpage, making information and forms easier than ever to access as well as implementing a process to accept credit card payments for city taxes for the first time in our city’s history. The City of Rome remains committed to consolidation both internally as well as externally and we will explore any and all opportunities in this area. There are many ways we can share services and cut expenses: Last year was an extremely productive one for the City of Rome, and I am confident that we can make 2010 – despite the challenges it holds – even better.
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