Noble sees a ‘bolder’ and ‘better’ city in 2020
Mayor to start second term, deliver New Year’s address
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> Mayor Steve Noble will be sworn in for his second term on New Year’s Day and deliver his State of the City address.
The ceremony starts at noon in the Common Council Chamber at City Hall, 420 Broadway, and also will include oaths of office being administered to new Alderwoman-at-Large Andrea Shaut and the nine people who were elected to Common Council seats in November.
Noble, who will be starting his second fouryear term, said Monday that his speech is titled “Kingston 2020: Clearer, Bolder, Better,” and will include “a reflection on our city’s tremendous accomplishments over the past four years and our vision for the next four.”
“This is not the time to slow down or be complacent,” the mayor wrote in an email. “If we want our city to grow and thrive, we must continue to raise the bar higher and push ourselves further.
“I anticipate the priority areas I will cover in this year’s State of the City will include housing, infrastructure, economic development, sus
tainability, and parks and recreation,” Noble added. “In addition to the major projects we have coming up in the near future, I will be proposing a variety of policies and legislative items for consideration by the Common Council to support these priority areas in 2020.”
State of the City speeches typically focus on accomplishments of the past and plans for the future, and include updates on projects that are in progress.
To that end, the mayor could speak about his administration’s successful efforts to secure $7 million in grants, including for such efforts as improving water infrastructure, reducing sewage flow into the Rondout Creek, making green-related parking lot improvements to the Dietz Stadium parking lot and merging the Citibus system with Ulster County Area Transit.
Other milestones in Kingston during 2019 have included major repaving projects on Washington and Hurley avenues; RUPCO’s construction of the Energy Square (or E Square) apartment building on Cedar Street; Scenic Hudson’s purchase of 500-plus acres along the Hudson River in Kingston and the town of Ulster; the first phase of the Kingston Rail Trail opening; the groundbreaking for the expansion of the Mary’s Avenue Campus of HealthAlliance Hospital; and the launch of a municipal ID card program.
The mayor also is likely to speak about city budgets he has crafted that did not increase property taxes.