Jim McNally | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Dec. 19, 2007

Breaking ground on an $8 million recreation complex, hiking city workers’ salaries and ironing out a boundary deal with neighboring municipalities topped a list of Statesville City Council’s accomplishments during the 2007 calendar year.

Mayor Costi Kutteh credited a “forward-looking staff” and a “proactive council” for the positive things that took place in the city during the past 12 months.

Kutteh said he did not want to prioritize the things he listed at Monday’s council meeting, but said that some things had more meaning to him for different reasons.

“I think the boundary agreement between us, Troutman and Mooresville will be very important as we all start to experience more growth,” he said. “Now developers will not have any confusion about the process.”

That pact took several months to finalize and still had wrinkles in it until a month ago. It clarified annexation rights in areas that had essentially been in no-man’s land.

This past year, 1.3 square miles was annexed into the city’s corporate limits.

“I think the real importance of that agreement will be shown in the years to come,” Kutteh said.

He said a comprehensive pay study and a 5 percent raise for all city employees (including city council members) was important because the pay had been determined to be below pay scales of other like-sized municipalities.

The pay plan was approved in 2006, but the raise went into effect Jan. 1 of this year, and the results of the study will be revealed later this week.

Kutteh had not seen a report on the study but said it was important that the city staff’s pay was commensurate with the earnings of those in other similarly situated towns and cities.

Kutteh - who just passed the midway mark in his first four-year term as the city’s top elected official - said he thought 2007 was better than 2006.

“But in a progressive city, the plan is to always get better,” he said. “All things being equal, next year should be better than this one.”

Kutteh said neither a city nor its leaders should rest on their laurels.

“During almost every election, you hear politicians say, ‘I want to do one more term so I can see this or that project through,’ ” Kutteh said. “But there should always be a project going on. When you are being progressive, you should always have something in the works.”

Kutteh said around this time next year, residents will be enjoying the recreation center and aquatic park that is in the early stages of construction on Simonton Road.

He compared the action taken by council to get the project off the ground to moves made by previous councils and city leaders to supply secondary water supplies.

“That planning has kept Statesville in better shape than other municipalities in the state in terms of the drought,” he said. “And the actions we take today will effect our citizens well into the future.”

Other accomplishments during the year Kutteh listed include:

- The purchase of land for a new fire station, which will be built in 2008.

- The hiring of eight new staff personnel, including three new police officers.

- The adoption of a plan to get all the city’s streets paved. So far eight streets have been checked off a list that started with about 40.

- The upgrading of the Mac Gray Auditorium. The city entered a partnership with Iredell-Statesville Schools to make the Statesville High School facility one of the best in the state.

- The hosting of 425 events at the Statesville Civic Center, a new high.

- The purchasing of new holiday decorations for the downtown area.

- Created the Statesville Connects fund, which allows customers of the city’s electric utility and others to make contributions through their monthly payments. The money will be used to help those who are in danger of losing their power due to nonpayment.

“A great city,” Kutteh said, “is judged by how well it treats its citizens beyond the expected services. I think that’s especially true for those less fortunate.“

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