TAYLOR — The 2019 State of the City address by Mayor Rick Sollars and presented by the Rotary Club of Taylor, is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. Feb. 21 at the Lakes of Taylor.
Admission is $50; tables of eight are $400. For more information or to obtain tickets, email Kimber Dorton at [email protected] or call the Rotary at 888-640-5454.
A special “Taste of the Lakes” luncheon buffet will be served at noon. The buffet will feature specialties by Chef Robert Young and his Lake House Grille staff.
This is Sollars’ sixth address. The Rotary has presented his five previous addresses, beginning in 2014. Sollars brought back the State of the City program after it had been mothballed for several years under the previous administration.
During his speech, the mayor highlights accomplishments over the past year, and also talks about the future goals.
Thorough the partnership between the Rotary and the mayor, the program has raised thousands of dollars for charity. Proceeds from the event to go to Taylor-based charities, and over the course of the past half-decade, many organizations have benefited.
Those groups range from the Penrickton Center for Blind Children to the Taylor School District’s Robotics program.
Over the course of time, the Rotary Club of Taylor has made contributions to Beaumont’s Healthy Taylor program, Blair Moody Elementary School Hoop House, ChristNet, Christy’s Legacy of Hope, Coats for Kids, Downriver Fish and Loaves Food Pantry, FOP 123, Foundation 14, Penrickton Center, Taylor Career Center, Taylor Conservatory Foundation, Taylor School District’s DECA program, Taylor Schools Foundation for Academic Excellence, Trillium Academy’s Interact program, Victory Gym, and more.
Sollars was first elected in November 2013, after spending two stints on the City Council. At that time, the city was in a $5 million structural deficit, and under a Deficit Elimination Program mandated by the state. Since then, the city’s finances have turned around. The most recent audit noted that the city now has a $7.8 million unassigned budget balance.
The Sollars administration has many other accomplishments in the past five years, most recently the Good to Great Neighborhood Program, which was introduced during last year’s SOC. That program focuses on improving neighborhoods in the community, one at a time, through a focused of every department in the city.