Review on Mayor's Semi-Annual Speech

Last Night the Mayor of Animal-Ville made his semi-annual speech on the current affairs of the city.  His speech was mostly well received, with no major outcries or interruptions as with last June's Speech.  (For those who don't remember that was when Chipmunk E. Moneybags attempted to harm the mayor with a paint-ball gun.)  During the speech the mayor made some major points, which I will summarize below:

- The city is doing financially well, the budget will only increase by 1.3% and no major funding cuts will be required.  The mayor did mention that in order to accommodate the slight increase in needs there will be fewer expansion projects like we saw over the past year.  However, the promise to freeze taxes and retain the same funding to all public services kept citizens very calm.

- The following 6 months will see only two projects.  The city will contain expanding its belt way system.  The projects completed in October of last year, ended with the Bark-Bar Expressway.  Although that project was completed, "the interchange with the Animal-Ville Bypass was found to be a further cause of traffic".  The mayor and his traffic adviser evaluated the ramps will be expanding them beginning in mid-March to Early-April.  The second project includes new street lights to be installed throughout the city.  The mayor pointed out that the new lights will be LED and save the city money in utility costs while providing brighter lighting on the streets and sidewalks.

- The mayor spent little time reviewing the past six-months.  He claimed that "most citizens have already read the reviews printed on-line and in the news-papers".  He made a quick summary of the positive events, including the new fire-house and the record breaking amount of donations. 

- The bunny did little to address the issue of increased crime in the city.  His only comment was, "to combat the small increase in crime we will be training our police force better, and making their patrols more efficient.  After taking these steps, we will evaluate the change in crime rates from now and June.  At that point, we will have fully optimized our forces.  If more actions are required they will be taken then."  Many citizens are criticizing the mayor for not taking action sooner.  They also feel that he is not doing enough to solve the problem.

Overall the speech was well received, and the mayor seemed to hit on most of the major concerns.  A full copy of his speech will be made available on-line.