On Thursday, the Longmont Chamber of Commerce hosted a State of the City event at the Longmont Museum in which speakers discussed some of the challenges Longmont is facing.
Keynote speaker and Longmont City Manager, Harold Dominguez said the city council’s priorities are around housing, early childhood education and care and transportation.
Dominquez said that the 2024 budget is unique because of issues around inflation.
“I think for cities it is even more difficult because we touch every commodity you can imagine,” Dominguez said.
He added that inflation has been higher on some materials such as steel, concrete and asphalt which has increased the costs of capital projects throughout the city.
Employment is another challenge the city is facing. It competes with other sectors for employees. Dominguez said the city has seen the largest increase in fair market wages it has ever experienced. In some cases, the city has offered jobs to qualified employees which have been turned down due to the high cost of living in the area.
The increase in wages makes up a majority of the city’s budget across all departments, Dominguez said. Because of these increases it does not allow as much room in the budget to increase other services such as adding pickleball courts or increasing library services.
Despite the challenges the city is facing, city staff was able to balance the budget without a tax increase, Dominguez said.
The city’s focus on transportation will focus on asphalt pavement management, Vision Zero — a goal to eliminate traffic fatalities — the First Avenue and Main Street station and a micro-transit system.
The city also plans to develop more affordable and attainable housing with a focus on family housing .
Dominguez shared that the city has begun placing more cameras throughout the city. The project idea began after Rita Guiterrez-Garcia went missing from 3’s Bar. The investigation into her cases took years before discovering her remains. The carmera system already in place in Longmont has allowed officers to investigate several cases in a matter of days where previously they may have taken months or longer, Dominguez said.
In addition to the camera system, the city is building out its LTE network which will allow for a decrease in cost of internet services for the Longmont Police Department in their cars as well as provide a network for students in the St. Vrain Valley School District to access.
