Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin and City Water, Light and Power general manager Todd Renfrow talk about the power plant explosion the day after it happened. The explosion was Nov. 10, 2007; this news conference was convened Nov. 11, 2007.
Tag Archives: Todd Renfrow
CWLP plant explosion
I will never let my good friend and colleague Amanda Reavy forget how I filled in for her the night of Nov. 10, 2007.
It started out as a routine night in the newsroom. Mike Kienzler, who was the dayside Metro editor, was filling in for someone as well.
The first sign something was up: the lights flickered. Then came the 911 dispatcher’s voice over the police scanner — there’d been reports of an explosion at the City Water, Light and Power plant. I packed up my stuff and sped over to Stevenson Drive, calling my husband at home to tell him what was being reported and urging him to get out candles and matches just in case.
The first thing I saw near the power plant was lots of flashing emergency vehicle lights. But the thing I’ll always remember most vividly was what I heard. It sounded like a huge, loud jet engine was whining over the plant.
No one was injured in the explosion, thank goodness.
Explosion at CWLP / No injuries reported, but damage appears severe
Nov. 11, 2007City Water, Light and Power’s main power plant was severely damaged Saturday night by a series of explosions and a spectacular fire.
The blast – one large explosion followed by about a dozen smaller ones – occurred about 6:50 p.m. No one was injured, and the oil- and wind-fed fire was extinguished by 10 p.m.
“There is a lot of damage,” said Jay Bartlett, chief utilities engineer for CWLP. He estimated it will amount to “in the many millions of dollars.
“This was a very, very significant shockwave that came from this explosion,” Bartlett said.
However, he said, ” power plants are fixable. Our concern always is nobody’s hurt.”
“We’re lucky,” he said. “We’re blessed.”
The city late Saturday was operating with electricity produced by CWLP’s auxiliary generators and power purchased off the nationwide grid. Aside from brief and isolated outages early in the evening, officials said, customers should see no effects from the explosion and fire.
The explosion took place in a brick building that houses the Dallman 1, 2 and 3 generators, the city’s main sources of electricity,
Bartlett said the first and largest explosion was caused by an electrical failure in an undetermined component, apparently located between the Dallman 1 generator and a “stepup transformer” – a unit that converts electricity from 20,000 to 69,000 volts – that caught fire.
He ruled out coal dust as a cause, as some officials had speculated early in the evening, but said engineers remained unsure late Saturday exactly what sparked the original blast.
Springfield Fire Department spokesman Bob Reside said a large section of an exterior brick wall on the building’s fourth floor collapsed into the interior of the building during the fire.
“This just shows how dangerous this has gotten because of damage to the structure,” Reside said. “We have to expect further collapse.”
The fire was fueled by oil leaking from damaged and blazing power transformers and boosted by a 15-mph wind that gusted up to 24 mph.
“Transformers contain oil, and it is burning and has spilled out of the transformers,” Reside said at about 8:30 p.m.
Eleven employees were inside the plant when the explosions occurred, but all evacuated safely. Bartlett lauded the employees for protecting and removing equipment after the blast.
There was no danger to the public from chemical fumes, and the fire posed no threat to nearby businesses or residences, Reside said.
Witnesses reported one large explosion, followed by 10 to 15 smaller ones. The explosion was followed by a steam release from the power plant, which many who heard it compared to the sound made by a jet engine.
The Dallman 1 unit, which was operating when the explosion occurred, suffered the most damage. Dallman 3, CWLP’s single biggest unit, continued to operate for about 90 minutes after the explosion, until it was shut down to protect firefighters. Officials expect to know today when it can be restarted. Dallman 2 already was out of service for scheduled maintenance.
CWLP has a variety of other generators, but officials said late Saturday they will use whatever power is cheapest at any one point, whether it’s produced in Springfield or has to be purchased from elsewhere, until CWLP’s situation stabilizes.
The explosion will have no effect on construction of the city’s $500 million new power plant being built elsewhere on the CWLP complex at Lake Springfield, Bartlett said.
Several suburban fire departments were called to staff Springfield fire stations while city firefighters responded to the CWLP incident. The Sherman and Chatham departments sent aerial trucks to the power plant after a city truck experienced mechanical problems.
Reside called the jet-like sound of steam being released a normal process for the power plant.
“It’s still producing steam,” Reside said of the power plant during an 8:30 p.m. briefing. “Because it’s not being used for generation … it gets vented out so that the boiler doesn’t explode.”
The fire department had plans in place to handle an emergency at the plant, he said, and the response was “textbook.”
“Actually, it’s going very well, other than unforeseen breakdowns and so forth,” he said.
A hazardous materials team responded, as did the Citizens Emergency Response Team. The American Red Cross provided drinks and food for emergency workers.
Dozens of CWLP employees also came to the plant to help if needed.
Police detoured motorists away from the area of Dirksen Parkway, Taylor Avenue and Stevenson Drive during the incident, and interstate off-ramps were closed near CWLP.
While the damage was serious, Bartlett described the ultimate financial impact to CWLP as low.
“This plant’s insured,” he said. “We’ll certainly have some deductibles to pick up.”
Witnesses report large explosion, many smaller ones
Nov. 11, 2007Residents, restaurant diners, shoppers and hotel lodgers across Springfield’s southeast side were startled Saturday evening by a thunderous explosion, followed by about a dozen smaller blasts.
If that wasn’t enough, lights all over the city began flickering within moments. And then came the overpowering jet-like sound of steam being released from a stack at City Water, Light and Power’s electric generating station at Lake Springfield.
The odor of hot electricity mixed with coal dust as smoke from the fire inside the plant drifted for miles.
Micki Dickerson, who was at the nearby Capital City Shopping Center on Dirksen Parkway, said the first explosion “sounded like the loudest thunder you ever heard – it shook the windows and the building.”
“The first explosion was real loud and the second almost as loud. We went outside, and then it sounded like gunfire – boom, boom, boom. Then it stopped for a second and started right back up,” she said.
Then she started hearing the sound of the steam release.
“Now, it sounds like you’re standing too close to a jet,” she said shortly after the blast. “It’s still going on. You can’t hear the sirens for the sounds of the power plant.”
Tammy Brown, who lives on South 13th Street, e-mailed The State Journal-Register to say, “The entire back half of my house vibrated at ten ’til 7. It felt like something hit the house.”
“Then I heard a long series of what sounded like gunshots. At least a minute or so in length. I thought a house in my neighborhood was on fire or had been damaged,” she wrote.
Brown likewise reported a sound like “an airplane engine” as steam was released from the plant.
City officials did not brief reporters about what happened until 8:30 p.m., so speculation ran rampant on radio airwaves and among residents about what was going on.
Many people apparently were concerned about the possibility of toxic gases being released by the explosion, and others wanted to know if they should expect to lose power during the night.
Ozkan Dogan, manager of the Hampton Inn, 3185 S. Dirksen Parkway, a few blocks from the power plant, said everyone at the hotel felt the explosions. A short time later, he saw smoke drifting across the sky and heard ambulances and other emergency vehicles converging on the area.
“We tried to keep people calm,” he said, noting that some student groups were staying at the hotel.
He said employees checked The State Journal-Register’s Web site for updates, and he walked across the street to a hotel closer to the power plant to see if they needed a place to evacuate their guests. He said his main goal was to keep Hampton Inn guests abreast of what was happening.
“They just came down here, and we told them to be calm and we would inform them as we got information,” he said.
Dave and Sharon Painter of Springfield were eating at Smokey Bones Barbeque and Grill, 2600 S. Dirksen Parkway, shortly before 7 p.m.
“We heard and then felt a big explosion, then the lights flickered,” they said. “There was an electrical burning smell coming into the restaurant.”
Carl and Marge Wilson, who live on Saxony Road, walked over to the Capital City Shopping Center to watch the commotion from the parking lot and to wait for word about what happened.
“I was cooking and heard a big boom,” said Marge Wilson. “My husband looked out the door and said, ‘Wait ’til you see this …’”
Carl Wilson added: “It sounded like a bomb went off.”
Lake will remain closed / Saturday’s explosion at CWLP plant left asbestos-laden debris
Nov. 12, 2007Lake Springfield will be closed to boaters indefinitely while officials assess damage at the city’s power plant and start to clean up asbestos-laden debris around the site of Saturday night’s explosion.
Some oil was flushed onto the lake during the firefighting effort, and officials want to keep boats from disturbing the water while cleanup is under way, they said Sunday.
City Water, Light and Power officials said Environmental Protection Agency tests for finished water quality from Lake Springfield, taken Sunday, indicated the water is clean and safe to drink.
Environmental contractors have been at the blast site, isolating and removing oil in the dam area of Lake Springfield. Additional tests on finished water quality are scheduled for today.
The cause of the explosion, which rocked the city about 6:50 p.m. Saturday, remains under investigation. No one was injured.
Mayor Tim Davlin on Sunday said the cost to repair the Dallman generating facility, where the blast took place, will be in the tens of millions of dollars.
“Our new power plant (scheduled for completion in 2010) will probably be fully functional before even this is functional. That tells you the magnitude of what’s happened out there,” he said. “We’re basically going to start from scratch in a lot of different areas. This isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight, and it’s going to be one expensive proposition when we’re finished.”
Jay Bartlett, CWLP’s chief utilities engineer, said the damage is extensive. Several walls are missing. Shrapnel punctured the roof and structural steel in the building. The turbine generator housed in the building was destroyed, as was a step-up transformer on the outside of the building. The transformer that feeds the unit and a multitude of other electrical apparatus and wiring also were destroyed.
Davlin thanked other communities for coming to the assistance of Springfield during the ordeal and said the city is lucky no one was injured or killed in the accident.
There were 11 workers at the plant at the time of the explosion. Davlin said one man was 15 feet away and several others were seconds away from being seriously injured or killed.
“This is a magnitude that probably none of us are going to realize the real expense for quite some time. It’s unbelievable. On any other given day, had it been 7 in the morning or 3 in the afternoon, there probably could have been 20 people that would have been either injured or killed right where this happened,” he said.
Davlin said progress reports on the cleanup and the investigation will be spotty, though an update will be provided to aldermen at Wednesday evening’s city council utilities committee meeting.
Bartlett and CWLP general manager Todd Renfrow provided additional information about the explosion and about the cleanup efforts.
Officials have created an investigation team of CWLP engineers and firefighters to try to determine what caused the blast.
Davlin already has been asked to sign an emergency order releasing $3 million to $4 million to cover the early costs of cleanup and asbestos and oil removal and to secure the building.
As of 7 a.m. Sunday, structural engineers were at the plant assessing the damage to the building, and they determined the entire structure was not compromised. One major concern, however, is that some walls will have to be taken down, and there is a potential for frozen pipes.
“We have to get the walls that have been damaged down and then have some type of enclosure and be able to put heat in the building. There are many, many miles of lines in there, especially water lines,” Renfrow said.
CWLP on Sunday was generating 100 percent of the city’s electricity.
The Dallman 1 generator was severely damaged and will be out of commission for some time. Dallman 3 – the biggest generator CWLP owns – should be back in operation after some cleanup work, possibly in about a week, Bartlett said.
Dallman 2 is shut down for scheduled maintenance.
Because of the asbestos release, everyone going into the site must wear masks and protective clothing.
The oil that seeped into the lake was the result of firefighting efforts.
“(Saturday) night what was burning was oil. The fire department obviously was hitting it with a huge deluge of water and foam to get the fire under control,” Bartlett said. “That rinsed some oil. We have retaining systems that grab some of it, most of it, but a little bit unfortunately escaped just due to the volume of water that was out there. There’s no more oil leaking.”
Bartlett said there was no immediate indication whether human error or mechanical failure was to blame for the blast. He said the investigation should shed some light on that.
“I expect mechanical failure, but we are ruling out nothing,” he said.
Seeking answers after blast? ‘Tough,’ says mayor
Nov. 12, 2007“Tough.”
That was Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin’s response Sunday when pressed about why it took officials two hours Saturday to release information to the public about the power plant explosions and possible dangers to the community.
Tough?
“It’s the best we could do. Tough,” Davlin reiterated.
Davlin and other officials had little information themselves early in the incident, they said, and their top priorities were quelling the power plant fire and making sure City Water, Light and Power workers and firefighters were safe.
People all over the city felt the rumble of the explosions, saw their lights flicker, heard the jet-engine-like whine of steam being released from CWLP smokestacks, smelled the odor of coal and heat, and wondered about the clouds of smoke drifting over the town.
During that two-hour void of information, citizens were calling media outlets, looking for news about what happened. Tourists at hotels logged onto the Internet seeking details.
They wanted to know if there were toxins in the air, if they should expect to lose power to their homes and businesses, if they should worry about the noise of the steam release and if they needed to evacuate. They also wondered if anyone had been hurt and when could they expect to learn more.
No preliminary information – even a simple confirmation there had been an explosion at the power plant and that more information would be forthcoming – was communicated to newsrooms in the city, and no one in a position to know what had happened could be reached on cell phones. Reporters who tried to reach the power plant were shooed from location to location as they tried to find out what was going on.
The first information was provided by a Springfield Fire Department spokesman about 8:30 p.m. The Springfield Police Department also provided a little information at that time about its role, which mainly had to do with street closures.
City Water, Light and Power officials finally held a briefing at 9:30 p.m. The mayor’s office released no details at all.
Prior to those briefings, what information was available came mainly from conversations among police, fire and other emergency agencies broadcast on radio scanners. For instance, scanner traffic was the first source to reveal that no one had been killed or injured.
The State Journal-Register posted its first Web bulletin on www.sj-r.com about 15 minutes after the first blast. The Web site was updated about a half-dozen times between then and the first briefings. Most of the early updates were based on scanner traffic, along with telephoned or e-mailed reports from readers.
The newspaper Web site was updated several more times as the briefings took place, and the full story – the same account that appeared in Sunday’s newspaper – was posted shortly before midnight.
Davlin said the city’s first priority Saturday night was ensuring that power plant employees were unharmed and that firefighters were able to safely able to do their jobs.
However, the lack of information also led to rumors – in particular, reports disseminated mainly by callers to talk radio stations – that a cloud of toxic dust and gases was hovering over southeast Springfield.
“At the time when that was happening last night, I think the main thing that was out there was there was an explosion,” Davlin said. “No one knew what was going on. No one could have said whether it happened or whether anything was toxic or not.
“We didn’t think so, but to go and make statements like that. … Last night the most important thing was just making sure the fire got knocked down.
“I take all the responsibility for not having that out. Like after the tornado or anything else, it was just everyone had a job to do last night.”
City Water, Light and Power director Todd Renfrow and chief utilities engineer Jay Bartlett said they hope to do better in the future.
“There’s always room for improvement, but I’m going to tell you (that) last night 100 percent of my time was going into trying to keep, basically, firemen safe,” Bartlett said.
“I know it’s scary. My kids were scared. They were scared when I went. They wanted to know where I was, and they knew something was going on. We understand, but we were doing the best we could.”
The lack of information Saturday night was similar to what happened during a weeklong citywide mock disaster drill in July 2005 – which, coincidentally, included a power plant explosion scenario.
During the early part of the drill, which was meant to be as realistic as possible, officials were unprepared for media inquiries. Reporters who went to event “scenes” were told to move multiple times, no spokesmen were available, and city hall held a briefing more than five hours after the initial incidents. Officials began to provide hourly updates only after reporters complained.
The city has four spokespeople: one for the mayor’s office, one for CWLP, one for the fire department and one for the police department.
Mayor Tim Davlin reflects on first year in office
In early 2004 I profiled Springfield Mayor Tim Davlin for an article about his first year in office.
SPRINGFIELD’S MAYOR REFLECTS: Davlin’s first year
April 4, 2004Tim Davlin is obsessed with money.
The city’s money, that is.
Approaching the anniversary of his April 16 inauguration as mayor of the capital city, Davlin admits he has spent much of his first year consumed by financial matters – the budget, in particular, took over his life, he said.
“I really feel like about three or four Wednesdays ago, the day after the city council meeting where we passed the sales tax increase, I felt like that following day was my first day on the job,” he said Thursday.
“I felt like … literally, 10 months, 11 months into the job, I’m just starting. I’ve got a list of things I think we have accomplished along the way, but every day, it was two or three hours every day, Monday through Friday and a lot of times on Saturdays, where we just dealt with the budget.”
Davlin, a Democrat and an insurance and investment broker who previously held no political office, was elected mayor of Springfield a year ago April 1 in a come-from-behind win over Republican stalwart Tony Libri. His win was part of a statewide shift of political control from Republicans to Democrats.
The mayor and city council are officially nonpartisan.
“For the most part, he was unproven politically. He’d never been in office, never ran for any office. That was part of what the attraction was to Tim Davlin,” said Sangamon County Democratic chairman Tim Timoney.
“It was a popular name in town, a big Catholic family from Blessed Sacrament, popular in the political and business community. That made him attractive. He had a little touch of politics, but for the most part, he brought a business approach to politics. I think that’s what helped him win.”
He has faced numerous challenges his first year in office. Chief among them were healing race relations in the city and plugging a budget deficit.
Davlin, 46, earns $94,132 as mayor of Springfield. The job is pretty much what he’d anticipated when he decided to run for election, “but then just even a little more hectic, to just a little more higher power than maybe what I’d anticipated,” he said.
“The surprises that come are usually small. A lot of times you don’t anticipate things. There are little problems, and then some are bigger problems that happen. But for the most part when I took over, we knew.”
Davlin’s key advisers have included his brother, Kevin Davlin, who is treasurer of the mayor’s campaign fund, as well as Todd Renfrow, whom the mayor named to head City Water, Light and Power. Renfrow, a former Democratic county chairman and former head of the city’s public works department, worked on Davlin’s campaign.
Davlin tried to push a plan early on that would have placed control of both CWLP and the public works department under Renfrow, but aldermen resisted that idea.
One of the big surprises, Davlin said, was learning that what he thought coming in was a $1 million budget deficit actually was actually much larger.
“I believe I understand the budget more than probably anybody else in the whole world understands it – where money’s coming in and where it’s going,” he said. “I watch sales tax revenues every day. But I constantly have to be on the lookout for ways to save money.”
One of his campaign promises was that he would run the city like a business, and he claims he has stuck to that promise, eliminating what he saw as unnecessary or redundant jobs, proposing unpopular cuts to city services when faced with a budget deficit, reorganizing the structure of offices and jobs and settling a costly federal discrimination lawsuit against the city.
But he has taken some heat for his approach to running the city, particularly when in January he announced a plan to eliminate 20 police and 13 firefighter jobs, as well as some city services, to balance the city’s budget. Some accused him of presenting a sky-is-falling plan as a political maneuver designed to force aldermen to propose a tax increase so he wouldn’t have to.
“It was the end of the line. The sky was falling and it absolutely was as real as could be,” Davlin said. “I had no idea when I took over a year ago how bad the situation was. It was very real. I can argue with anybody all day long, but until they sit in this chair, they wouldn’t know how real it is.”
Aldermen, in a party-line vote, voted in early March to increase the city’s sales tax from 1 percent to 1.5 percent. However, it will only be in effect for two years, at which point aldermen can vote to “sunset” the tax or keep it in place.
Davlin, who already is anticipating a deficit of at least $3.9 million for fiscal year 2007, said he is not convinced the city will be able to sunset the tax, pointing to needed capital improvements such as replacing police cars and firetrucks, as well as building a new public works garage at an estimated cost of at least $2.5 million.
“Do we sunset it, or do we want to spend any money on capital (improvements)? That’s what it’s going to come down to. It’s going to be interesting because it’s going to come at a time right before the next election,” he said.
Despite the months he spent reorganizing the city and engaging in budget talks, Davlin can tick off numerous things he and his staff have accomplished: Negotiating a contract with city police officers who’d been without one for more than two years; naming an educational liaison to bridge services between the local government and city schools; taking steps to build an east-side community center; starting a task force on homelessness; making the north branch of Lincoln Library accessible to the disabled; and distributing thousands of dollars in grant money to agencies for housing and services for low-income residents.
Last week, he announced a citywide beautification plan called Springfield Gateway Green.
And he decided to distribute $700,000 in surplus downtown TIF (tax increment financing) money to local taxing bodies, including the Springfield School District, which is experiencing budget problems of its own.
Also last week, he announced an out-of-court settlement with former police officer Renatta Frazier, who sued the city in federal court charging racial discrimination and a hostile work environment. Davlin said he handled 100 percent of the negotiations on the city’s behalf.
Courtney Cox, Frazier’s Benton attorney, told The State Journal-Register on Tuesday that he does not believe the Davlin administration is committed to resolving racial issues within city government.
Cox also represents six black officers – five current and one recently retired – who have filed a discrimination lawsuit against the city. He said what has happened to the black officers is symptomatic of a larger problem.
“Unfortunately, at this point, it looks like (city officials) do not want to resolve the larger problem and continue to fight to preserve the status quo, which is unacceptable,” Cox said.
Davlin pointed out he has assembled a recruitment committee made up of employees from the police and fire departments, city legal staffers and the NAACP. The Black Guardians, which represents most black police officers, also was invited to join the committee but has not responded to the offer, Davlin said.
“My gosh, it would be so great if all of a sudden the next class of police or fire came in here and we were able to hire 20 or 25 percent (minorities). You’ve got to have the numbers come first. You have 150 people and if you have four or five minorities come in, what are the chances?” he said.
In addition to the pending lawsuit over racial issues at the police department, Davlin’s administration has been criticized for not being aggressive enough in hiring minorities for other city jobs. Expectations were high that minority issues such as east-side projects would be a priority after Davlin received critical minority support in his election bid.
Davlin hired Ken Crutcher, who is black, as the city’s budget director – a position the mayor said he considers the city’s No. 2 job.
He also hired a black woman, Letitia Dewith-Anderson, to be chief of staff, only to later rename the position “executive assistant.” The move was criticized by many in the black community, who saw it as a demotion and a breach of trust. Dewith-Anderson quit the job in January but declined at the time to say why.
Davlin said he and Dewith-Anderson still talk and she has offered advice to different departments since leaving.
“I think it was made a lot bigger than what it was. She left on her own accord, and I can’t put a gun to her head and say, ‘Letitia, you need to stay.’ You can’t do that,” he said, noting that he never intended Dewith-Anderson to have the same role as former chief of staff Brian McFadden, who worked for former mayor Karen Hasara.
“My management skill is nothing like those two. Chief of staff is chief of staff, and I made the mistake from the beginning of calling it that when in essence it never was,” he said.
Davlin said he is working to rebuild trust between the city and the black community. He also said he is committed to Hasara’s goal of achieving 15 percent minority staffing on the police and fire departments.
“I campaigned on it. I talk about it. And don’t think I’m not reminded every day by the community that a certain segment of this society has not had its fair share of city employees,” he said.
Some aldermen also have been critical of the mayor, saying he does not keep them informed about the things he’s working on or major developments in city government.
Ward 5 Ald. Joe Bartolomucci said he would like to see better communication between Davlin and the rest of the aldermen.
“I don’t think it’s right when you’re sitting on one of the committees and you have to read about something that happens that directly deals with your committee in the press or get word of it on the radio or television. That’s happened more than once,” said Bartolomucci, who, like the mayor, was elected last April.
Bartolomucci, a Republican, also said he believes Davlin has succumbed to political pressure too many times.
“He made some mistakes, I thought, in the first three to six months. I thought I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. I’m a freshman alderman and he’s a brand new mayor with no public office experience. I thought he’d really sharpen his skills as the leader of this community,” he said.
“It seems like he’s more worried about re-election in three years than being a leader. I think we’ve seen that in the budget process where instead of coming out front and really putting together an innovative, problem-solving budget, he came out with a very simplistic budget and really threw it in the laps of the aldermen and said, ‘Here, you fix it.’ ”
County Democratic chairman Timoney said the aldermen sometimes force the mayor to be more political than he would like to be.
“He’s tried to have a business approach to running city government, but sometimes it comes down to a five-to-five vote just based on politics, not on what’s best for the city. The Republicans are going to try to force him to cast the tie-breaking vote on a number of controversial issues just so they can use it against him in three years, such as the sales tax,” he said.
Timoney said Davlin is largely responsible for revitalizing the local Democratic Party.
“The Republicans aren’t used to the Democrats having some power in Sangamon County. Pretty much now we’re at a level playing field; they’ve been used to having an unlevel playing field where they’ve had all the power and control,” he said.
“I think his only weakness is possibly the political side of it because he’s not a politician. Some things he might look at from more of a business approach than a political approach. … Sometimes the business approach is better than the political approach; sometimes it’s not.”
Davlin said he has two priorities for his second year in office: city beautification and economic development.
“Number 1, I want to clean this town up. This town is dirty, in my opinion. I want it to look like downtown Chicago. Beautification to me is so important,” he said, noting that he is working to put a stop to fly dumping.
“I think everything is on the drawing board, from giving (garbage pickup) to one company to sectoring the city, put it on our tax bill, put it on our property tax, put it on our utility bill. Everything’s open.”
Economic development plans include establishing a new industrial park, getting the medical district going, retaining the 183rd Fighter Wing Air National Guard base and attracting new companies to the city.
“I want to make it so we’re more business friendly so that people want to come in and develop and they’re going to look at us as opposed to going to Chatham,” he said.