Infrastructure is the backbone of any community. It’s condition will either bring people in, or it will drive them out. The people who live and work in Monroe have a fundamental right to feel safe and secure.
Many of our citizens live under the constant threat of flood damage destroying their homes and businesses. We’re starting to see some our neighbors packing up and moving off to cities where they don’t have to worry about flooding. When we see members of a community start to leave, we feel a domino effect in our local economy. The impacts include decreased revenues from property taxes when those houses sit empty as well as a decrease in sales tax revenues.
In recent years, some progress has been made with improving drainage systems and using reservoirs to help with the ease the burden on our drainage system. There is still much more work that needs to be done. I will strive to make sure we are pursuing funding at all available levels to get more of Monroe’s previously engineered, but still unfunded, projects seen through to completion.
If we want to draw larger businesses to Monroe and be able to support the resulting population growth; our roads, bridges, and utilities must be dependable and reliable.