AMESBURY — Mayor Kassandra Gove gave her State of the City address on Tuesday night in a packed City Hall, touching on topics that included the status of the new Sgt. Jordan M. Shay Memorial Lower Elementary School and the importance of continued community involvement in setting up the city for future success.
The event was attended by Amesbury’s state delegation, City Council and School Committee members, Superintendent Elizabeth McAndrews, Fire Chief Jim Nolan and Newburyport Mayor Sean Reardon, among others.
Prior to Gove’s address, there was a performance of Bruno Mars’ song “Count On Me” by a group of Cashman Elementary School students known as the Treble Makers. State Sen. Barry Finegold, D-Andover; State Auditor Diana DiZoglio; state Rep. Dawne Shand, D-Newburyport; and state Rep. Adrianne Pusateri Ramos, D-North Andover; also spoke leading up to Gove’s speech.
Gove provided a quick update on the new school. In 2020, the School Committee voted in 2020 to name the school after Sgt. Jordan M. Shay, a 2005 Amesbury High School graduate who was killed in 2009 at age 22 during his second tour of duty in Iraq.
“I’m pleased to announce tonight that our grand opening and the ribbon cutting with a community open house will be Aug. 24 and that this project remains on budget,” Gove said.
She also spoke about the future of Amesbury Elementary School.
“Students will vacate the Amesbury Elementary School at the end of the summer to attend Shay Memorial,” Gove said. “AES will remain under the care, custody and control of the school department, but we know that leaving that building is undesirable, leaving that building vacant.”
Gove said a feasibility study is set to be complete in June.
“I’ve been working closely with our superintendent to envision the future of that building. I believe the next step will be to develop an action committee with community membership. Stay tuned for how you might get involved,” Gove said.
She highlighted how the administration has worked to involve residents and keep them informed.
“We sent out over 67,000 newsletters and have hosted 150 Facebook Lives to keep residents informed and engaged in the work our city is doing,” the mayor said. “We launched our ClearGov platform and redesigned our annual reports to bring transparency and accessibility into our budgeting and government processes. We updated our website to prioritize our user experience and revitalized our social media accounts to make information more available.”
Gove said getting residents involved in policymaking is important to her.
“Many of you have participated in a summit for arts and culture, recreation, or most recently housing. Or maybe you took one of our surveys or attended a listening session. Your voice is truly shaping our future, and I hope that you see that in our final report,” she said.
This month, the city will officially welcome new Department of Public Works Director Joseph Buckley, according to Gove.
“I’ll be working with him to prioritize a sidewalk improvement plan that is realistic, and I know that we still have neighborhoods with water lines that are over 100 years old. We have a responsibility to provide a better water service,” Gove said.
“We have been working with our federal delegation to secure community project funding in the amount of over $1.5 million to repair two major water lines,” she added. “Our request is still alive in the budget process and we hope it will be successful so that we can tackle this project.”
She noted that the city has achieved its goal of receiving the AARP Age Friendly Community designation, which recognizes communities that value and implement policies and programs that make neighborhoods walkable, feature transportation options, offer access to key services, provide opportunities to participate in community activities, and support housing that is affordable.
AARP is the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people to choose how they live as they age and has nearly 38 million members.
“We have worked toward achieving this by expanding food access, mental health support, access to technology and social services,” Gove said. “Our Amesbury School Support and Empowerment Team and the Partnership of Community and Teens have been especially impactful in doing this work, and I hope we’ll get involved in either of them.”
Gove said she will unveil the city’s master plan, I AMesbury 2030, this fall. She said it will lay out a framework for the community in terms of open space and recreation, learning and education, arts and culture, mobility, infrastructure, economic development, housing, and municipal operations while focusing on equity, sustainability and health.
The full address can be found at www.facebook.com/amesburyma/videos.
Matt Petry covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: mpetry@northofboston.com.