Thursday, March 23rd at Laurel Manor, the 2023 State of the City address took place.

Dan West, president of the Livonia Chamber of Commerce, opened up the ceremony by providing an introduction to a community task force focused on solving three major problems encountered by the city: transportation, mental health, and workforce development. The task force pulls together business leaders and leaders from the mayoral administration. So far, the task force has completed:

Transportation – the taskforce secured over 100,000 dollars to conduct an initial feasibility study on transportation solutions in Livonia.

Workforce development – The Chamber of Commerce, along with Livonia Kiwanis and Schoolcraft College will be hosting a first of its kind interactive event called Touch A Job. The job will allow kids to gain a first-hand experience to careers that don’t require a four year college degree. The event is scheduled for this fall.

Following this introduction, Maureen Miller Brosnan, the Mayor of Livonia, took the stage. Her remarks initially focused on her first rock – public safety. Unlike many neighboring communities, Livonia’s police and fire departments are fully staffed. In 2022 alone, Livonia police hired 19 officers and 24 police aides. Mayor Brosnan then touched on the 2023 roads program, which was supported by the mileage overwhelmingly supported by taxpayers last August. The program will contain 17 projects, and will exceed 3 million in spend. She also touched on Wayne County progress; in 2022, Wayne County completed a record number of road projects.

The Mayor then looked forward, setting an aggressive agenda for the future of Livonia. She addressed her desire to have Livonia recognized as a Blue Zone Project. A Blue Zone Project is an international designation granted to the healthiest cities around the world.

She concluded by addressing the now, near, and far infrastructure needs of Livonia. In the now – the mayor announced that her administration is placing on hold an effort to demolish the Alfred Noble Library in order to re-examine potential site development. She provided an exciting update on the ‘near’ – that her administration secured a projected 4 million from the State of Michigan for the replacement of the Senior Center. This has enabled her administration to revise their request to Wayne County for 10 million. She then touched on the ‘far’ by providing the report provided by Plante Moran CRESA (Vote.Run.Serve – Livonia previously covered this topic).

The mayor invited attendees to mark the calendar for the following dates

June – Pride Month events, details to be announced

Sep 17 – Tour de Livonia

Watch the State of the City: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnG-yI69kVk