East Grand Forks Mayor Steve Gander channeled a famous quotation from President John F. Kennedy in his call to residents to serve their community.
"How can I serve," he asked a crowd Wednesday as he gave his second State of the City address at the East Grand Forks Civic Center. "I ask you as your mayor: How can I work to build this community?"
The theme was repeated throughout Gander's speech as he highlighted the accomplishments of city government, as well as goals for 2018. A large portion of the roughly hour-long program focused on the city's boards and commissions, which are made up mostly of East Grand Forks residents who volunteer to serve on the committees.
"They are not out there for the limelight, and we could not do the work that we do without them," he said as he encouraged residents to volunteer their time.
Some board and commission positions have the same people serving on at least two boards. Last year, the City Council discussed creating policy to prevent a resident from serving on more than one committee in an attempt to avoid conflict of interest.
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The council likely will discuss the proposed policy later this year, Gander said.
Leaders also want to revise they city's charter, Gander said. The document that lays out the powers of city government was last revised in 1997, but the council hopes to revisit the document to take care of "housekeeping" needs, Gander told the Herald.
Gander also noted the city's work with Grand Forks to complete the interconnect project for wastewater treatment, as well as moves to increase East Grand Forks' reserve funds after they were depleted in recent years.
The interconnect project is proof the neighboring cities can cooperate on projects while serving their own communities, Gander said.
"Let's see if we can get together on the south-end neighborhood bridge, maybe a bypass bridge to the south of that for industrial and farm traffic in the future," he said.
The city is working toward adding a K-9 officer to its police force and re-evaluating its city assessment policies for street projects.
"Our current policy is out of date and no longer functions properly," he said.
