I am very honored to serve another year as Town Council President. My fellow Town Council members voted to retain both Richard Hardaway as the Town Council Vice President, and me as the President. This will be my 3rd year serving as chairman and I want to thank my fellow colleagues for their support and for their commitment to move the town forward this year. The council made many motions at the Special Town Council meeting when we celebrated our exact 50th year to the day. Motions that will set some of the agenda items for 2022.
Continuing with our Diversity and inclusion programs, we promoted our Assistant Park Director to the Director’s position, will be creating a time capsule and displaying it at the Dean and Barbara White Community Center to be opened in December of 2071, will be reviewing neighborhood parking woes and designing new street plans to ease traffic, we will begin plans to revitalize the 61st Avenue and Broadway, we will begin developing a new Town of Merrillville Master Development Plan, and we’ll be replacing and planting 500 new trees in town and repairing damage to sidewalks, curbs and streets from over-grown trees. These are just a few of the goals set by the council for this year. Naturally we’ll be doing our annual projects like street paving and repair, new police car purchases, and continue to attract major developers to our town creating jobs and economic growth for Merrillville business owners.
I promise to continue to move the town forward with the help from my fellow council members. Looking forward to a great 2022! -Rick Bella for The Town of Merrillville