In His Own Words: First Selectman Steve Vavrek

The following is the speech First Selectman Steve Vavrek made while accepting the Republican nomination to run for a third consecutive term.

Four years ago I stood before you very involved in our various community organizations for many years, very involved with the our town government as a member of P&R, and elected to the Town Council and Board of Finance.

We knew that Build a better Monroe was the vision...

• To Fix our roads
• To Fix our infrastructure
• To Build trust through better communication 
• To Listen to our community 

Four years ago some people said we had leadership, but many people wanted to see that leadership produce better RESULTS.

Four years ago:

Our roads had no long range plan and only $240,000 in the budget to work with.

We had a police department renovation that was 11 years overdue.

We had a Town Hall that underwent zero external renovations since 1972.

We had budgets with high yearly increases that produced no budgeted long range planning and no plans for infrastructure improvements.

We had budgets that went four or more referendums.

We had P&Z regulations that produced no major updates in over 40 years with the exception of only minor revisions in the beginning of the decade.

We had little to no consistent Zoning Enforcement.

We had many departments that acted independently from other departments.

We had department heads that ... we the public pay ... but yet had never heard from.

We had a Board of Education that many said was dysfunctional? (Misguided, misdirected, ineffective)

Four years later what we have are RESULTS.

We now have roads with plans and the money to back them.

Look around outside of this Town Hall ... New windows, new roof and a new HVAC system coming this year.

We now have a state-of-the-art police department.
 
We now have budgets that have passed in less than three votes and two out of four passing on the first vote.

We now have regulations being revised and zoning being enforced after years of neglect.

We now have collaboration between departments including the Board of Education.

We now have department heads, who know their budgets, explaining their budgets to the public.

We now have a Capital Projects budget that is actually in the budget after years of using volunteer commission plans, but no budget inclusion.

We now have plans to fix and maintain our school and town buildings and roofs.

We have town Facebook pages and Twitter.
 
We have First Selectman Weekly Newsletters.
 
We now have, four years later, what Monroe has always asked for and deserved ... Communication and RESULTS.

Folks, this leadership is getting RESULTS.

During the next two years we will continue to get these RESULTS by working with officials from both parties, the people of Monroe, the region, the state and the federal government.

There is still more to do

We will continue to address the needs of Monroe, within the boundries of our town budget.

Our neglected Food Pantry, our Volunteer Fire/EMS, our Department of Public Works buildings, our town pool and playing fields needs, all negleted over the years will be addressed in a fiscally responsible manner.

Tonight I ask for your support as your first selectman for the next two years   where we will continue to produce RESULTS.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity and God Bless.