Orrville’s new mayor delivered his first State of the City at Monday’s council meeting, and started by thanking previous mayors, city directors and the police and fire departments for their contributions.

Matt Plybon noted the Orrville Fire Department reduced response time from 7 minutes 22 seconds to 3 minutes 36 seconds. The transition came after the OFD implemented a new hiring system that allowed volunteer firefighters to become part-time employees.

Although remote working has affected the city’s income taxes over the past few years, Plybon said the city is experiencing notable growth in income tax revenue compared to 2022. In addition, he praised the city for maintaining a tax rate of 1 percent since 1968.

“With the increasing inflation rates, painting the level of service our citizens have come to expect, remains a growing challenge given the low tax rate,” Plybon said.

The opening of the Skate Park was a recreation highlights in 2023.

“This became a reality by the hard work of council members, which had its first discussions 20 years ago,” he said.

As the city had several streets resurfaced in 2023, Plybon said resurfacing yet to come will be on Washington Boulevard, McGill and Bell streets, and diamond grounding will happen on Crown Hill Road.

Orrville increased its economic development in 2023 with the expansion of several businesses such as The J.M. Smucker, McElroy and Jarrett.

Several new businesses opened, including Junipers, Runions and Geiser Beauty.

“Even today there was a ribbon cutting ceremony welcoming Orrville’s new business, Wrench Works,” Plybon said.

As he concluded his speech, Plybon noted the city has multiple openings listed on its website, including seasonal jobs at Orr Park.

“In 1984, I applied for my first job as lifeguard at Orr Pool. We have 20 applications turned in so far and we need around 70,” Plybon said. “Please spread the word.”

Orrville Boys & Girls Club: Engagement growing, days are busy

In council business, Nicolina Nolletti, Orrville Area Boys &Girls Club teen director, gave the 2023 annual program report.

She highlighted the steady growth of teen engagement. There are about 70 teen memberships and more than 30 teens engaged in after-school programs since the beginning of the school year.

“On a busy day when we’re doing an activity like our leagues and basketball tournaments, we have over 50 kids, so lot of moving and shaking,” Nolletti said.

Nolletti noted several youth members are on track to become part of the staff, noting, “I’m proud of the ones that we have who have gone that way, and I’m excited to see what we can do with that in the future.”

The OABGC has after-school programs for children starting kindergarten to high school-age. In addition to arts, sports and STEM programs, OABGC added an esports room for video games and a media room to teach children how to use technology.

“They are going to be responsible for helping put out some information of things that we’d like to advertise at the club, doing videos and we have a podcast for getting started,” Nolletti said.

Staff members also are focusing on putting the children on a career path and helping them with setting goals. In a partnership with Akron Children’s Hospital, OABGC launched a summer program to raise awareness on e-cigarette and JUUL prevention.

“A lot of them were very receptive to that, and we have seen positives come from that programming that has been offered,” she said.

The OABGC partnered with the Boy & Girls Club of America and the local Family Dollar in a program called Doing More, which focuses on community-based issues that teens experience. For the OABGC the focused is on food insecurity.

“We were able to successfully raise over 400 food items, which we then donated to the Salvation Army,” she said.

The group members will share their experience in Washington, D.C., at the Summit for America’s Youth.

Lastly, the club has taken steps on suicide prevention and mental health. It welcomed the therapy dog “Noodle” as a new member and adopted therapy group programming sponsored by Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

“I would like to continue to focus on teen-specific programming. I want to know what the youth want,” Nolletti said. “I want to make sure that I am anticipating the things that they want to learn, what is inspirational and important to them, what is going to be valuable for them entering the world.”

The next meeting is at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 5, at Orrville City Hall.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: New mayor gives Orrville State of City address – here’s what he said