Berke Bulletin: December 19, 2018

Friends,

Stronger support for our youth, families, and senior citizens. More job readiness, education, and workforce development programs. Greater investment in public health, affordable housing, and social services. Improved infrastructure, especially paved roads, new sidewalks, and more bike lanes.

These are among the top recommendations we heard from you, the public, about your priorities for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2020 budget. We’re proud that our process for creating the budget is rooted in transparency and public engagement. Our budget is about delivering the best results as efficiently as possible, and this begins with hearing directly from you. Click here to read our report about what we heard from the community and how we intend to use it.

The next step in our Budgeting For Outcomes process is the submission of offers from city departments and nonprofit agencies about how to achieve those results. Those offers are due on Friday, January 18. There’s still time to apply to join a team to help city staff review the offers and help build the budget. Find more information about all of this a BFO.Chattanooga.gov.

Several national publications are talking about Chattanooga’s economic progress. The Chronicle of Philanthropy examined how local foundations have supported Chattanooga’s turnaround in the last several decades. Author Walter Isaacson interviewed legendary tech entrepreneur Steve Case about how local government, our business community, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga are collaborating to keep our startup scene vibrant. ExtremeTech.com says that we rank #1 among all cities in the country for affordability and high-speed internet quality. Last but not least, Bloomberg News takes a look at the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport’s commitment to being 100% solar-powered.

While many parts of our city are doing well, too many of our residents struggle for the basics of life, like housing. We are glad that both the left and right sides of the Chattanooga Times Free Press editorial section recently voiced their support for our new Homeless Action Plan.

We’ve got several opportunities for the community to give back. The first is today, Wednesday, December 19, the City of Chattanooga is hosting a blood drive with Blood Assurance from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. in front of City Hall — please visit BloodAssurance.org/CityOfChatt to let us know if you can donate. You can also sign up for volunteer opportunities for our upcoming Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, which are now open at Connect.Chattanooga.gov/MLKDOS.

Thanks for all you do to give and give back to our city, during the holidays and all year long.

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