Residents and local government officials listen to a panel of Marysville officials at Thursday’s Marysville State of the City event. The panel is, from left, IT Director Aaron Story, Union County Economic Development Director Eric Phillips, Public Service Director Mike Andrako and City Manager Terry Emery.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Will Channell)
The City of Marysville’s annual State of the City address Thursday night was all about technology.
Officials and residents gathered at the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company to hear officials discuss where the city is today, and where it’s headed.
After a short video, much of the night’s information came from a panel made up of Marysville City Manager Terry Emery, Public Service Director Mike Andrako, IT Director Aaron Story and Union County Economic Development Director Eric Philips.
Officials said the video cost more than $19,000 to produce.
Su Lok, the Scotts Miracle-Gro Company director of community partnerships, acted as the night’s master of ceremony. She spent a lot of time asking officials about the city’s role in the future of connected and autonomous vehicles.
“How is the city going to address some of the security concerns that might arise?” she asked.
Andrako said security concerns are the most common he hears when it comes to connected vehicles. He assured the audience that these new technologies aren’t “big brother” watching residents.
He explained that when connected vehicle devices have security functions turned on, they generate temporary IDs every 15 minutes.
“We won’t be able to know what vehicle has what ID,” Andrako said. “There won’t really be a way to track vehicles.”
Instead, these devices allow officials to track general traffic patterns around the city.
Andrako said there are also measures against hackers who want to tamper with connected vehicles. The connected vehicle has a verification certificate that has to match with the devices along the streets.
That provides a layer of security against outside parties.
“We don’t want hackers to give us fraudulent messages,” Andrako said.
Story laid out the city’s role in the 35-mile leg of fiber optics installed along U.S. 33. That fiber will allow local officials to install networking equipment that can communicate with connected cars.
A redundant loop of fiber is currently being installed, according to Story. When it’s finished, it will run along Northwest Parkway, through Marysville and down Industrial Parkway.
Story said this fiber could have enormous economic impact to the area. The fiber will provide high-speed Internet to businesses, but it will require a change in culture.
He said people will need to start viewing fiber as similar to the role of water lines, roads and electric.
“This is just as much a utility now as any of those,” Story said.
Marysville resident Jermaine Ferguson asked council about the possibility of establishing a credit for residents who commute out of the city for work.
City Finance Director Justin Nahvi said he supported a commuter tax credit, but officials need some more data. He said officials have collected a year of data to see the impact to the city, and he wants two more years of information.
“I’m committed to working to implement a credit,” Nahvi said. “I think it’s time and it’s necessary.”
He said officials think 2021 would be the earliest a credit would be offered.
Emery said a commuter tax credit is being “closely monitored right now.”
Officials dove into the issue of funding after a question from city councilperson Henk Berbee. Berbee noted that much of the funding comes out of federal “small cities” grants. Since those grants are only awarded to cities below 25,000 residents – a number Marysville is approaching – he asked what officials will do after they can no longer use those funds?
“We’ll have to look for different funding sources,” Andrako said.
Andrako said there are other funding sources available.
“But we can still get other federal funding sources,” Andrako said. “That’s just one of the growing pains when you become a larger city.”
Emery also gave a quick update on road projects around the city.
Emery said between 2018 and 2019, the city will end up spending about $19 million on public infrastructure.
In 2018, some big-ticket projects included the Route 31 widening project, sidewalk repair on West Fifth Street, lowering Route 38 and the construction of Cooks Pointe Boulevard.
“Anybody that was navigating their way through Marysville last year probably got very irritated at the number of barrels and number of projects we had going on,” Emery joked.