COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) – Tuesday, at the State of the City luncheon, Columbus Mayor Skip Henderson shared his vision for the future with over 300 elected officials, business leaders, and community members at the sold-out event.

The mayor addressed key issues such as affordable housing, job creation, and the decrease in crime.

One resident emphasized the importance of transparency from elected officials, stating, “It’s important that he’s reaching out to the people who elected him or who didn’t elect him to hear what’s going on in Columbus because a lot of different things are happening in Columbus today.”

Mayor Henderson highlighted the positive developments in Columbus, including economic growth and capital investments.

“We’ve got a lot of economic development and capital investments happening in our community,” he said. “We’re looking forward, not so much to baseball, but to what baseball brings. We’re anticipating between $2.5 and $350 million in capital investments. We’ve talked to different developers who are interested in participating, and we’re also working on enhancing services for our poorest citizens.”

During his address, Mayor Henderson was interviewed by Crystal Shahid from the Chamber of Commerce.

When asked about the most pressing issues facing the city, he identified workforce development and housing challenges. “We have outstanding people working on workforce development,” the mayor said. “However, we’ve had many out-of-town individuals entering the housing market and charging high prices for properties.”

Mayor Henderson also expressed concerns about changes in federal funding.

“[One issue] is a lot of the changes going on with federal dollars,” he said. “We rely on those federal dollars to pass them through to other individuals from HUD (United States Department of Housing and Urban Development) and from CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) funding from HUD. We also have the Department of Community Affairs, and we’re a little nervous. I won’t say nervous, but we’re being watchful over those grant monies because if we can’t continue to pass them through, then that impacts our residents.”

Henderson reported that crime is trending down in Columbus, with the police department now fully staffed.

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