Day touts improvements in State of the City address
Mayor Jake Day highlighted 4,300 jobs that have been added to the suburbs surrounding Salisbury this year alone and much more at his State of City Address Wednesday at Salisbury University.
Increasing jobs, economic growth and a housing market on the rise and more were highlighted by Mayor Day.
"This year both the labor force and the work force grew, but really excited to see that many jobs being added."
Since December, Day says 1,700 jobs have been added inside city limits, leading to a fall in the city's unemployment rate by almost a point to 4.6 percent.
"It's creating that environment where people want to be. That's what the mayor is trying to do is create that environment where people want to be. If people want to be there businesses will find us just fine," said David Ryan, Executive Director of Salisbury, Wicomico Economic Development.
Day says the housing market is also steaming ahead, with median house values up 11 percent, and average sales prices higher than the average list prices.
It was also a year for the city to respond to natural disaster, from a winter storm that saw every street plowed for the first time, to the second worst flood in city history, to a tornado in the heart of Salisbury.
"The difference between the two is the entire west side was under water. Houses were flooded, people lost their homes in 2016. In 2017, you didn't see that, we had high water in a number of places but not there," said Day.
The mayor's overall message to residents, the city is continuing the work to grow.
"We are growing, we are working, we are building. We've seen $165 million in construction over the last year inside the city of Salisbury. So this is a resurgent time for us, this is a good time for us, and I think we are going to continue to prove we are one of the great small cities of America."
Day added that major flooding on the west side was avoided thanks to the completed Cody Cox storm water project.
David Ryan credits Day's push for events in downtown Salisbury as a reason for the growth in interest businesses have in Salisbury.
