Seymour Mayor Craig Luedeman will give the final State of the City address of his second term in office Monday.

Not one to like giving speeches, Luedeman said he doesn’t mind talking about the city’s strengths and good things that are happening.

But with the good comes the bad, or at least those areas that need work.

“And we’ll take a look at those, too,” he said Friday.

The State of the City will begin at the end of the regular city council meeting at 7 p.m. at Seymour City Hall. The meeting is open to the public.

During the roughly 30-minute address, Luedeman said he will give reports from various city departments, including police and fire, parks and recreation, public works, planning and zoning, public transit and sewer utility.

“There will be a lot of statistics as far as how much money the departments saved last year, an update on where we are in the general fund, and I’ll be talking about economic development some, too,” he said.

Financially speaking, the city is holding its own; however, Luedeman said he will be continuing to look at ways to save taxpayers money and increase the city’s reserves.

“I would like to see us have a little more money in the bank, but it’s taking us longer to pull out of the recession than it has for industry,” he said.

With many companies adding jobs, he is predicting the city will see higher income tax revenue this year and in the future.

Also as part of his address, Luedeman plans to provide more details on major projects that will take shape this year, including the widening of West Second Street, a downtown arrival park and the creation of pedestrian and bike trails in the city.

He is calling 2015 “the year of growth” but said it’s the kind of growth communities want to see.

“I think there will be more housing starts and more people moving here in the next couple of years,” he said. “We’re also going to see some growth in our infrastructure as we start adding some sewer lines on the southeast side of town.”

Luedeman may propose some small annexations this year to better square off the city’s boundaries, but he wants to see what the public thinks first, he said.

As for retail and industrial development, he doesn’t expect any major announcements for a while.

“When the unemployment rate is low, it’s hard to get new businesses and companies to come in because they can’t find workers,” he said. “I think we’ll be relying more on retention and expansion.”

Other projects he plans to bring up are the downtown arrival park, which he said is in danger of not happening; a Burkart Boulevard south extension, which the city currently doesn’t have funding for; and the development of pedestrian trails.

“We will have the results of the public survey on the trails back Monday, so I will be incorporating that into the State of the City, too,” he said.

And as always, Luedeman said you can’t put it past him to make a couple of surprise announcements.

Although this is the last year of his second term in office, Luedeman, a Republican, is on the ballot unopposed for the May 5 primary election.

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What: Mayor Craig Luedeman’s State of the City address

Where: Seymour City Hall, 301 N. Chestnut St.

When: 7 p.m. Monday at the end of the regular city council meeting

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