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Health & Fitness

Quality of Life Helps Make Port Washington Exceptional

As residents, we enjoy an extraordinary quality of life in Port Washington. In fact, this quality of life truly makes Port an exceptional place — and its up to us that it stays this way.

Quality of life.

It is these three words that differentiate our city of Port Washington from others and make it such an attractive place to live, work and conduct business.

Our quality of life is represented in many ways. Good schools comprised of committed, passionate educators. Safe neighborhoods made even safer by dedicated police, fire and emergency response service personnel. Affordable home prices and property tax rates that have largely been held in check by fiscally responsible city government leadership.

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Abundant natural resources and beautiful green spaces, including our park system, trails, beaches and lakefront area.  A charming downtown business district comprised of historically significant buildings and innovative business owners who employ city residents and provide high quality products and services.  A walkability factor — in other words, the ability to safely and conveniently walk from one place to another within the city, at all hours of any day.

An extraordinary level of leisure services — in fact, among the highest per capita in our state of Wisconsin for cities of comparable and even larger size. Even, and perhaps especially, the warm, welcoming people who we feel privileged to call neighbors and friends.

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Stop to smell the roses

In the day-to-day chaos of our lives, it’s easy for us as residents of this beautiful city to lose sight of the quality of life it offers us.  It is, to be very direct, something we need to collectively celebrate, preserve and continue to enhance, because it will be integral to the continued vibrancy and stability and growth of our city for generations to come.

In the years to come, this will necessitate an investment in our city on behalf of us all.  I use the word "investment" here deliberately because there will be very real return on the dollars we spend.  In other words, we will be paid back for the money we spend, both in qualitative terms (enhanced quality of life) and in quantitative terms (increased tax base).

Invest in safety

For example, as we assess the growth of our city and the ongoing change in its demographics, I believe we must examine the need for additional fire, police and emergency service personnel.  Believe it or not, 30 years ago our police staffed a 24-hour shift with 7 officers; today, 30 years later, they do so with 8 officers. 

When one of the primary draws to our city for young families is the safety and security of its neighborhoods, staffing resources for our police department becomes an important consideration.

And, moreover, effectively targeted staffing of officers will make a difference; I have advocated for the need to re-establish a police liaison program within our high school (and would love to see it extended into our middle school), as I believe it will make an immediate and long-term impact. A consistent police office presence in our high school and middle school will lead to greater trust and improved communication between police and our youth; greater accessibility of police resources to our school administration and staff; and greater support and reinforcement of the messaging we as parents are providing our children.  There will be very real return to us, then, as resident tax-payers.

This is just one concrete, specific example, but others abound. 

Invest in what we use

We should and must have open, honest dialogue about the need for greater investment in our roads and infrastructure. We should and must consider creative ideas and solutions for how to continue to add to and maintain long-term our green space, parks and trail system. 

We should and must invite people to the table for a broad-based discussion about how to most cost-effectively celebrate, promote and market our city, its natural resource assets, its businesses and its people.

We should and must continue to encourage and applaud city staff for their efforts to provide the highest quality services possible in a fiscally responsible way, via budgeted resources, available grant dollars and exploration of shared service opportunities. We should and must advance greater collaboration and cooperation among our city’s business and property owners — and a greater understanding among our residents of the need for dollars to be spent here first. 

In all of these ways, we will invest in our city and its quality of life.

Maintain the quality of life

For many years, these things have provided the foundation for our wonderful, differentiating quality of life.  And, they can continue to represent all that makes our city of Port Washington so unique and so great — provided that we preserve, protect, and enhance them as part of our collective vision for the future.  I believe this will be one of the most critical priorities facing our city leaders, residents and businesses in the years to come. We are well-positioned to effectively advance our quality of life, and in so doing, attract new residents and new businesses.  Ultimately, it will be our choice.

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