View the Mayor’s Update via the City of Gardner YouTube page or our Mayor’s Update page, CLICK HERE.
Gardner MA Mayor Michael Nicholson Delivers 27 Minute Address in Weekly Update
In an inspirational and motivational, but lengthy weekly update of 27 minutes on June 10, 2022, Mayor Michael Nicholson put forth great confidence in the Chair City with a focus on serious financial, civic, and budget matters.
The Mayor noted that while other areas have seen population declines, Gardner’s population has grown significantly in the last two decades. He stated, ““individuals can keep their Boston jobs and their Boston pay while coming out to the North Central Mass, North Quabbin areas.” Recently, Mayor Nicholson met with the North Central Massachusetts Association of Realtors to discuss various projects and properties. Realtors helped answer questions such as,”“what are your clients who are moving to the Gardner area asking you? What are they looking for? What types of services seem to stick out for them when they are looking for a community? It helps us get information on our end, but also we can give information to the Realtors about projects like the new school, the Outdoor seating pilot programs, the different business grants that are available, and different redevelopment projects that we have going on so we can get that symbiotic relationship between the two.”
Successful Gardner Manufacturers Look to Expand
Mayor Nicholson spoke of touring different manufacturing facilities in the Chair City such as Advanced Cable Ties, Blessington Corporation, and Specialty Paper, who are all looking at expanding. “We are seeing how we can promote that expansion here in Gardner.” And the Mayor noted the companies are hiring, ““every place we visited yesterday….one of the issues they faced was adequate staffing levels.”
Nicholson spoke of a number of events taking place in the city in the next month. He also spoke about the Fiscal Year 2023 Budget and explained that various meetings will be taking place. The Mayor advocated for his free cash requests for the Maki lot and the Park Street property, indicating that he felt spending money on the properties would help spruce up the City. Explaining the concept of free cash, the Mayor stated, ““Free cash is money that we budgeted on the revenue side that came in higher than budgeted or expenses that came in lower.”
Operation: Storefront Gets a Big Boost!
Gardner has entered into an agreement with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to participate in the Vacant Storefront Incentive Program – “ this is a program where if a storefront has been vacant for more than 12 months, the city and the state will kick in 10 thousand dollars a piece for up to 3 storefronts a year so that we can help with fit out costs for those businesses as a way to incentivize those businesses coming in to those vacant storefronts… We’re looking forward to seeing how we can utilize this program to help incentivize businesses to come in to the area and help revitalize our economy one step at a time. “ The City will match the state’s 10 grand with 10 grand from its American Rescue Plan funding.