ONTARIO – At the first city council meeting of 2018, Ontario Mayor Randy Hutchinson reflected on the city’s triumphs over the past year in his State of the City Address.
“Looking back on 2017, the city of Ontario can be very proud of what was accomplished,” Hutchinson said.
In 2017, Ontario saw the addition of 20 new businesses. This included OhioHealth’s emergency care, Avita’s opening as a full-service hospital and Altitude Trampoline Park, which Hutchinson called an “excellent entertainment location for the area.”
The Ontario Police Department (OPD) took more calls over the past year than in 2016, but the number of “serious crimes reported” were down, according to Hutchinson.
He noted the department experienced a change of leadership. Chief Rodney Smith retired after 34 years. Chief Tommy Hill took his place on April 12. Two additional officers also joined the OPD in the past year.
With the new officers, Ontario increased patrols where needed. During the holidays, there were extra patrols in business areas. Hutchinson said this likely impacted the decrease in parking lot crashes in that period.
According the mayor, park events grew in the past year with the summer’s Concerts in the Park and the annual Christmas tree lighting drawing bigger crowds.
“With the extra publicity, the crowds were larger,” Hutchinson said about the concerts. “The largest crowd drew 1,000 people.”
The tree lighting brought more than 500 people to Marshall Park. Hutchinson offered special thanks to Christmas-fanatics, Gary and Lynn Levelius, who donated a light display that featured about 5,000 individual LED lights in mostly hand-made displays, set to music.
Hutchinson mentioned that the Fourth of July celebration was also a success. The city had first-time geocaching event, which was organized by 2017 hire Heather Hendricks and the former recreation board.
“As always, Ontario has a strong, steadfast and a bright future,” Hutchinson said.
