Goshen mayor talks about successes, struggles at State of the City

Mar. 28—GOSHEN — During her first State of the City address at the Goshen Founders Day luncheon on Thursday, Goshen Mayor Gina Leichty talked about some of the initiatives she's passionate about, including the goals and the struggles of the city in 2024.

Among Leichty's top identified concerns were balancing the operations budget, restoring blighted areas, housing, inflation, and manufacturing.

"I know that Goshen is going to be successful and that our brightest days are ahead of us, and the reason I know this is Goshen boasts a remarkably tightknit community with a strong emphasis on volunteerism and civic participation," Leichty told the hundreds in attendance at the Founders Day Luncheon Thursday afternoon at Maple City Chapel.

Leichty recalled a young man about a month ago, who approached the city about his blighted home during a hearing with the Board of Public Works and Safety.

"He had a lot of waste that filled his yard. ... His house was about to be condemned," she said. "During that hearing, we learned that this individual has a lot of health issues and he had been terribly taken advantage of by out-of-town contractors who had taken his insurance settlement money that he got when his house burned and robbed him blind and left him with a horrible housing situation and he was about to lose even what little he had."

Leichty said the man's attitude and story were vastly different from the norm for those often attending a housing hearing with the city.

"He said, 'Will you help?' And Goshen did." she recalled.

The city contacted his healthcare provider and the community foundation, which sent out a crew of volunteers from Acts of Service to help clean the property up. Leichty said she and her husband Ben also helped with the cleaning efforts last weekend.

"There was our building commissioner and one of our building inspectors there the whole time helping," she said.

"I don't know where that story is ultimately going to lead, I don't know what the outcome will be, but I know that Goshen helps and it takes all of us working together to make a better city and sometimes it's house-by-house, sometimes its neighborhood-by-neighborhood, business-by-business, but we're all in it together and I believe in you, Goshen," Leichty said.

For her part, many of the projects Leichty wants to expand across the city are designed to bring the community together and further encourage connectedness. In addition to restoring blighted areas — the city has already identified 20 homes — Leichty also explained her plans to engage neighborhood associations across the city.

"One of the things that I realized when coming into office is that while Goshen has had a long history standing healthy network of neighborhoods within the city, because of COVID almost half of them dissolved," she said. Her team and the Community Relations Commission are doing outreach to "reidentify neighborhood champions," Leichty said. Anyone who is in a neighborhood that is not adequately represented and interested in being that representation should make contact.

"We recognize that there's still challenges in our community, still things we need to address, and of course at the top of the list, the thing that you hear on the news regularly is the desperate need for housing in our community," she said.

Leichty said when she most recently checked, there were only 105 homes in the city of Goshen listed for sale, while 20,000 workers drive in daily, and a recently commissioned city study by Structure Point indicated that the city could use another 5,000 homes immediately to accommodate the housing demand.

"While we need to grow, we are exercising a lot of caution in where we grow," Leichty said. "We have to focus on growth that is infill as much as possible, utilizing our existing utility and road infrastructure wherever we can to reduce spawn and the inevitable infrastructure maintenance costs that come with outward expansion."

Still, the city is not nearly without its share of struggles. Grappling with the increasing cost of infrastructure and maintenance, Leichty admitted that the cost of maintaining roads has in some situations doubled. In addition, keeping skilled engineers and emergency personnel amid a competitive landscape is growing more and more difficult, with some local jurisdictions offering nearly doubling starting salaries.

Outside of city employment, the large manufacturing economy puts Goshen in a unique position that could be really good or really bad depending on the climate.

"We're thrilled that the RV industry is growing and strong here, and while it's a tremendous boon to our local economy and has sustained us through decades and centuries of growth it's difficult to forecast our need demand and at times the cyclical nature of that economy gives us all a little bit of heartburn," she said.

A recent study by Ball State indicates that up to 75% of the workforce is at risk of job loss due to automation.

"And there's always the financial strain of always needing to do more with less," Leichty said.

Historically, Leichty explained, the city has aimed to keep the operating balance between 15% and 50%. In recent years since 2020, it shot up to 68%. Leichty said with projects that were scheduled unable to be completed during the pandemic and the funds being accumulated, this year, they hope to bring it back down to 64%, completing the projects, and continuing to decrease the number further in the next few years.

Since property tax caps began in 2010, the city has not received $45 million that would have been previously allocated to them. While revenue this year is continued to expect to decrease and expenditures increase due to inflation, Leichty said they've no intention of spending more than what's truly available.

"It's a challenge that every city and every mayor across the state is grappling with," she said.

The city is also working to improve technology throughout the city and increase efficiency, digitizing all city codes and ordinances, using GIS for maps, technology for the streets department and AI.

"Many people have asked me why I wanted to become mayor and step into this role and I would say it's a fairly simple reason, that as I've worked with the city of Goshen as a partner prior to stepping into this role, what I've witnessed over and over is the power of dramatic change that happens when you have a community that comes together to create positive change," Leichty said. "This is a community that will not hesitate to rally in a time of crisis, whether its a flood or tornado or pandemic, and I've seen competitors that are willing to come together to address tough community challenges. Every time that I've been able to participate and bring people together around a common cause, people who many have very different views or agendas, I've found my deepest sense of purpose."

Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.