GONZALES — The 70th Annual Report for the City of Gonzales has been released and has a few changes to make the report more informative and easier to read.
“There was a lot of work done by all staff and there was a lot of work done by Maury to organize and compile this,” said City Manager Rene Mendez. “We wanted the report to be as easy to navigate through as possible.”
The full 2017 Annual Report is available of the City of Gonzales website in the “Important News” section. The report is set up so that visitors can go to the “Table of Contents” page, click on any title and go to that section. To return to the “Table of Contents,” there is an arrow that circles around and returns to the page.
Inside the Annual Report, there are new articles about the City of Gonzales, a letter from Mendez about the City budget, bringing Charter high-speed Internet to the city and its residents, information about Measure K, and the Road to Success youth diversion program.
Gonzales Police Department has been working to increase their community presence over the past year as well as cleaning up the streets. A public disposal bin was installed at the Gonzales Police Department by the “Don’t Rush to Flush” project. The Department also brought a School Resource Officer into the Gonzales Unified School District to engage with school officials, parents, students and community-based organizations to build positive relationships.
“On the night of Halloween the Police Department Association hosted the Haunted Police Department,” said Police Chief Keith Wise. “Over 1,000 community members attended the event and we plan on hosting another Haunted Police Department this October.”
The Police Department has implemented advanced computer technology into patrol vehicles with the goal of improving efficiency and effectiveness in policing.
In 2017, the City Council approved two additional full-time engineers to increase the Gonzales Fire Department staffing. According to Fire Chief Jason Muscio, the number of training hours increased by 40.
“We’re drilling every Thursday now except for Thanksgiving,” said Muscio. “We’re really amping up the hours that we are putting in as a department to train.”
Muscio has a few goals for the 2018 year as well, such as increasing the number of volunteer firefighters to 16, which has already been completed on April 30. There is also a goal concerning the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) to develop a team and Muscio is planning to begin training the team in the first two weeks of June.
For more information on the City of Gonzales activities and annual report, visit the City website.
