Momentum swinging towards Delaware County as mayor gives State of City address

MUNICE, Ind. — New developments, higher salaries and improving public safety. Muncie held its State of the City yesterday and Mayor Dan Ridenour announced a host of new plans.

Muncie has been working hard to attract new residents as well as keeping residents here in East Central Indiana. With new developments like Storer Estates, the Mayor said he thinks they’re well on their way of achieving that.

“We’re excited about the future and momentum we’re building in the city of Muncie,” said Ridenour.

The mayor stated they’ve partnered with Ball State University to build a new performing arts center, a new hotel and a subdivision for faculty who want to be close to the campus.

The next thing on the Mayor’s list is continuing to improve public safety.

“We did a 5% increase this year, did a 10% increase last year,” said Ridenour. “We’ve increased our public employees’ salary considerably to get them a little higher and closer to where they deserve to be.”

Ridenour said he understands how important public safety officials are to the city of Muncie and wants to attract more if possible. Ridenour also said they’ve put a heavy emphasis on quality of life, adding new parks and trails for the community to use.

“We’ve added four new splash pads and have done upgrades to 14 of our 30-some parks,” Ridenour said. “We’ve opened up two completely new parks and are building another one on the southwest side of town.”

The mayor said he thinks Muncie is in a great spot and doesn’t expect that momentum to slow anytime soon.