Welcome everyone.

Thank you so much for coming and supporting the City of Mesquite and myself.

I really appreciate it.

We are going to start off with a presentation of the colors by the Mesquite Fire and Mesquite Police Department Honor Guard.

Mr.

Mayor, it is an honor and privilege for the Mesquite Fire Department, the Mesquite Police Department honor guard to present the colors for the two thousand twenty-six State of the City.

We're so gallery streaming.

Oh say that star spangled.

First of all, I'd like to say thank you so much to the Mesquite and Police and Fire Honor Guard.

Miss Alana Davis.

We give her another round of applause.

She she did an amazing job.

She sang the national anthem at a basketball game or something.

I'm like, man, she is really, really good.

So she was one of the first names that came to my mind when thinking about somebody to do this.

And also Dennis Henge for playing playing the bag pipe, the bagpipes.

So once again, welcome.

And I would like to recognize a few people here tonight.

First of all, Mayor Shelley.

Disclaimer.

There's a good plant chance.

I might go off the rails.

There's a really good chance I'll get emotional.

So just be forewarned.

But we'd really like to welcome Mayor Shelley Berkeley.

And if we could give her a round of applause.

And to have our city host the mayor of that preeminent city, for her to take the time to come and visit us and listen to me.

I sit next to her once a month on the LBC VA committee, so we've got a chance to visit.

And she's a wonderful mayor and wonderful person, at least as far as I know.

So far so good.

We actually have a little family connection.

Her daughter worked for my uncle and my uncle and aunt.

My uncle's a doctor, and she she worked in his office, I think in high school, right?

And so we had we had a little connection there.

So thank you so much, Mayor, for coming.

Also coming from the city of Las Vegas, Councilwoman Nancy Bruni.

As well as the executive secretary, Jerry Schroeder.

And also all these good looking gentlemen that make me feel like an average sized person from the Las Vegas Marshall's office that are here to keep track of the mayor and make sure she behaves.

So thank you to all those delegates coming out of Las Vegas.

Also, we have from Senator Jackie Rosen's office, Candace Wells and Christian Jones here on the front row.

We welcome them and appreciate them taking the time to come out.

Also, we have our city council members, Miss Karen Fielding, Mr.

Paul Wanless, Mr.

Bill Annis, Mr.

Kevin Parrish, and Mrs.

Patty Gallo.

Thank you for them coming.

I roped them into all doing a little video for me to kind of take up my time.

So you're gonna be seeing those little videos throughout the speech tonight.

So we have quite a few new faces in our city government, and we have some old faces in new positions.

So some people that have been with us for a long, long time, but now have uh new new executive positions.

And so I'll kind of talk about some of those throughout the night, and uh I'll get going on it.

So, first of all, I want to introduce you to Rebecca Shrupp.

She is our new city manager, and she's coming to us from Minnesota.

Um she was in involved in city management in Minnesota for a number of years.

Um smaller cities than Mesquite, but done an amazing job, faced adversity in those cities, and when we were looking at candidates, we want we want somebody that's smart that's gone through the a little bit of the wars and that can handle the wars we have here in mesquite.

And so I think we found the perfect candidates.

So we're excited to have Rebecca here.

Um, while I'm talking about city managers, I want to give a big thanks to Martine Green.

Um, she stepped in for the fourth, third, third time, and was our interim city manager and did an amazing job of holding down the fort and making sure the city kept running and say stayed strong.

So a big thank you to Martine for that.

We really appreciate her.

You're done.

You're done.

At least as long as I'm here, so you got at least three years.

So, you know, unless Becca decides to go be the city manager of Las Vegas, then we'll have to we'll have to go from there.

But which she could definitely handle, you know, she needed a couple years of mesquite to wet her feet, but then she can move on.

Um next we have uh Bryce Anderson.

Um Bryce is our new finance manager.

Um he's coming to us from all over Utah.

He worked for the state and some cities.

He's been uh had 11 years of experience in um being the finance manager.

I know nothing about finance managing, but everybody says he really knows his stuff.

He could tell me whatever, and I would say, oh, that sounds really smart.

But uh the people that know says he say he's really good.

So I trust them.

So we're really happy to have Bryce.

Next, kind of an old face in back in the same position, but we have Adam Anderson, and we really want to give him a big thanks for stepping in as our city attorney on at least the interim basis.

I haven't been able to talk him into doing the full-time thing yet.

But for now, he's our city attorney, and we really appreciate all the hard work.

I found his face down back there in Bryce, too.

Um, so the Andersons are sticking together back there.

Um so we really appreciate you, Bryce, and you as well, Adam, especially for guiding us through.

Um so I'm gonna move and talk a little bit about the Mesquite Fire Department.

We had our deputy chief retire this year, Sean Tobler.

Many of you know Sean.

Sean is we went to school together, went to kindergarten together, and he's actually about a year younger than I am, and he is retired.

And what the heck is up with that?

You know, how is he retired?

I'm never gonna be able to retire.

So but we're really grateful for Sean and the many years of service he gave to the city of Mesquite.

And we have Ryan.

I saw Ryan, where are you, Ryan?

Stand up, Ryan.

Ryan is our nude deputy fire chief, and uh we are grateful to have him.

Um Ryan is from Mesquite, he's been with the fire department 24 years.

He's a licensed paramedic.

Um, and we did do a nationwide search, and we found a great candidate right here at home, and we're grateful to have him.

Thank you, Ryan.

Um, along with the Mesquite Fire Department.

I don't know what bigger compliment I can say about the fire department, other than nobody ever complains about the fire department.

Everybody I talk to is like, man, the fire department is so great, and they really are, they do an amazing job.

And we just built a new fire station across the street, and now we're halfway into a second new fire station.

They've got some amazing facilities, and we are so grateful for the work, Chief Anderson's crew do and professional, professional, professional, and we really appreciate them.

Um, I could give you some stats and figures, but just know every year they do a little more, but yet they maintain the same level as of professionalism, and they've got quite a few new hires.

Um kid uh Isaiah that used to work for me, great kid.

I always call him the prophet.

And he's a great kid, he's on the fire department.

And I walked in one day, I had no idea he was on the fire department.

I saw him and just put a smile on my face.

It's just the firefighters are great guys, and we we love them.

Um but they are getting, like I mentioned, another new fire station, which brings us to our first video, which is Councilman Paul Wanlesson, he's gonna talk to us about our new fire station up in the Sun City area.

And I don't know where to stand, but I'll just hi mesquite.

My name is Paul Wandless, and I'm a city councilman.

I was elected in 2022, and in early 2023, Chief Andres came to the council and showed us all heat maps of where the majority of their calls were coming from.

At the time, fire station number one rebuild was being done down on Mesquite Boulevard, and there was some real concern that that was replacing a station that had been there for years, but where all of the calls were coming for the city were north of me and east of me.

And the response time to get to those those stations wasn't as good as they'd like in fire service.

They talked to me a little while later, the city manager at the time and chief and risk after a technical review meeting, and said there were people that were having some real issues with starting a second fire station before the first one was already done.

This property had already been donated.

The funds were worked procure, but they were afraid that it would just look like it was overwhelming.

I told them a story about my mom and my dad, and I want to tell you this story too.

In 2000, my dad had bronchitis, and he went to Las Vegas to watch my nephew play in a baseball tournament, high school baseball tournament.

And while he was down there with all the different callings he wasn't used to and everything, his lungs clogged up and he stopped breathing.

Emergency services got to him and got him to the hospital.

He was intubated.

And then we were going to take him home.

In 2006, my mom had a heart attack.

And he worked during Tel EMS got there and got her intubated and got her to the hospital.

And it was the same thing.

Everything was fine.

Everything looked good.

But they did have one thing in common.

And here we are now, just a short time later.

And this station will be in operation hopefully in June of this year.

But if I had anything to do with it being built so quickly, and it saves just one life, then it was worth four years of my life sitting on city council to make this happen.

I hope you all come out for the ribbon cutting.

Thank you.

How many of those two or three minutes that we're going to save, Chief?

Is going to save lives.

I mean, and I don't know if it's going to be one or if it's going to be 100%, or it's going to be a thousand or what it's going to be, but it's definitely going to save lives.

And agreed.

Thank you.

Back again, another one of those old faces.

And this one's older than me, so I can call him old.

Plus, he's not here, so I can really call him old.

As our chief, our new police chief Tracy Fells.

Tracy has been in policing since age of 26.

He's been with Musquite for 25 years.

Along with the fire department, um Chief Andrus gives me a big book of facts and figures every year.

And Chief Fells gave us all a big book of facts and figures this year, but they're just facts and figures.

Um say crime is down, they're doing an amazing job.

But I happen to have a very good insight.

Not to the facts and the figures of the police department, but to the inside stories of the police department.

And I don't get all the the gory details or the names or the but I hear about the officers, the state and gave somebody that just had their world rocked.

That extra attention, that extra time that they need.

Um they go the extra mile to find a lost kid, get him home.

Um all our officers are doing these kind of things on a regular basis, and we never hear about it.

I get to hear about it.

Um I don't hear about it from them.

I hear about it from my inside source, so you can probably guess who that is.

But she, you know, she'll come home and tell me a story of you know, Officer Smith did this, or you know, officer, whoever, you know, I don't want to start naming names.

Um but yeah, they they do do an amazing job, and they do go the extra mile, and and they people don't see it, but but it does happen, and so take it from me.

Trust me.

It does happen, and they do a great job, and and they do go the extra mile, and we really appreciate them and all they do.

Um another big part of the police department there is our animal control department, which also does an amazing job, puts in the extra mile and that extra effort.

Um they are getting we have a lot of new stuff coming.

So just so you know, um, if you don't know, we have a lot of new stuff going.

We have our new animal shelter edition, which uh Councilman Patty Gallo uh helps spearhead uh along with others, but she was kind of the voice for it.

And uh three point five three point four, three point five million dollar addition.

It is actually done.

We're having the ground breaking tomorrow morning.

But we're gonna turn the time over for a video of Councilwoman Gallo talking about the animal shelter.

Good morning.

I'm Patty Gallo, Mesquite City Council, and I'm here to share a little bit of information with what's happening with our new expansion at the animal shelter.

We have the building is about 3,000 square feet, and I'd like to take you inside so you can see what's going on.

We have a state-of-the-art soundproof roof that um has been put in.

We're displaying our awards.

So we have one-kill shelter multiple times um over the years.

And in 2024, we won a national award for agency of the year.

So there are some things that we're very, very proud of.

And uh the great thing is the way the lobby is set up now.

We our cats and our critters are to the right, and our dogs are in here.

There's construction still going on, so we're not going to be able to see much of that today.

So let's take a walk down the hall, and I'll show you a little bit of what's going on in the building.

So now we're inside at the main hallway.

This is our cat room and kitten room.

Um, to my right, we actually have a meet and greet now for the kittens and the cats.

Behind uh the camera is where we have our critter room.

So we have room now for our rabbits, our reptiles, our gerbils, etc.

Um, as we go down the hall, we now have an isolation room, a separate one for cats, and we also have um our laundry room and our break rooms and the uh offices for our um ACOs.

So now that you've had a brief overview of what's happening here at the animal shelter, I'd like to invite you all to the ribbon cutting that we will be having on March 5th.

Please come down and see us, come check out our building.

You'll and everything should be done by then.

You'll be able to see both the dog section, the cat section, and we're just so excited about having room now for all our animals in town.

Thank you, Patty.

Um Animal Shelter, police department.

We can't mention them without mentioning the volunteers.

Um Director Messias and I go to lunch once a week, and he's he always raves about how much time the volunteers spend there and how much they care and how much they run him ragged to make sure he's doing what he's supposed to do.

And so we appreciate Joe and all he does and all the volunteers, and not only the animal shelter volunteers, but actually the police volunteers.

The police volunteers are so invaluable with the traffic control and bin inspections and all those little things that have to be done that we don't really think about that saves money and time that our officers can be out, you know, patrolling the streets and arresting criminals and doing all those fun kind of things.

And so we really appreciate those volunteers.

Um next, I'd like to talk about our public works.

And as you can see, public works is I don't know if they're the busiest department in the city, but this year I think they've definitely been the busiest department in the city.

Um Travis Anderson, another another Anderson.

We've got a lot of Andersons around here.

Um is our public works director and new fire station last year, new fire station this year.

Um improvements to our parks, our uh expensive bathrooms at our parks that we always like to talk about.

Um, all our street projects, new roads, old roads being repaired.

Um, you know, the the visitors probably had a good time driving down our you know, up and down boulevard, and hopefully soon that's a nice smooth road.

Um, but just uh new new traffic lights, new road by I mean, redoing the whole road by by the new fire station.

Just been so busy, and we really appreciate Travis and his crew and all they do.

Um Travis uh appointed a couple of new uh directors this year, and I'd like to uh to highlight them.

Um sometimes the uh public works people don't get all the love that they should get.

I mean, they're up there at four or five in the morning, sweating it out in the middle of the summer or freezing in the middle of the winter, and and we really appreciate them.

It's the behind the scenes people that really make our city work, and and and we you know, we don't always tell them, but I want to tell them that that we love and appreciate them.

Um I'd like to talk about a couple of guys that just got promoted.

One is Edward Curto, and he's the new streets and drainage manager.

He's worked for the city for 25 years, and he was promoted in 2020 as the streets and drainage supervisor, and then he was made the streets and drainage manager this year.

And uh I'm just gonna read what Travis Travis says about him.

Edward has been instrumental with our traffic signal system, he has obtained international municipal signal association certifications to all him to allow him to work on and maintain our traffic signal system.

He has also served as the public work safety committee chairman for numerous years.

Edward has demonstrated the willingness to take on every task that the City of Mesquite has placed before him while teaching and training those around him with each task.

And uh Yeah, we really appreciate Edward and all he does.

And our other one that we got for most is Kyle Casey.

We always everybody calls him Casey Burton and Casey's, if you know him, he's a fun guy.

Um, but he is the uh new fleet maintenance division manager, and he's worked for the city since 2017.

Um he was promoted to the fleet maintenance manager in 2026.

Um I'll read what Travis says about him.

Travis or during his time with the city of Musquite, Casey has been instrumental in developing plans to streamline the vehicle maintenance division.

He has obtained multiple automotive technicians certification, and it is said that he can fix anything.

Casey also has demonstrated a great desire to train and help those around.

Casey also has demonstrated a great desire to train and help those around him.

Um I haven't had Casey work on anything for me, but uh director Messias has had, and he's he's bragged about them, so so I know Travis is not just blowing smoke.

Casey really can fix anything.

So we appreciate those guys.

Um another one of our public works projects is our water hydration systems.

Um councilwoman fielding did a lot to make those happen, and we really appreciate that.

And now we're gonna hear a video from her about our hydration stations.

Hello, I'm councilwoman Karen Fielding.

I'm over here at the Rec Center, and I'd like to introduce you to a hydration station.

Back in 2019, I had this brainstorm that the city of Mesquite needed more hydration stations slash water refill centers.

So I contacted the Parks and Rec Division, and we were working on that, and then COVID hit, and that put a kabosh on that entire hydration station.

So a few years ago, I contacted well, the department heads of public works, parks and rec and the maintenance and admin at City Hall to get the hydration station up and running, the efforts in the committee, which we did right now.

I'm happy to say there are 19 hydration stations around the city of Mesquite.

Unlike this one right here, they have counters on them so we can keep track of how many water bottles we have reduced from the landfill in an effort to put these in parks and identify parks that needed hydration stations.

We put them up at the sports complex, and as of this morning, there were 4,287 water bottles filled, and the water bottles, plastic ones that were saved from the landfill.

This was a great effort on the City of Mesquite's part.

And the best thing I think about them is what we did was we added refrigeration to them.

So in the summer, when it's hot out and you come over here and have a drink of water or fill your water bottle, you don't get that 115 degrees water, you get chilled water, and it comes out of both.

So that's amazing.

So I think that that was kudos to our maintenance department and everybody who thought about that.

And the water is filtered as well.

So again, this is phase one.

There are 19 hydration stations around the city of Mesquite.

And that's only phase one.

We're gonna be working on phase two, and there's gonna be six more hydration stations around the city of Mesquite that we've identified.

So go ahead and watch out for those.

Thank you, Karen.

And I don't want to say it, but if those things had Diet Coke coming out of them, I would be stopping a lot more often.

Um I got out of order a little bit here.

Um, so I'm gonna go back and hopefully Frank can indulge me, and that won't be too much trouble.

Um, but I want to talk a little bit about our justice facility.

This also, you know, ties in with the police department as well, and of course, public works.

Um, we have our new justice facility.

But before I talk about that, I want to talk about our breaking the cycle program.

And uh Judge Ryan Toon, many of you know Judge Ryan Toon.

I and my wife say that when we grow up, we want to be Ryan and Kennethon.

Meanwhile, they're all our same age.

They've just grown up and we haven't, but you know, very impressive uh man is Ryan Toon, and we appreciate all he does.

And the Breaking the Cycle Program is an amazing program.

And uh it's been going 10 years now, and this Tuesday at three o'clock, if you want to attend, they're having their currently that you know this graduation, and they're gonna have two graduates.

Um this is their 40th and 34st graduates of this program, and they currently have 13 people in the program.

Um these graduations, and these are people usually drug and alcohol abuse that they're in the system, and part of their way to get out of the system is this program that Judge Toon and his staff have put together.

And they're helping these people get their lives back together.

It's not just, you know, show up at court and that thing.

They actually make an effort to help them and help them through the process.

They're reuniting people with their families.

Um, they're getting people jobs, getting their lives back together.

So hopefully, and he says it's not 100%.

Um, but hopefully, we can get a lot of those people on the right path to where their lives go in a different direction from from the point where they go through this process and graduate, and can be a turning point in their lives.

And for quite a few of them so far, it has been.

It's been very successful.

And so we appreciate uh Judge Toon and all he does and all of the Justice Department and all those, you know.

Um, Ryan Wade, our uh attorney over there, and all those uh Michelle Reverend, all those people that work on that end of the law.

Um so we are grateful for them.

Um we have another video about our new justice facility edition, and uh councilman Kevin Parrish is gonna do that.

He's gonna talk about the justice facility.

We also have a new evidence building, and those are pretty much operational, and so we're excited to hear about that.

Hi, I'm councilman Kevin Parrish.

I'm going to be talking to you today about the renovations and additions at the new Mesquite Justice Facility.

The original justice facility was built in 1993 with approximately 13,000 square feet.

At that time, it housed the police department, the jail and detention center, justice court, and evidence storage.

In 2003, a 1500 square foot addition was added on to the court side of the building.

It included a new lobby, restrooms, clerk's office, storage, and new judges and constables' offices.

After 20 years, it was determined that the size of the justice facility could not keep up with the demands that was going on in the building.

A new addition was planned and started in 2025.

This project is being done at no cost to mesquite citizens.

It was done with design and engineering, it was done with COVID money, and the actual construction is being completed with redevelopment money.

The renovation and new construction consists of the following addition and renovations to the justice court area, renovations of 385 square feet, a new addition of another thousand square feet, including in that addition is a new jury deliberation room.

That is due to a Nevada state law, which is required at all justice courts to have a 12-person jury deliberation room.

Renovations to the old evidence storage area.

Once the police were moved up to the new headquarters on Hardy Way, their offices were converted into evidence storage.

Now that we have a new evidence storage building, we are converting them back to office spaces.

The renovation area is approximately 1,800 square feet.

Renovations to the new jail area, 981 square feet with an addition of 2400 square feet.

Renovations include a new camera system, new entry card access system, new flooring, and a new fire sprinkler system.

The new addition includes a new salary port area, new jail cells, new safe cell, new kitchen area, new shower area, new food storage area, new laundry area, and a new staff restroom.

Also included was asphalt paving, access gates, power, water, and sewer lines.

The inmate population is now increased from approximately 39 up to 47.

Construction started on this project in February 3rd of 2025.

It is anticipated that the project will be 100% complete by the end of this March.

I am now standing in front of the new evidence building.

What was here in the past was a small building that was used for the canine unit and their animals.

This new state of the art evidence building consists of 3,650 square feet.

It includes evidence processing area, offices, restroom, and evidence storage.

Included in that evidence storage is modern storage techniques such as reefers for storing bodily fluids and other perishable items.

Highly secure area for storing seized drugs, weapons, and ammunition.

The evidence building is 100% complete, and the officers are already using it for evidence storage.

So that we can keep the mesquite citizens informed.

Thank you, Kevin.

And I don't know why you had to bring up bodily fluids, but whatever.

So we'll just move on past that.

Now I'm gonna kind of switch directions a little bit and go on more instead of talking about city government, talking a little bit a little bit about what's going on in our community.

And the first thing I'm gonna talk about is our veterans.

We have nearly 4,000 veterans in our city.

I'm not sure if anybody knows the exact number, but we we uh almost 4,000, which out of a town of 25,000 is a really high percentage, and we are so grateful that we have them here.

And also a lot of retired first responders, and uh we're very blessed to have them here in our city, and they deserve the best care, the best of everything that they can get.

And councilman Bill Innis is the guy that's making that happen.

He, in the short time that he's been on council, he hasn't been on, he got on a little late, but he's just made amazing strides with our veterans and getting veterans' care and services and had multiple uh round tables and symposiums and whatever names you want to call these get togethers.

Um, but he's really gung-ho and doing an amazing job on it, and we really appreciate Bill.

And now he's gonna tell us a little bit about it.

Good morning, everyone.

This is Councilman Bill Ennis, and I've been a council member for approximately a year now.

And I just wanted to give you all a little bit of an update of what my passion is, and that is the veterans of mesquite.

So, since I've been on the city council and uh then president of the veteran center for about a year also, I have um we have brought into the into mesquite here, as you can see behind me, the VA's mobile clinic band where we have a doctor and a nurse, and they will see veterans who need to be taken care of, and so we didn't have to go to either Vegas or St.

George.

What I've also done is I have uh brought in a veterans clinic, which we are going to be opening up at the end of March, where they I will have a provider and a nurse coming down once a week to see veterans.

The great thing about this is that they also make house calls, and so for our veterans here mesquite that are homebound.

Um, these folks will go to their house and uh take care of them there.

We also have something coming in April that's called telehealth, where I will have a uh system set up inside of our veteran center here where uh veterans can come in and talk to their providers from here instead of having to go into Vegas or St.

George, especially, and this is especially a benefit for those who cannot drive or again are homebound, and that is a quick update on what we are doing here as far as the veteran center goes and what I'm doing for the veterans of mesquite.

Thank you.

Um I've been to a few of the round tables and sat in on the you know discussions and I'll go to different events and people will ask me if I served.

And I thought about it, and you know, you kind of feel a little ashamed that you didn't do that you didn't serve when somebody asked you if you served.

And I I thought about it more and more, and I'm like, there's no shame and not in not serving.

There's just so much honor in having done so.

I I've been to a few of the round tables and sat in on the you know discussions and I'll go to different events and people will ask me if I served and I thought about it and you know you kind of feel a little shame that you didn't do that you didn't serve when somebody asks you if you served and I I thought about it more and more and I'm like there's no shame and not in not serving there's just so much honor in having done so for those that have we appreciate you and now to business literally so we're gonna talk a little bit about our the economy and some of the things that are going on within mesquite um I'm gonna start talking about our casinos and our casinos are really putting a lot back into our community in the last year or two and we really appreciate that and all they've done and uh so mesquite entertainment which is owns the Casablanca and the Virgin River um they're getting ready to redo the outside of the Casablanca so they're gonna do a complete redo on the exterior of the Casablanca it's the first thing you see into town they're gonna update it modernize it make it look a lot prettier and a lot more appealing so we're excited about that they're also I don't if you've been here a little while you remember when they had the lagoon and everything out front running with all the waterfalls they're gonna be getting that back up and running and a wedding venue and a park there that's open to the public and so and they brought a couple of new restaurants to town so I'm gonna name you a couple of um Einstein bagels jersey joe's Rita's fajitas payway fresh brothers pizza shackspick chicken crafted burgers peruse burgers and brews and they've also remodeled Catherine's and at the Burger King uh the burger at the Virgin River they've added the Burger King and 88 seats and redone their their coffee shop there as well plus they've put in the new Sky Bar and the new um sports book at the Virgin River it's beautiful um went over to the Grand Open at that got to meet Ty Dentmer um it if you looked at Ty Dentmer I don't if any of you know Ty Detmer he was a Heisman winning quarterback for BYU and if you looked at Ty Detmer and I now you would think I was the college quarterback and I couldn't do half the things that he ever did as an athlete it was an amazing athlete and I you know looked good coming off the bus I guess but you know that was about it so um but it was kind of fun to meet him it's kind of fun you know to be the mayor and be able to do those kind of fun things um I can't imagine the amazing people you've met mayor um but the also the Eureka so eureka has done some new things um they've remodeled Gregory's they've done some other remodels oh back to the casa they are remodeling all of the rooms they've done 150 so far and they're gonna redo them all they should be done by the fall so that's gonna be a great addition to that casino into our town in general um but the Eureka the Eureka's done remodeled Gregory's they're they've got plans for some new additions and other things um they wouldn't tell me all what exactly they were but that they're there's they're working on things um and we they've also had a lot of entertainment along with the Casablanca we're getting a lot more entertainment in town a lot more light bands cover bands um real bands my bands you know those 80s hair metals so we had great white warrants coming slaughters coming so I'm excited um so I'm just at that perfect age for that stuff so um also the holiday inn which had been closed for basically since COVID is reopened um it was the rising star now it's been rebranded as the holiday in they've redone the complete exterior they're getting ready or not getting ready they've already started on the water park the lazy river the slides it's all lined up they're starting to dig holes in the ground and get ready to roll on that um they are gonna be hosting a rodeo here coming up the battle on the border um we haven't had a rodeo in town for a long time used to be a staple and so they're bringing that back um they also have some basketball tournaments and volleyball tournaments that are coming up here soon in the uh the barn there and so we're getting a little indoor sports as long with along with all our outdoor sports which you all know about um we also the old holiday in got rebranded as a Hampton Inn and uh the new Spring Hill Suites is underway they're getting the underground piping ready for that I think he told me that they were going to start pouring concrete within the next couple weeks so that's exciting and then for those that live up in Sun City the Adobe Mesa Plaza up there is undergoing they actually got walls up so that's really coming along we're excited about that and I would also like to thank on behalf of our youth of our valley our our casino partners um the Casablanca and the Eureka are so generous with our youth and I would like to give them a thank you um this Jamie Taylor from Mesquite Entertainment another one of my inside information things and I know this was out on Facebook so it's not really that inside but but they have they provided a new uh kids' room at the police department so there's a little tv they have movies games toys all kinds of things and so those kids that are

Um, this Jamie Taylor from Mesquite Entertainment.

Um another one of my information inside information things, and I know this was out on Facebook, so it's not really that inside, but but they have they provided a new uh kids' room at the police department.

So there's a little TV, they have movies, games, toys, all kinds of things.

And so those kids that are going through one of the worst days of their lives, um, have something to brighten brighten that day a little bit, and you know, it's it kind of hits home because I get to hear those stories of you know, and they're sometimes a little heartbreaking, and um, but that those kids is that that tough time is made a little bit better better by not only our mesquite beatty, but the generosity of the Casablanca, and um, and also at the high school, the Eureka has added a culinary department, which you know, they funded the majority of that.

So the high school has amazing culinary department.

I went up and had lunch there the other day provided by the kids, and it was it was good.

I mean, it's really good.

Lasagna, I love lasagna.

It was it was good, it was solid.

Um wasn't as good as my lasagna, but you know, that's the one thing I can actually cook half decent.

But yeah, so I can follow my mom, my mom here behind my wife.

She uh she taught me to read the recipe.

Um, and so she's an amazing cook and has the best cookies.

So if you ever want a good cookie, call my mom.

Um, she makes the best gingerbread cookies you've ever tasted, but she refuses to make them anytime other than Christmas.

And I refuse to not eat as many as possible throughout Christmas because I know it's gonna be another year before I get them.

Yeah, I digress.

But anyway, um, thank you to the Eureka for all they do and the Casablanca as well.

And speaking of our youth, I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about kind of what's going on at a couple of our schools.

Um our schools are amazing and they're doing great things.

Um I talked to the principals and they gave me like a laundry list of accomplishments.

Our high school has improved their graduation rate, it's up in the mid to high 90s now.

And a big part of that was not that it was ever bad, it was this kids would move, and they would not tell anybody, and their parents would not tell anybody, and the district would not allow them to take them off the rolls until they verified that kid.

And so Mr.

Waite had his staff go through and try and reach out to all those kids and try and use whatever numbers they had and try and get them.

And with other efforts, of course, and with that effort, we found out you know, and got the graduation up into the high 90s, mid to high 90s.

He when I talked to him, he didn't know the exact percentage off the top of his head, but he said it was right around the mid-90s.

Um we've also been named a four-star school.

Our ACT scores are up.

Um, this year we won six of 11 so far this year.

We've done six of 11 academic state championships, and also all our sports teams have been at gone to state, um, been at the top of their league in every sport basically.

Um, they're doing amazing there.

Um, last year, our boys' volleyball team, which had been in existence.

This was their second year in existence won the state championship.

Um, we've got a bowling team this year, which I wish they had a bowling team when I was in school.

That sounds really fun.

We go bowling about every three years, and I think that was the best time ever.

And then three years later, I go bowling again.

I don't know why we don't do it more often.

Um they also hosted the special Olympics this year, which they do every year.

And if you've ever seen it or seen videos of it, they get the band out there, the bands playing for them, and they make a big deal of it.

It's really fun.

Um, we also are proud to announce that we had a national merit scholar, Cara Morris, and she scored a 35 on her ACT and is getting a full ride to Southern Utah University.

Um, we had one other student get a perfect score on her ACT, but I'm not gonna talk about her because I don't want to brag.

So uh our school, sorry, mayor, but our school might be the best school in the district.

Um they are good at everything.

The drama program has done really well.

They made it to the state uh state competition, which is happening this weekend.

Our band program does really well, our academics are great.

Um our participation, attendance.

I mean, if you don't know, go find out because our school is is amazing, and and we are so proud of those kids.

Also at the middle school, they are doing really well.

That their bot robotics team has been in existence a few years, and they just keep getting better and better, and they qualified a couple of teams for the I guess it's the district competition.

The girls' flag football team won the championship in division one, which is the big school division in the district.

Um, and our boys' basketball team, and this might not mean anything to you unless you've watched middle school basketball in the Clark County School District.

And if you have, this is gonna mean something to you because they finish second.

And these kids, I mean, I coached at middle school for six years with the girls, and our boys a lot of years were lucky not to get beat by 90, and and to come and finish second.

I mean, there's they got a bunch of kids on these teams that are bigger than me and way more athletic, and they are just amazing basketball players.

And for our our little school to go in there and battle those big schools and do that well in the basketball division is amazing.

Um so we've had a lot of talk in the city about bikes and bike safety.

Um, the district came out and did an assembly for the kids at the middle school and bike, handed out 85 helmets, and they're you know, the principal did admit some of those kids put took the helmets home on their handlebars and some wore them, but you know, they're they're working on it.

Um, and one of the fun things that he was telling me about is the teachers are doing a walking challenge, and so far the teachers and staff have walked seven million steps, and so you know, it's fun that the teachers are getting in on on you know the fun of the school, and so the middle school is doing really well.

Um, I have a daughter in the middle school, she seems to like it, you know, she won't tell me a whole lot.

Um, I asked her if she was coming tonight, and she's like, Well, how long is it gonna be?

Do I have to?

Can I watch it on TV later?

Um, and I think she decided she wasn't coming, so I don't see her.

So I don't blame her.

I mean, who wants to come listen to dad?

Um, but it's just we have a great community, and it just blows my mind how much is going on.

Um George Galt, many of you know George, he came to me a few months back and said, you know, I want to work on this grant, and it's from Travel Nevada, it's a million dollars, two cities get it, and then they'll they'll split the million dollars.

And so we started working on that and uh brought in you know a few other people, well, a lot of other people actually, um, and created a committee.

Um Simon, I can't say enough good things about Simon.

Um Simon's there in the back, he's our development services director, and I haven't had him tested.

I probably should have Simon tested, but I I think he might be Mensa, I think you know, he's a borderline genius.

Um I can tell you writes a good grant because we got that grant, no problem.

Um, and so we appreciate all he does.

Um but part of our problem in our city that that we've had and that I get a lot of complaints on, is I don't know what's going on in Mesquite.

And that was one of my complaints, and one of the reasons I ran for office is because I I think our city is pretty amazing, but I didn't always know what was going on, and and I decided it was time for me to figure out what the heck was going on, and part of my goal, and thank the Lord for people like George and Simon, because I would be lost in trying to accomplish this goal.

But part of the goal is to let people in mesquite knowing through marketing and other you know, internet and social media and all that kind of fun stuff of what's going on mesquite.

And so these grants that Simon and George and the committee have been working on are gonna go a long ways to making that happen and making our city a more cohesive and more attractive place to to come and vacation and play, and for us to stay and play the live here, and we are so grateful for all those.

We had a meeting, a community meeting the other day over at the Virgin River.

Many of you were there.

I I saw Rick there and saw quite a few others of you there, and uh there was 250 people there at the tent, basically almost filled the tent at the Virgin River, and you know, for a town of our size to get 250 people out and come you know, participate in you know something that's gonna be great for our community, and everybody was on board and excited, and you know, some people had complaints of they wanted to see this happen better and that happened better, but just the community engagement's been amazing, and I so appreciate it.

And everybody was on board and excited, and you know, some people had complaints of they wanted to see this happen better and that happened better, but just the community engagement's been amazing, and I so appreciate it.

Um I'm looking forward to to the fruits that all these things bear out.

Umskite days is coming up, community event, and I didn't talk about Randy earlier.

Randy Lobb is another one of those old, old new faces, or old face in a new position.

And Randy's our new director of leisure services and the parks department, and he's doing an amazing job.

And we appreciate him.

He's got projects himself going on, they're redoing the pool, replastering it, making it all brand new and tearing out all of the old landscaping and redoing a bunch of that stuff.

And so Randy's been doing a great job this year, and we really appreciate him.

And mesquite days, I'm assuming it's probably a large pain in the neck to put on an event of that size.

But he did a great job last year, and he's gonna do a great job this year, and we appreciate him.

Along with, you know, he's got to do 4th of July, him and his crew, and his crew's amazing.

Um, Nicole and Haido and Lonnie and the rest of them, they're they're all amazing.

They work hard and they they make the fun things happen.

Um, they get yelled at a little bit too, but but we love him.

Um the community theater.

Um, I don't know how many plays I've been at the community theater, but my kids are in theater, so it's been a lot.

And they just keep getting better and better.

This last play they put on murder murder on the Warrior Express.

They had record crowds.

They had a couple of sellouts, um, which I've been to a lot of plays when there was like 40, 50 people there.

So to have that place packed, it was so so fun and exciting, and they just continue to improve.

They're bringing in more events and more entertainment.

We have so much entertainment in the city, and I'm not gonna get into competition with Mayor Berkeley because I would lose by a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long way.

Because nobody's gonna compare to Vegas in entertainment.

But for us, we are really stepping up our game, not only with our casino partners, but also our local um nonprofits and you know, the community theater and all those things.

Also, the art commission is doing great things.

I get to go to the art uh center every month and do a mayor's pick, and some amazing artists.

If you get a chance to drop by there and check it out.

Um, my mom is an amazing artist.

My wife, though she wouldn't want me to tell you is an amazing artist.

I I would like to talk them into putting things in the show, but I haven't been able to yet, but I'm working on it.

Um I I'm gonna digress again because I I can.

It's my it's my night.

Um my mom, a little while back, had these paintings, and she's like, I'm gonna throw these out.

Do you want them?

And I'm like, what the hell are you talking about, mom?

I'm like, these are amazing.

And so now they're all hanging in my den, um, which is my kids' den, but it was supposed to intend it to be my my den.

But I mean, amazing work.

Um, and so we I appreciate her and all she does.

And uh so anyway, um so senior mesquites coming up, the mesquite toes pageant, um, all these fun community events.

I when we went to my first ever Mesquitoes pageant last year, and I didn't really know what to expect, and it was really fun.

And for those of you who don't know what Mosquitoes is, it's older women, they do dancing, and they poked fun at themselves, they had a great time with it.

It was so fun.

Um, and so we really appreciate those groups and all they do.

Um also the women's history center, uh Gene Watkins running that.

She always invites me to everything, and and they're doing amazing work with uh the things they've added.

They they added the new monument this year, and they're adding some new attractions in their rooms there over at the Mesquite campus.

Um back to George.

So the Steam Center, I don't know how many of you have had a chance to go to the Steam Center.

Um, I I know Senator Rosen's people were able to stop by there.

It's quite amazing um what they've done over at the Steam Center.

If you get a chance, go check it out.

They have a lot of activities for the kids.

And so not only they learn a lot about science and math and technology, and they have drone competitions, but in the last couple of months, they've had the lieutenant governors been there and met and met with the kids, and these kids get to meet the lieutenant governor.

Uh, Congressman Horsford's been there and met with the kids.

And so not only do they get to learn stuff, they get to meet these big important people.

And just, I mean, I never met a senator or congressman or lieutenant governor or mayor, even um, other than the mayor of Mesquite, you know, until I was well now, you know.

I mean, so right.

Yeah.

Um, so it's great the work work George and his crew are doing over there.

Um, also, we're really excited about Austin Wetzel.

Um, he uh is a new head of the chamber of commerce.

He looks like he's about 12 and is way too good looking for his own good, but he seems to be a really good guy, and we like him.

He's doing great work so far.

Um the Elks Club, that they they uh did a big nice addition onto their building, and they do amazing charity work throughout the community.

We appreciate them.

Um Mayor Berkeley told me this better be the most amazing speech she's ever heard.

And I don't think it's gonna be the most amazing speech she ever heard, but I will try and make sure it's not the longest speech she ever heard.

So I'm gonna I'm about to the end, so we're gonna wrap it up.

Um, and I'm gonna wrap it up with the thank yous.

Um and if this talk tonight has kind of seemed like a love letter to Mesquite, that's what it was meant to be.

Because this is a great community, and we are so lucky to live here and have so many people that are willing to volunteer and spend their time and be engaged, and some of them yell at us, which is hard, but they're engaged and they care and they're passionate, which you have to appreciate, and we love all of them for it.

Um, but first of all, I want to thank Nancy.

Could you give it a good so Nancy is very organized and very on top of things, and I am very not that.

And so I she is very sweet about not acting frustrated with me, which I really appreciate, because I I don't know how she could not be, but I really appreciate Nancy and all she does.

Um I kind of talked about Simon already, but I want to once again thank Simon and all he's done with the grants.

Um I don't know how much Simon gets paid.

I haven't looked that up.

I mean, it's public knowledge, right?

We could look it up, but I haven't.

But he's brought in way more money than we've paid him, and we really appreciate that.

And uh I also Adam, I think Adam must have taken off.

But once again, thank you to Adam.

He really stepped in when we needed him, and we really appreciate him.

Um, also I want to thank Officer Brown and uh and also um Officer Magden, and he's not here, he went off and retired on us, and which we're you know, once again jealous of.

But uh they come to City Council and they get to hear everything, but they're here just in case, and I've only had them step up to corral somebody a couple of times.

Um, but we really appreciate them and their willingness to be here and and have our backs if we need it.

We really appreciate that.

Um, once again, George and uh Amy, everybody on the steering committee for the grant process.

Um I can't say enough about how engaged people in this community are.

Um I don't want to be repetitive, but it's just amazing.

And it's really makes our city a great place.

Um I want to thank my wife.

She's yeah, the first lady.

Um we we went on a tour um oh a few months back of the F1 paddock and and stuff, and Mayor Goines Brown and her husband were there, and we loved that guy.

And I I've so bad I can't think of his name, his first name after Mr.

Goines Brown.

Um he was just I'm the first gentleman, and he was amazing and so much fun and so proud of his wife.

And even though I'm the mayor and she's the first lady, I'm just as proud of my wife as he is a part of his wife, and I appreciate her and everything she does.

And and my girls and my oldest daughter, Jaley, she lives up northern Utah and is a school teacher, and she calls me every once in a while and she's like, Do you want me to go beat that person up that said something bad about you online or whatever?

And I'm like, No, it's okay.

We'll let it, we'll let it go.

You don't need to get in trouble.

Um, but the other girls, they're amazing.

I really appreciate all of them.

Um also once again, our city council.

I want to thank them for coming and partaking and doing their part in this to make it a little easier on me and taking up a little bit of my time.

Um as well, once again, Mayor Berkeley, Councilwoman Rooney, um, Jerry.

I I I met them, you know, an hour ago.

So Candace and Christian, I'm so sorry.

Um, but thank you all for coming and everybody else that came, not only from our community, but anybody else that came from out of town, um, our law enforcement officers that got these guys down here safe and get them home safe.

Thank you all.

Uh, but most of all, all those citizens of Mesquite that do so much to make our city a great place and make us successful and make me look good, because it would be really hard if there wasn't so much help.

Um, but thank you, and I appreciate you coming and have a good night.