Suffolk's State of the City highlights M&S successes

On April 23 at the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts, Suffolk Mayor Linda Johnson held her 2009 State of the City address, the final in the 2009 series for the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce. This was Mayor Johnson’s third State of the City address and her first as Suffolk’s directly elected mayor since Suffolk went to direct mayoral election last year.

Mayor Johnson’s address opened with video after which her remarks highlighted the city’s accomplishments over the last year and praised city staff and citizens with a theme of togetherness. Despite the current economic challenges, Suffolk has seen $164 million in capital investment and 756,000 square feet of new commercial and industrial space just over the last year.

Mayor Johnson highlighted the togetherness theme throughout her remarks under categories of Working Together, Playing Together, Learning Together, Celebrating Together, Growing Together, and Healing Together.

Some special highlights of her remarks included the M&S courses in their second year at Suffolk’s high schools and the M&S support specialist program in its first year as part of the Pruden Center’s FIRST academy. M&S companies Northrop Grumman, CAE USA, and Boeing all received special recognition as did VMASC for their investments in Suffolk. Port and logistics companies ProLogis and CenterPoint also received praise.

In closing, Mayor Johnson declared the state of the city to be strong. Read her full remarks here: http://www.suffolk.va.us/news/09StateoftheCity.pdf.pdf