Mayor highlights infrastructure, growth and new strategic plan in State of the City address

Mayor Aaron Easter delivered the City of West Lafayette’s State of the City address at the Feb. 3 council meeting, detailing 2024 achievements and introducing a strategic plan with four pillars: operational excellence, a culture of performance, housing capacity, and growth management.

Easter highlighted large investments and milestones, including an SK Hynix announcement and a record Purdue enrollment year. He said the River Road combined-sewer-overflow project cut that year’s CSO events to a single incident—the fewest since the wastewater treatment plant opened in 1959—and that the city began construction on a 2.6 million‑gallon wet-weather facility and lab expansion as part of the federally mandated long-term control plan.

The mayor summarized departmental accomplishments: streets and sanitation collected 8,701 tons of household refuse with a recycling rate of 33 percent; the fire department responded to 83 fires and nearly 2,045 emergency medical incidents; police calls for service rose by about 1 percent to 25,592; building permits were issued for nearly $90 million in new construction; and parks, IT, engineering and development departments completed or advanced major projects including the Sagamore Parkway Trail, planning for Soldiers’ Home Road and McCormick Road reconstructions, and public-safety center design.

Easter said the city issued roughly $2.8 million in federal grant support and that about $4.2 billion in major projects were announced with city staff involvement in 2024. He also previewed 2025 events and milestones including GlobalFest, the opening of Cason Family Park, and a planned groundbreaking for the Public Safety Center.

“Many of these accomplishments come from city staff,” Easter said, thanking employees and describing the new strategic plan’s focus on internal and external goals to manage growth while maintaining services.