Auburn mayor outlines $6 million resurfacing plan, parks and library branch in State of the City address

Mayor Ron Anders delivered Auburn's 2025 State of the City address at the Jay and Susie Gooch Performing Arts Center, highlighting recent investments in public safety, parks and recreation, and transportation and restating the city's fiscal priorities.

"In '26, we're putting $6,000,000 into our annual resurfacing plan," Anders said, describing the increased funding as the second consecutive year the city has boosted resurfacing allocations. He also said the council approved the fiscal year 2026'27 budget last month and called it the tool for the next two years of projects and service delivery.

The mayor described upgrades at the regional public-safety training center, including a new burn building and a search-and-rescue maze simulator that regional departments are already using. Fire Chief Matt Cain, who spoke during the program, said the department's move to Advanced Life Support expanded on-scene care. "What that allowed was we're able to bring in cardiac monitors and we can provide IV therapy, give you fluids, give you medications," Cain said, adding that those capabilities "essentially bring the ER out of the hospital and into your living room."

Several parks and recreation projects were singled out. Anders said Ann Pearson Park, a nearly 50'acre site on Shelton Mill Road, opened this year with 2.5 miles of trails, a playground, a pavilion and restrooms. Work on the Lake Wilmore Recreation Center was completed earlier this year with indoor and outdoor athletic facilities and a heated, covered pool; the mayor said the city is finishing four additional turf fields and six covered pickleball courts, bringing Auburn's total to 24 pickleball courts.

The mayor announced a multi'phase Richland Park project at Richland Road and Will Bickner Parkway; phase one will add baseball and softball fields and trails on a roughly 125'acre site. He also previewed the Boykin Community Center campus expansion—extending from Boykin Street to North Donahue Drive—to include Auburn's first library branch at a community center, the city's first splash pad, a cultural center, trails, green space and a reimagined recycling drop-off; Anders said those components are scheduled to open in late summer 2026.

On transportation, Anders outlined near'term intersection and turn'lane projects at North College Street and Drake Avenue and at North College Street and Shelton Mill Road, and said the city will begin widening North Donahue Drive from Shug Jordan Parkway to Saugahatchee Creek to a five'lane cross section in 2026. He said the city will also launch a high'tech, citywide street assessment next year to measure pavement conditions and direct resurfacing work, and a comprehensive traffic study to collect crash and congestion data and better coordinate signal timing.

Anders noted housing and economic development indicators: staff track more than 7,200 approved housing units "possible in the market today," the city approved about 800 housing permits this year, and the city recorded eight company expansions and two new installations with "more than 480,000,000" in investment and more than 200 new and retained jobs, figures the mayor presented without a detailed funding breakdown.

The mayor also recognized community volunteers he called "lamplighters," introducing five residents by name and summarizing their contributions to local history, youth programs, emergency medicine and student advocacy. "This is why Auburn's a great city," Anders said.

The address closed with a call for civic involvement and thanks to city staff and partners. The mayor reiterated that the council-approved FY 2026'27 budget will fund the near'term projects he described; vote totals or the motion text for the budget approval were not provided during the address.