Mayor Misty Buscher outlines public-safety gains, homelessness response and infrastructure investments at State of Greater Springfield

Mayor Misty Buscher, Springfield’s mayor, told a sold-out audience at the State of Greater Springfield event that public safety, homelessness response and infrastructure will remain top priorities for her administration.

Buscher said overall crime was “down 7% last year in the city” and stressed investment in training and technology. She described the city’s Real Time Information Center as a tool that helped police identify and arrest an individual allegedly responsible for a structure fire, calling the center “the closest thing I could get you to CSI.”

The mayor detailed emergency-response and public-safety capacity: the Springfield Fire Department logged about 27,600 calls for service and 16,500 EMS responses last year, and Buscher said cardiac-arrest survival in Springfield was 33% versus a 12% national average. “That is what your trained firefighters are doing for you,” she said.

Buscher also previewed the BEACON (Bridging Emergency and Community Outreach) project, a specialized mobile response unit she said will be deployed in late July. “When a 911 call comes in and someone’s having a mental health call or a drug crisis, that beacon will go with 2 EMTs, 2 firefighters on it, and a social worker,” she said, adding the team will spend whatever time is needed to connect people to services.

On utilities and infrastructure, Buscher said the city refinanced bonds to buy AMI smart meters so outages will be detected automatically, and that the city has invested $5,000,000 over two years to replace lead service lines in Wards 2 and 3. She said sewer work prompted by a federal EPA mandate is ahead of schedule, reporting “over 20,000 feet of North End sewers and 480 laterals” fixed so the city will avoid fines.

Buscher promoted economic development wins such as a new Amazon warehouse and a local crane-parts manufacturer, and said she supports the planned BOS Center expansion — a project she described as a roughly $200,000,000 downtown investment that will be built under a project-labor agreement. She urged residents to attend upcoming community open houses at public works, police, fire and the city’s water plant and promoted local events tied to the Route 66 centennial.

The mayor closed by reiterating a pledge to keep utilities affordable and to keep pursuing downtown investments and workforce and youth programs, including expanding summer internships and the Mayor’s Youth Council.

The program continued with a presentation by Sangamon County Board Chairman Andy Van Meter.