Benton Harbor Mayor delivers State of the City address

BENTON HARBOR, Mich – City of Benton Harbor residents packed into the Benton Harbor Public library to hear Benton Harbor’s Mayor Marcus Muhammad deliver the State of the City address.

“We want what’s best for the city of Benton Harbor,” Mayor Marcus Muhammad said.

Speaking in front of a crowd of more than 100 people Mayor Muhammad spoke about hot topics in the city such as infrastructure, public safety and schools.

We recently had a bus that fell into a sinkhole and thanks to ABC57 it went all around the world,” Muhammad said.

The Mayor mentioned that the crumbling infrastructure that saw a school bus in a sinkhole and Paw Paw Avenue currently closed for repairs.

The damage is estimated to cost more than $100 million to repair, but Mayor Muhammad said the state of finances of the city are in good shape due to the budget being balanced and the city’s new income tax that brought in over $1 million dollars as of mid-March.  

During the address Mayor Muhammad also said a solid educational system has a future in Benton Harbor.

“The future of our educational system is secure,” Muhammad said.

Crime was also a top speaking point where the Mayor detailed falling crime statistics citing burglaries are down 25-percent, robberies dropped 22-percent and violent felonious assaults are down 16-percent.

Resident of the city of Benton Harbor gave positive feedback on the speech.

“We came from a long way, we’ve got a good Mayor moving the city forward and I remember when we didn’t have all of this going on and with businesses starting to come back in here we are working together and Benton Harbor is moving forward,” Benton Harbor resident Arskr Gulledge said.