Lexington Mayor gives her first State of the City Address

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Linda Gorton has only been in office for 17 days and today, she gave her first state of the merged government address.

In her speech, she focused on the progress Lexington has made and she shared her goals for the future.

One of the topics she focused on was opioid addiction.

Mayor Gorton says Lexington is only second to Louisville when it comes to the seriousness of this problem.

She has dedicated a staff member to research the issue and find the best ways to fight this.

“Lexington has won a 2 million dollar grant for overdose prevention to support first responders and community partners, expanding the availability of Naloxone, among other initiatives,” said Linda Gorton, Lexington Mayor.

Mayor Gorton also touched on public safety.

She says in 2018, Lexington’s violent crime rate went down 13%, assaults with guns went down 23%, and murders dropped 21%.

“As your mayor, all of these numbers are important to me, all of these people are important to me, which is why I support and hope to expand the work on ONE Lexington,” said Mayor Gorton.

Then Mayor Gorton explained that we will be on a tight budget for the next fiscal year, but she believes we still have opportunities to grow.

She says we need to invest in our community because that will attract new companies to come in and grow the economy.

Mayor Gorton says we are already taking steps to accomplish that with the 10 million dollar Fiber Optic Network, Metronet being installed downtown and in our suburbs.

She adds that we have a strong partnership with the University of Kentucky, which is also the city’s largest employer.

“In Lexington, we are not afraid of work and we don’t and won’t miss opportunities for our City,” said Mayor Gorton.