Longview mayor holds her first State of the City presentation

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - It was Mayor Kristen Ishihara's first presentation of the state of the City of Longview.

"It's such an exciting time to live in Longview looking at the progress that we have made," said Ishihara.

Ishihara showed off many projects done throughout the city.

Those include improvements to downtown Longview, bond project updates with a mention of the Longview ISD natatorium, and other quality of life improvements the city has seen.

"So if you think about driving around the city of Longview, do you notice less litter? I do. I think that has been born out by the individuals and groups that are adopting streets, adopting parks, and participating in Keep Longview Beautiful and Love Longview Day," said Ishihara when talking about the current litter index of the city.

Along with many positives, there were also issues that are currently being tackled by the city.

Budget constraints are the biggest challenge the city faces.

"There are a lot of things that become very hard and those hard conversations our team engaged in and worked through. But those are difficult things," said Ishihara.

Another difficult issue being discussed was the recent push for stronger animal ordinances to try and help lessen the stray animal population and ease the burden on the local shelters.

"So we discussed it at our last meeting and we will be voting on it tomorrow. It came up as a result of a very unfortunate incident here in Longview where a young man was killed and just figuring out the right response to that but we want to make sure the public knows it will not go ignored," said Ishihara.

The animal ordinances will be voted on, along with a discussion about the Longview ISD natatorium, at the city council meeting at 5:30 pm tomorrow.