Mayor Laurene Weste stopped by KHTS on Friday afternoon to discuss the accomplishments of Santa Clarita City Council in 2017, and the goals the elected body has for the upcoming year.

During the final Santa Clarita City Council meeting of the year, Laurene Weste was sworn into the Mayor’s office after serving a year as the Mayor Pro Tem.

“(The City Council) is all equal, and all five are equally responsible to every single citizen of the Santa Clarita Valley,” said Mayor Weste. “The Mayor’s job is just to really run the meetings, and our city is really run by our really professional, great guy, (City Manager) Ken Striplin.”

However, while City Manager Striplin does have much of the responsibilities regarding the general day-to-day management of Santa Clarita, the Council, and especially the Mayor, still function as the leaders that sanctions the large projects that benefit the community as a whole.

“We’re winding down our five year plan by 2020, which is getting a lot of wonderful and exciting things for our community,” said Mayor Weste. “Our whole goal, because we’re run so efficiently, is to maximize what we can do for the public.”

Weste began by discussing the timeline for the new Sheriff’s Station, which is city planners hope to have a architectural design plan finished for by the end of 2018.

“I would say that 2018 could be a banner year for the city, because we’re beginning the our 45,000 square foot new Sheriff’s station,” said Mayor West. “That’s a building bigger than an acre, and it’s a wonderful amenity to keeping our citizens safe.”

In addition to the new Sheriff’s Station, Mayor Weste discussed a number of other groundbreakings and construction projects happening in Santa Clarita in 2018.

“We’re also working on the siting for the Saugus Library, and its not really going to be a library as much as it is going to be a community meeting room with the arts focused on,” said Weste. “I think the community is going to appreciate having that accessibility up in Saugus.”

“Then we’re going to get a Senior Center and that facility is so state of the art and so futuristic because our seniors are a big part of our Valley,” continued Weste. “That’s not only going to be a great place for the seniors, but for the community to have intergenerational fun and events.”

In addition to the new library in Saugus, and the Senior Center located off of Golden Valley Rd, the city hopes to begin breaking ground on the new Canyon Country Community Center.

“This year, we’re probably going to groundbreak on the Center, and it’s going to be an eight acre facility at the corner of Soledad and Sierra,” said Weste. “It’s going to add so many amenities for the citizens.”

However, despite her expressed excitement for the new building projects, Weste said she’s largely looking forward to improvements in the arts.

“We’ve worked through the billion dollar deficit, and now we can focus on the arts,” said Weste. “(The Newhall School District) has completed the Newhall Family Theater, and it will be an amazing opportunity for our various arts groups to interface with everything they want to do.”

Among these things, Weste had also discussed open space, and trails which will be constructed and added to the already existing 80+ plus miles of pedestrian walkways circumventing the city.

To watch the entire “Year in Review” interview with Mayor Laurene Weste here

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