Central Falls Mayor Rivera delivers FY2025 Budget Address investing in quality of life and city’s future

CENTRAL FALLS, RI – Central Falls Mayor Rivera tonight proposed a $21,168,649 budget for Fiscal Year 2025 that addresses her Administration’s key priorities – supporting investments in quality of life and the city’s future.

“I’m presenting a proposed budget that I believe prioritizes two of the most important things our city can offer: investments in quality of life and our future,” said Mayor Rivera during her Budget Address. “Together with our Departments, we’ve developed a balanced FY2025 budget that ensures our funds are focused on what matters most to our community today and tomorrow, and is complemented by new federal, state, and outside grant dollars we’ve won that validate the great work happening here.”

Mayor Rivera’s FY2025 balanced budget focuses on building and supporting a city that truly works for its people. By focusing on the big progress and huge strides forward that change the dynamics of Central Falls – like work to significantly grow the housing stock and chart a new course for education in Central Falls – it also focuses on the small things that matter, too, like cleaner, safer streets and outdoor spaces, and making it easier to interact with city government, Mayor Rivera shared in her Address.

Highlights from Mayor Rivera’s FY2025 Budget Address include:

A New Chapter for Central Falls Schools

• Taking steps forward to improve education in Central Falls. Mayor Rivera raised nearly half a million dollars to launch a new office in the city – the Office of Education Strategy – to do an in-depth analysis of Central Falls Schools and support its next steps. The Education Strategy team has listened to hundreds of families, students, teachers, and community members across the city about what’s needed in its schools, what’s working, and what’s not. An event is being held on Saturday, June 8 at 11:00am in Veterans Memorial Park to hear about what’s been learned from this work, new data, and highlight the next steps forward.
   
• Celebrating progress on a historic new high school. Central Falls just broke ground on its new $108 million high school, a huge step forward for the city’s future, and the culmination of incredibly hard work between our city and school district, state leaders, and organizations that believe in Central Falls.

More Affordable Homes and Improved Spaces for Residents

• Building and developing more affordable homes. Mayor Rivera made a bold commitment to bring in 200 new housing units to Central Falls during her first term as mayor. From the new Broad Street Homes project breaking ground in the coming weeks with 44 new affordable units, to the recent completion of the new Washington and Hood Street single-family homes, to the new Jenks Park Residences with 30 stable, affordable units for at-risk women and children, to many more properties underway across Central Falls, the city is on track to meet this bold housing goal.
   
• More lead-safe homes citywide. The city has continued to invest in its widely-recognized lead-safe efforts that help make homes safer in Central Falls, combating dangerous child lead poisoning. As a result of these efforts, since Mayor Rivera was sworn in, Central Falls has brought nearly 1,000 housing units into compliance – nearly 20 percent of all housing units in the city.
   
• Continued upgrades to outdoor spaces. Following the recent opening of the new Pierce Park with a baseball field and basketball court, big upgrades are currently underway for Jenks Park – an iconic place in the heart of Central Falls – from a new, expanded playground, to new café tables and seating for families, to significant landscaping improvements, new sidewalks, and more, Phase One work wraps up next month. The city is also celebrating the opening of new Tennis Courts at Sacred Heart and Phillips Street Diversity Garden very soon, and momentum around continued upgrades to the city’s outdoor spaces.
   
• Outdoor spaces helping the environment. Pierce Park renovations included elements to support stormwater runoff, and the city applied for and won funding to bring new improvements to Dexter Plaza and the nearby area that will not only make it more enjoyable – like new plans to allow food trucks – but also help with stormwater runoff and control. Thanks to FEMA funding, Central Falls is now working closely with Pawtucket on a joint Hazard Mitigation Plan – including tackling the effects of climate change and recent flooding – and will be sharing proposed initiatives for consideration by the community and the Council in the coming months.

Prioritizing Safety Citywide

• New cameras in all city parks. The FY2025 budget invests in over a dozen cameras for all of the city’s parks – being installed by the end of this year – in response to safety concerns raised by residents. This will be an important tool to keep these beautiful spaces clean, accessible, and most importantly, safe.
   
• New police bike patrol investment. This budget expands the city’s award-winning community policing efforts. After state funding dried up for the Police Department’s summer bike patrols several years ago, this proposed budget creates a stable and consistent city-controlled funding source to bring back this important public safety initiative. Starting at the end of this school year, residents will see approachable, community-centered police officers out on bikes and on new walking beats in high-volume areas.
   
• Continued safety resources and investments. From celebrating a new state-of-the-art fire engine secured for the Fire Department this spring, thanks to American Rescue Plan Act dollars invested by our city and a grant from the USDA, to continuing to invest in the important work of Mayor Rivera’s Domestic Violence Task Force that’s launching more education and prevention efforts citywide, this budget prioritizes a safer community.

Investments with Impact

• Additional traffic calming measures. This budget invests in new removable speed bumps in high-need areas to slow dangerous speeding. With community input that will give residents a chance to request a traffic evaluation of a specific location, city officials will utilize this feedback and prioritize the areas where these are most needed.
   
• Addressing overdue sidewalk repairs. For too long, there’s been deferred maintenance around the city, and it’s time to catch back up. One of the ways to do that is through sidewalk improvements. With so many pedestrians year-round, the city will be ramping up a concerted effort this summer to fix its worst sidewalks.
   
• Investments that keep operations running smoothly. Beyond sidewalks, Mayor Rivera’s Administration is making investments that keep the city running smoothly, like new a dump truck for the Department of Public Works that will help keep parks cleaner, make it easier to expand debris cleanup efforts around the city, and improve its snow-removal operation come wintertime.
   
• Easier online payment system. The city currently has an antiquated system that requires residents to only use cash or checks for important services, like accessing vital records or obtaining licenses. This budget brings the city government into the 21st century and give residents the ability to pay online, piloting the start of a new payment system in the Clerk’s Office. If successful, the city will be looking to expand this accessibility later this year to places like the Department of Public Works and Housing Court, too.

A City That Works for Its City

• Boosting the impact of City Hall’s extended hours. With City Hall open for extended hours each month, Mayor Rivera’s team is using this time to bring in additional resources that help residents. From free immigration and other legal services, to utility bill assistance, and even free health resources, this budget continues this momentum. Further, more resources and support from other city departments will be added to extended hours, like a job resource booth for residents who can’t meet with the Human Resource department during the day.
   
• Bolstering Constituent Services. This budget invests in an additional part-time staff member to help elevate this Department’s work and impact, bolstering Constituent Services and the ways the city responds to what its residents need. In the absence of a Senior Center, the Office of Constituent Services and Health will start hosting healthy living programs that will help older residents stay active and thrive in their everyday lives. Programs will include wellness workshops, fitness classes, healthy cooking demonstrations, and more opportunities for socializing.
   
• Continued progress for El Centro. The bedrock of Mayor Rivera’s resident-focused work is her dream of El Centro. Having already raised more than $7.5 million in outside dollars to fund this project, and with construction starting later this year, this one-stop community center is going to be a game-changer for the city. El Centro will elevate the work of the Office of Constituent Services and Health by bringing them to a central location, alongside resource organizations that will respond to the needs of residents in real time, complemented by other amenities, from a community space and gymnasium to a food pantry.

Better for Businesses

• Strengthening the business community. Mayor Rivera and her team have been working to build a city that’s more attractive for entrepreneurs to choose Central Falls as a place to open a new business, or re-locate their current one – bringing in more jobs for residents. After launching a new position – the first-ever Bilingual Workforce and Small Business Coordinator – the city has hosted many workshops, job fairs, and small business-focused events that focus on helping Central Falls be a better city for businesses. This work is continuing in the months ahead.

Community at Center

• Community events and opportunities for every resident. So many of Central Falls’ popular and beloved community events will continue, along with new events throughout the year – from Restaurant Week, to Salsa Nights, to summer programs, to the 4^th of July celebration, movie nights, Food Truck Fest, Car Show, Easter in the Park, Halloween celebration, a new bike tour initiative coming in a few months, and so many more events that build a sense of community. These events are possible – and free for all – because Mayor Rivera’s team has been hyper-focused on raising outside funds through grants and sponsorships. Just last year, the city brought in more than $115,000 for these events. And, throughout the mayor’s first term, by a focused effort to apply and advocate for outside grants, sponsorships, state, and federal funds, the city has brought in more than $166 million to invest in its work, like new school buildings and education, El Centro, funds for first responders, new community events, and so much more.

Mayor Rivera’s proposed FY2025 budget is subject to approval by the City Council. Her budget speech and proposed FY2025 budget are available on the city’s website (www.centralfallsri.gov).