CALDWELL, Idaho — Caldwell Mayor Jarom Wagoner gave his 2024 State of the City address on Wednesday. He used the opportunity to highlight community members who have made an impact, as well as touched on the continued growth Caldwell is seeing.
- Mayor Wagoner hopes that growth will bring new opportunities for Caldwell residents.
- The event took place in the recently completed Sky Ranch Business Park.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Caldwell Mayor Jarom Wagoner... holding his 2024 State of the City address featuring the 'Caldwell Police Honor Platoon Pipes and Drums' and awards for community members.
But, you can't talk about Caldwell without talking about growth.
"Idaho's been discovered, especially the Treasure Valley and Caldwell in particular and so a lot of people wanting to move here and balancing that with people that have frustrations with the traffic and other infrastructure issues trying to keep up," says Wagoner.
Mayor Wagoner hopes developing infrastructure and adding things like the planned new boutique hotel downtown will help the city thrive.
"That's gonna bring a lot of more people to Downtown and more cars which is great for the businesses down there that are already there. We want them to continue to thrive and to flourish and so we're looking at you know the challenges that that brings and how do we meet those," says Wagoner.
Lauren Wright, who has lived in Caldwell for nearly 10 years, understands some people's negative reactions to growth but is overall excited about the changes she's seen.
"knowing that jobs are local and they're coming in and just the city is making money to develop, it's really cool, so I totally support it and I love seeing it grow," says Wright.
Casey Taylor works for CapEd Credit Union, which recently opened a branch in Caldwell. He says he grew up here and has seen things change quite a bit since his high school days.
"When I grew up it was about one-third the size that it is now so it's great to see the industry that Caldwell is experiencing now, it's grown and you know it's quite extraordinary," says Taylor.
"We need to grow responsibly. You know we do have this influx of people wanting to come and be a part of Caldwell," says Wagoner.