Sep. 8—The Stillwater Chamber of Commerce hosted the Mayoral State of the City event on Friday, in which Mayor Will Joyce presented his "Vision Forward" for the community and its projects.

Joyce's Vision Forward focused on the entire Stillwater community, the city government, public entities and private businesses that invest in Stillwater to push the vision of success forward.

"Through national economic instability — in fact the highest inflation rates in more than three decades or so — (and) a continued shortage of materials we've needed for community projects, we've continued to make progress nonetheless," Joyce said. "We're riding waves of positive momentum all over town — in city investments, private investments, community investment projects — it's been full speed ahead."

The first project Joyce discussed was Block 34 — a hot topic within the Stillwater community. Block 34 is a community gathering space in the downtown area that will feature a pavilion, amphitheater, lawn space and much more.

The space has now been fully funded and fully designed, and Joyce said that street and infrastructure concerns with drainage problems, parking and roadway repair will be addressed by the City soon. The bid process is underway and construction for the block is set for a completion date in the summer of 2025.

The city will also have a new hotel and conference center that will provide the community with a large meeting space. Fire station No. 2 — a proposition that was in the April 2022 ballot — will begin construction in the spring of 2024.

There are many transportation projects in the works as of now. These projects include the Husband Street bridge and the 3rd Avenue bridge, which Joyce has high hopes that construction will be completed soon. There will also be construction coming up around Block 34, 12th and Duncan, 7th Avenue and construction around the new conference center.

One of the more exciting projects that Joyce introduced is Rails to Trails, a project that will turn an unused railroad into a functional pathway to connect Stillwater from north to south using the Kameoka Trail.

"This is a huge win for cyclists, for pedestrians and for anybody in our community who chooses to use something other than a car for transportation," Joyce said.

Some of the bigger projects will be the redevelopment of the Stillwater High School, the development of the new women's health center and level 2 NICU at Stillwater Medical and the arrival of new medical equipment — a machine that can do live MRIs while treating cancer with radiation treatment. This machine will be the first in Oklahoma and one of the few in the nation.