MAYOR: MOMENT PROVIDES OPPORTUNITY TO BUILD MIDLAND WE KNOW IS POSSIBLE 

(April 2, 2025)

MIDLAND, TEXAS -- Midland Mayor Lori Blong provided a recap about what the City of Midland has accomplished and a vision about where the City is headed Wednesday at the State of Midland luncheon, hosted by the Midland Chamber of Commerce, at the Bush Convention Center.

“That’s what this moment is about,” Mayor Blong told the biggest audience for a State of Midland event, “working together to honor where we’ve come from and working even harder to build the Midland we all know is possible.”

The mayor touched on the following topics -- “vibrant economy,” “beautiful/safe neighborhoods,” “exceptional recreational, cultural and educational opportunities,” “city events & experiences,” and “infrastructure investments.”

Blong reflected that six the seven members of the Midland City Council were “born and raised right here in Midland.”

“We grew up on these streets,” Blong said. “We went to school here. We played in the parks, shopped at the old mall, watched this city change — and now we get to help shape its future.”

She reminded the business-centric crowd that included oil industry, philanthropic and other community leaders that Midland ranks fifth in Gross Domestic Product in the entire state of Texas and that the city is rated among the best in the nation for best-performing small cities and most dynamic metropolitan areas.

She stated that Midland residents enjoy neighborhoods where crime is down by more than 10% and traffic crashes have dropped by more than 9%.

“We’ve seen a 21.7% drop in fatal crashes since 2021,” Blong said.

The City of Midland recently appointed Greg Snow to be the chief of the Midland Police Department. Blong also reminded those in attended that the Unfunded Liability of the Midland Firefighter Retirement and Relief Fund was solved with the help of a $54.5 million cash investment.

“We did it without issuing a Pension Obligation Bond—saving taxpayers over $60 million in interest and fees,” Blong said.

Those inside the Bush Center heard much about the recreational projects set in motion in the last 12 months including the $45 million Beal Park transformation, the $16 million Reyes-Mashburn-Nelms baseball complex that was recently opened in east Midland and the privately funded Midland Athletic Syndicate Diamondback Energy Athletic Complex being built on city-owned land at the Scharbauer Sports Complex.

“This council made the decision to increase our annual parks maintenance budget by $2 million, because we often say: if we have the horses, we need to feed them,” Blong noted.

2024 was the biggest year for city events, including the first Midland’s Merry Lights, a large-scale Christmas activation in Centennial Park and downtown, the first Chalk the Block and the largest Fly into Fall yet.

Lastly, the spotlight was put on infrastructure investments, including the $64 million-plus planned for roadways and infrastructure improvements. Thise “real, funded projects that improve safety, capacity and flow across our growing city” include the Mockingbird Lane extension, the Briarwood reconstruction and widening, the Fairgrounds Road extension to the north and the Occidental Parkway Extension.