On Thursday, November 30, the La Porte Economic Advancement Partnership (LEAP) helped put on the City of La Porte’s annual State of the City event at the Civic Auditorium. The event drew business leaders and community members, gathering to hear Mayor Tom Dermody report on the city's work.
“We absolutely look forward to this event every year,” said Bert Cook, Executive Director of LEAP. “It's a wonderful opportunity for our community to hear from the mayor himself give an update on all the good things that occurred in 2023 while forecasting and looking forward to 2024.”
A big takeaway from the event was that the community is fortunate to have so many leaders who want La Porte to succeed.
“I would say that the community is fortunate to have department heads and the leaders that we have in our community,” said Dermody. “They could go work elsewhere but have chosen to make La Porte the best place that can be. We have a great team, and we have partners that want to see Laporte succeed. We are working diligently every day to make that happen.”
The positive momentum of La Porte with a range of new developments turned Thursday’s event into a celebration. A celebration that has residents like Bill Nelson, an attorney at Brady Nelson and James, very excited.
“It's an exciting time to be a La Portian,” said Nelson. “It really is, I was born and raised here. I've never seen in my 58 years so many good positive momentum progressive thinking opportunities happen in this city. I think that the future of La Porte has never been brighter.”
Some of the highlights included a quiet zone designation to stop the train horns. The city also welcomed Surf Internet’s fiber internet demolished the old La Porte Hospital, and hosted its nationally televised annual high basketball showcase, the La Porte Invitational.
Dermody’s speech also provided department heads and community leaders with a culmination of the hard work that they did in 2023.
“It's really cool to see the Year in Review,” said Courtney Parthun, Clerk-Treasurer of La Porte. “You don't realize how much we've done and how much we've accomplished over the last year so it puts it into perspective and kind of sums it all up.”
It is a team effort to keep La Porte’s positive momentum going. With exciting times in LaPorte, it is hard not to look to the future.
“Stay tuned because there's always something good happening in La Porte,” said Dermody. “When we say La Porte is the place to be, we truly mean it so stay tuned.”
Thursday’s event could not have been pulled off without the support of LEAP, the Civic Auditorium staff, and the City of La Porte. Attendees left the building talking about all of the great achievements the city has had and how they wished for more.
“I would hope that every one of the individuals that leave tonight are excited about where the City of La Porte is going and are willing to take that excitement to their neighbors so that we can build that excitement,” said Cook. “We live in an amazing community. We get to do a job here that impacts so many different people and aspects of our community that we really want to share that message of excitement.”
To learn more about LEAP visit, https://laportepartnership.com/.