Nampa Mayor Debbie Kling spoke about the municipality’s completed and ongoing projects in her State of the City address Tuesday.
Kling talked about the city’s challenges, including congestion and housing affordability.
“Nampa is not a wealthy city,” she said while talking to attendees at the Nampa Civic Center. “We do not have the same kind of budget that Meridian and Boise does. I'll just be candid.”
The mayor gave an overview of the city’s 27 parks, including a new dog park opening in spring and the updates to the clubhouse at Centennial Golf Course. The mayor gave a roundup of updates from several projects: a wastewater treatment plant got a $200 million dollar upgrade, a new fire station was opened this year for the first time since 2007 and a new water tower is going to replace the existing smaller one.
She also mentioned the plans for the first reuse facility in the state of Idaho to recycle highly treated wastewater for use in a pressurized irrigation system and the construction of 252 new apartments on Karcher Road near Interstate 84.
“I know people don't like high density, but I want to say there are places for high density because we need to grow in and not grow out. We need to preserve our ag ground,” she said.
And of course, Kling confirmed the much awaited arrival of an In-N-Out Burger.
“We don't have an opening date, but you may be interested to know a lot of people were concerned about traffic,” she said, adding the fast food chain would be putting an additional entrance on Merchant Way to help with traffic flow.
