Mayor Aliza Bloch Writes a Personal Letter to Local Residents

Dear Fellow Residents,

I first want to share with you the great sense of gratitude that I feel every morning for being given the great privilege of being a partner with such a diverse and special group of people who just want to make a positive impact on the city and its residents.

I feel privileged to work on your behalf and, together with you, to advance our city to a better place. Rosh Hashana is the right place to review what we have accomplished and to resolve to make the next year even better.

This past year has been a symbol of renewal and hope.

Working towards a cleaner Beit Shemesh. This year, we invested millions of shekels in the purchase of buried bins and service enhancements in cleaning, landscape additions, renovation of public parks, painting crosswalks, adding road and parking markings and more. We placed sculptures in traffic circles around the city, and we are aware that there is much more work to be done. Yet this is not enough. To truly achieve change in the city's appearance, we are attempting to change the overall approach to keeping the city clean. We cannot rely solely on the dedicated city workers; we need to educate all the residents to take responsibility for their surroundings and do their part to maintain a cleaner city.

Improving traffic and transportation. Road infrastructure in the city requires a thorough and comprehensive overhaul and government intervention on a national level is required in order to add new bus lines immediately. We began renovating roads and infrastructure, including Sderot Levi Eshkol, Sderot Ben Ze'ev, Rechov Herzog and even Route 10. We filed a petition against the Ministries of Transport and Finance demanding they increase public transport proportionate to a city of our size. At the same time, we are negotiating with the Ministry of Transport to find more permanent solutions to the problems.

Investing in economic development. We are working non-stop to draw industry and commercial development to our city and to increase local employment. Recently, we tendered all the remaining lots in Lavi, the new industrial area located in the Western Industrial Zone. In the coming years, new industrial plants are due to be built, opening up thousands of jobs for the city's residents.

Enhancing cultural activities. We are working to increasing the scope of cultural events throughout the year, tailoring them to the particular lifestyle of each sector across the city and to suit all audiences - children, youth, families and adults. This past summer, all residents, from all sectors and ages, enjoyed a wide range of activities and events.

Improving the education standards. We opened the school year about a month ago. Despite the challenges we face due to the perennial lack of proper classrooms and infrastructure alongside a budget shortfall, we worked endlessly to ensure that every child and teen would be placed in an educational framework in the city by the start of the school year. We also saw to the renovation of the old, and the building of new, school buildings throughout the city as well as the addition of shade for gamin, playgrounds and more.

Moreover, the upcoming school year will be marked by the initiative we call: "Educating Cleanliness - Educating Responsibility". Every classroom in the city is to adopt an area adjacent to that school and, as part of the "accountability education", will be responsible to maintain it. The project will be accompanied by an educational program taught across all educational frameworks on the value of taking responsibility.

We are opening the New Year with a wave of immigration of about 170 families who have moved to the city from the US
and France. We have been working hard to absorb them into our Beit Shemesh family.

I must thank my partners in the process, who work non-stop to make you, the residents, the priority in all the city does - members of the city council, the directors of the departments and, above all, the dedicated municipal staff.

Wishing our residents a good and successful year. A year of health, a year of renewal, a year of edifying work and self-fulfillment. May it be a year of communal and social achievements; that our accomplishments be as many as the seeds of a pomegranate; that we should strengthen the good that unifies us all, and that we will all work together for the future of tof Beit Shemesh.

May the year begin with its blessings!

Yours,
Dr. Aliza Bloch
Mayor of Beit Shemesh

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