If you haven’t had the chance to take a good look around the city lately, you might not have noticed some of the improvements that have been happening.

That’s part of the message City Manager Jim Mavromatis delivered to members of the Steubenville Rotary Club.

“This is where I was born and raised,” Mavromatis said while speaking Nov. 6 at the JeffCo Event center. “I left here at 18, and I came back at 57. I’ll tell you, this is the town I was raised in, and I would never change it.

“This is a great place to bring kids up in,” he continued. You sit and look at our school systems — if any of you have been down to the STEM building at Big Red, it’s phenomenal. To see something like that was built here, and for the students to have access, it’s great.”

That addition, which brings state-of-the-art education opportunities to the community, was built at a cost of about $30 million and opened this summer. It is one of the several major projects that have been completed or are in the process of being completed.

When you add them all up, they are major improvements for city residents.

That includes the work that has been going on at either end of Lovers Lane this year. On the northern end, the side that intersects with Sunset Boulevard, there’s the renovated section that runs to the roundabout. It includes new drainage and wider lanes, big improvements everyone who lives in that area — and anyone who has driven on the road — should appreciate. Also added as part of the $3.6 million project was a sidewalk, that makes it safer for pedestrians.

At the southern end, the side that connects with Coal Hill Road, crews continue to work on the new water tower that is a key component of an improvement project that, when completed, will give the city more options to address major line failures and should help to prevent problems like those that developed in January 2018, when issues with the system effectively shut off water in the downtown area for several days.

The entire project represents a $15.4 million investment and is expected to be completed in December 2025.

Other infrastructure improvements during the past year include the repaving and drainage improvement work on Johnson Road and the surrounding area. The $480,000 project, Mavromatis explained, helped to improve one of the city’s critical arteries — it’s a road that provides access to Trinity Medical Center West, the Teramana Cancer Center, the YMCA Wellness Center at the St. John Arena, the Catholic Central High School Complex and the Triumph of the Cross Catholic Church.

Brady Estates also saw repaving, the city manager said, with that work costing $660,000.

Mavromatis has spent many years working with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. So, when he speaks about the safety of residents in the city, his words carry authority.

“I’m not going to tell you that you don’t have crime here,” Mavromatis explained. “Everybody has crime, but we have a minimal amount. By and large, for a city our size, our police department does a remarkable job, and our fire department does a remarkable job.”

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t face complaints. He was speaking the day after the Nov. 5 election, and he said he received questions about why the city was stopping drivers for speeding on Election Day. He pointed out that the city’s police officers were putting emphasis on the stretch of Sunset Boulevard that runs from the school zone at Harding Middle School to the top of Washington Street hill.

“We’ve been running radar at Harding for quite a few years, based on complaints we had received,” Mavromatis said. “This is just common sense. When the complaint first came in from the principal, I listened to him, and I said, ‘I understand, and we will get our officers out there, but do me one favor — please tell your teachers we are running radar out there.’

“The first one we stopped the next day was a teacher going to work — they were late.”

That area remains of particular concern, he added, because of the number of students who walk to the school.

Officers, he added, are finding that drivers are going way too fast, especially coming up Washington Street. Just that morning, Mavromatis explained, the police had stopped motorists going 68, 65 and 57 miles per hour along the 35-mile-per-hour road.

“The bottom line is, if you get into an accident, I don’t care how fast you’re going, you’re not going to get there,” Mavromatis said.

Another tool used to keep residents safe is the network of 120 high-definition cameras located throughout the town. He explained that video recorded from those cameras has helped officers get to the bottom of many incidents much faster.

Those cameras, just like the security cameras a growing number of people are installing on their homes, are important components in public safety.

“We’re always looking for grants that will give us the opportunity to add more cameras,” Mavromatis said. “Some people think that this is Big Brother watching you, but here’s the bottom line: If you are not creating crime, you have nothing to worry about. It’s for your safety, and that’s what I try to explain to people.”

Mavromatis remains proud to be from the city, and says that it has a lot to offer.

“I’ve always bragged about this city — we have Franciscan University of Steubenville, which I’ve heard about all over the world. It doesn’t matter where I was — this happened in Tokyo, this happened in Germany … after hours you are visiting with the local people you are dealing with, and someone will ask where you are from. I would say I was from Ohio, and they’d ask, ‘Where at in Ohio?’, and I’d say Steubenville, and they’d say, ‘Franciscan University.'”

Mavormatis said there are issues that really need to be resolved, and those include getting a replacement for the Market Street Bridge built as soon as possible.

Still, there are a lot of good things, like the Nutcracker Village and Christmas at the Fort, as well as the development of the 7 Ranges Entertainment Center in the Fort Steuben Mall.

“I’m happy that I live here, because I love this area,” Mavromatis said. “I like living in the city, and the size of it and how close it is to go to Pittsburgh if you’re looking for something else.”

(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is executive editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times. He is a member of the Steubenville Rotary Club.)