EASLEY — The City of Easley is among the few municipalities across the state that is seeing a stable financial status, even during the economic downfall presently plaguing the nation, Mayor Larry Bagwell said during Thursday’s State of the City address.

“Easley is in good financial condition,” Bagwell told about 100 people gathered in the J.B. “Red” Owens Recreation Complex’s Bagwell Gymnasium. “Last year, we carried over a $250,000 surplus from the previous budget and we stand right now with a surplus of about $4.2 million.”

Officials with the Appalachian Council of Governments had told him that Easley was in the minority of municipalities not suffering from economic hard times, Bagwell said, adding that the city could face financial difficulties in the future should the economy not see some improvements.

“This doesn’t mean ties are real good in the City of Easley, but we’re very fortunate in the way they are going right now,” he said.

To maintain a good financial climate, Bagwell said city leaders enacted a firing freeze several months earlier. In addition, a six percent cut in the current was made possible by department heads tightening their belts, he said.

Easley has also realized a reduction in crime over the past year, Bagwell said.

While criminal offenses has dropped by 3.25 percent, violent crimes are occurring with less frequency from 2007, giving the city a 13.7 percent decrease, he said.

And while the number of new home going up in Easley decreased from last year, the city still issued 144 building permits in 2008, he said.

The city has been awarded various state and federal grants allowing for improvements and repairs in special emphasis neighborhoods, along with financial assistance toward turning the former Woodside Mills on S.C. 8, into apartments, he said.

“There will be 140 housing units under one roof,” Bagwell said.

The city’s contribution for that $20 million project is $50,000, he s aid.

Easley hosted 39 tournaments during 2008, with an estimated direct or indirect spending by visitors coming into the city placed between $185,000 to $200,000 each day, he said.

The Big League World Series is slated to run eight days this year, with the event’s August 5 opening night to be covered live by ESPN, he said.

In addition, a large convention of train and railroad enthusiast is scheduled for Feb. 25 and March 1, drawing thousands of visitors to the Bagwell Gymnasium, making the city’s goal of turning that complex into a self-sufficient entity all the more feasible, he said.

City leaders also just recently applied for, and received, a $60,000 grant focused on developing Easley into a bicycle-friendly community, he said. The city’s matching contribution for that grant was $12,000 he said.

Revamping parts of the downtown business district, adding additional parking spaces, the possibility of a future farmer’s market featuring locally grown produce, and the attraction of the Nalley Brown Nature Park can only entice people to the area, Bagwell said.

“If we don’t give people something to do, then they will go somewhere else,” he said. “I would love to see our population grow, because cities that don’t grow, die.

“We just need to keep making Easley a green place, a healthy place, a family place,” he said. “Things are moving and we are on a roll..”