The City of McFarland held its third annual State of the City Address and Business Award ceremony on Friday evening, highlighting numerous accomplishments achieved in the last year.
Mayor Saul Ayon began by acknowledging that, within the last five years, the city of McFarland has grown exponentially. He went on to highlight aspects in which the city was not meeting its full requirements. These included not completing audits, unsatisfactory annual budgets, and a lack of a full-time police force.
Despite McFarland’s initial trials and tribulations, with Mayor Ayon’s entrance into office in 2022, the City of McFarland began fixing the issues from the previous administration.
“Us as the city council, we took this challenge on and said, ‘You know what, we are going to tackle this head-on.’ What he did was cancel bad contracts; we constructed new agreements that favor the city, not the vendor,” said Ayon. “It’s 67 years that our city has been incorporated, but in five years we were laser focused on getting this done.”
Another issue the city of McFarland sought to address was the previous financial instability, which is no longer an issue.
With Congressman David Valadeo’s help in allocating funding, the city of McFarland was able to reconstruct deteriorating roads. Streets such as Fifth St. and Cliff St. were reconstructed during the 2025-2026 year. The project has not yet been completed and will extend into 2026, with streets such as Frontage St., San Pedro St., Industrial St., and others also receiving improvements.
Additionally, McFarland received $8.5 million courtesy of State and Federal partnerships. According to Viramontes, McFarland’s City Manager, this particular funding is going towards the State Water Resource Control Board to implement a two new wells in order to curate a reliable water supply for the residents of McFarland.
Congressman Valadeo also assisted in securing $2 million in federal funding in order to launch the expansion of a third well near Perkins’ overpass.
“Together, these projects are expected to bring three new wells within the next year,” said Viramontes. “Reliable water supplies are essential for the future of McFarland. It supports housing, economic development, and long-term sustainability for our community.”
The city is also currently working on a five-year-long project to develop a $20 million wastewater expansion project. The city of McFarland was previously removed from the state’s priority funding list on account of budgeting limitations, but was quickly placed back on the priority list and is expecting to further their project this upcoming summer.
McFarland’s third annual State of the City address emphasized the progress the city has made in the last year. With various ongoing projects, McFarland continues to work toward long-term stability and growth for it’s residents.
