OGDEN — Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski covered a lot of ground during his second State of the City address last Thursday.

“It’s amazing how many people show up,” he said. “I think 350-400 people is what we’re estimating. They show up because they’re hungry to hear about the work that’s happening. They love the city, they love seeing this renaissance and rebirth of our community and for a speech that was over an hour, I didn’t see people fall asleep or staring at their phones — I saw the faces in the crowd and they were captivated.”

He said it wasn’t him they were captivated by, either.

“They were captivated by the message,” he said. “They’re captivated by the mission, and I heard that overwhelmingly from people afterward.”

Nadolski said the positive response to this year’s speech — and the fact that he’s still hearing it a week later — is a great sign.

“There’s a lot of energy in this town to do the work to make us our best selves,” he said. “It’s really fulfilling to be a part of it.”

He said that the process of preparing the State of the City address begins long before the night it’s given.

“It’s a process that never ends,” he said. “If you were at the (State of the City) last year and the one this year, you’ll see that I made promises when I ran for office. Then last year we presented the promises I made when I ran for office and the promises kept in my first year, Then I foreshadowed and looked at 2025 — those were my promises made.

“This year, I came back and reflected back on that first State of the City and said, ‘Last year, I made promises. Here are the promises kept.’ Then we shared the results of 2025 and I looked ahead again to 2026. Next year, we’ll look back again.”

He said that these addresses serve as an opportunity for the city summarize the work that has been done, noting that work on the slideshow that was presented began in August and wrapped up an hour before the speech was given.

“This kind of work that we’re doing is not overnight, it’s a continual process of development, growth, improvement and achievement that takes time,” he said. “I do believe that people that are paying attention are seeing and feeling that difference. But there’s more to go. ”

He said, going forward, the city is working on systems to better summarize numbers to help quantify reaching goals.

“In the coming year, we’re going to be working on to be working on strategic plans, dashboards, KPIs — systems that allow us to summarize our results quicker and easier,” he said. “It’s not just about sharing them with the public. It’s also about seeing and measuring where we’re doing well and where we’re not in our performance, and then making adjustments along the way.”

To view the full 2026 State of the City address, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nULVqcRvU4U.