2026 State of the City address to highlight recent advancements in Gainesville
Press release from the City of Gainesville
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Gainesville city leaders invite all neighbors to the upcoming 2026 State of the City address. The event is free and open to the public.
When: 10-11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 18
Where: The Historic Thomas Center, 302 NE 6th St.
Mayor Harvey Ward hosts the annual event, during which he and fellow Gainesville City Commissioners will provide an update on the City’s transformational projects, affordable housing initiatives, public safety programs, and more. They will also outline priorities for the coming year.
The public address will livestream on the City’s Facebook page. It will be recorded for later broadcast on Community 12TV, Cox Cable Channel 12, and archived online. It also will be available on-demand on GNV TV through the Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices.
Are they going to invite all the new ‘citizens’ (homeless, criminals, psychos, and drug addicts) they are encouraging to come to our failing city to ‘celebrate’ too?
“GRU CEO Leading the Way Toward Carbon Free Future”
Gainesville Regional Utilities CEO Edward J. Bielarski, Jr. made a surprise announcement In a Tuesday State of the Utility Address, a day ahead of Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward’s highly anticipated Wednesday State of the City address.
“GRU later this year will issue an RFI for DHMNR in partnership with FMPA for construction of a chain of micro reactors generating about 500 MW of carbon-free electric power by 2031,” Bielarski told a standing-room only crowd gathered near GRU’s innovative DHR biomass plant.
“If you imagine an SMR‑scale 500 MW advanced nuclear plant, ballpark capital cost would likely be on the order of 4–9 billion dollars in 2030 dollars, depending on whether it’s first‑of‑a‑kind or a later, standardized unit,” Bielarski said, adding that he has been working over the past few months with advisors at PFM who have proposed a structured financing deal for an anticipated $5.3 billion project, which anticipates GRU selling power generated by the new nuclear micro reactor array to FMPA, which will in turn sell power to member utilities such as Starke, Alachua, Newberry, and Ocala, under PPA terms highly favorable to GRU.
“A few designs and programs are clearly in the lead for being first into real‑world operation and then commercial service,” Bielarski said.
The DOE/INL Marvel test microreactor (Idaho National Laboratory) is a very small sodium‑potassium‑cooled test microreactor, planned mainly as a demonstration and R&D platform rather than a commercial product. It is on one of the most concrete near‑term timelines. Final assembly is targeted for 2026, with installation in the TREAT facility starting late 2026, initial criticality around 2027, and full‑power operations and electricity generation testing in 2028.
The Westinghouse eVinci microreactor is one of the furthest‑advanced commercial microreactor products. It has an active joint licensing process with U.S. and Canadian regulators, has completed a manufacturing demonstration, and received a DOE preliminary safety design approval step for its test reactor at INL’s DOME site. Public timelines show testing at INL’s NRIC/DOME test bed starting around 2027–2028, with NRC design approval around 2028–2029 and sales targets around 2029–2030, with Westinghouse stating a goal of multiple deployments by the end of the decade.
“If the CEO can have 500 MW of microreactor capacity ordered, built, licensed, and operating by around 2031, it would be a landmark achievement—and a very bold first‑mover bet in the utility and policy world,” said former GRU assistant general manager Ed Regan, who has been consulting for GRU. “It’s a lofty goal.”
GRU CEO Bielarski remains confident he can continue to bring GRU into the 21st century and fiscal soundness.
“Not to sound overly egotistical,” Bielarski said, “but I alone can bring GRU to 100% carbon free power production more than a decade before the City’s announced target of 2046.”