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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNewsletter City_February 2017Mayor’s Message M AR K YO U R C AL E N D AR F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7 City Council Meeting February 1st & 15th @ 6:30pm in the council chambers. Happy Valentines Day! All city offices will be closed February 20TH for Presidents Day!! Reminder to busi- ness owners and residents to keep the fire hydrants clear of snow. City Ordinance: 507.5.5 Clear space around hy- drants. A 3-foot clear space shall be maintained around the circumference of fire hydrants, in- cluding snow, ex- cept as otherwise required or ap- proved. State of the City 2/1/2017 "Something very special is taking place in Rexburg, Idaho." Those were the words of President Clark Gilbert at the opening devotional at BYU Idaho in September of 2016. He went on to talk about the Vanguard Pioneers that came before us to prepare the way and lay the foundation so the way is better for us. He then asked, "How can we be the Vanguard Pioneers to those who will come after us?" This evening, I would like to high- light some of the ways that our team is trying to be those Vanguard Pioneers to make life better for those who live here now as well as future generations. If you are a person who doesn't like change, the City of Rexburg probably has been a bit uncomfortable for you lately. We are growing and changing dramatically and people are starting to take notice of what we have here and what we have is very desirable to a lot of people. Last year we were named the Safest City in Idaho and also the Smartest City in Idaho. That is a real compli- ment to our Police and Emergency Services Departments and also to the great Teachers and Parents of this area. Just recently, I received notice that the website, Zippia had named Rexburg the best place in Idaho for Job Growth. The criteria for this ranking includes 1) Unemployment rate 2) Recent job growth 3) Future job growth potential and 4) Median household income. These folks are discovering what we already know...Rexburg is an awesome place to live, work and play! In reviewing an article in the newspaper from last year, I mentioned that two of my goals are to attract new businesses that will supply better than average wage jobs and fit in with our family first brand and culture. Our Economic Development Department has worked very hard to focus on "smart" recruiting and we have had several specialty businesses set up shop since then and we are talking to more on a regular basis. Some- times the progress seems slow but it is a big decision to locate or relocate a business and those decisions take some time. Many businesses are interested in locating in our downtown area, so we are looking to help and encourage the redevelopment of several areas there to accommodate that growth. We started that process this past summer as we planted new trees on Main Street and enlarged the planters. We will continue that effort this spring as well, with a significant remodel of Center Street that will have some exciting new features in the streetscape. Keep an eye on that and we will be looking for volunteers to help with the beautification of that after the construction has been completed. It will be a fun project! You may have noticed a few new apartments being built around town. Yes, just a few! The burgeoning stu- dent population at BYU Idaho is driving much of the growth in our city and we just joined with an economic development group called REDI (Regional Economic Development of Eastern Idaho) who has named Rexburg, "Millennial City USA" because of the massive amount of the Millennial generation who live here. We believe that joining with REDI will enhance our efforts to bring good companies here and together with a strong and ready talent pool we will build a vibrant local economy. We are seeing two more hotels being built and some new restaurants now up and running as well as others being built. I know that excites more than a few people, including me! All this growth does require a newer, bigger and better infrastructure to support it and that's where our Public Works Depart ment comes in. You may have noticed a few of the streets being dug up last summer? We are in the middle of replacing a large porti on of aging water lines so we have enough capacity to provide clean water and be able to fight fires if needed. Our new, state of t he art, sew- age treatment plant is just about finished. It will provide capacity to handle growing amounts of wastewater for years to com e. It will produce a composted soil conditioner product instead of just waste that has to be hauled off and disposed of. Aren't you grat eful that there are good folks in this world who get excited about sewage treatment and providing us with clean water? What a blessing for all of us! The Public Works Dept. also designed and supervised the reconstruction of 4 th South and installation of a 48 inch waste water line that will alleviate the flooding in the roundabout area. Much of that storm water comes off the BYU Idaho campus and we applaud th eir Ad- ministrators for recognizing the impact that their large campus has on a small city and helping us out with this and many oth er projects. BYU Idaho contributed over $400,000 to the storm water project and they annually contribute close to $800,000 to support our Police and Fire/Emergency Services Departments. That, along with their support on safety measures such as traffic signals and crossw alk flash- ing lights make us very grateful for their continued partnership. I would also like to recognize the Madison County Commissioners for their willingness to work together with the City. Our Fir e and Emergency Services, GIS and our Golf Courses are all joint ventures with the County and are managed successfully together. We also help each other on road and other projects as needed. Our positive City/County working relationship is envied by many cities around the state and produces great cost savings for all our citizens. We are also working to build trust and a good working relationship with Madison School District Administrators. We have a few joint agreements with them as well and we look forward to working with them to better serve the people of Madison County. I would be remiss not to recognize the Rexburg Area Chamber of Commerce for their support to our local business community. Th eir sponsored events, the Idaho International SummerFest, Sample Rexburg and others help provide an exciting atmosphere to our to wn. We even had had a Cow Moose and her calf jumping on a trampoline at Wal Mart last summer…who says nothing exciting ever happe ns in Rexburg! I don’t know if the Chamber or Wal Mart staff arranged that event or not but we want all of our business communit y to know that we appreciate their sponsorships and participation in city and other events that help Rexburg to be a fun place to live, work and play. The State of Idaho was recognized as one of the top states for Retirees to relocate to and Rexburg (surprisingly to me) also ranked high on that list. Even with our cold winter weather, I guess the warm hearts of our people still attracts the older crowd. Even w ith that, Rexburg is one of the youngest cities in the country. In an effort to provide all these young families (and retirees) with a place to get in out of the cold, The City Council approved the leasing of "The Zone". Our Recreation Department has done a great job with pro gram- ming for soccer, volleyball and other activities for folks indoors and we will look forward to even more family oriented acti vities in the near future. We were blessed to identify and receive a $250,000 grant from the Blue Cross Foundation. We plan on using those funds to encourage citizens to participate in physical activities and have healthy eating habits. We want to be the healthiest city in Idaho as well! Speaking of healthy activities, our parks Department is small, but very hard working and efficient. We have added more grass for them to mow with a large addition to the north side of Riverside Park. This will provide more space for soccer, football and we ev en have a rugby team looking for a place to land! So if you want to help keep our local Doctors and Dentists in business, join the rugb y team. Those are tough guys!! We are continuing to work with Madison School District to develop a baseball/softball complex at our j ointly managed Community Fields. We hope to soon have enough fields for all the school and community teams. It seems that even as we build more athletic fields, the demand continues to grow. We commend our parks staff for their dedication to providing qualit y parks and playfields. We receive numerous compliments each year that our city playfields are the best around! Those guys even built a shelter for the ducks at the Nature Park…now if we can just train them to use it! Our Cultural Arts Department has been very busy reorganizing and refreshing the historical displays in the newly named Museum of Rexburg. We held a 40th year commemoration event of the Teton Dam Flood and we were fortunate to have an interactive flood simula- tion display built for us by a group of BYUI engineering students. That, along with all the great stories of the past are goo d reasons to visit our wonderful museum. We are also blessed to have many volunteers willing to help us with our Romance Theater restorati on pro- ject. They have spent over 300 hours painstakingly and masterfully painting the wall and ceiling accessories that will transform that the- ater back into the beautiful venue that it was in a bygone era. We kicked off two new annual festivals this year. The Heritage festival in the fall is designed to bring the local and university communities together to celebrate our agricultural and educational roo ts and the Christmas Tree Festival brings people together to celebrate the season and funds raised from the sale of the donated Christma s trees will go to support a deserving charity each year. This year we raised over $3000 that was donated to the Family Crisis Center . We ap- preciate all the volunteers and staff who spent many hours on these events as well as the sponsoring businesses and Madison M emori- al Hospital for providing the Polar Express ride to visit Santa. Our Finance Department has moved us forward with several initiatives to improve workflow and asset management. They have also worked to enhance the presence of financial reports to our city website for increased transparency and produce reports that e xplain our fees and taxes for both the city and county. Our Technology Services Department works very hard to keep us up and running with their Help Desk and in the midst of all the day to day items they have taken on a myriad of infrastructure projects as well…many of which I don’t even understand but I’m glad t hey do. We have hired a new Chief Information Technology Officer that will help us with strategies and management to keep up with the ever increasing complexities of and reliance on Technology. The Community Development Department has had a booming year, working hard to keep up with all the new buildings going up and working with Developers and Contractors to help them comply with zoning ordinances and get their buildings built according to safety codes. Their work is important in the continued development of our city. This department and several others collaborate toget her to make plans for the future of what we will look like and to help Developers to get it done. Our Human Resources Department of one, is doing a great job in replacing all of the Legacy Baby Boomer employees that have re tired this year. We miss them all but have been fortunate to find some new talent that will help us with their skillsets to keep th e city moving forward. Our Legal Department of 11/2 continues their attempt to keep us out of hot water and works closely with the Police Department to keep us safe and secure. (And one of them can also run a backhoe in case of emergency!) We appreciate these team members alon g with our Chief of Police, his staff of officers, Detectives, Resource Officers in the schools and our Animal Control staff fo r their excel- lence in professionalism and protecting and serving all of us. With the recent strains between the police and public in many parts of the country, we want to thank our officers for being men of good character and know that we support them 100%! The same goes for our Fire and Emergency Services staff. Our Fire Chief and his staff are well trained and willing to lay the ir lives on the line to protect the citizens of Madison County. We recently finished the remodel of our Fire Station and it accurately reflec ts the quality people that call it their second home. Our Fire and Police Departments do much with the resources they have. We rank very hig h in efficiency comparisons to departments in other cities and are fortunate to have good managers and dedicated team members in o ur Fire and Police Departments. And last but not least, everybody’s favorite…the Customer Service Department. They are the face of the city for our customers coming in looking for help and their cheerful greetings and smiling faces brighten up anyone’s day. They have been busy serving the citizens by maintaining the city records, codes and ordinances. They record changes to them and make them available on the city website , Rexburg.org, so they are available for all citizens to access. The Customer Service Desk is now open from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm Monday through Thursday and 7:30 am to 12:30 pm on Friday. Our City Clerk was elected President of the Idaho City Clerks and Treasur ers As- sociation in September and currently serves in that role. Yes, there is something special happening in Rexburg, Idaho and it is because of all of you. We have a wonderful City Council , great City Staff and we serve the best people in the world right here in Madison County. Thank you all for allowing me to serve as your Mayor. I love Rexburg and will do my best to be one of those Vanguard Pioneers to lead us into a very bright future. Thank You!! Sincerely, Mayor Jerry Merrill 35 N 1st E Rexburg, Idaho 83440 208.359.3020 / fax 208.359.3022 customerservices@rexburg.org Monday-Thursday 7:30am-5:30pm Friday 7:30am-12:30pm THE VENUES Feb 4th: Rexburg's Got Talent AUDITIONS 10 am - 2 pm @ Tabernacle - Looking for three categories - MOVEMENT, MU- SIC and MISC. email jackie.rawlins@rexburg.org for more in- formation Feb 3, 4 & 6th: RCT presents CURIOUS SAVAGE a heartwarm- ing comedy 7 pm. Adults $8 kids $6 @ The Romance Theater Feb 11th: The Great Gatsby Valentine Gala - 7 pm - 9 pm @ Tabernacle, couples ticket $25 single ticket $15. Come dressed in Roarin' 20's attire or just your Sunday best. Ages 16 and older only. Feb 18th: BEATELLS - a Beatles Tribute Concert 7 pm @ The Romance Theater $5 Feb 23/24/26th: Rexburg's Got Talent 7 pm $4/kids $6/adults each night will be a different category performing. MOVE- MENT/MUSIC/MISC - come be part of the audience who will be the fourth judge. Feb 27th/28th: Broadway Review AUDITIONS - Feb 27th 6-9 pm and 28th 10:30 am - 1:30 pm @ Tabernacle. Parking Reminder: parking on City Streets over night is prohibited starting December 15th. Ordi- nance 1030: "It shall be unlawful for any person to leave or store any automobile, truck, bicycle, wagon or other conveyance or vehicle, machine, implement or other item of personal property be- tween the fifteenth (15) day of December of each year and the first (1st) day of March of the follow- ing year upon any street or alley in the City of Rexburg, Idaho, between the hours of 2:00 A.M. and 7:00 A.M.” Reminder to businesses and resi- dents to keep fire hydrants clear of snow. 507.5.5 Clear space around hy- drants. A 3-foot clear space shall be maintained around the circumference of fire hydrants, including snow, ex- cept as otherwise required or ap- proved.