HomeMy WebLinkAboutNewsletter City_January 2018Mayor’s Message
M AR K YO U R
C AL E N D AR
J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8
City Council Meeting
January 3rd & 17th @
6:30pm in the council
chambers
Christmas tree pick
up will begin Jan 2nd
through Jan 16th. Put
your tree at the curb
for pick up.
All city offices will be
closed January 15th-
for Martin Luther
King Jr. Day
Parking Reminder:
Parking on City
streets over night is
prohibited starting
December 15th.
Hello Dear Rexburgers…..Happy New Year!!!
I hope you all had the chance to enjoy some time with your families over the holidays. In conversation with
our Street Crew Foreman, he mentioned our Streets Department Team Members were excited because the
weather forecast called for snow a couple days before Christmas and then just cold weather through the 26 th
or so. They were actually going to get to spend Christmas with their families this year. As you all know, the
Weatherman was off a few days (Imagine that!) and we got a heavy snow on Christmas Eve! I saw our Crew
Foreman out in the afternoon of Christmas Day getting a head start and then they all hit it hard that night to
get things all cleaned up. Big thanks to the Streets Department for sacrificing some of their holiday time to
keep us all safe!
The new year is always a time to reflect on accomplishments of the past and what we’d like to do better in the
coming year. We, as your City Staff and City Council are focusing on our goals for 2018 and how we can better
serve you, the citizens of Rexburg. We’ve had discussion on how we can make Rexburg easier to do business
in, how we can improve the quality of the services we offer, how we can promote more tourism, do we need
additional parks, playgrounds, sports facilities, etc., how can we plan our downtown and other areas to sup-
port existing businesses and new business development, and how can we make Rexburg a more enjoyable
place to live in all aspects. That’s an ambitious list but we are determined to tackle it with all our energy and
collective might! If you have ideas on things you’d like to see happen in Rexburg, please visit with me or one
of your Council Members and let us know your thoughts. Please remember that most great ideas come with a
commensurate price tag, so we are always looking for ways to pay for those ideas as well, but don’t let that
limit you….we can work hard to figure it out. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!
One of my greatest visions for Rexburg has nothing to do with new or better facilities or services. It has to do
with the hearts of all of us….the community, if you will. I was reading an article about Sir Winston Churchill
and the dark days of his brand new Prime Ministership. Nazi forces were sweeping across Europe like wildfire
and he had to make some very difficult choices, one being to take part in a Mussolini sponsored peace confer-
ence and risk losing the momentum of their war effort to stop the German advancement. The article brought
out the point that “both CHANCE and CHOICE play a large part in human affairs”. And then my inspired Sun-
day School Teacher, Steve Denison, taught us a lesson about being a “Zion People”. A scripture verse in that
lesson really stood out to me…”And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one
mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.” The thought came to me, “We can’t
control all the CHANCES that come into our lives, but we CAN control our CHOICES. I see so many of you doing
a lot of those things to help others already and I’m so grateful for that.
We can set goals to build a lot of nice “stuff” in Rexburg and there’s nothing wrong with that. I just encourage
each of us to get up each morning and commit ourselves to be the best we can be….to grow our influence to
be a positive impact on all we associate with and to honor all those who have gone before us and have invest-
ed so much in us.
I wish each and every one of you the best that you can create in your life in 2018….again HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Mayor Jerry Merrill