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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018 State of the City AddressSTATE OF THE CITY OF CHUBBUCK ADDRESS 2018 BY MAYOR KEVIN B. ENGLAND What a fast year this has been. Things are really moving forward in a wonderful way. There is so much to speak about and so many to thank for their efforts in behalf of this city. I had a very interesting experience during this last month as I reviewed a few former state of the city addresses by other Mayors of Chubbuck. I started back in 1982. 1 reviewed about a half dozen of them and it was interesting to note that with the change of a few names and places the reports looked quite similar. They, "say the more things change the more they stay the same"', and perhaps that is truer than we know. I think that we have several unique things to report this year. I once again would like to acknowledge and thank the staff members, each and every one, for the work they accomplish. We have so many in each department that go above and beyond expectations in the work that they do. All of our department heads have managed city resources with great care. Thankfully we all survived the Great 2017 Eclipse. What a wonder of nature that was. With all of the preparation that took place the whole event went quite smoothly with very little challenge. Folks who watch our sky regularly say that this eclipse offered all that is expected from such an event. There is a lot posted about this event so check it out and live this wonder of nature again and again. Springtime brought the opportunity for the City to open a splash pad at Stuart Park. That, along with the refurbishing of this park, has truly revitalized that asset. We had lots of people in that park all summer. Because of the street work taking place around Cotant Park we had Movies in the Park and Chubbuck Days celebration at Stuart and they were a blast. What a beautiful and functional amenity this is. This marks a new direction that our City Council has chosen in developing some "destination parks" for our community. This year we purchased 33 acers of land just off of Philbin Road. That is intended to provide 2 acers for a Fire Station, 2 acers for Water Facilities, and 29 acres for a Park, similar to Cotant Park but maybe with a different theme. We have public surveys out there to get a feel from our citizen as to what they see as viable direction for Chubbuck to move toward. We need to define our community and this input will help us see the vision of our community at large. The new interstate exchange on Siphon continues to move along. We are in the process of getting our canal utility crossing complete so that we can start the connecting road come spring. What great benefit this new interstate access is going to provide for us. If things go as planned, by the last quarter of 2018 this should be a functioning interchange. Once that happens great development potential will follow. There continues to be a revitalization effort at the Pine Ridge Mall. We are grateful to the owners, Farmer Holding Company, for their efforts to this end. If you don't regularly go to the mail I would encourage you to do so. Foot traffic is the best help we can give this company as they continue to make this mall all that it can be in our area. Go check out the ring road and interior mall businesses. There is much happening with the mail that will be a benefit to us all. Let us support this venue. County Acres subdivision is half way thru a 2 year project to replace the roadway and add sidewalks. These are hard project to live thru if you live in the affected area. What a blessing it is when complete though. We need everyone in County Acres to remember that as this work is completed this year. Just go over and check out the Stuart subdivision to see how wonderful things will look in County Acres by the end of this year. We continue to see a growth of business in our city. We processed 84 new business license applications in 2017. We welcome these new enterprises to our city. This year was an election year. Council Member Ryan Lewis and Mayor Kevin England were re-elected. Council Member Josh Ellis lost his re-election bid and as a result Roger Hernandez will join the Council. Josh has served the City of Chubbuck for 8 years on the council. He has served with much dedication and commitment. He will be missed and we as a community express our thanks to him for his service. We welcome Roger and look forward to working with him. it is expected that he will have much to offer. We also saw the retirement of Chief Randy Severe from our Police Department. What a pleasure it was to work with Randy. His influence with our Law Enforcement Community will have a lasting impact for years to come. We bid him a fond farewell and wish him, and his wife Kathy, all the best in their future plans. As a result of Chief Severe's retirement we were tasked with finding his replacement. We did a State wide search, received qualified applications, and interview some great people who were seeking this position with Chubbuck. I am impressed with the quality of candidates we were able to interview. At the conclusion of this process we have appointed, and welcome, Bill Guiberson as our new Chief of Police. He was appointed by myself, confirmed by the city council, and sworn into office in December. Bill has been with us as an officer of the law for many years and we look forward to working with him for years to come as our new Chief. Our Human Resources Department has been very busy this year. 2 , major accomplishments for this department have been a total rewrite of the Personnel Policy Manual, a project that has been a great need for many years, and implementing a Wellness Program for the City Employees. The update of our policies has brought us into compliance with newer laws and the Wellness Program only makes sense as we insure the health of our employees. Our clerk's office tells me that we received a clean financial audit for the fiscal year. They have helped us to increase our social media presence through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, which helps to keep our community updated on all that is happening at city hall. We also launched a new, more interactive, website that increased access to all things city for Chubbuck residence. Lastly, they implemented a new phone system to better manage access and inquiry to the city. Our Fire Department responded to 1307 calls for service during the year. 5% were fire related and 76% were emergency rescue and medical related. I have said for some time now that we need to call this department the Emergency Services Department rather than a Fire Department. Did you know that this department provides services to Eastern Power County and North Bannock County, by contract, as well as the City of Chubbuck? This includes an area of 200 square miles with a population of 25,000 people. They ran a program called Play Unplugged this summer that included over 2000 of our young folks. This was a great educational opportunity for our community. The department put in 2187 hours of training during this year. It is important to stay on top of your game in this profession. Jimmy Schmidt was recognized in the Idaho State Journals Legends for 2017. Steven Roberts was recognized by KPVI for Above the Call Service. The entire department was given the "'Excellence in Fire Safety" award by the Bureau of Land Management. Our Police Department responded to 7424 calls of service this year. They demonstrated the capabilities of our department in 2 high profile cases that were handled in great professionalism. Our evidence team continues to advance their capabilities with a lot of technical expertise. Our guys are sought out for help from the surrounding law enforcement agencies because of their professionalism and expertise. 2017 saw the reintroduction of the DARE program and 326 students successfully completing the graduation requirements. They obtained 2 new bicycles for the Bike Patrol program which gives us a wonderful public presence. They ran their 10thannual Trunk or Treat at the Pine Ridge Mail which was a huge success. Let me conclude the last 2 paragraphs with a great big thank you to all the men and women who work so hard to help us have a safe, orderly, and peaceful city. Every day they place themselves in harm's way in our behalf. Also a big thank you to their family members who support and sustain these brave heroes. Now for the biggest news of 2017. Since June I have been involved in discussions with Dr. Fahim Rahim about building a medical campus within the city of Chubbuck. These discussions eventually included a team of doctors and folks from Bingham Healthcare along with city staff and other elected officials. In December we made the announcement that this facility would be built in Chubbuck and just last week Dr. Rahim confirmed to me that it would be developed and built on Knudsen Blvd. it will be done initially in 3 phases beginning phase 1 as soon as the weather will permit this spring. What a tremendous blessing this will be to the City of Chubbuck and the entire region. I cannot say thank you enough to all who have worked long and hard to make this plan for our city. I love Chubbuck Idaho. it is without a doubt one of the choicest places to reside on God's green earth. I want to say thanks to one and all for being who you are as you being who you are makes this city what it is... and it is great. With warm regards,, Mayor Kevin England