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Home My WebLink About12City of Chubbuck — Mayor's Newsletter -December 2015 51 t aK*IlowstwQ *gj1pre Chublp►M.IglyyJ4QZ"buck r Doing Business 2 Your Government - B Contact & Connect Mayor's Newsletter -December 2015 Greetings, Page 1 of 3 < Previous I hope you all have a great holiday season. It truly is a wonderful time of the year. There are 2 issues that I would like to talk to you about in this new letter. First, I have been working closely with the Post Office to see that we have appropriate service in our community. They have been positively responsive from Washington DC, our regional hub in Salt Lake City and our local folks. I hope these efforts will restore mail delivery service to our area that is acceptable. If any of you have issues that need to be addressed by the Post Office please make my office aware of them so that we can see that they are brought to the attention of those who can fix them. I do not believe that things are as they need to be yet, but I do believe service has gotten better over the last few weeks as we have worked with them. I will stay on top of this issue as long as it takes to get it right. Second, it has become necessary for the city to discontinue use of the free recycle roll off containers located at City Hall and the two elementary schools. The company we contract with to provide these services has let us know that the price per ton they can get for recycled materials has dropped substantially and they have had to pass those costs on to the City. In the month of October these free services created a loss to the City of $2,474.00. It is our hope that City residents that have been using these containers will consider signing up for a residential cart and continue participating in the recycle program. With warm regards, n http://www.cityofchubbuck.us/2015/12/09/mayors-newsletter-december-2016/ 12/9/2015 December 2015 Volume 18, Issue 12 Mavor's Newsletter • mayor@pocatello.us Table of Contents::. USPS Update 1 City Goes Social Special Holiday Collections 2 Emergency Repair Assistance USPS Update As you know, a delegation from Pocatello went to Washington, D.C. at the end of October to meet with United States Postal Service (USPS) officials about the closure of the Flandro mail processing center. I thought I would give you an update on how our meeting went. We took a strong delegation made up of Mayor England from Chubbuck, Bannock County Commissioner Howard Manwaring and Old Town Pocatello Executive Director Stephanie Palagi. All of our agencies have been involved in the USPS closure issues since 2009. Many of us have made other trips to Washington, D.C. to discuss USPS, but this was by far the best trip we've had. We met with Linda Malone, USPS Vice President of Operations, and several of her staff. They took the letters you City Goes Social In the past year, the City has implemented several efforts to improve our two-way communication with citizens and provide improved transparency about our activities. The cornerstone to this effort was our recent website redesign. Our new website uses responsive web design, which allows our site to be easily viewed on everything from computer monitors to cell phone screens. The new website has a host of features that allows you to better communicate with our staff and sent to us about your recent experiences and are following up with any issues and problems that seem to be reoccurring. They are taking your concerns very seriously. Since our trip, we have started working very closely with USPS officials in Salt Lake City regarding issues that continue to happen. The regional director in Salt Lake City is committed to keeping an open line of communication with us. He has also promised to create a local committee that will meet monthly to discuss ways to improve USPS service in Pocatello and Eastern Idaho. USPS has also implemented a "handshake hand-off' program for mail coming from Eastern Idaho to their Salt Lake City processing center. They hope this will make the turnaround time for mail quicker than it be better informed about our operations. Check out our changes at www.pocatello.us Furthering our efforts to provide better transparency, our home page has a link to the social media tools we use. You can find links to our Facebook pages — not only the City's main City Hall page but also links to our departments' various pages. There are also links to our Twitter account (@cityofpocatello) and our Instagram account (cityofpocatello), as well as our Social Media Terms of Use policy. has been in the past few months. USPS is also working with pharmaceutical distributors so those products will be delivered in a more timely manner as well. For the first time, I feel confident USPS officials are doing everything they can to help deliver the mail on time in Eastern Idaho. However, if you still have concerns or issues with mail delivery, please let me know. I will continue to bring up any problems we're having when I speak with the USPS officials in Salt Lake City. At this time though, I think it's important for everyone to know USPS has made Eastern Idaho a priority. I am hopeful this attitude will continue. Thank you for all you do. As always, I'm proud to be your Mayor! Finally, we also developed an app this year that's available for both Apple iOS devices and Android devices. Our app provides information at your fingertips and is very accessible. Please take a minute and look at our social media tools. Then, bookmark, follow, tweet and download us. Stay better informed and better heard by your government officials. VaWs Name age + Special Holiday Collections We all go a little crazy with holiday celebrations this time of year. More food, more gifts and more parties mean more garbage. Thankfully the Sanitation Department can help with that. The department has scheduled a special holiday garbage collection beginning December 26 and going through December 31. Residents are asked to set out extra bags and boxes on your regular garbage day and in the same location as your autocarts. Crews will pick up the extra garbage on your collection day. Please note that the extra garbage will be taken to the landfill and will not be recycled. At the end of December, many of us will also have Christmas trees to dispose of, but please do not set trees out with your extra garbage. Crews will not pick up Christmas trees from the curb. Instead, the Sanitation Department will have drop boxes available at various locations beginning December 28 for a little over 2 Emergency Repair Assistance The City's Neighborhood & Community Services Division has an emergency repair program available to qualified property owners. While the program operates year-round, its services are very important during the cold winter months, especially if someone has an emergency need for repairs to their home heating system. The Revitalizing Existing Neighborhoods through Enhancement, Work And Livability Program can help property owners with emergency housing repairs that are beyond their means. We receive special assistance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and have assisted many low-income homeowners with their housing improvement needs. Using these federal funds, we are able to make necessary improvements at a very low monthly cost. We coordinate finding contractors and oversee the repairs to ensure the work is weeks. The boxes will be removed January 12. The Christmas tree drop boxes will be at: Pocatello City Hall - 911 North 7th Avenue; Rainey Park -900 South Arthur Avenue; and by the entrance to Sister City Park—Pocatello Creek Road at Satterfield Drive. For more information about these special holiday collections, contact the Sanitation Department at 234- 6192. properly constructed and completed in a timely manner. If you need emergency home repair assistance or are aware of anyone who may qualify for this program, please visit our website at http://Pocatello.us/341/Renewal -Program for information and an application. You may also call Melanie Gygli at 234-6186 or Cass Fonnesbeck at 234- 6188. We look forward to assisting homeowners who may need our help. Pe��,' Fxlsirn� Nei�ltvxho;�t'ltrotx�lt a ewxf is k x uvw'rm'y If there is a topic you'd like me to address in future newsletters -or if you want to comment or ask a question, write it down, tear off this part and send your comment to me. If you wish to call or e-mail, my number and address are listed on the front page. While I cannot respond to all comments individually, I do pass them on to the appropriate departments. v18,n12 My question/comment is Name Address Telephone