The Mayor’s Corner 03/22/2017

With the snow leaving, the ‘bare’ facts are showing up along the streets and in the businesses. The street sweepers have been running daily to begin the cleanup of the streets. The trash and sand show up clearly. The trash is also showing up along the streets, sidewalks and businesses. If you are a walker, grab a trash bag and take a few minutes to pick up some of the winter left overs. Businesses, take a few minutes of time and clean off parking lots and sidewalks near you. Neighbors don’t appreciate trash blowing over on their yards and businesses. Help us cleanup our community after this long winter. If there are service groups, scout troops or other organizations looking for a worthwhile project, this would be much appreciated.
Water is still an issue in our rivers. Sandbags and sand are still available at the site on Commercial. The Street Department has the truck available that has a sander chute on it to help fill sandbags. If residents will call the office and let the Street Department know the location, they will bring the truck out to your location and help fill sandbags. Hopefully, the flooding will be not last long this spring.
Due to the flooding in the Weiser and Snake River, our Community Pond is flooded too. The Pond area will be closed until the water abates. We would not want a child or pet injured in anyway with the high water. Hopefully, the water will recede quickly to allow for fishing and planting of fish for the spring. Pond cleanup will be scheduled the first part of June.
Spring is here. The Adopt-a-Truck program is available for those needing to pick up large amounts of yard debris and limbs. Please remember to separate leaves and debris. Leaves should be left out in front by the curb and debris should be placed in the alleys away from the garbage can for pickup when alley cleanup begins. Alleys will need to dry a little bit before cleanup can begin.
A new resident stopped in to see me last week and shared an article out of the newspaper in Salmon where he had lived before coming to Weiser. Salmon was named the fifth safest community in the state and Mr. Brown wanted to share that he moved from the fifth safest to the safest city in Idaho. Yep, according to the National Council for Home Safety and Security, Weiser is again the safest city in Idaho.

They state on their website, “To identify the safest cities in Idaho, we reviewed the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics along with our own population data and internal research. We eliminated any cities that failed to submit a complete crime report to the FBI and removed cities with populations under 5,000.

The remaining cities were ranked based on the number of reported violent crimes (aggravated assault, murder, rape, and robbery) and property crimes (burglary, arson, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft) per 100,000 people. These variables were then weighted, with violent crimes accounting for 70% of the total (due to their severity) and property crimes accounting for 30%. Finally, we moved the decimal point over a few spots to show rates per 1,000 people.”
The Council states that safety has always been an important factor when looking for a new place to liv and they work to collect the data for those looking for a safe community. Thanks to our law enforcement for helping us reach this level of recognition. Congratulations to all our officers, reserves and COPs.
Congratulations go out to our Wastewater Treatment Plant crew too for receiving the ‘Wastewater System of the Year’ presented by the Idaho Rural Water Association. More to come on this award. Congratulations Lonnie, Matthew, Brian, Kat, Pete, Robb and Jason for a job well done.