2020 State of the City Address

Mayor's Message - February 2020 - State of the City Address given on January 30th, 2020

Theme: “With 2020 Vision”  
Sometimes, in order to discern where we want to go, it’s good to occasionally look back and see where we’ve been and how far we’ve come. I love looking at the historical photos that hang on the walls at city hall and in the courthouse. I thought I’d share some of those with you today and take a journey down memory lane. (See Pictures at bottom)

Our Entrepreneurial history goes way back to the early Rexburg days. One of the many early businessmen on Main Street, Jacob Brenner the Blacksmith, built a wonderful home on 1st South Street. When I was here at Ricks College many years ago, I remember it had a round turret on one corner of the home and a beautiful, big front porch. Unfortunately, after I returned from my church mission, the house was torn down. That was a disappointment.

Our roots in Rexburg and Madison County go deep in agriculture and we are proud of our farming heritage and our innovative farmers who take the risks involved in feeding the world.

I would encourage all of you to come visit city hall and the courthouse to read the details of each picture that we don’t have time to delve into now. It is fascinating if you enjoy history like I do. Our history helps us understand why we are blessed with such a special place.

Well, enough “Memory Lane”, let’s talk about what we want to accomplish in 2020. One very important item is the 2020 Unit-ed States Census. We have formed a “Complete Count Committee” made up of our Economic Development staff and a wide variety of local citizens. Their charge is to educate all of us about the importance of participating in the census. We believe we have been severely undercounted in years past, which costs us dearly in state and federal funding that is divided out accord-ing to population. It greatly benefits community planning efforts and business recruitment if we are accurately counted. So please,”Stand Up and Be Counted! (Or sit down and be counted as you can actually fill out the census form online for the first time starting on March 12th)….just please do it and encourage everyone else to do it for all our benefit.
Some of the major city goals for this year are:
1. Improve and expand water and sewer infrastructure to be ready for continued residential and business growth.
2. Continue work on restoring our historic cultural venues…The Romance Theater and the Rexburg Tabernacle Civic Center
3. Explore the feasibility of a community-wide fiber optic broadband network
4. Expand and improve our GIS (mapping & information) system
5. Our Police and Emergency Services departments in cooperation with the Madison County Sheriff’s department are contin-ually working together on ways to keep us safe and be prepared for community wide emergencies.
6. Our Finance department looks constantly for ways to refinance bonds, streamline systems and generally be more efficient with your taxpayer dollars. They have identified one bond that we currently have that when we refinance it, will save us over $140,000.
7. Streamline and where possible, eliminate regulations that inhibit community development. We want Rexburg to be a city where it is easy to do business. At the same time we want people to feel safe and be able to prosper and be successful.
I have 9 pages of goals from each of our departments that they want to accomplish in 2020 and beyond. Your city team is dedicated to making Rexburg a “Great Place!”
Our Customer Service department led by our capable City Clerk works hard to provide all citizens and city staff with excellent information with a smile and our legal department does their best to keep us all out of jail!
Those are significant, important goals to work on in our day-to-day efforts at the city but what about the more high profile pro-jects that people are always interested in? Based on the Envision Madison study that was done several years ago, community members decided that growing and recruiting businesses was the most important thing that we should be focusing on in order for our kids and grandkids to be able to stay and thrive here.
Our community wants BUSINESS growth, businesses must have the TALENT (people) to grow and the people want a GREAT PLACE to live. We believe it is our job to help build that “Great Place.”
All of the above mentioned goals will help support a great place. Some of the other things we are focusing on this year are:
Downtown Revitalization Plan. We are working to redevelop several of our downtown blocks to be attractive places for busi-nesses to locate in and provide more parking space near the businesses for employees and customers.
We have a parks and trails plan for the next 10 years that will guide us as we build these community amenities that are high on the list for people when they are asked what they value in a “great place.” We will kick off this plan this spring (Arbor Day on Friday, April 24th) with a tree planting project at Porter Park. Please plan to attend. There will be many opportunities for volunteer groups and family and student service projects as we embark on this plan to enhance our beautiful, already existing parks and I am excited to announce that we have secured through purchase and donation the land for two additional family parks that we will be building as soon as we can save money and acquire grants and donations to get them done. One park is on the north end of town on the former Barney Dairy property alongside the Teton River and the second one is on the south end of town on 5th west and was kindly donated to the city by Ralph and Gale Steiner. We are grateful to have secured these properties and are excited to build these parks for families to enjoy as soon as possible. We are also in the process of design-ing and building a new baseball/softball complex that will enhance the sports venues that we have built for soccer, football, pickleball and other outdoor activities in recent years.
Besides great schools and adequate infrastructure to do business, people are interested in a varied palette of activities for their families to participate in and we feel like we are making great strides in doing just that here in Rexburg.
Let me close with one last thought about great places to live. I came across an article by ILANA PREUSS, President & CEO of Recast City, an organization that helps city officials encourage great downtowns. I met Ilana at a conference I attended last year. It goes as follows:

H&M (Clothing) isn't interested
Too many downtowns, or at least the decision makers who represent downtowns, think that the one thing that will bring them back from vacancy and neglect is an H&M.

Let that sink in a sec.

People think that only a national, generic, chain retailer, that looks the same in every single place it lands, will be the heart and soul to bring back downtown. The same big retailers that are closing shops all over the country. The same retailers that only pay minimum wage for their part-time jobs with no benefits. The same stores where you see the same product in Michigan, Texas, and Nevada (pending seasons of course!).

But here’s the thing.

They are not interested in your downtown with lots of vacancies and no foot traffic. And you shouldn’t want THEM either. I’m not here to tell you that national retailers are bad. They are fine. They are vanilla. But equally important to remember, is that these chain retailers will not be interested in your downtown unless you are taking care of the place. These multi-national businesses research household incomes, street traffic, pedestrian traffic, spending patterns - all sorts of stuff - before they decide to invest in a new store .And in an era where these businesses are mostly shrinking their bricks and mortar footprint, every one of these national chains is honing in on prime retail locations only. Locations that will immediately drive people into their shop.

So guess what?

If you have a downtown with little to no activity, you are not at the top of their list. Or on their list at all. Your downtown is too high risk. It is not a proven market.

But here’s the thing - that is all good news. Because what this means is that you need to take care of your own front porch first. Your downtown. Your main street.

You probably already know what you want it to feel like. You can picture it - people from all over your city strolling down the street, looking into store windows, dropping in to pick up something and spend money. A place people want to linger. A place people want to meet up with friends or family. A place where people come together. A place where your storefronts are full of interesting things. A place that feels like your town - like nowhere else. If you don’t have it in your downtown right now, you’ve probably visited it somewhere. We love the places that stand out. We see the storefronts and the buildings and know that this downtown is unique. It has interesting spots to stop and experience something - a local store that is different from everywhere else. And amazingly - these same unique places hold their value (there is nowhere else like it), are more resilient (people believe in the place), and contribute more to the local economy. (local businesses reinvest in their hometown more than chains)

This is how we get back to a thriving downtown.
We find those unique businesses that are special to our community. And yes, especially ones like small-scale manufacturing because no one else makes that product just like your local owner. Oh, and that business is selling in store AND online so they weather the quiet foot traffic at the start of your downtown regroup while also bringing revenue into your community from online sales
Moral of the story:
Invest in your downtown and do some care taking to become a place that stands out. Find those awesome businesses that no one else has. Create a place that draws people back together. Then, if you still want the H&M, they may give you a second look… IF… you still want it. Ready to bring your downtown back to life?

The above piece masterfully describes the efforts and strategies that we have been focused on the past few years. We certain-ly have some great national chain businesses that contribute very well to our community and I don’t want to disparage them in any way, but we are also excited that on Main Street, in Hemming Village, on 2nd West and in other areas of town, several home grown businesses are developing and we have a great little “foodie culture” with some awesome local restaurants that are unique to us and we’d love to see more of that.
As consumers, we need to recognize and support these local businesses so they can grow and provide the jobs our people are looking for. AND…. some great places to go to lunch or dinner!
Working together, we can definitely achieve our 2020 vision. Please join us in this effort. Thank you!

Mayor Jerry Merrill

 

Click any thumbnail image to view a slideshow

Snow on Main Street
Farmers on pile of Sugar Beets
Tractor in field
Cars parked on Main Street
Gas Station on Main Street 1920's
Delivery Truck
Wagon load of Grain Bags
Golden Jubilee Committee 1933
East Main Street 1925
Rexburg in 1886
Hotel
Blacksmith Shop on Main Street 1887
4th of July Whoopee Day Celebration 1918