Mayor highlights Price, city department accomplishments during address

By Sun Advocate

On Feb. 7 Price Mayor Joe Piccolo delivered his fourth state of the city address.
The address gives a general overview of the city’s activities for the past 12 months and discusses goals and initiatives for the upcoming year.
Last Wednesday, the mayor took time during the presentation to focus on the local community and the city’s employees.
“We are trying to get the community to be more involved and proactive in their government and we also want the city’s employees to be as involved as they can be in the operation of their city,” said Piccolo.
To promote public involvement, the mayor and community director Nick Tatton, prepared and inserted a survey into city employees’ paychecks.
The questions on the survey ranged from hiring and promotions to community attitude and improvement projects.
“We are looking for trends in this survey so that we can adequately plan for the future and see how we can make our city a better place for its citizens and employees,” commented Piccolo.
According to the mayor, the city has seen employee involvement in the survey climb from 58 percent to 82 percent.
“We are hiring from within, even with a competitive bidding process, because we have people within our staff who wish to grow with the city,” pointed out the Price mayor.
“Just this year, we replaced our city recorder from within,” continued Piccolo.
During the address, Piccolo presented Wilma Barnett of the Price city customer service office with the employee of the year award.
Fellow Price city employees selected Barnett to receive the honor.
The mayor also reviewed the Get Active Utah program, for which Price city schools have won an award for the last two years.
Piccolo presented Creekview Elementary with a key to the city for outstanding participation in the program.
Participants at the elementary school walked 114 miles per student to garner the award.
During 2006, Price city saw many improvements and projects take place.
The projects included actively participating in the planning activities for a new community library.
The city library’s service to the community increased by 9 percent from 2,399 to 2,634.
The city took action to increase the efficiency of the local government by combining the park and cemetery departments.
The past year also saw Price complete the remodeling of the city police department, turning the offices into the new community development complex.
The city further prepared concrete bases and refurbished the antique street lights installed in the museum parking lot.
The city’s sewer and water department installed a new four-inch water line and backflow preventer at the Cove Basin Park.
The department also completed water main line replacement on 100 West between 400 and 500 South.
Price’s public works department completed renovation of the Main Street banner system and participated in the bicycle-pedestrian pathway at Westwood Boulevard.
In addition, the city’s law enforcement agency moved to a different location while responding to more than 11,000 calls for service.
City building services also implemented contracted services, effectively saving the city thousands of dollars.
Price re-cabled the city offices with fiber optic backbone for voice and data. The city also installed the network and computer systems for the police department.
The human resource department also cut costs by improving employee related costs by 10 percent
In addition, the administration completed the east Price annexation project with preparing more than $1 million in supplemental Price city funding applications.
The mayor’s presentation is patterned after the state of the union address.
George Washington gave the first state of the union address on Jan. 8, 1790 in New York City, then the provincial United States capital.
In 1801, Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice of delivering the address in person, regarding it as too monarchical. Instead, the address was written and then sent to U.S. Congress to be read by a clerk until 1913.
In 1913, Woodrow Wilson reestablished the practice.
Presidents during the latter half of the 20th century have sent written state of the Union addresses. The last president to do this was Jimmy Carter in 1981.
Calvin Coolidge’s 1923 state of the union speech was the first to be broadcast on the radio and President Harry Truman’s address was the first to be broadcast on television in 1947.
President Bill Clinton gave his 1999 address while under trail for impeachment. That address was the first to be broadcast live on the World Wide Web.
The president normally reports on the status of the county to a joint session of Congress.
Ordinarily, the president is not permitted to enter the U.S. House of Representatives chamber without the explicit permission of the Congress, Therefore, a formal invitation is made to the president in order for him to give his remarks.
Instead of going over the progress of the city department by department as the president typically does Mayor Piccolo choose to focus on the employees of his city while charging its citizens to become more involved in their local government. Piccolo also included some of his vision for the future of Price.
The mayor said he would like to see the walkway, which is scheduled for completion in 2010, be named the Centennial River Parkway. The city of Price will turn 100 years old in 2011 and Piccolo would like to see the parkway reflect that.
“I would like to see an outdoor mural,” the mayor continued. “Perhaps a sculpted work that could stand the test of time just like our city has.”