Youth advisory committee at WHS will provide student involvement in City affairs

Congratulations go again this week to the Weiser High School football team in their quest for the state championship!  

 The Weiser Wolverines had a decisive win of 49-27 over the Gooding Senators. Weiser now plays Sugar-Salem for the state championship at Holt Arena in Pocatello at 5:30 on Friday, Nov. 19. Good job Weiser and good luck at state against Sugar-Salem!

 For those of you who follow the City Council meetings, in October the City Council was presented with letters from students of Courtney Thompson’s Weiser Middle School Exploratory Computer Class. The letters were a product of a class project to get students to think about ways to improve the city, estimate the cost to make the improvements, develop ways to finance their ideas, then prioritize which ideas to present to the city.  

 The ideas ranged from improvements to the parks, to bleachers at the swimming pool, to improving the sidewalks. 

 The City Council was impressed with the suggestions.  There will be some follow-up on these suggestions later. Kudos to Courtney Thompson for developing her student’s interest in civic matters with this great project.

 However, this fits in well with something I had started to work on. Through the Association of Idaho Cities (AIC), I learned that some of the cities in Idaho had a Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee. I have started to work with Weiser High School to possibly set up a committee of Weiser students to advise the Mayor concerning policy suggestions and other needs around the community. 

 Part of the purpose would be to provide additional eyes and ears on ways the City can improve from a student’s point of view. In addition, it would also help students understand how city government works and encourage involvement in the community. It is also exciting to think of the suggestions the students might have for the objectives of the committee. I will keep you posted as this project develops.

 In City news this week, the street crew is concentrating on cleaning the alleys at the moment. The leaf vacuum is down due to a clutch that failed. The guys are working feverishly to get parts to make the repairs.  As soon as the vacuum is running, the leaf pick up will resume.  

 Also, the power will be out at the Parkview Apartments on E. 2nd Street on Wednesday, Nov. 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for replacement of the wiring to the apartments. There has been some intermittent problems with the wire. The electrical department wants to replace the wire now before it gets colder.  

 A winter outage could involve wires frozen in the conduit that cannot be removed resulting in a much longer outage during the coldest part of the year. So, the electrical department is making the repairs now during the warmest part of the day to help the residents retain as much heat as possible while the power is out.

 Pat Malay of the street department has asked me to remind you not to place notices on city street signs.  Not only will the notices create a hazard by distracting driver’s attention from the road signs, but the tape placed on the sign will harm the reflective surface of the sign making them more difficult to see at night.  So, please do not attach notices to street signs.  

 Well, that’s it for this week. Go Wolverines and Good Luck at State!