May 8 Press Conference Kicks Off Cleanup

Idaho Falls Mayor Jared Fuhriman conducted a Press Conference May 8 to officially announce the May 11-16 Citywide Cleanup.

The Mayor was joined by numerous City Staff as well as some members of the Cleanup Committee. The Mayor read the proclamation that appears in the blog post below. Two TV stations and the Post Register covered the event.

Final Cleanup documents released

Click here for the News Release detailing the Mayor's 11 am Friday Press Conference.

Click here for the Mayor's Proclamation.

Click here for the City's flyer about the Citywide Cleanup.

Citywide Cleanup Precinct Map

The Citywide Cleanup Committee decided to use the existing Idaho Falls Voting Precinct Map to lay out geographical areas for the cleanup effort. You can click on the small graphic to see a larger version. We hope to be able to work with the GIS experts to pinpoint the locations of the dumpsters that will be deployed around the city. We might also try to use a Google Map for the dumpsters as the "flyouts" on Google Maps can contain much more specific location information. This particular cleanup event offers a lot of potential for experimentation with various electronic tools for volunteer recruitment and management.

Currently, we are using this blog, a portion of our website, a Twitter account and a national listing on Volunteer Match, as well as good ol' fashioned email correspondence. The map at right, for example, is posted on the blog, website and Twitter.

Citywide Cleanup on Twitter, too

We are experimenting with a variety of tools to market the Citywide Cleanup to potential volunteers. The latest tool to be added is a Twitter account. You can click here to go to the Twitter account for the cleanup. It will be very interesting to see if and how these various electronic tools produce results!

Volunteer Match online listing posted

The Eastern Idaho Retired & Senior Volunteer (RSVP) Program today prepared and posted a volunteer opportunity listing for the Idaho Falls Citywide Cleanup on the national Volunteer Match website.

Volunteers may register for the cleanup event by simply submitting their name and contact information via the Volunteer Match interactive website. RSVP's Volunteer Match listing are also syndicated onto one of the RSVP's websites at http://idahovolunteer.org

You can view the online volunteer listing by clicking here.

Citywide Cleanup Planning Begins

Idaho Falls City officials kicked off the planning process for a Citywide Cleanup March 12 in the Mayor's Office. The initial meeting was well attended.

Cherish F, Kathy S, Michelle C-Q, Brad C, John P, Dave C, Eddie F, Rev. Lyn C., John C, Melissa S, Tony A, Susan S, Knut M, and Jared F spent more than an hour discussing how to tackle the challenging logistics of a large-scale citywide cleanup.

The group decided May 11-16 would be the best time frame for such an activity.

The group reached consensus that the Interfaith Council would assist city planners in dividing the city into logical geographical areas for the week long clean up event.

Discussion also took place regarding how to match all of the volunteers with the cleanup areas. Ideas were aired about volunteer registration and post-event recognition. City officials hope to facilitate online volunteer registration via the City's website.

City Departments on hand for the meeting included Parks & Recreation, Sanitation, Code Enforcement, Planning, Public Affairs, the City Police Department and the Mayor's Office.

The group will meet again March 23.