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City Collector Randi Parr (front) is seen taking notes after kicking off this year's City Council Retreat with a report on the City's recent customer satisfaction survey. Photo by John Lotz
Unity and Optimism Set the Tone for 2nd Annual City Council Retreat  Share
Last Tuesday, the Gate Room at Richards Farm was packed, as the City of Casey held its second annnual City Council Retreat. In this meeting, which was comprised of representatives of Casey Industry, government, civic groups, a variety of important issues were discussed. However, what really stood out during this ''retreat'' was not any one single issue, but rather the prevailing sentiment of unity, determination, and cautious optimism among those in attendance. Starting out the meeting on a high note was City Collector Randi Parr, who reported the results of the recent Customer Satisfaction Survey which saw an impressive 21% response rate. Even more impressive, however, were the actual results in which courteous service, responsiveness, utilities, and other categories received highly favorable satisfaction ratings. In fact, overall customer satisfaction with the city ranged between 83 and 85%, while only 9-12% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with city services and/or reliability. Nonetheless, Mayor Scott Elkins doesn't want anyone to rest on their laurels, which is why all city employees are going through customer service training to be completed within the next month. His objective? To consistently provide the best customer service to Casey's citizens/customers across the board. In addition to continually improving customer service, Mayor Elkins also identified economic development, fiscal responsibility, and community cleanup as three key areas the City must continue to emphasize and focus on. With regard to economic development, Elkins said that everyone from the City Council to the Chamber to Casey in Action must work together to recruit new and existing businesses to the community. However, the person who will ultimately be expected to take the lead in this arena is the new Economic Development Director. ''The new director is going to have to hit the ground running. We're going to expect a lot out of this person,'' said Elkins, who added that they would be interviewing the five finalists for the position on Thursday, July 30. In order to accomplish the objectives the city has laid out, the Mayor said that they are working on a 3-5 year strategic plan, which will be completed by January of 2010. This plan, according to Elkins, will address a variety of issues including specific strategies for better emergency preparedness, cutting costs, generating addtional revenues, providing better customer service, increasing operating efficiencies, improving the City's infrastructure, and doing more to preserve property values and appearances through stronger enforcement of various property ordinances--and even considering zoning ordinances, if necessary.
Specifically with regard to the city's infrastructure, Utilities Superintendent Shelby Biggs listed several priority items the City intends to address as funds become available. Among those mentioned were various street upgrades; electric circuit upgrades; drainage improvements; new water well construction; a sewer trunkline replacement; and more. He also indicated that the City has applied for a County grant, a Streetscape grant and Federal stimulus funds to finance some of these projects, although it may be some time before they receive a response with regard to the grant applications. In closing, after what had been a definitively positive and productive ''retreat,'' Elkins praised the community for getting more involved and for contributing to the city's efforts, and then he thanked everyone in attendance for their positive attitudes, as well as their tireless dedication and support. Referring to this swell of unity and determination, the Mayor said, ''What's going on in our community right now is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. We're coming together, and while we're bound to make some mistakes, we're going to keep moving forward.'' John Lotz is a staff writer for the Marshall Independent.
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