The City of Idaho Falls was recognized with two awards from the Association of Idaho Cities (AIC) during the Annual AIC Conference this week. Both awards were presented at the AIC awards banquet held last night, June 21st, 2018, at the JUMP Center in Boise.
“I offer congratulations to the IFFD and Department of Community Development Services for well-deserved recognition from the Association of Idaho Cities,” said Idaho Falls Mayor Rebecca Casper. “It’s always great to be honored for exemplary effort. But what city residents really need to know is that this kind of achievement is not uncommon. Our city departments are constantly innovating and Idaho Falls departments tend to lead the way in terms of best practices across the state.”
The first award to the city was the City Achievement Award for Economic & Community Developmentfor a series of public outreach videos produced by the department of Community Development Services regarding the city’s new zoning ordinance.
The city recently overhauled the zoning ordinance and in order to familiarize the community about the effort, the Community Development Services Department (CDS) created a series of YouTube videos to help educate the public about the process.
Each of the 15 minute videos was produced in house and with a minimum of expense. The videos were then placed online and press releases were sent out to help inform the public about how to access them. Combined with other methods of outreach and education, the effort proved tremendously successful.
“This was a monumental task to overhaul our ordinance, and we recognized the need to focus on public education as much as public opinion,” said CDS Director Brad Cramer. “We wanted to make sure the citizens of Idaho Falls understood the project as thoroughly as possible, and felt comfortable with it so we could get the best end product possible.”
The second recognition was a City Achievement Award for Public Safety recognizing the City of Idaho Falls Fire Department’s implementation of the lifesaving “PulsePoint App” technology to connect residents within the community with resources to assist during a medical emergency.
Launched this spring, app users who are trained in CPR and willing to assist in an emergency can now be notified when someone nearby in a public location is having a cardiac emergency and may require CPR. The free PulsePoint app is available to Apple IOS and Android users.
For professional responders, nurses and physicians who are off-duty and may be away from typical emergency communications, PulsePoint not only notifies them of cardiac arrests occurring near them, but it also improves the flow of critical information needed during an emergency.
“We believe PulsePoint will be a powerful tool in our efforts to increase survival rates in our community,” states Idaho Falls Fire Department EMS Division Chief, Eric Day. “Anyone wanting more information and instructions on how to download the app, as well as how-to-videos, FAQs, recent news stories and more, can accessed all of that on the Idaho Falls Fire Department website.”