Survey: Residents discouraged by local issues

Mountain Home remains an ideal community to settle down and raise a family but is saddled by a number of issues that keep people discouraged, according to results from a survey held last spring.

The Chamber of Commerce and the city's economic development office conducted the poll in April to gain a better understanding of what people like about the community and what needs to be improved.

In addition, the questionnaire sought input on what makes the city unique and what was needed to encourage people to shop or do business here. It was the first step in a process known as branding -- singling out the positive assets that make Mountain Home unique compared to other communities across southern Idaho and that convinces people to stay here, said Paula Riggs, head of the city's economic development office.

Out of the 516 people that responded, results identified a significant level of discontent, with negative comments outweighing positive feedback. The survey also highlighted a significant amount of misinformation circulating around the city that was largely fueled by rumors and false gossip for years, city official said.

Mayor Tom Rist joined Riggs to address those concerns and to set the record straight.

Among the top comments highlighted in the survey involved a rumor that accused city leaders of deliberately stopping businesses from coming to Mountain Home. That story is absolutely false, the mayor said.

"There's a fallacy that the city keeps out businesses and whatever business someone wants to come here that we're against it, whether it be a restaurant or a big-box business," Rist said. "There couldn't be anything further from the truth."

In fact, the city has gone out of its way to encourage businesses and industries to move here, he said. City leaders have worked with companies to change zoning designations to encourage growth in some parts of town while working with businesses to reduce impact fees and other fees to help them get started here.

Turning to specific examples, people that responded to the questionnaire said the city deliberately turned away an offer to open a Cabella's sporting goods store here.

Again, the story was false.

"The only time Cabella's even looked at Mountain Home was when the old K-Mart building became available and they were only looking at it for a warehouse, not a store," Riggs said. "They were not interested in this location and chose to locate in Salt Lake City."

Any business can come to Mountain Home as long as it is legal and locates in the proper zoning areas in town, Riggs said. In short, the city cannot tell a business they cannot come here.

The city council remains "very supportive of business growth and has approved numerous things over the years to help... market new business and provide existing businesses with tools to help them," she added.

Turning to a related issue, the responses in the survey questioned why the city lacks certain name brand restaurants and retail stores. Specifically, people asked why Mountain Home doesn't have an Applebee's or a nationally recognized steak house.

The answer comes down to numbers, Riggs emphasized.

"What people don't understand is that the bigger restaurant and retail chains require certain demographics to locate in a community," she said. "Our population is a little over 14,000 in the entire city and approximately 30,000 people in our entire county. Our busiest street is Airbase Road, and it has a per day vehicle count of 13,000."

For Applebee's to even look at Mountain Home, the city's population would need to reach at least 20,000 people within a five-mile radius of the planned franchise with a daily vehicle count of at least 20,000 passing that location.

Places like Outback Steakhouse are even more stringent, she added. To qualify, a city needs a minimum population of 70,000 within a five-mile radius of the restaurant's planned location with at least 25,000 vehicles passing the site every day.

The same is true with retail stores, Riggs said.

"Payless Shoes was approached about locating here and they were not interested because they require a population of 60,000 people within a three-mile radius," she added.

"The reality is that we're right at that cusp," Rist said. "We don't quite have the population to attract some of these businesses."

Other concerns raised in the community survey focused on a perceived lack of activities for children and adults. While Riggs understood that people have different interests, she emphasized that Mountain Home actually offers more than cities of roughly the same size. In addition to a movie theater, bowling alley, outdoor swimming pool and golf course, the city has a paved bike path, local sporting events, free summer concerts and movies in city parks along with numerous youth organizations and activities throughout the year.

In fact, the city parks and recreation department offers more than 490 programs for children and adults each year with more than 9,000 participants using those recreation outlets, she said. The events are advertised each month in flyers in people's water bills, along with school flyers, reader boards, social media sites, the newspaper and more.

Other top concerns raised in the survey dealt specifically with local shops and retailers. Those complaints were one of the top reasons that people preferred to shop somewhere other than Mountain Home, according to Riggs.

According to the survey results, people said some businesses lack good customer service. In addition, many of the city's shops and stores need better business hours. Specifically, those shops and stores need to remain open past 5 p.m. on weekdays and to remain open on Sundays as well if they ever hope to attract customers, Riggs said.

Survey results identified another concern directly involving the appearance of local businesses, especially in the downtown area.

"That was a lot of the complaints we received -- that the businesses look horrible," Riggs said. "Their sidewalks look trashy, they have posters in the windows and are just not attractive, so it's not inviting for people to want to come and walk around downtown and shop."

In short, people aren't going to want to come to a town that's rundown and not inviting, Riggs added.

Respondents were equally discouraged by the condition of sidewalks and roadways along American Legion Boulevard that were congested with weeds. It's a message city leaders in Mountain Home heard loud and clear.

Recently, city crews sprayed for weeds along sidewalks and street corners throughout the downtown area and along American Legion to help improve the appearance.

"We hope that the property owners or business owners will keep this up and have pride in the way our city looks," Riggs said.

In addition, a downtown revitalization project is currently in the works to continue to spruce up that part of town. Funding provided by Idaho Power will allow the city to install flower planters throughout the area next spring.

Weeds and the appearance of some homes across the city were another irritant identified in the survey. However, the process to resolve that issue isn't nearly as simple as spraying for weeds, according to Riggs.

While local law requires property owners to maintain their sidewalks and to remove weeds on their property, it takes time for the legal process to run its course before the city can take action against those owners. In some instances, it can take up to six months for legal channels to run their course, especially if a bank owns the property in question.

"It may appear to people that we are not doing anything about this problem, but we are," Riggs said.

In fact, some of these homeowners were actually taken to court over this issue, one of whom went to jail because they didn't clean up their property.

But in some instances, the legal action still didn't work, and the owners continued to leave the property unattended, according to the mayor.

Other issues identified in the survey highlighted some local urban myths that have circulated around the community for decades.

The one that gained the most number of responses involved an organization infamously known as the Committee of 50 or more commonly called the "Shifty 50." According to the local gossip, the group is apparently the one that actually controls the city.

The simple fact is the group doesn't exist and never has, the mayor said.

Meanwhile, people that took the survey had as some common misconceptions about how local government works, specifically the Mountain Home School District and the Western Elmore County Recreation District. Many of the responses indicated that the city had control over both organizations. Again, that information is wrong, he said.

Setting the record straight, the mayor emphasized that the schools and the local recreation district are separate taxing districts with their own directors. By law, the city has no control or power over these or other taxing districts.

As she reviewed the survey report, Riggs emphasized that people need to keep their money here if they want the city to prosper.

"We know Boise has a lot more to offer, but we want people to realize that every dollar they spend outside of Mountain Home helps support that community; not ours," Riggs said.

People can't sit and complain that there's nothing to do in Mountain Home or gripe there there's no places to shop or the city doesn't have a name brand restaurants if they're not willing to shop local.

"If everyone shops in Boise, how do they expect existing businesses here to stay in business, and why would a new business want to come here," she asked.

Simply put, the reason why businesses struggle here is tied to the amount of money customers are willing to spend in this city, Riggs said. It's the same group of businesses that people in Mountain Home turn to when they need donations for school functions or non-profit events in addition to needing sponsors for youth sports teams.

Yet, the same people wanting that support don't shop here. They go to Boise instead, Riggs said.

"If these local businesses go out of business because people don't shop here, then who's going to support their kids' baseball or soccer team?" she asked.