City officials say students won’t have a voice in the community until they earn it
Logan city officials had a message for the dozen or so students who showed up to the USU neighborhood meeting Thursday night: Get involved in community affairs.
“We can make your neighborhood that much more safe by having you guys giving us a call,” said James Olson, the Logan Community Development Block Grant coordinator.
Olson and other city officials led the meeting, which is a part of the Logan Neighborhood Council’s efforts to increase involvement from across the city. Each of the designated neighborhoods, named for elementary school boundaries, holds a regularly scheduled meeting where residents workshop a particular community concern.
The council functions as an advisory board to the Municipal Council, voting to make recommendations that are presented yearly.
The neighborhood council also includes a representative from USU, who speaks for students living on campus and across the city. While the USU representative was a student in the past, the council decided last summer to place a university employee, Academic Resource Center learning specialist Dennis Kohler, on the council instead.
Students were kicked from council membership because they were not coming to meetings, Olson said. If the council can build a student presence, the representative could revert back to its original intent.
“Let’s get it back to a student if there is continued interest,” Olson said.
While Kohler said he is happy to represent USU, he is using students to advise him in making decisions.
“My belief is absolutely two things: One, you have a vote – I’m just saying it … and the other thing is USU is not only students,” Kohler said.
Student apathy is a problem the neighborhood council deals with in other aspects as well. This was the first USU neighborhood meeting in at least five years because of historically low attendance, Olson said.
In addition to handing out information pamphlets with city phone numbers and amenities available for residents’ use, the meeting included a talk from Lt. Bret Randall of the Logan City Police Department.
Randall asked the students to raise their hands if they have actually called the police for something. Three raised their arms. He then asked how many felt like they should have called police but did not, and a few more raised arms. When he asked who felt guilty for calling, several raised hands.
Oakman Kennedy, a student, said he sometimes does not feel sure if he should call the police.
Logan’s police often deal with quality of life issues, such as shutting down large parties and dealing with neighbor disputes, Randall said. If there is a problem, no matter the time of day, it is OK to call the police.
“The police department is here to serve you,” Randall said. “You are residents in this city.”
Parking was also a major topic of the evening. Several of the students expressed displeasure at the addition of parking time limits in fall 2012 at the bottom of Old Main Hill and along 800 East. There is now a three hour time limit to park along the road.
Parking is also now enforced by Logan police instead of a private company.
Randall, who was recently made coordinator over parking enforcement, said he was not sure of the exact reasons given for the change, but there were people abusing the lack of time limit by leaving their car along the road all day.
The idea behind the change was so people could park, go to classes and then move their car so someone else could use the spot, Randall said.
Neighborhoods around campus also have special parking permits for residents only, which should be taken into account when
choosing a spot, Randall said. It is important to take notice of signs and know where is a good place to park and for how long, he said.
“Parking’s all about knowledge,” he said.
Students at the meeting said three hours is not enough time for classes and suggested a change to the time limit.
“I think this change was probably made without having that discussion up there… We can talk about it,” said Logan Municipal Councilwoman Holly Daines, who attended the meeting.
A good neighbor guide is also being put together for students. Aarom Smith, a graduate student in landscape architecture and environmental planning, presented the basic idea of the informational pamphlet at the meeting. Smith is interning with Logan Neighborhood Improvement. The guide will cover topics such as leases, landlords, noise complaints, parking, property maintenance, occupancy restrictions and more, he said.