On Monday, Mayor Joan Hawkins visited with Malad Elementary School’s third grade classes to talk about the concept of cities, state and local government, and civics.  The visit was in conjunction with an age-appropriate book created by the League of Idaho Cities, titled Friend City.  The book presents a story about the creation of a fictional city, and discusses the various components of its creation and the management necessary to operate it.

The book tells the story of a girl named Emma and her friends, who decide to band together in order to create essential services, bring recreation to their area, manage their resources and waste, and provide for medical care.  While the premise potentially seems a bit dry, the book uses practical, child-level examples to demonstrate the interaction of services throughout various levels of tax-payer supported governmental districts.  The book addresses needs relevant to the wide range of Idaho cities and counties, which of course include a wide range of county and city types.  Oneida county is one of the smallest counties in Idaho by population, and has the further distinction of having essentially only one city (along with Camas—Fairfield, Clark—Dubois, and Butte—Arco, all of which also have additional towns of under 100 people).  

As Mayor Hawkins read through the book, she stopped to ask the students about some of the city services mentioned throughout.  “Do any of you like to go the park?” she asked, to a wide round of agreement.  “What do you like to do at the park?” she asked.  “Play in the splash pad!” was immediately shouted, which undoubtedly sounded good to the mayor’s ears, as the Splash Pad is the most recent high-profile City project, and one specifically devoted to improving the recreational outlets for local kids.  The project, funded by local output and regional grants, opened at the end of last summer’s rec season to widespread joy among the youthful set.  “What else?” Mayor Hawkins prompted.  “The library is right by it!” another student shouted.  “That’s right,” Hawkins said.  “The library is another city and county service.”

Hawkins visited the classrooms of all three third grade classrooms—Mr. Grote’s and Mrs. Lamb’s class, as well as Mrs. Williams’ former class, now being taught by the Principal Sarah McIntyre.  In each of the classes, the first portion of the book that peaked the classes interest was the mention of the sewer system.  “Do you know what sewer water is?”  Hawkins asked, to a predictable round of nose holding, and various descriptions of the water’s color and texture.  The book explains that the sewer water in cities is generally repurposed as a result of water treatment to various purposes, including city park watering and other uses.  The city has recently undertaken a new wastewater treatment project that will in fact be doing exactly that—repurposing water for agricultural watering use.

The second portion of the book that kids had a lot of input on was the question about what animals they would most like to see at the zoo.  While Malad City is probably not in an immediate position to construct and maintain a zoo, if it ever did hippos, elephants, pandas, and ‘deadly snakes’ would certainly be very popular!  Zoos generally have a complex funding mechanism, involving private bequests, admission fees, merchandising, tax districts, and various layers of public and institutional funding, and even then they often suffer serious financial strain.  While zoos may be a bridge too far, the mayor did make a point to discuss the many things around the valley that the city and county do provide.  “We have our parks, and libraries, and streets to ride bikes on, and all kinds of places to go.  And for all the stuff we do have, it’s important to know that if you parents own a home in the city, or rent a home here in the city, some of the money to pay for that goes into taxes.  A lot of what we have here in Malad gets paid for partly by taxes.  So that makes it our stuff.  And that’s why it’s important to take care of it, and keep it nice for everyone.”   

The final question the mayor asked was about what the students wanted to do when they were older.  Most of them took the opportunity to talk about what their parents did.  “My dad makes the power come on!”  “My dad fixes cars!” “My mom helps people buy houses!”  Among the rest, some wanted to become doctors, teachers, mechanics, and a number of other things.  “Those are all jobs that help the city and the county,” Hawkins said.  “You are all going to be our future leaders, and we need you to learn as much as you can here in school!”  

Due to time constraints, there was only a brief amount of time for students to ask questions afterward, though hands were raised during virtually the entire visit.  Luckily, the workbook that accompanied the reading allows teachers to lead a discussion over the same materials and give kids a chance to chime in.  The League of Idaho Cities is also sponsoring a contest, where completed worksheets can be submitted to a statewide drawing for classroom money.  The contest will be taking submissions until the end of February.