February 22, 2021 Update

A Moment of Personal Reflection

I wanted to take a minute today and take over the Daily Update and share some personal reflections if you will indulge me.  I hope to give you a little background about the new “ProvoStrong” public art item that was installed on the corner of 500 North and 200 West in front of the Provo Recreation Center.

We have seen some social media chatter around this new sculpture.  “What does it even mean?”  “What a waste of money.”  Even “Meh…”

This art installation was the brainstorm of our Parks and Recreation Department leadership that hoped to send a message and memorialize how Provo has been strong and resilient during the last year of the Covid-19 pandemic.  It was placed at the Recreation Center because that is one key location where we help our residents build physical and emotional strength.  But it is about way more than that.

I have been a witness to the incredible strength of the Provo community – and the city organization – during the last year.  It has been inspiring to me, and I hope it has been for you too.

Let me share just a few examples of how ProvoStrong has been a part of the fabric of our community and our organization since early 2020.

• When the City Center building shook during the earthquake on March 18, 2020, our city sprung into action.  Our employees in the building rallied around each other to make sure their co-workers were safe.  Dick Blackham and the facilities team did a thorough review of the building after employees left to ensure it was safe to reoccupy.  Our emergency operations center team met for most of the day reviewing data to see how the city fared in the quake.  And while we didn’t get the brunt of the quake that morning, our systems performed well and reminded me how well we respond when there is a crisis.
  
  
• As the pandemic picked up speed and intensity, we all were entering new territory.  The Mayor and the management team focused intently on the city’s response to circumstances that were changing daily.  We didn’t ignore the issues that the pandemic brought as some other agencies did, but we also didn’t overreact.  We collaborated, investigated, and responded in a way which gave us the flexibility to respond.  
  
  
• Our budgets for FY 2020 and FY 2021 had to be adjusted based on the best information we had available.  City operations took hit due to a hiring freeze; employees gave up some historic benefits in order to make sure that we didn’t have to do layoffs or furloughs.  We have been hanging in there together as the pandemic related financial issues became clearer.  
  
  
• I watched our dedicated city employees – especially those on the front lines – respond to the crisis with our usual compassion and professionalism.  Our paramedics responded to every medical emergency, not being sure what that patient’s medical condition might be.  Our library staff kept families with resources as they moved to at-home school.  Our electric department employees managed changes to electrical demand as more and more people worked and attended school remotely.  And, as we always do, we kept clean water running, garbage and recycling picked up, inspected new construction, and treated wastewater to protect our environment.
  
  
• When testing for Covid-19 became a concern, the city rallied in partnership with TestUtah and the Towne Centre Mall to create a drive-through testing site – the first in the county and one of the first in the state.  We took an innovative approach that became the pattern for other partnerships in community response to the coronavirus.
  
  
• Our management team and elected officials responded to the constantly changing direction we received from state, county and federal health officials.  We followed that guidance and balanced it with the desire to keep our facilities as open as possible to provide needed services to our residents.  It was a tough balancing act, but we did it.  And we did it together.
  
  
• We created leave programs, bought laptops and additional bandwidth, and refreshed our telecommuting policies to allow many of our employees who could work remotely to do so. 
   
• I watched our customer service staff in the 311 call center handle so many calls and visits from residents with utility billing issues and treat all of our residents with respect and courtesy.  When the implementation of a new billing system was underway in the midst of the pandemic, fate threw them a big curve ball, but they handled it well and worked diligently to resolve problems.  The 311 Center was one of the superstars of the last year.  
  
  
• Provo is a community which has the lowest average household income in our county, and yet we are the most generous and charitable community in the nation by a wide margin.  Provo residents support one another, know their neighbors, and offer help when needed.  And we do that better than just about any community I know.
  
  
• I watched time after time over the holidays where Provo families “adopted’ families less fortunate for Christmas – in greater numbers than ever before.  One single parent family I know was blessed by an anonymous family with an entire Christmas – including food, gifts, and cash – when that single parent lost her job due to the pandemic.  I watched people come in and pay the overdue utility bills of neighbors who couldn’t afford to keep up due to layoff or job loss.  These stories are repeated countless times over in every neighborhood in Provo.

And through it all, we stayed strong, resilient, and compassionate.  But then again, that is what we do in Provo.  And that is why I think the ProvoStrong art installation came at just the right time.  I hope it becomes a “selfie-spot” and an “Instagram Spot” where our residents can take photos and remember how we survived and thrived during a very dark time for so many.  I hope our employees drop by the ProvoStrong sculpture and take a photo with their crew, team, division, or department to remember how we rallied together to keep making life better for Provo, even during a time unlike any other I can remember.  And if you post those images on social media, use the #ProvoStrong hashtag.

It may not have been a mass shooting, like the one in Boston, that prompted the ProvoStrong effort, but we have had a large percentage of our population impacted by Covid-19.   We have light at the end of the tunnel now as case counts are trending downward and vaccines are coming faster all the time.  While we probably shouldn’t celebrate the pandemic, we can be proud of how we as a city and a community have responded.  We are resilient, we are surviving, and we are ProvoStrong.

And that is something worth celebrating.

Take care and stay safe.  We will return to our "regularly scheduled programming" with the Daily Update tomorrow. 😎

Wayne