Magic Valley small cities embrace community projects

A regional small city beautification contest sponsored by businesses has resulted in projects in a number of cities in Idaho’s Magic Valley.

“It’s our 10^th year doing this, and it’s basically projects big and small that can give our small communities a boost in curb appeal — from new benches along Main Street to landscaping to painting buildings, which ultimately helps with community pride, small business development and downtown revitalization,” said Madeline Bumstead, marketing manager for Southern Idaho Economic Development, in an email message.

“Operation Facelift has totally uplifted the Community of Dietrich,” said Deborah Moon, mayor of the city of Dietrich, in an email message. “Its impact expanded to include all of Lincoln County and beyond. It has accomplished more than we expected. It has provided a positive boost on several levels: Emotional, physical and visual. It brought people together. It is bringing joy! Everyone is excited to see the beautiful mailboxes that were created with love. There is overwhelming support, excitement and encouragement on our social media sites. People are excited to see the progress and uniqueness of each mailbox.”

There’s more to the project than just feeling warm and fuzzy. “We feel people will come and visit to see the mailboxes and help boost business for The Eagles Nest Bar & Grill and the Shaw Merc,” two businesses that participated in the project, Moon added.

The annual region-wide community revitalization project is intended to encourage Magic Valley cities to complete projects big and small to build community pride, inspire new business development and revitalize downtown areas, the organization said in a press release.

This year, communities throughout the Magic Valley participated, including Buhl, Glenns Ferry, Heyburn, Hollister, Jerome County, Richfield and Wendell, the organization said.

The event is funded by sponsors. “With those 10 sponsors, we were able to raise $21,943 for the nine communities who were sponsored,” Bumstead said. “This is far and above our previous nine years, which raised a couple thousand at most. It is truly incredible given all of the hardships businesses and communities have seen this year in particular.”

Nearly all the requested projects by the cities were sponsored.

Here are the three winners of the contest:

• City of Dietrich: “Best Community Art Facelift” – Dietrich’s project was to repair and/or replace residents’ mailboxes that are damaged and in need of a facelift. Volunteers painted the mailboxes and mailbox posts with colorful art selected by the owner.
• Gooding County: “Best Placemaking Facelift” – With the sponsorship funds, Gooding County purchased an electronic reader board for the entrance to the Gooding County Fairgrounds. The reader board will be used to spread the word about activities in the community.
• City of Shoshone: “Best Small Business Facelift” – Shoshone’s project included powerwashing, scraping and painting three downtown buildings in need of a facelift. The project will also include adding benches throughout the downtown area, which will be built by Future Farmers of America students in Shoshone.

The projects benefit the volunteers as well, Moon said. “In the process of encouraging people to volunteer, we are discovering that there is amazing hidden talent,” she said. “Community does not have boundaries; it has a common goal. In our case, it is building community pride.”

Sponsors for this year’s event included:

• Clif Bar (City of Glenns Ferry’s project)
• D.L. Evans Bank (City of Heyburn’s project)
• Dot Foods (City of Heyburn’s project)
• First Federal Savings Bank (City of Heyburn’s project)
• Glanbia (Projects in Dietrich, Richfield and Wendell)
• Pioneer Federal Credit Union (Gooding County’s project)
• 5J Excavation (Gooding County’s project)
• Shoshone Ice Caves (City of Shoshone’s project)
• SimplicIT Technical Solutions (City of Buhl’s project)
• Starr Corporation (Jerome County’s project)

Due to COVID-19, this year’s event was held in September and October. It is expected that next year’s event will return to its usual April-July timeframe.