Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Bonding Rating Stays the Same

South Ogden City just received notice that our bond rating with Fitch Ratings has stayed at an "A+". The notice also said that the financial outlook for the city is stable.

The reason for this review is to assure that South Ogden municipal bonds continue to be a sound investment. While an "A+" is lower that a "AAA", which is the highest rating, it is very uncommon for a city our size to even reach even a "AA" status.

Overall this is very good news for the City that we continue to be financially stable during these tough economic times.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Splash Pad Survey

I recently had my intern, Josh Jones, spend three days at the splash pad to ask people some survey questions. I was curious to know exactly who and how many people were using the splash pad. I had Josh go at our peak time which is around the noon hour. Each time he went he spent two hours there. Here are the results:

1. On average how many days a month do you come to the Splash Pad?
Once- 60
Twice- 18
Three- 8
Four- 6
Five+- 9

2. What city are you from?
South Ogden- 11
Washington Terrace- 8
Riverdale- 5
Ogden City- 19
North Ogden- 12
Roy- 13
Other Weber County Cities- 17
Davis County- 27
Other- 8

We also had visitors from Arizona, California, Illinois, and Alaska.

3. How many people are in your group today?
One- 0
Two- 8
Three- 11
Four- 14
Five- 13
Six- 10
Seven- 14
Eight- 6
Nine- 3
Ten+- 18

4. How did you hear about the Splash Pad?
Word of Mouth- 80
City Newsletter- 4
City Website- 0
Newspaper- 5
Saw it- 10

Tuesday, August 4th
Average Attendance- 139

Wednesday, August 5th
Average Attendance- 172

Thursday, August 6th
Average Attendance- 143

Analysis

The thing that I was most curious about was where people were coming from. I found it very interesting that we didn't have more South Ogden residents at the Splash Pad. The fact that we had more from North Ogden and Roy is kind of amazing. Also the use out of Davis County is curious too.

We've had phone calls from people in Salt Lake County asking where the Splash Pad is. I think we must be getting some sort of notoriety throughout the Wasatch Front even though that was never our intent. Maybe the South Ogden residents know not to go during lunch time because of the heavy use. I don't know, that's just a guess.

My guess is that in the future other cities will see the success of our Splash Pad and they will eventually build their own. The reason ours is so successful is because it is well maintained, but more importantly it is free of charge. We don't mind all the people coming to use the Splash Pad. It's sure better than nobody using it.

The daily average attendance was about what I expected. In fact I thought those numbers were a little low. I know at this time frame that the temperature was in the mid-80's. I think if we would have surveyed on a 95+ degree day we would have had more people there. Last year I counted on a hot day and I counted over 200 people.

It doesn't surprise me that word of mouth was the main source for the Splash Pad. We had a few people comment that they heard about it from a friend who is a resident of South Ogden. We did promote it heavily last year, but we've found that most people know we have a splash pad.