City of Tyler wins statewide excellence awards

TYLER — The city of Tyler has been commemorated for excellence by the Texas Municipal League. City Manager Ed Broussard addressed the Tyler City Council Wednesday. “We are recipients of the public works award for our work on Hillside Park renovations, and then also, for the city communications programs for our “Friendly Community Thief” video series. We are very honored to be the recipients of those. Essentially, we kind of look at these as the ‘Oscars’ of city government awards.” Three years ago, the City of Tyler Parks Department began work to create a new opportunity for the community by transforming Hillside Park into a city-wide and regional attraction.

The Keep Tyler Beautiful Board and private donors raised $70,000. An additional $280,000 was added from the half-cent sales tax fund to ensure the project was completed. Once plagued with graffiti, Hillside Park reopened in Spring 2019, featuring an art wall illustrating the stories of local artistic residents. The park also features the largest concrete slide in Texas and the second-largest in the country. The revitalized park is enjoyed by residents and attracts visitors from throughout the state. Also in the spring of 2019, The City of Tyler’s Communications Department partnered with the Tyler Police Department to develop a unique public awareness campaign – The Friendly Neighborhood Thief – for the Tyler Police Department to identify and prevent property crimes before they occur- including auto burglaries, home break-ins, and holiday package theft. In each episode, the neighbor thief takes viewers along on his crime spree while pointing out how easy it is to be a victim of crime.

This campaign was shared on Tyler’s social media platforms and website with over 100,000 views, and air regularly on the City’s cable channel 3. In addition to contributing to a drop in property crimes during summer and fall 2019, this series has been both shared and duplicated by other municipalities.

Also, the City of Tyler’s Planning Department was awarded the 2020 Certificate of Achievement for Planning Excellence in recognition of the professional planning standards demonstrated by the staff and the support exhibited by the City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission. This is the sixth consecutive year that the City of Tyler Planning Department has received this award. Each year, the chapter recognizes planning excellence in municipalities throughout the state. For the 2020-2021 Recognition Program, Tyler was recognized for excellence, along with many other cities in Texas.

The criteria for recognition include:

Increasing community awareness of the importance of planning
Recognizing planning departments that meet certain professional requirements
Recognizing planning efforts that have achieved community support
Encouraging the funding of professional training for planning commissioners and staff
Aiding economic development and community image