Municipalities typically pride themselves on the ability to keep their community clean. Whether that is in the form of street sweeping or garbage pickup, providing their residents with a clean standard of living an important part of local government. For the City of Park Ridge, IL, a problem was occurring where the contractor for garbage collection was continually missing the pickup of trash at several courtesy can receptacle locations causing the city to spend time making multiple phone calls in order to get this trash picked up.

One thing that is definitely important to a municipality is the ability to provide sufficient businesses to meet the daily needs of their residents. Whether it comes in the form of a good restaurant, deli, coffee shop or convenient store, residents may choose to stay or move based on what a community can offer them. At this moment in time the economy is making it difficult for small businesses to survive and thus many are closing their doors. On the contrary, many people are starting up new businesses at the same time that larger chains continue to spread their wings.

Over the past two years the City of Park Ridge, IL has experienced some severe storm events that have drastically challenged their sewer system. In conjunction with these large events, there has also been a lot of questioning from the City’s residents as to what they can do to prevent storm water from damaging their home. Most of this questioning has lead some residents to install new sump pumps, generators or other flood like control devices; this in turn has lead the city’s Engineering Department to wonder if these installations have helped the residents in their fight to protect their homes.

Every now and again a municipality is faced with the decision on whether or not to allow a new establishment the rights to sell liquor. Many questions are raised on where this potential establishment will be located as well as how late this establishment will stay open. The City of Park Ridge, IL was recently confronted with these questions and had to make a decision on whether or not to allow an establishment these rights. Within their decision making process they decided to use the Geographic Information System (GIS) as a method for how this late night establishment might affect the local residential neighborhoods.

Every year the City of Park Ridge, IL contracts with a photogrammetric firm in order to collect important planimteric data such as buildings, driveways, sidewalks, etc. in a computer usable digital format. This data is fundamentally important as it provides a backbone for a Geographic Information System (GIS) and allows for in-depth analysis that can help a city understand the scope of what lies within their city limits. Whether it is counting how many homes are within a floodplain or estimating how many sidewalk squares a community must review each year, this planimetric data has its use. For without it, local governments would have to resort to alternative methods such as laborious field checks or manual counts in a Sidwell parcel map atlas.

Every ten years the U.S. Census Bureau conducts a survey in order to find out how many people are living in a specific area among other things. Once completed with the survey, they then eventually release this information to the public. The ability to access this data from the Census Bureau as well as its use to answer important questions is at times invaluable. For the City of Park Ridge, IL, they decided to use the Geographic Information System (GIS) as there catalyst for first accessing this information from the Census Bureau and second, to determine how many people are living within each municipal election ward.

The City of Park Ridge, IL has recently invested in a new software application that enhances its ability to provide emergency alerts to its residents. The application, going by the name Everbridge Aware for Citizen Alerts, is a notification sytem that will call people on their phone and inform that about emregencies as well as other helpful non-emergency updates. The data in the system is supplied to the city by willful residents who fill out their information via the city’s website. Residents will give at least one phone number but have the option to supply a cell phone number, a business phone number or even an e-mail address. When an emergency or important event comes up, the system will send a message to the first number that a resident provided and wait for a confirmation of receipt from that resident. If the system does not receive a confirmation from the resident it will try the next method of choice that was outlined by the resident during the application process whether it be another phone number, text message or e-mail.

In order to properly drive a car or walk across a street requires that someone knows where they heading. Although these everyday tasks seem to happen naturally it would be foolish to overlook the hard work that people do to ensure that we are accurately guided. Guidance comes in many forms, but for this article we will focus on the guidance that the City of Park Ridge, IL provides its residents by making certain that their street pavement markings (thermoplastics) are identifiable and easy to follow. For not having crosswalks painted brightly enough or turn lanes not properly identified, could easily result in an unnecessary accident.

Within the sector of local government there are many important services that a community provides for their residents. Among the long list, one service that often gets a lot of discussion is the condition of the streets, or better yet, the street resurfacing program. Whether residents file a complaint about the vast number of potholes on a street or someone passing through town inquires about a refund for a road induced flat tire, the general condition of a street attracts a fair amount of attention. With these ideas in mind the City of Park Ridge, IL decided to take a different approach at surveying the condition of their streets in an effort to better understand the current state of their road infrastructure.

Everyday residents of the City of Park Ridge, IL access other parts of their neighborhood and town via the use of a sidewalk. Although many citizens of the city do not pay much attention to these sidewalks, they are quick to notice when there is impedance such as a large crack or a bump up in the concrete. Moreover, these impedances can be labeled as trip hazards and can cause injury to residents. For this reason alone it is very important for the city to track all of these trip hazards and do their best to remove them from the sidewalk system.

Understanding the trends of what is happening in the housing market is difficult to do especially if you are not in the realty business. Houses may be sold, rented or even more dramatic, torn down in order to build a new one. In this article we will focus on the part of the housing market that at times can have an impact on a local community, housing demolitions.

Almost every day of the week, police officers are called to the scene of a traffic accident to provide assistance. More often than not, these officers report to a street intersection rather than an address along a residential street. But how many times does a police officer report to the same intersection? Moreover, are there trends occurring for high traffic volume intersections? These were the sorts of questions the Traffic Safety Committee of the City of Park Ridge, IL aimed to study. In addition, the committee wanted to analyze how many accidents per month were happening at each intersection. Furthermore, they needed and easy method for displaying these results to the whole committee.

Every year the city of Chicago and its surrounding suburbs receive a significant amount of snowfall from December to March. With large amounts of snowfall comes the need to keep roads free of snow and ice so that they can remain safe and drivable. Although some suburban communities have experimented with sand as an applicant for better traction, almost all communities use salt to melt snow and ice, the City of Park Ridge, IL is no exception.

Picking a community that resides within a good school district is something that is often queried when a family is on the move. Not only is the idea of a good education important to this family, but the safety of that school and its location to heavily trafficked areas. The City of Park Ridge, IL decided that on top of offering numerous great schools for their students to attend, they would also offer those students a safe route to those schools.

One might ask what benefits a local government would get by modeling their community in a 3-D environment and the answer is simple, a great deal. The idea of modeling the real world on a computer was once a difficult task and usually only existed in video games. However, with technology advancing at an alarming rate this once difficult task has now become more of a normal occurrence.

The City of Park Ridge, IL Fire Department, like all other Fire Departments, takes great pride in responding to their residents in a quick and timely manner. Part of taking pride in this service means that they are prepared at all times and are ready to act when the bell goes off. Their hard work doesn’t stop there though, as they are always investigating ways to improve their systems and response times to incidents within and outside the city limits. Whether it is receiving a good numerical grade for the Public Protection Classification (PPC*) or a high rating for Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS*), the Fire Department is always enhancing their efficiency to provide a great service.

City employees continually review their current parking layouts within active business districts so they are confident that they are providing their residents with the best services possible. If the city does not provide ample parking within busy shopping sectors of town, it can easily fall victim to decreasing consumerism and complaints from business employees who need a long-term location to park while they are at work.