This is the first in a series of monthly articles that will be provided by the City of Rifle as a means of communicating with our community. As the new City Manager in Rifle, I feel it is my responsibility to look for new ways to share information with our residents, business owners, and visitors. The newspaper has been kind enough to provide us this forum and we intend to use it to maximize our transparency and openness with the public. This monthly feature is being called Rifle Rapport and that’s intended to symbolize the positive messages that we intend to feature. There are so many great people, events, and activities here in Rifle and it’s important that we showcase them for the community. We will utilize various guest authors from our City staff each month to help spread their messages on the happenings within their departments. We hope that this new approach to communication will improve our visibility in the community and will better inform the public on issues of importance.
With this being our first article, I thought it would be a good idea to share my observations since coming to Rifle and offer some insight into where we are heading as a government and as a community. I’ve now been with the City for just about 2 months and in that time have had the opportunity to meet many of the employees who help make Rifle so special. I’ve also started to interact with many of our local citizenries and learn about the priorities of the people who call Rifle home. I’ve been very impressed by the spirit of this City and believe it helps set us apart from other locations around the region. Everyone here is genuinely friendly, helpful and supportive – we are truly a community that cares. Further, I’ve been so proud to be associated with a team of City employees who are all exceptional stewards of Rifle. I have seen some very creative problem-solving strategies employed to deal with issues that affect the people we serve. I’ve also observed the tremendous efforts of our employees dealing with water main breaks, criminal activity, and winter storms. Our employees act selflessly to protect our community members and keep Rifle safe for visitors and residents alike. That being said, there are still advancements we can make to take our city to the next level. As we move forward, we will be looking at ways to enhance our customer service, internal processes and also our communication with the community. In addition to this monthly feature in the newspaper, you’ll also notice a new video series on Channel 10 starting in the near future. The monthly show called, “City of Rifle Spotlight” will feature different events and activities occurring in Rifle that we hope the public will find entertaining and informative. These and other communication tools will allow us to better connect with the people we serve and help spread the word on issues of importance. Of course, we always welcome your thoughts and suggestions on topics and issues that you’d like to see us cover in the future either in this column or on the Channel 10 show. Feel free to contact Kathy Pototsky, our Court Administrator/Public Information Officer at kpototsky@rifleco.org or 970-665-6420 with your ideas. In the meantime, thank you for taking the time to read this initial Rifle feature and thank you also for being a part of the reason that Rifle is such a special place to live, work and play.