By By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
Washington’s new mayor and new City Council want to improve the city government’s public image.
To that end, the mayor and council, heard a presentation on how television station WITN could help the city do just that. The presentation was made Monday as a prelude to the orientation tour for new council members. Ashley Stephenson, an account executive for WITN, made the presentation.
“We know we need to do better image-building,” Mayor Archie Jennings said during the presentation.
Before the city can begin to work on improving its image, it’s got to decide in which direction it wants to go, Jennings said.
Stephenson said WITN is prepared to work with the city on improving its public-relations strategy in a way that will better market the city and what it has to offer.
“You’ve got to have a set of goals. Without a set of goals, you’re wasting your money, time and effort,” Stephenson said.
Stephenson reviewed several packages, some costing up to about $2,000 a month, that would provide exposure for the city. That exposure includes commercials during WITN broadcasts, two-minute Business Break segments and a presence on WITN’s Web site, which is the fifth most-visited TV station Web site in the state, he said.
Stephenson also said that some items produced by WITN for the city could also be aired on the city government channel (channel 9) on the Suddenlink cable TV system in Washington. The dual use of such productions appealed to city officials.
Stephenson suggested the city create a “mascot logo,” possibly a blue crab, to use with its marketing campaigns. He said the city may want to conduct a contest, open to the public, to produce the mascot logo. The winner of the contest would receive a prize, Stephenson suggested.
Although he supports efforts to bring visitors to the city, Councilman Doug Mercer said he believes the city needs to “target its residents” as part of an effort to better inform the public. The problem the city must solve is one of getting information about what the city is doing and why it is doing it to the city’s residents, Mercer said.
Jennings said the city also must find a way to educate the public about the benefits of living inside the city limits, especially people who live near the city, benefit from its services and programs but do not pay for them.
“We’ve got to create value-added for living in the city,” the mayor said.
People who live near the city and benefit from its services, facilities and programs should help pay for those services, facilities and programs, Mercer said.
Councilman Bobby Roberson said WITN’s marketing proposal and the use of WITN-produced programming for the city-government channel could be ways of better educating the public about city-related functions, projects and services. For example, Roberson said, the city should find a way to educate the public about the city’s revenue stream — where the city gets its money. City residents should know where the money to run the city comes from, he said.
“I don’t see any (federal) stimulus money coming to Washington anytime soon,” Roberson said.
Although the city’s current general-fund budget is about $16 million, the city’s property tax generates about $3.7 million in revenue. The remaining revenue comes from other taxes, fees and other sources.
The council plans to further discuss WITN’s marketing proposal at its Jan. 19 meeting.
During the tour, council members visited the city’s water-treatment plant near Beaufort County Community College.
Adam Waters, the city’s water-resources supervisor, explained the process used to treat raw water drawn from a series of eight wells. Those wells, ranging from about 200 feet to 300 feet deep, draw water from the Castle Hayne aquifer. The water is withdrawn from limestone, Waters explained.
The water-treatment plant has its own plant to treat wastewater that’s left over from the process used to produce drinking water.
Recently, the city rehabilitated one of the eight wells by introducing acid in to the well. Among the material recovered after that process was an intact half of a scallop shell, which Adams showed to the council members.
Adams also informed the council members that the area of the plant where the raw water is treated does not require heating or air conditioning because its temperature remains about 65 degrees, summer or winter.