Altoona hires firm to support marketing efforts

NOVA6 to manage website, Facebook account, YouTube channel content

Last year, a controversy erupted when residents living near the 200 block of Beech Avenue in Logantown learned that the city had been planning to develop a housing project on what those residents long thought of as Orchard Park.

It turned into nine months of legal wrangling, with the city eventually agreeing to a settlement that calls for the ground to remain a park in perpetuity.

It's "a perfect example" of why the city has embarked on a communications improvement initiative headlined by the hiring last month of a marketing firm to support city government in its dealings with the public, according to City Manager Christopher McGuire.

Having NOVA6 on board under a one-year contract for $36,000 probably wouldn't have changed the outcome of the Orchard Park conflict, but it might have been less "contentious," with the parties communicating with one another early on, according to McGuire.

"That's how you solve problems," McGuire said.

Having a marketing firm as an intermediary and using it to ensure transparency with residents should cut down on rumors and "conspiracy theories," helping the city avoid the barrage of phone calls those rumors tend to spawn, McGuire said.

The city makes its "fair share of mistakes ... but we do far more good than the negative that gets attached to us," he said.

NOVA6 will help the city by managing the city website, its Facebook account and its YouTube channel; by calling attention to city programs and initiatives; by providing convenient video access to meetings; by helping residents understand city codes; and by getting the message out about events, according to Chris Peters, who co-owns the firm with his wife, Lori.

Some of the initiatives that NOVA6 will be publicizing are new, although many were previously available, for example on the city website, but harder to find or harder to understand or appreciate, according to Peters.

The company is "trying to break things down, make them a little more bite-sized," Peters said.

"We're working to make city information easier to find, easier to access and easier to follow," states a Facebook post on the city website that touts the city's YouTube channel, where there are videos of City Council meetings, Redevelopment Authority walk-throughs, Blair County commissioners meetings, Blair County Planning Commission meetings and information on city projects and programs and information on community programs.

Another Facebook post contains a schedule of city agency meetings for the upcoming week.

Yet another post under the heading "City Services 101" advertises the phone number and an online connection for reporting property maintenance concerns to the Department of Codes and Inspections.

Similar recent posts advertise numbers for the Highway Yard and Public Works, where residents can report a pothole or an abandoned vehicle.

Dog license renewals will be the subject of a future post, according to Peters.

"The whole thing is to try to make things better," Peters said.

The property maintenance call numbers don't constitute an invitation to snitch on neighbors, Peters said.

"People can abuse it that way," he said. "But it's not designed that way."

Rather, it's designed to help residents deal properly with issues that need to be addressed: like "if my neighbors next door dump tons of trash in the front yard," he said.

It's designed to answer the question, "Who do you call?" he said.

Such information helps neighbors "keep (their) property values up" by enabling them to get code problems solved, said Mayor Matt Pacifico.

It's not much different than reporting a pothole or an overflowing trashcan, thus helping to keep the city accountable, Pacifico said.

Some of the portals for reporting highlighted by NOVA6 will become more efficient to use -- less "clunky" -- as the city further transitions into its OpenGov management software, purchased perhaps a year ago, according to Pacifico.

Part of the communications improvement effort will consist of sharing the weekly activity reports that department heads already make to the manager, McGuire said.

The city considered hiring an employee to do the communications improvement work, but backed off after calculating the wage and benefit costs, McGuire said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.