Leaders focus on informing residents

Perry Village government officials are taking some new steps to clearly communicate important information to residents.

Council President Jean Schonauer said a recent staff meeting included discussion on the best ways to let residents know what the village is doing and why its government leaders decided to do these things.

One new method that village government will use to get the word out about important decisions or events is to provide updates in the quarterly Perry Bulletin Board newsletter.

“Starting with the October issue, we’re going to now have our page in that every quarter, highlighting what we’re doing in the village,” Schonauer said, during a discussion at a council meeting held earlier this month.

The Perry Bulletin Board is a newsletter that is planned, edited and designed by Perry Township government’s administrative staff. Along with serving as a way for the township to share its own important news and announcements, space also is provided for submissions by entities and groups such as the Perry Women’s League, Perry Joint Fire District and Perry Public Library.

Schonauer admitted that she is a faithful reader of the newsletter.

“I know personally I look at that when it comes in my mailbox,” she said.

At that same meeting, Schonauer performed the duties of interim mayor, as the village’s formal leader, James Gessic, was out of town. She pointed out that Gessic recently began updating residents with weekly posts on the Perry Village Ohio Facebook page.

Schonauer emphasized that the mayor’s announcements — usually a list of three brief items — are going only on the Perry Village Ohio Facebook page and not the Perry Ohio Community Facebook page. The latter page features a more broad range of topics from the entire Perry area. Posts include everything from reports of lost pets to people seeking recommendations on contractors to hire for home-improvement projects.

“The consensus is that since (what we do) only affects the 1,600 people in Perry Village, that the information should be on the Perry Village Ohio Facebook page,” she said.

In addition, Schonauer said village government needs to explore ways to reach residents who do not get any news or information through social media.

“We recognize that not everybody is tech-savvy and can utilize Facebook,” she said. “We have some older people in our community that don’t have Facebook, don’t know how to use Facebook, so we need to address that.”

Councilman Phil Cassella reminded his colleagues that announcements could be sent out by traditional U.S. mail to ensure that all village households are reached about topics of great interest or significance.

“I would suggest, and we can discuss this when we get into our strategic plan, that some allowance be made for specific types of projects that affect a wide range of individuals in the village,” Cassella said. “That we have some type of mailed informational item to go out in regard to those types of projects.”