Community Bridge Initiative – Â鶹ĘÓƵ Tue, 30 Sep 2025 20:53:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cropped-favicon_logo-32x32.jpg Community Bridge Initiative – Â鶹ĘÓƵ 32 32 Analysis of Logan City’s Recycling Progam /projects/analysis-of-logan-citys-recycling-progam-2/ /projects/analysis-of-logan-citys-recycling-progam-2/#respond Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:37:24 +0000 https://portal.epicn.org/case-stories/analysis-of-logan-citys-recycling-progam/ Read More... from Analysis of Logan City’s Recycling Progam

]]> The City of Logan has provided
curbside recycling to the residents of Cache
Valley for over 10 years. In rural areas of the
county, as well as in outlying towns, the
efficiency of recycling collection is lower
than in the rest of the service area. This is
largely due to the fact that residences, and
thus recycling bins, are more dispersed.
Combined with the generally lower
utilization rates in rural areas, the collection
cost per ton of recyclable waste is greater
there than in urban areas of Cache Valley.
In an effort to make the existing
program more efficient and cost effective,
City Mayor Craig Petersen requested,
through CBI, that USU conduct a costbenefit analysis of the current rural recycling
routes.
In the fall of 2015, eight students
from Dr. Ryan Dupont’s Solid and Hazardous
Waste Management class worked together
with Conservation Coordinator and
Recycling Educator, Emily Malik, to analyze
expenses from the 1078 miles of rural
recycling routes, in terms of fuel, vehicle
maintenance, contaminated loads, new
recycling containers, and employee costs.
Two complete reports (page 25)
were delivered to the City, which include a
detailed cost-benefit analysis of the rural
recycling program, as well as seven different
options to be considered in making
decisions about the rural recycling program.

]]> Dr. Robert Schmidt’s class, Living with
Wildlife, partnered with the City of Logan’s
forestry crew to prune some of Logan’s 11,000
street trees. As Dr. Schmidt’s class focused on
issues related to human interactions with
wildlife, this project gave students the
opportunity to assist with the actual
management of urban wildlife habitat, and
demonstrate how residents’ selection and care
of trees can impact urban ecosystems. Students
gained practical skills and also a better
understanding of urban tree management.
For Logan City, this project improved air
quality, enhanced urban wildlife habitat,
reduced infrastructure costs, and made
traveling on sidewalks safer, and beautified the
city.
Prior to the project, City Forester Joe
Archer came into the classroom and gave a
presentation on the aesthetic, health, and
safety reasons for pruning trees, and discussed
how to trim trees safely and effectively.
For the project, 88 Living with Wildlife
students signed up for 6 hours of service. No
more than 20 students could
sign up per shift and shifts
were spread out
over 2 weeks with 2
shifts per
day

]]> Cache Valley’s population is growing,
with the associated changes in urban form,
traffic, social composition, and a diversity of
demands of services and infrastructure. The
valley is a sensitive environment, where
careless development can damage the very
reason people like to live in this place: a
small town feeling with a strong agricultural
heritage and proximity to great year round
outdoor recreation opportunities. The city
of Logan was concerned with the need to
provide a variety of housing opportunities
to its growing population.
Dr. Carlos Licon, and Dr. Dave
Anderson instructed a group of 18 LAEP
Juniors to work on innovative residential
plans that would address the demands of
Logan City’s growing population.
Students organized themselves
into five teams and presented detailed
reports to Logan City Mayor
Craig Petersen, planning professionals from
Logan and Bear River Association of
Governments, and some of the property
owners. The five reports (page 26) touched
on specific solutions for how the city can
provide a variety of housing opportunities
within its boundaries and encourage
settlement patterns in close proximity to
employment and urban amenities,
while creating safe and placemaking development for new
families in Logan.

]]> As we move further into the information
age, municipalities scattered across the United
States are recognizing the value of utilizing
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to
convey information about various public
services to their public.
Likewise, Logan City felt the need to
update its Parks and Recreation website to
include a new way for the public to explore
information about the City’s parks and trails
systems.
Integrating GIS story
maps to the Parks and
Recreation website would not
only help the City convey valuable information
to its residents and tourists, but also provide a
new method for Logan City planners to assess
how well the parks and trails serve the public.
Such City needs were an ideal challenge for
CBI.
Dr. Joe Wheaton and two of his GIS
students fulfilled these needs by creating two
separate GIS story maps.
One student created a detailed GIS
story map outlining recreation trails in Logan,
while the other student created a GIS map
showing where parks were located within the
city and how they correlate with different
socioeconomic groups.
Students were able to apply
practical skills and provide a real
benefit to the city. One student was
even offered a job as a result of his
work on this project. See page 25 for full
story maps

]]> As part of a broader university community engagement initiative, four professors, and 59 students at Utah State University joined forces with Logan City to help improve local air quality.

]]> After-school programs are designed to help students grow academically and socially. Programs often include homework assistance, healthy snacks, sports, art, music, and field trips. Program goals are to provide reliable and safe after-school supervision, increase academic enrichment, and manage behavioral problems, particularly for low-income students and minority groups. Logan City understands the
importance of such programs and their role in the community. In order to further improve the quality of services provided the Logan City After-School Program (ASP) requested, through CBI, that USU develop and administer a questionnaire to assess ASP worker’s cultural competency. Results from this assessment were used to identify areas in which ASP workers can be better trained and prepared to respond to diverse student needs. This project was divided into threenphases and integrated into three courses over three semesters, so that each phase could build on previous progress. Phase 1 concluded in the Summer of 2015. Dr. Jessica Lucero’s MSW 6595 students designed the cultural competency questionnaire and prepared the IRB protocol. Dr. Jennifer Roark’s MSW 6800 students took on Phase 2 of this project in the Fall. Three students carried out a statistical analysis of results and compiled a stakeholder’s report (page 27) with recommendations to provide a cultural competency training to all ASP workers. Dr. Sonia Manuel Dupont’s Cultural and Linguistic Diversity in Communicative Disorders class is now (Spring 2016) taking on the third phase of this project. Her students are developing training materials to be used by ASP for cultural competency training purposes.

]]> With support from Logan City’s Community Development Director, Mike DeSimone, Professor Jessica Lucero and 13 of her Master of Social Work (MSW) students in her Human Behavior in the Social Environment: Groups, Organizations & Communities course embarked on a community-based research project that would assist the city in its neighborhood planning efforts for Hillcrest Neighborhood. This asset-based approach for community development is useful for several reasons: (1) it promotes investment from local residents which can lead to more involved collective efforts; (2) it favors local residents’ lived experience in their neighborhood over an outsider’s assessment; and (3) it identifies key strengths in the neighborhood that can be maximized to overcome the challenges already present. The purpose of this project was twofold: (1) to document the unique strengths and areas for improvement as reported by Hillcrest neighborhood residents in order to inform Logan City’s Hillcrest development plan; and (2) to provide MSW students with a real-world community project in which they could apply community theory and develop community-based research skills. This project gave neighborhood residents of Hillcrest a greater voice in the neighborhood planning process, and offered Logan City innovative data and recommendations to inform their continued planning and development efforts. Dr. Lucero concluded; “In social work it is imperative that our students understand the entire system of service delivery, and one major component of this system is city government. Not only were the projects relevant to my course objectives, but they taught my students how to interface with local government officials effectively.”

]]> The number of urban deer in Logan
City is increasing and without management,
they will likely cause serious problems.
While some residents have expressed
concern and asked the City to address it,
others believe no action is necessary.
The experience of urban deer
population control in other Utah cities
suggests that this will be a controversial
activity. Consequently, it is important that
the City receives extensive public input to
inform decisions moving forward.
In order to gather the necessary
information, Dr. Mark Brunson assembled a
team of 8 students from the Quinney
College of Natural Resources, majoring in
Wildlife Science, Recreation Resource
Management, Environmental Studies, and
Conservation and Restoration Ecology, to
tackle the Urban Deer Management project.
The team worked with Dr. Brunson
to learn about urban deer management in
Utah and issues specific to Logan.
Then, Dr. Brunson’s students designed a
survey based on similar efforts in other
cities, and reviewed the academic literature
about urban deer management.
In order to achieve a representative
sample of Logan, students also developed a
sampling strategy to randomly select 600
households across Logan City, and created a
Spanish version of the survey. Furthermore,
all students were required to go through the
Institutional Review Board’s training and
certification program prior to participating
in the study.
In Phase 2 of the Urban Deer
Management project, students will
conduct data entry
and analysis, and
deliver a report of
their findings to
Logan City.

Read the final student report delivered to the local gov/community partner.

Community Bridge Initiative Contact Info

University Faculty Contact
Mark Brunson
Environmental Studies

Local Government / Community Contact

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