El Mirage revamps image through social networking

El Mirage is a launching a new initiative on the social networking Web site Facebook, hoping to tout its business-friendly atmosphere to artists, companies and entrepreneurs, looking for better opportunities.

Known as “El Mirage Opportunity,” the site will give more information about the city.

“Overwhelmingly our residents want to see more businesses, more jobs and more sales tax revenues to enhance their quality of life. This is yet one more step, along with major changes being made to our General Plan, to let the business community know that opportunity is no mirage in El Mirage,” Mayor Michele Kern said.

Kern said the city’s rebranding effort would likely soon result in a new moniker for the city including the word “opportunity.”

“The biggest gripe we hear from the business community is how difficult it is to do business in certain cities. We want the marketplace to understand that creative, enterprising projects large and small can happen in our city,” Kern said.

In addition, she mentioned that the city may be pursuing state and federal legislation to further these goals, all of which will benefit residents, she said, with increased tax revenues and jobs.

Kern also said the city is furthering its educational efforts about the ramifications of locating the F-35 fighter aircraft at Luke Air Force Base.

“There may be positives and there may be negatives. Noise appears to be one of them. And we need to understand that as a city and a region because two thirds of El Mirage is impacted directly by the flights and everyone else in the West Valley is impacted to some extent,” she said.

She said the educational effort, recently launched on Twitter (@SoundofF-35) would endeavor to provide many facets of the discussion about locating the F-35 at Luke.

In order to gather as much information possible about the potential impact of the F-35 El Mirage Government Relations Director and former Peoria City Councilwoman Pat Dennis sent a request last month for F-35 studies and details to her counterparts in other West Valley cities.