Midway City is a haven for outdoor enthusiasts year-round. However, as the city experienced rapid growth, it faced challenges in effectively communicating with its residents and visitors. In response, Midway City turned to GOGov for a modern solution to enhance citizen outreach and engagement. By leveraging GOGov's innovative mobile app, "My Midway City UT," the city has transformed its communication strategy, providing real-time updates on meetings, outdoor activities, and important announcements. This proactive approach not only strengthens community connections but also ensures that residents and visitors alike stay informed and engaged. As Midway City continues to prioritize transparency and accessibility, "My Midway City UT" remains a cornerstone of its communication efforts, reflecting the city's commitment to fostering a sense of belonging for all. Join us as we explore how Midway City is using GOGov to create a more connected community and pave the way for a brighter future.

About Midway City

Midway City, Utah is a beautiful mountain town that is tucked in the shadows of the Wasatch Mountains, giving residents a recreational and outdoor lifestyle. Midway City was originally founded in 1891 by Swedish settlers that nicknamed the city “Swiss Alps of Utah” for its snow topped mountains and green valleys that reminded them of Switzerland and other areas of Europe, their home country. Midway City adopted the red and white colors from Switzerland and like to think of the city as a “mini-Switzerland”. Midway has a fast-growing population that is currently 6,200 people. As a generational community, lots of families have been living in the area since the early to mid-1850s. Midway City values family and tradition as seen every summer as thousands and thousands of visitors make their way to this tiny town to enjoy the famous “Swiss Days celebration”. In the winter, residents and visitors enjoy the close proximity Midway has to Park City, Deer Valley and Sundance ski resorts. As home to the Solider Hollow Ski Complex, it will be the site for the Nordic events for the 2034 Olympics.

What was the challenge that led Midway City to GOGov?

In 2022, the Mayor and Council realized the city was on a fast growth upswing and the “small town way” of communicating with its residents had been surpassed with what they were doing. A traditional newsletter that showed up to residents’ mailboxes once a month was no longer providing adequate, current, and important information—especially for residents who were part-time and could not be there to receive the newsletter. Midway city has a fairly large empty nester demographic, with a substantial number of citizens that would rather not use social media to receive important information. Another factor that was important to Midway was current information that could be accessible to the many visitors in the city that will be on-the-go via Smartphone.

The city took the next step to update citizen outreach and engagement with residents with a new plan. Starting in 2022, Midway city began working on a new website, social media, and city branding. The city employees were receiving lots of calls asking similar questions, which could be simplified if there was a better engagement program. The city was looking to add a notification system to be p a part of the new push and came across GOGov. Midway loved the idea of having a city branded mobile app, and liked how simple the app was for people to use. The city went with GOGov’s Citizen Notifications Solution to improve citizen outreach for both residents and visitors!

How is Midway City using GOGov today?

“My Midway City UT”, the city branded mobile app, is used to send out notifications to any person who has the app downloaded onto their smart phone. Midway City uses the app primarily to get important updates out to the public, such as meetings and information on outdoor activities like skiing, mountain biking, fishing. The city finds having this app really increases the sense of community for residents but also keeps all visitors up to date with important information about Midway city. The city has even marketed the app in their visitor center and souvenir store to encourage all visitors to download the app during their stay!

Last summer, Midway city had a major road and trail project, so it shut down the major North Lane through the town. This resulted in various detours, which was an inconvenience for about five months. The “My Midway City UT” app was especially useful during this project to update the public on the process of the project. The response from the public was appreciative, although it was an inconvenience, it helped knowing the status from start to finish.

Future Plans for Midway City

Midway city is still working on continuing to strengthen its city branding and to have a strong emphasis on community connection with using “My Midway City UT”. The app is one of the main pillars of the city’s communication strategy and they hope to continue to build on working on it so that the residents, citizens, and visitors feel that Midway is transparent, upfront, and accessible.

Advice for those considering GOGov

“I think having the app shows our residents that we want them to be involved and that we want them to feel connected to the local government and because we're a small community, we were looking for an easy way to make a big impact and we felt like this was it. It was easy for us. We don't have in-house IT, and we don't have all the bells and whistles because we are small. This was an easy way for us to get a bang for our buck.”

Camille Palmer, Mayoral Assistant

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Camille had also expressed that the GOGov team has been very proactive with checking in for annual review meetings, and training was a quick and seamless process.

Your Municipality Powered by GOGov

GOGov is committed to helping municipalities and local governments enhance community engagement, streamline operations, and foster transparent communication. Our partnership with Midway City, UT demonstrates the potential of our solutions to make a meaningful impact on cities of all sizes, and our continued efforts to improve and innovate further.  

GOGov specializes in providing CRM, Code Enforcement, Citizen Notifications, Online Permitting and mobile software to local governments of all sizes. We built our software from the ground up working with the departments and staff that now use our products every single day.

Interested in learning more? Sign up for a demo with the GOGov team today.

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