The Star Telegram published a story about the Kennedale Dispatch today.  The article by Robert Cadwallader, titled Kennedale Publication Will Reach Beyond City Limits, describes the goals of the City of Kennedale and the KISD in creating the new publication.  Photos by Ron Jenkins.

 The article is included below.

KENNEDALE — Whenever city and school district officials ask what they could do better, one suggestion from taxpayers always makes the list.

"Everybody always says we need to communicate better," said Joe Taylor, the school board’s vice president. "It’s a goal of the school district to communicate better."

It’s a vague edict from the public, one that’s been addressed over the years through official Web sites, e-mail updates of school activities and a city newsletter mailed with water bills.

Now the two entities are offering a joint newsletter, the Kennedale Dispatch, delivered monthly to all 6,500 homes in the city and school district.

The venture costs the city and district each $1,000 a month. Officials from both called it a good deal because of the need it addresses.

The district’s commitment is for six months, as a trial. The city is breaking even by stopping its water bill newsletter, the Kennedale Herald.

"What we’re doing is shifting the money," City Manager Bob Hart said.

Besides giving information to residents, the newsletter is intended to help the city and district work together better by keeping each aware of what the other is doing.

The inaugural eight-page edition was delivered early this month. The cover was filled with welcoming comments from Taylor, Hart and Superintendent Gary Dugger, and the inside pages were loaded with reports on city and school activities, photos and a detailed calendar of events.

City and school officials produce all the content. Tammy Jones, publisher of the weekly Kennedale News and a popular advice Web site for single moms, SingleRose.com, organizes and publishes the full-color newsletter.

It’s linked to KennedaleNews.com.

Jones says the $2,000 a month she gets in tax money is just enough to cover production and distribution.

"Barely," said Jones, 45, who began publishing the Kennedale News in print and online in 2006. "How I’m going to make money off of this is off any ads I sell. That will be my pay. So as you can imagine, I’m hustling."

The idea came from the city’s strategic planning project, which set development goals and other priorities.

The project’s communication task force, which included Taylor and Jones, mailed survey forms to 400 residents and found that many were not Internet users.

"They want a piece of paper in their hands," Taylor said. "They don’t use the Internet, and they don’t use e-mail."

Many aren’t motivated to seek out information on the Web sites or to sign up for e-mail notifications or even for automated phone calls about water outages or swine flu precautions, Taylor said.

"Those systems require an action on the part of the receiver," he said. "If you want to get that information, you have to sign up for it."

The district considered running a calendar and other notices in the Kennedale News, but it’s not delivered outside the city limits — and 4,000 of the 6,500 houses in the Kennedale school district are in southwest Arlington.

The city recently added another news source — a digital marquee — along Kennedale Parkway to run notices of events. Jones has created a Web site called Kennedale Community (Kennedale. ning.com) for local groups, which she said is "like Facebook but just for Kennedale."

"Hopefully between the marquee, the Kennedale Dispatch,and the city and school and Chamber of Commerce Web sites, we can cover everybody," she said.

 Here's a link to the September 2009 edition of the Kennedale Dispatch

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