Menu

City News Room

Winter Header

The Mayor's Message

The Fire Department has received a grant from First Alert through its Fire Safety Community Service

08/27/2018

The Mayor's Message - 08.27.2018

The Fire Department has received a grant from First Alert through its Fire Safety Community Service Project. The department will be working with the local Red Cross chapter later this fall to install smoke detectors donated through this project in the Roosevelt neighborhood. It's a great opportunity for people to have smoke detectors in their apartment and homes to keep the community compliant.

The Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Addiction will host another Take Back Tuesday event on August 28th from 1 to 4 p.m. on the sidewalk outside the main entrance of Fargo Cass Public Health. The event will allow area residents to dispose of unused and unwanted over-the-counter and prescription medications, which helps protect the environment, prevents drug misuse and is a strategy to help combat the opioid epidemic. Every time the health department has had that we have had a great turn out.

An interesting thing from the Library, the North Dakota State Library has awarded the Fargo Public Library the 2018 North Dakota Star Library Award for going above and beyond with services to the community. Library Director Tim Dirks was presented with the award on August 15th.

Fall/winter hours start September 9th at the library. The Main Library and the Carlson Library will be open from 1 to 6 p.m. Sundays through Memorial Day..

North Dakota's July 2018 not seasonally adjusted employment was higher by zero point nine percent from the same period a year ago. Of North Dakota's three metro areas over the past year, Fargo increased employment by 1,900 jobs, Bismarck's employment was unchanged and Grand Forks added 700 jobs.

The City has also been busy issuing permits for 547 multi-family housing units so far in 2018. Of those permits, 174 were for downtown locations, 39 for a low-income project in south Fargo, 135 units were targeted for NDSU students in north Fargo and 222 units were in south Fargo. There are six building permit applications for multi-family housing under review by Fargo Inspections at present time.

We are always having trouble finding new police officers but we lucked out, Chief. Five new police officers will be sworn in on September 10th. The application process and training program for police officers takes about 10 months. Chief Todd said in today’s climate of competition for law enforcement employees the City has to continue to be creative in producing an atmosphere that attracts the right people, along with competitive wages and benefits. He is very please how Fargo is doing.

The Washington Post recently published a story about fun and interesting things to do and see in Fargo-Moorhead, including: Pie Day at the Sons of Norway; the Fargo-Moorhead Convention and Visitors Bureau where visitors can view the original wood chipper from the “Fargo” movie and put their foot in the wood chipper if you want; the Plains Art Museum; BernBaum’s Restaurant; Wild Terra Cider and Brewing; Rustica Eatery and Tavern; Young Blood Coffee; Unglued; Hotel Donaldson; Junkyard Brewery; and the Moorhead Dairy Queen. Interesting what the people like around this town.

The move to the new City Hall has started. I want to thank Gregg and Katie for all of the hard work they have been doing for getting this to go. During the three-week process, City front line staff members will continue to serve the public at the current City Hall. Once we are all moved over to the new City Hall, transactions will be moved over as well. Interactions with the City may take a bit longer than normal due to the moving process; therefore, if possible, residents should consider calling or emailing departments to facilitate faster response times. As part of the move, the Assessor’s Office and the Community Development Division, which were in locations outside of the current City Hall, will be temporarily located on the main floor of the current City Hall through September 14th.

We are also pleased today on the FM Diversion to receive news that the DNR released a supplemental review and it does come out with ideas about Plan B. In addition to that, the Corps. released its environmental study. Both of these are open to open dialog for the next 30 days for public input on Plan B and the DNR is working vigorously with out team to move forward on this project. We are very pleased about that. I just want to thank Nathan who works for our staff and all of the engineers for all of their hard work to get this done. You are doing a great job. Bob Zimmerman as well as the rest of our staff.