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The Mayor's Message

Last week the Fire Department and Fargo Cass Public Health hosted a “Play Safe Be Safe” program for

06/18/2018 5:00 p.m.

The Mayor's Message - 06.18.2018

Last week the Fire Department and Fargo Cass Public Health hosted a “Play Safe Be Safe” program for child care providers. The program taught fire safety and also provided education materials and continuing education credits.

The Fire Department has concluded drills at the downtown Heartland Apartments. The buildings are going to be torn down later this year and they provided excellent training opportunities for fire crews. They did not start them on fire but they did other training exercises in them. The department is grateful to Xcel Energy for facilitating and allowing this unique training opportunity. We also had a trailer fire this morning and the guys did a great job. I was concerned that it would spread within that community. Those tight spaces.

The Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Addiction will host a “Take Back Tuesday” event tomorrow from 1 to 4 p.m. on the sidewalk outside the main entrance of Fargo Cass Public Health. The event allows area residents to dispose of unused and unwanted over-the-counter and prescription medicines, which helps protect the environment and keeps those drugs off the streets. It was interesting, we had a report from the Blue Ribbon panel and the two major healthcare facilities in town had done an effort to decrease opiate usage and by prescribing habits, they have dropped it 32%. So, that's impressive that people have changed how they rate opiates. In our community, we are seeing less uses of opiates and that's fantastic.

Fargo Cass Public Health has produce in its garden boxes ready to be harvested. The boxes are located near the main entrance and plantings this year include lettuce, spinach, kale, tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, basil, chocolate mint, parsley and chives. Neighbors and community members are invited to harvest from boxes that have a “Ready to Pick” marker. Some of the harvested items will also be gathered and placed inside the building. Thank you Fargo Public Health.

Some Summer Reading Program highlights at the Library during the next couple of weeks include a history hunt, a talent show, a science of sound event with Graeme Wyllie, craft classes, a free Friday movie and a visit from author Christine Seifert, writer of “Factory Girls: A Kaleidoscopic Account of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.” Fireman probably want to go to that one. The Library is also participating in the weekly Party in the Park events and will have tables set up at Streets Alive! on June 24th and at the Police Department’s annual community picnic on June 26th at Island Park.

The Police Department is looking at redistricting and redesigning beats to better balance calls for service and to better meet demands driven by growth and development in the city. We will have those maps up sometime for the public to see on the City's website.

Chief Todd wants to thank Amy Kingzett for her efforts in organizing and representing the Police Department at the torch run and opening ceremonies for the Special Olympics, which were held last week in Fargo. The Police Department along with law enforcement did a torch run to bring the torch in for the event and the people that participated in the event had a great time. A strong event for Special Olympics. Their 50th one, right Chief? Yes, sir.

Fargo police officers have received “Effective Police Interactions with Youth” training. The department is the first in the state to train the entire department as opposed to only training specialty positions. Chief Todd recognizes this training is important for all officers as often times a youth’s first interaction with the police is at the patrol level. The training offered information on how to better understand youth behavior, practical strategies for interacting with young people in a positive way and options for getting youth the education and resources they need to keep them out of the justice system. So this would help with my teenager son? That's great and glad to hear everyone is trained.

Chief Todd reports the first week of the Fargo Police Summer Camp has concluded and 21 students were able to participate in events at TNT Kid’s Fitness and Gymnastics and Elevate Rock School as well as other character skill-building activities. It was very successful.

Now, on the screen you will see a photo of bike racks spelling out “Fargo” in American Sign Language that were installed on the corner of Broadway and Second Avenue North. The public art project was funded by the Mayor’s social fund and was a collaborative effort involving the Planning and Development Department, MetroCOG and local community members. Artist Jeff Knight, welder Betty Homme and members of Deaf Friendly Fargo will have an official unveiling of the project at 1 p.m. on June 24th to coincide with Streets Alive. We now have a place where people can take more pictures along with of the Fargo Theatre.