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The Mayor's Message

Even through City Hall is closed to the public the Inspections Department is fully functional and utilizing

04/06/2020

The Mayor's Message - 04.06.2020

Even through City Hall is closed to the public the Inspections Department is fully functional and utilizing all remote working, email, phone and digital services. There is a drop box for plans, applications and submittals at the north entrance during normal business hours and the contents of the box are picked up regularly.

Although Fargo Public Library buildings are closed, the Library is still open online, reference librarians are responding to questions from patrons via phone, through social media and through email and online library card applications are still available.

A Stay-at-Home Book Party is held Thursday evenings on the Library’s Facebook page.

With the help of our Communications and Governmental Affairs team, some of the children’s librarians have filmed story times to run on the Library’s website and social media channels and more of these story times are planned in the coming weeks.

An analysis of calls for service from the Police Department over the past couple of weeks shows numbers similar to last year or slightly higher; therefore, according to Chief Todd, it does not appear that activity has dropped off with people who are supposed to be staying home. The Police Department has gone to 12-hour shifts for Field Services and created an isolated reserve force. The Administration and Investigations departments are also working at alternating times in the station to minimize exposure.

During this past weekend, the metro governments and health agencies in our Fargo-Moorhead metro released "A United Metro Against COVID-19” video which was intended to promote community, calm and preparedness, was released to assure our metro residents that their local leaders are united in fighting this pandemic. This video is just one of many tangible examples of the close collaboration among governments and public health systems in the F-M metro. Somewhat similar to how we approach a flood, we are lending each other our expertise, capacities and resources to produce a practically seamless provision of services to our residents. Physical city, county or state borders have little meaning during public health crises, such as the one we find ourselves in right now, and that is how we are approaching the COVID-19 virus. We are one team - and we're in this together. Our various jurisdictions are in constant communication with and among each other to ensure continuity of services and unification of efforts whenever possible. I want to offer my assurances to those listening today in the Fargo-Moorhead metro that your local governments and public healthcare teams are working around the clock to protect and serve you. Our teams have adapted to revised hours, new duties and new roles...and this evolves every day. I'm very proud of their commitment to serve. If we all work together to flatten this curve, we can hopefully enjoy a beautiful summer in the Red River Valley.