Construction, plan reviews and inspections continue at a tremendous pace. Permit valuations are up 180 percent over 2019, dwelling units are up 300 percent for the year and there were 490 dwelling units built in 2019 compared to 1,476 units in 2020. Apartment building units are up 600 percent and single-family homes are up 142 percent over 2019. FEMA has released the landmark study “Building Codes Save: A National Study,” which looks at the benefits of good codes and avoiding losses to buildings and building contents. Fargo is among the cities that adopted the current codes that keep everybody safe and healthy.
This year marks 20 years that Fargo Cass Public Health has been serving babies, mothers and families through the Nurse Family Partnership program. More than 1,500 families have received support in the form of nurse home visits, which promote healthy pregnancies by providing education to first-time moms who meet eligibility guidelines.
The Fargo Public Library’s Children’s Services Department is rolling out a new readers’ advisory service for children similar to its “May We Suggest” reading recommendation service for adults and teens. Children can fill out a questionnaire and return it to the Library and librarians will send a list of suggested titles and authors based on the responses on the questionnaire. Recommendations take between 3 and 5 days to compile. The children’s librarians can also handle curriculum requests by teachers or caregivers with this service.
The Fargo Police Department is accepting applications for its second, free 12-week police-training academy scheduled May 17 to August 6, 2021. The department strives to find men and women of all backgrounds and ethnicities who wish to provide quality, professional police services to the community. On November 23, members of the Fargo Police Department Community Engagement Team supported the Fargo Salvation Army as they distributed Thanksgiving meal boxes to more than 500 families in the community, which is more than double the amount of families served for the event last year. Officers plan to assist the Salvation Army again in December when they distribute Christmas meal boxes. Construction and planning is moving forward on the Downtown Mercantile building that will provide a secure location for officers to work while maintaining a Downtown presence. New vision, mission, values and body-worn camera teams are actively engaged and making progress towards reshaping Police Department culture and enhancing technology.
The Street Division of the Public Works Department encourages those who live and work in Fargo to sign up for Cass Clay Alerts and to subscribe to Fargo Streets notifications. Snow emergency declarations by the Mayor will require citizens to remove their vehicles from Fargo roads. Notification of these events will occur several days in advance through Cass Clay Alerts, as well as local media, the City’s website and social media pages. Subscribing to the Fargo Streets category within Cass Clay Alerts will provide direct notification of the declaration as well as emergency street closures that take place during a winter weather event. Follow-up messages will occur when the declaration is lifted and/or when a street has reopened. The Street Department also recommends residents subscribe to the non-emergency category to receive messages regarding other street closures, Downtown snow hauling, emergency water shutdowns and other general notifications. Links to subscribe to Cass Clay Alerts and more information regarding snow removal and snow emergency declarations are on the Public Works website.
I would like to welcome Tyler Fischbach to The City of Fargo. Today is Tyler’s first day as the City’s first Community Engagement Manager in the Department of Communications & Governmental Affairs. He comes to the City after nearly five years at the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce. We were very impressed by his work in our community and we are excited he has joined Team Fargo; he will be focusing on website optimization, social media curation and implementing new community engagement strategies. Welcome, Tyler!