January is Cervical Health Awareness month. Each year, more than 14,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer, which can be prevented by receiving the HPV vaccine and by having regular Pap and HPV screenings. Early detection is key to successfully treating cervical cancer.
The monthly Paws for Reading event where kids can practice their reading to a dog at the downtown Main Library is January 14. The dogs are from Therapy Pets of the Red River Valley. The January Online Book Party is January 19 at 7 p.m. on the library’s Facebook page. It’s a book club, but you can read whatever you want. Fargo Public Library librarians will also share reading suggestions and discuss what they’ve been reading.
A common phone call to the Water Treatment Plant in winter is cloudy tap water, which is air escaping from water when using a faucet or other in-home plumbing fixture. In a clear glass, the cloudiness in the water will clear from the bottom up. Cold water in winter can retain more dissolved air compared to summer and when tap water warms up in in-home plumbing, it depressurizes coming out of a faucet and the air is expelled as fine bubbles, which initially gives the look of cloudy tap water. The Water Treatment Plant operates under strict EPA regulations to prevent actual particles from being in tap water and causing cloudiness. Since the winter cloudiness in Fargo tap water is caused by air (same as what we breathe), it is not harmful to drink.
In an organization this large, there’s a substantial amount of important data The City of Fargo needs to track, whether it’s where underground utilities are located, MATBUS routes or knowing which Fire engine to dispatch based on the location of a 911 call. The City’s Geographic Information Systems Division is a region-leading team working with almost every department across The City to map all our important utilities and data. Thank you to Daryl Masten and his team who help support these critical operations.