A lot of you have wondered where Commissioner Gehrig is. He is in special training out in New York so that's why he joins us by phone. I think he misses us, I'm pretty sure.
Commissioner Gehrig: I do.
It’s Fire Prevention Week in Fargo, which is part of a nationwide effort called “Look. Listen. Learn. Be aware. Fire can happen anywhere.” Commissioner Piepkorn has offered to go back to the old saying of "Stop, Drop and Roll" if you would like to? This year’s campaign works to educate the public about basic, but essential, ways to quickly and safely escape a home fire. We realize in the new City Hall a lot of us do not know our new fire escape methods. Bruce Grubb has offered that we will practice that within our new building.
All seven fire stations in Fargo will be open this week from 6 to 8 p.m. for tours and visits. Also during October, the Fire Department will visit every public and private elementary school in Fargo where they will teach fire safety to kindergarten, first and second grade classes. Thank you Chief.
On September 26th, Fargo Cass Public Health hosted Narcan training for 54 community members who learned how to safely administer Narcan, a drug that reverses an opioid overdose. All attendees received a complimentary opioid overdose rescue kit, which contained two doses of Narcan. Interestingly, we have six powerful drugs in the community and one person took seven doses of Narcan to reverse that. There's some bad stuff out there.
Preparatory meetings are under way for the new permit and inspections software with implementation expected spring-summer 2019. With this new software, citizens, business and contractors will have easy access to online information for new developments, permitting, inspections, project plan approval, rental housing and code enforcement. Sometime next year, huh? Will they not have to visit you guys anymore?
On Tuesday, instructors from Gasper’s School of Dance and FM Ballet will be at the Main Library for a “Spooky Ballet and Storytime” session where children will hear a story and learn some basic dance steps.
On Oct. 16th, John Cox from NDSU will speak at the Main Library about ideologies and modern technologies introduced to the world because of World War I. This event is part of the area libraries’ 2018 One Book, One Community reading project.
The Main Library will celebrate National Fossil Day on Oct. 20th with an event titled “The Age of Reptiles – More Than Just Dinosaurs.” Area children are invited to get an up close look at some live reptiles..
Chief Todd went to Minnesota State University Mankato last week and spoke to criminal justice classes about leadership and how glad he is to be the Fargo Police Chief. We very much are glad that he can share his leadership skills with people in the community and students there.
Some significant casework went in to the arrests for two recent homicides in Fargo. Phenomenal work was done on the street with patrol officers and by the detectives in the investigations. Fargo is fortunate to have officers, detectives and support staff who have the drive and desire to serve and go the extra mile. The Chief wanted to make sure that we remembered that they put in a lot of hours into those cases to get them solved. Thank you.
In a column published recently by Tom “Roadrunner” Blair, he wrote about all of the changes he saw while visiting downtown Fargo this summer. He was simply amazed at all of the people downtown, all of the shops and restaurants, listening to live music from the Wicked Bees and seeing all kinds of cool stuff. He wrote that he was pleasantly surprised how Fargo’s downtown has been turned into such a positive atmosphere and it is a really fun place to be for people of all races, ages and ethnic backgrounds. Well, that was nice of him.
Today is Indigenous Peoples' Day. The Agassiz School is having a variety of events through the day. Basically, their logo, which is on the t-shirt in front, is strengthening communities through reconciliation and healing. A lot of what the NAtive American community wants us to know that their mission is 'healing'. And we had a good event here; Commissioner Strand was here this morning.
We were also presented five nations' flags, which is an honor for a community to receive. So, the flags of five nations in North Dakota have given us five flags to display in the new City Hall. So, we will get those out for people and for what the flags mean as well. It was a great honor. Willard Yellowbird received the honor from the Gladys Rays Shelter, with all of his hard work in the past, and he is deeply touched by this honor.
If you have time, the pow wow is tonight and you can get authentic fried bread if you are a little hungry after the meeting.