Nation's Cities - September 19, 2011

September 19, 2011
NATION’S CITIES WEEKLY 5

NEWSBRIEFS
by Laura Turner
Aurora, Colo., Employees
Fight Cancer with Cookbook
Miami-Dade County, Fla.,
Opens Unique Supportive
Housing Community

Aurora, Colo., employees are raising
funds for the non-profit Cops Fighting
Cancer through sales of a cookbook of
their favorite recipes.

Cops Fighting Cancer, whose police
and civilian volunteers provide emo-
tional, practical and financial support
to Colorado cancer patients and their
families, was founded in 2003 by Aurora
Officer Jim Seneca, a cancer survivor.
Staff from the police department com-
piled the Giving Hearts Cookbook. Each
of the 307 recipes is dedicated to a friend
or family member who is battling cancer
or who has succumbed to the disease.
Funds for printing the professional-
ly-designed book were raised privately
by city employees. No city funds were
used. All proceeds are donated to Cops
Fighting Cancer. The book is available
for $15 on the group’s website, http://
copsfightingcancer.org.

Details: Senior Public Information
Officer Kathryn Cable at (303) 739-
7013 or kcable@auroragov.org.

The Miami-Dade County Homeless
Trust, the agency charged with imple-
menting the Florida jurisdiction’s
Community Homeless Plan, has opened
Verde Gardens, a 145-unit townhouse
community with an innovative organic
farming component.
The non-profit Carrfour Supportive
Housing served as the project’s construc-
tion manager and is providing permanent
housing and services for 580 formerly
homeless residents.
“The only community of its kind in
the country,” according to Homeless
Trust Chair Ronald L. Book, Verde
Gardens features a 22-acre organic farm
and farmer’s market operated by the
residents.

Row crops and a plant nursery are
already proving fruitful.

The market, which is open to the pub-
lic, will have expanded hours and accept
food stamps, enabling the residents to
shop on-site for organic produce and
groceries.
“The Verde Gardens mission encour-
ages self-sufficiency and togetherness
among residents, while engaging the
community at-large through the farm,
food forest and public market,” said
Carrfour Director Stephanie Berman.

Mesa, Ariz., Building LEED-
Certified Fire Stations

Mesa, Ariz., has broken ground for
Fire Station 220, which, along with Fire
Station 219, will become the first city
buildings to be U.S. Green Building
Council Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) registra-
tion certified.
The fourth new fire station to be built
in Mesa in the past few years, the facility
is part of a public safety bond approved
by voters in November, 2008. Funding
is also being provided by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency through
its American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act program to provide grants for fire sta-
tion construction.
“Fire Station 220 is another example
of a tremendous partnership between the
voters of Mesa and the federal govern-
ment,” said Mayor Scott Smith at the
September 12 groundbreaking ceremony.

The new station will have approxi-
mately 13,900 square feet, four apparatus
bays and a community/training room.

Station 220 will incorporate sustain-
able practices such as solar panels, a solar
hot water system and insulated concrete
exterior walls, with a goal of achieving
gold LEED certification.
When it opens in the summer of
2012, the new station will help meet the
demand in the emergency call volume
and growth in central east Mesa and
improve emergency response times, said
Fire Chief Harry Beck.

Details: Public Information and
Communications Director Steven
Wright at (480) 644-2069 or steven.
wright@mesaaz.gov.

• Nominee must be a female elected official who has
demonstrated excellencein leadership and worked to
help other individuals strive to achieve similar goals.
• Nominee must be a female elected official who has
been actively involved with the National League of
Cities or a state municipal league.
• Nominee must be a local elected female official from
an NLC member city.
• Nominee must have served in a municipal elected
office for at least two years.
Nomination Criteria
• Nominee must be nominated by a colleague,
constituent, or organization.
• Nominee must have a completed nomination form
submitted to NLC by September 30.
• Nominee and Nominator must review, sign and date
the nomination form.
• Nominee must be in a municipal elected office
through December 31. Members of the WIMG
Board of Directors are not eligible to be nominated.
Program overview
The National League of Cities’ (NLC) Women in Municipal
Government (WIMG) constituency group again launches
its leadership award recognizing female municipal officials
for unique and outstanding leadership in local government.
Each year, a winner will be recognized for individual
achievement in initiating creative and successful programs
in municipal government that help citizens, particularly
if the leadership serves as a specific mentoring model
for future female leaders. The WIMG Leadership Award
promotes the increased representation of women in local
government and is designed to encourage more women to
run for elected municipal office.
sponsored by:
For more information and a nomination packet,
please visit www.nlc.org/wimg, under “news & events”.

Phoenix, Arizona | November 9 -12, 2011
www.nlc.org
ADVANCE REGISTRATION RATES HAVE BEEN
EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 30TH!
DID YOU MISS THE ADVANCE REGISTRATION DEADLINE OF SEPTEMBER 15TH? If so, you’re in luck because the deadline to get the Advance Registration rates has now been EXTENDED to September 30th! Register today to get the best possible rates for the Congress of Cities and Exposition to be held November 9-12 in Phoenix, AZ.
VISIT THE WEBPAGE AT WWW.NLCCONGRESSOFCITIES.ORG.