From Friday, May 13 until Tuesday, June 1, Reno’s famous landmark, the Reno Arch will turn blue to honor fallen police officers.

National Police Week is May 15 through May 21, 2011 and is observed throughout the nation in order to recognize the hazardous work, serious responsibilities, and strong commitment to our nation’s peace officers.

President John F. Kennedy, in 1963, signed the Congressional resolution that each year makes May 15 “Peace Officers Memorial Day” and the calendar week of each year during which May 15 occurs, as “Police Week”, to commemorate those noble officers who have tragically lost their lives in the line of duty.

“I hope everyone will take the opportunity to pause and remember the officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty while serving and protecting our community and state,” advised Mayor Bob Cashell.

To cover the cost for the installation of the bulbs and the lost energy savings in taking out the current LED lights, Reno businessman Eddie Lorton of E T Carpet Cleaning donated $800 and the Reno City Council contributed $700 through their council discretionary funds. In November, community donations paid for the cost of the bulbs when the Reno Arch turned blue in support of the University of Nevada Wolf Pack.

Residents will be able to track the City of Reno’s progress towards decreasing its carbon footprint with a new interactive website.

The Green Energy Dashboard, http://greenenergy.reno.gov, provides detailed information on 11 solar and wind turbine systems that have been installed on City facilities, with new sites to be added in the coming months. In several formats, the Dashboard displays the energy generated by the City’s solar and wind systems, allowing users to select custom date ranges as well as export the data. Residents will also be able to use the data to better predict what they could expect from installing similar systems at their homes or businesses.

In June and September of 2009, the Reno City Council approved a series of energy-efficient projects. The projects encompass solar photovoltaic systems, a wind turbine demonstration program, solar thermal heating systems, lighting retrofits, control systems, and a variety of HVAC upgrades. These projects make up the City of Reno’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Initiative, representing an investment of $19,067,678 in projects. The entire program is funded through a combination of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants, Clean and Renewable Energy Bonds, Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds, Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds, and RenewableGenerations rebates, offered by the local utility, NV Energy. Energy savings, projected at $996,903, will be used to pay off the bonds, making no impact on the City’s general fund.

When all the projects are on-line, the City will save 6,800,000 kilowatt hours and 225,000 therms per year and will lower its carbon footprint by 17,200,000 pounds of CO2 each and every year. The energy projects financed through all of the above mechanisms will be installed and commissioned through April 2012.

We just started archiving our City Council meetings on our YouTube channel. We normally try to keep our videos short and sweet, but our special government channel allows us to upload long videos as well. We think this will be a nice format to archive these meetings.

As with any YouTube video, viewers can jump to any spot in the Council Meeting they want to see. We have a Council Meeting archive page set up on our website – check it out.

Acting Reno Police Chief Steve Pitts updated the Reno City Council on ideas he is pursuing to enhance efforts to clean up graffiti.

Reno Mayor Bob Cashell and members of the Reno City Council joined University of Nevada, Reno President Dr. Milton Glick and others to turn the Reno arch lights blue in support of the UNR football team. The team plays Boise State this Friday evening at Mackay Stadium.