This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Longmont has been named as a finalist for one of the ten All-American City awards in 2018 by the National Civic League. Longmont is the only Colorado municipality named for this award in 2018.
"From the National Civic League - The All-America City Award is the oldest and most respected community recognition program in the nation. Each year, ten communities are selected as All-America Cities. These communities exemplify the true American spirit at work – these are places where citizens are actively engaged and committed to solving problems," stated Sandi Seader, Longmont assistant city manager.
A press release from the City of Longmont goes on to say that the All-American award is bestowed upon communities whose work in "using inclusive civic engagement to address critical issues and create stronger connections among residents, businesses and nonprofit and government leaders."
“Being named the only City in Colorado named as a finalist for an All-America City award by the National Civic League is an amazing honor. We are so proud of our community and look forward to highlighting Longmont at the competition in June," said Seader.
The City of Longmont applied for the award in February. The community works featured include: the community's work in supporting action for mental healthy, recovery from the flood of 2013, and building the City's broadband utility, NextLight™.
"In March 2015, the Longmont community experienced two significant tragic events: a murder-suicide involving a father and his son, and a fetal abduction where a woman used the sale of baby clothing on Craigslist to lure a pregnant woman to her home, attacked her, and cut the fetus from her womb," according to the award application, inspired community members to create a collaboration known as Support Action for Mental Health (SAM).
SAM "is a movement of local community groups, organizations, faith communities, residents, and local government working together to explore how we all can raise awareness of and take action to address mental health needs in Longmont."
After receiving a $200,000 grant from the Colorado Health Foundation, SAM has begun addressing the mental health concerns identified in community conversations. In the last year, SAM has accomplished: establishing the Mental Health First Aid (MFHA) program which educates and trains groups and individuals throughout the community who can now assist with and recognize signs of individuals struggling with mental health problems or crises, created Conversations on Mental Health which engaged community members and opened up several lines of communication surrounding mental health, an Anti-Stigma Campaign to help people feel comfortable talking about mental health problems, and created additional Education Resources are available is both English and Spanish.
SAM continues to "ensure that the work we are doing is inclusive particularly for the
monolingual Spanish-speaking/Latino community and for the LGBTQ community."
NextLight™ is another of the featured projects on the award applications. This is Longmont's broadband utility service that, "makes symmetrical gigabit internet service available to homes and businesses citywide, with no contracts or data caps, at prices that are among the best in the United States. In particular, nearly all home users have “gotten their gig” for $49.95 per month, a Charter Member Rate that is believed to be the best price for an unbundled, no-contract gig connection in the country," according to the award application.
Through the introduction of NextLight™, the city has become an attractive location for businesses including Sticker Giant and the tech company, Wiland. In addition, NextLight™ has boosted the technology programs in the St. Vrain Valley School District by providing, "two 10-gigabit fiber-optic wide-area networks (WANs) to Longmont schools in
2014, a main network and a backup," reports the award application.
"Between NextLight’s fiber-optic infrastructure and the devices and technology that rely on it, every student in Longmont public schools has the opportunity to not just be part of a connected community but also to contribute to it. As they learn, they strengthen not only themselves but also their entire community."
The third project listed in the application is the recovery efforts of the 2013 flood. This effort includes, Envision Longmont, which is "the City’s multimodal and comprehensive plan that provides strategic direction for the next 10 to 20 years, as well as into the City’s Sustainability Plan, ensuring that resiliency and social equity will remain ongoing components of City planning and activities," as stated in the award application.
This plan consists of three main efforts: "1) Develop a more economically diverse housing stock so that people have a place to relocate during a disaster as well as help in weathering another economic downturn; 2) Increase social capital and the ability for vulnerable populations to become resilient; and 3) Modify infrastructure to reduce the size of the floodplain in our community, thereby removing lower-income residents, families and businesses from the massive economic losses that are proving difficult to recover from."
The efforts to prepare for such a disaster began before the flood in 2013. A few years prior to the flood, city engineers examined updated floodplain maps for St. Vrain Creek. These maps are maintained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). "Based on the new information, officials determined that if a flood occurred, the city would have approximately 90 minutes before floodwaters inundated the community."
This prompted efforts to have plans in place to notify the community, especially to reach vulnerable populations living in mobile home parks located very near the creek, who might not have been reached through more traditional communication methods such as local newspapers, emails or websites," as stated in the award application. As a result, the city used a reverse 911 notification system to notify its residents.
After the flood, Longmont assisted neighboring communities with their flood efforts and has begun to rebuild and prepare for any future flooding. "The result was Resilient St. Vrain, an extensive, multiyear project to reduce the size of the 100-year floodplain through Longmont, which began construction in late 2016.
Longmont’s focus on creating and increasing resiliency for all facets of its population has already begun paying off in the short-term, but the hope is that its effects will ultimately be long lasting and comprehensive. Although there is no way to predict when another economic downturn will happen or what the next disaster might be, Longmont is taking steps now to help ensure that all of our community, regardless of their socioeconomic status or culture, is prepared and able to bounce back," was quoted from the award application.
"In each of these projects, the Longmont community has come together to address significant challenges to building a brighter future for all – together. Longmont will present these projects, the community’s involvement, and the results at the All-America City competition, which will be held in Denver in late June," is reported in the press release.
The last time the City of Longmont won, after competing with cities across the country, the All-American award was in 2006.
Seader estimates that it took city staff around 40 hours of work to complete the All-American application. They are now busy at work putting together a presentation for the National Civic League. The presentation will be delivered at the National Civic League's June conference held in Denver.
Below is the Longmont All-American City application:
