Verdes Firewise Day is set for Saturday, Nov. 5

Rio Verde is proud of having been recognized as a Firewise Community last year and, to maintain this prestigious recognition, participating communities are required to hold an annual Firewise Day.  This year Firewise Day for the Verdes is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 5, from 9 to 11 a.m. in the Community Center. All residents of Rio Verde and Tonto Verde are urged to attend to demonstrate their support for this important cause. The recently formed onto

Verde Firewise Committee is co-sponsoring this event. The meeting will begin with a few presentations that involve an update on the Rio Verde Firewise effort, a status report on the Tonto Verde Firewise project, a report from Fire Chief Gary Bradbury, and eyewitness reports from the wildfires that ravaged Arizona this year. After the presentations, residents will be encouraged to mingle, ask questions, offer suggestions, and enjoy refreshments.

Residents are invited to visit the display tables set up around the room to obtain information and brochures from knowledgeable individuals, including firefighters and horticulturist Noelle Johnson. Fire resistant plants will be demonstrated and raffled off to some lucky attendees at the conclusion of this event. Residents are asked to submit landscaping bills and sweat equity reports to the Community Association office to help support an application for continued recognition by the national Firewise organization. Questions may be directed to Eb Scheuing at 471-7393.

Marty Bowin, left, is the Chairman of the newly formed Tonto Verde Firewise Committee. Bowin is shown at the recent Tonto Verde Firewise Orientation meeting with Fire Chief Gary Bradbury and Firewise coordinator Captain Mike Roggenstein of the Rio Verde Fire District. Now the combined Verdes Communities are concentrating on planning and coordinating their Firewise efforts.

Residents can help with fire grant

From now until Monday, Oct. 31, Liberty Mutual Insurance is offering several grants of $10,000 each to fire departments across the nation. To help the Rio Verde Fire District win one of these grants, Fire Chief Gary Bradbury and the Rio Verde Firewise Leadership Team ask Verde residents to support the effort by taking the following steps:

* Sign on to www.befiresmart.com/pledge to take a 10-question fire safety quiz online which is designed to provide fire prevention education. * Upon completion of the quiz, credit the Rio Verde Fire Department. * Respond to an e-mail request from Liberty Mutual to verify your e-mail address and prevent fraud. * If a household includes two or more residents with separate e-mail addresses, both can take the quiz separately. The Verdes are competing with other small communities for this grant. Once the lowest number of responses is exceeded in this category on the above website’s leader board, the total number of participants from Rio Verde and Tonto Verde will be listed there.

Note: Liberty Mutual will contact participants by e-mail to ask them to rally more support for the Fire Department and inform them about their products. If you do not want to receive any further e-mail solicitations from Liberty Mutual, click “unsubscribe now” at the bottom of their message.) If the Verdes wins one of the two grants available to small communities, the funds will go to the Fire District and will help double the buffer zone that has been cleared on the boundary with the McDowell Mountain Regional Park to prevent the spread of wildfires in either direction.