What a Mayor Can Do

My wife and I left The 11th Hour film thinking that if each one of the over 6 billion people in the world would do one thing to improve the environment, we could begin to solve these problems!

As individuals, we want to be more environmentally aware and to change our activities to those that are more environmentaly friendly.

As mayor of the town of Fountain Hills, Arizona, I want to provide leadership to our community to make a difference.

In response to The 11th Hour, here are some of the things we are doing in our home and for our town:

1. We became a recycling household. We bought three containers for paper, cans and plastic and a can crusher.

2. We are in the process of changing our lighbulbs to energy-savers as well as eliminating unnecessary bulbs.

3. We now drive our electric car more often in town. We sold our 3-year-old hybrid to our son in Connecticut and replaced it with another hybrid.

4. We considered our impact on the ocean, even from here in the Arizona desert, and have made a pledge not to buy, eat or serve shrimp in our home or at events…this is a big one, as we LOVE shrimp!


As mayor of Fountain Hills, I am working harder than ever to create a more enviromentlly friendly community.

1. I asked the town manager to institute a recycling program in town hall.

2. We established a task force to create an environmental policy for Fountain Hills by the end of the 2008 fiscal year.

3. We have adopted a low water landscape ordinance as well as an ordinance to protect our saguaro cactus.

4. With the help of our Chamber of Commerce, we are investigating the implementation of a restaurant “rinse smart” program for our town. This program will reduce water use by up to 25 percent at local restaurants by using a special high-pressure, low-volume nozzle to wash dishes.

5. Our town vehicle replacement policy now asks: “can we use an alternative fuel or hybrid vehicle” first before we order a standard gas-run vehicle.

6. In conjunction with our local electric company, SRP, we are sending every homeowner a personalized postcard signed by me, asking them to change at least one light bulb to an energy-saver bulb.

7. And, finally, as in our home we will not serve shrimp at town sponsored events.


Thank you for making this film and for inspiring us to take these steps in our home, for our town and for our future.

Sincerely,

Wallace and Sheila Nichols
Mayor of Fountain Hills, Arizona