| Phoenix City Council Approves Zoning for Safe Outdoor Space | https://www.phoenix.gov/newsroom/homeless-solutions/2866 | Homeless Solutions | | 9/22/2023 1:00:00 AM | https://www.phoenix.gov/newssite/Lists/NewsArticle/Attachments/2866/Newsroom_OHS_SafeOutdoorSpace_001.png | | Phoenix City Council Approves Zoning for Safe Outdoor Space | <div class="ExternalClass86A5CA193ADA453F99C3D389BDABC8E7"><html>
<div>On Wednesday, the Phoenix City Council approved the rezoning of the property at 1537 W. Jackson St. to allow for the creation of the Safe Outdoor Space to support the City’s efforts to address the area around the Human Services Campus (HSC). This rezoning is the last item needed to finalize the project, after the Council first approved the purchase of the property in June 2023. <br></div>
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<div>The Safe Outdoor Space will be one option available to individuals currently staying in the area around the HSC. The City is addressing the area strategically, one block at a time to ensure we can offer every individual we engage with shelter. The Safe Outdoor Space is not intended to be the sole solution for the entire population currently staying in the HSC area. It is designed to be an alternative to help those who are not yet ready to accept a place in an indoor shelter space offered during the City’s enhanced engagements. </div>
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<div>The Safe Outdoor Space will allow people experiencing homelessness to camp in a safer, shaded area with access to basic necessities while offering services to assist them in ending their homelessness. The City is committed to providing a variety of solutions for people experiencing homelessness. The Safe Outdoor Space will serve as an alternative place to engage with unsheltered individuals to help them prepare to move to an indoor location. </div>
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<div>The Safe Outdoor Space will have restrooms, showers, meal service, property storage, 24/7 security and a code of conduct for residents. Drugs, alcohol and fires will not be allowed. The Safe Outdoor space will prioritize serving unsheltered individuals in the area around the HSC and will be a closed campus, not offering walk-up services. Camping will not be allowed along the perimeter of the property. </div>
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<div>The City Council approval allows for a Special Permit to operate the Safe Outdoor Space for three years. It also includes several stipulations to help address concerns of residents and business owners in the surrounding community. Some of the stipulations include creating an advisory committee, holding quarterly meetings with the community, allowing a maximum of 200 safe outdoor spaces at the site and adding turf, additional fencing and lighting to the property. </div>
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<div>The property offers a unique opportunity in that it also has indoor space which will be used for meal service, case management and weather relief for individuals who are staying in the Safe Outdoor Space. The City is proposing to open the location in phases beginning in Fall 2023 and will continue to evaluate the need as we work to reduce unsheltered homelessness in the area around the HSC. </div>
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<strong>Project History: </strong>
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<div>The creation of a Safe Outdoor Space was recommended in the Strategies to Address Homelessness Task Force Recommendations the City Manager and presented to the Phoenix City Council in April 2022. In June 2023, the Phoenix City Council authorized the City to enter into an agreement with the State of Arizona to license and ultimately purchase the property. The license agreement began in August 2023. Phoenix Planning Commission heard this case in September 2023 and recommended approval with the stipulations. The City will finalize the purchase of the property in October 2023. The City utilized $5.4 million of grant funding from the Arizona Department of Housing for the acquisition of the property and relocation of the site’s previous operation. <br></div>
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| Phoenix Garbage Truck Driver Lands Childhood Dream Job | https://www.phoenix.gov/newsroom/public-works/2865 | Public Works (Trash and Recycling) | | 9/21/2023 9:30:00 PM | https://www.phoenix.gov/newssite/Lists/NewsArticle/Attachments/2865/Lyon newsroom.jpg | https://youtu.be/otE5vn6DoDM?si=NRExYYmB7YKnTtHs | Phoenix Garbage Truck Driver Lands Childhood Dream Job | <div class="ExternalClass33B4B2D4A91744D0989F51285D7FB1A7"><html>
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<span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;" class="NormalTextRun SCXW25178961 BCX0">While m</span><span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;" class="NormalTextRun SCXW25178961 BCX0">ost kids</span>
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<span style="margin:0px;padding:0px;" class="NormalTextRun SCXW25178961 BCX0">Lyon Marcheschi</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“This is definitely a dream come true, in a way,” he said. “Ever since I could remember, I was really fascinated by garbage trucks.”</span>
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<span style="" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">Marcheschi’s obsession with the roaring engines, the squeaking brakes, and the boom of a side arm started years ago. He was able to dig up a 2005 picture of himself happily pointing to a garbage truck in front of his house. He was just five years old. As time went on, he began doing more than just watching the trucks from the sidewalk.</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“I started following my trash drivers when I was 8 to 10 years old. I would just grab my bike, and I started around six am. I’d go find them when they were just starting and I’d go out and follow them all day on summer vacation,” he said. </span></span><span style="font-size:16px;background-color:window;color:windowtext;" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“Each year I kind of went further and further and then I was doing about 50 miles on my bike a day.”</span><span style="font-size:16px;background-color:window;color:windowtext;">
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">After a while, the City of Phoenix truck drivers started to recognize Marcheschi along their routes.</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“He was sort of a celebrity,” said Richard Cota, who was a bulk trash foreman when Marcheschi was a kid. “He was a favorite among the operators because he would film us and he would be around us all the time. We knew his passion around this.”</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">The videos Marcheschi shot got better with time, experience, and better equipment. He got shots of the trucks driving by, of barrel collection, and of operators collecting bulk trash. Occasionally, he would narrate what was happening. As an 11-year-old, Marcheschi started posting his videos on Youtube.</span>
<span data-ccp-props="{"134233117":false,"134233118":false,"201341983":0,"335559738":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}"> Eventually he got a nicer camera and started refining his work. </span>
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<span style="font-size:16px;background-color:window;color:windowtext;" lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">His channel, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/THETRASH153" target="_blank">THETRASH153</a>, has almost 1,700 subscribers. His 300+ videos have garnered more than one million views. And yet his visits with the solid waste equipment operators (SWEOs) weren’t only about capturing video.</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“They kind of hooked me up with some route maps, and I would fold them up, take them home, and I’d put them in a binder,” Marcheschi recalled. “I had a pretty good collection going of all the service area routes. Almost like a fantasy league of some sort.”</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">After years of what could be called an unofficial, unpaid internship, Marcheschi finally had the chance to become a paid apprentice with the City of Phoenix Public Works Department.</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“Many, many operators knew of Lyon,” Cota said. “So when we heard his name finally becoming – that he was an applicant to become a City of Phoenix employee, a lot of us were really happy because we’d known him for years. Lyon knew some of the areas better than some of the foremen did!”</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">When Marcheschi was hired as an apprentice, his first foreman was none other than Richard Cota.</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“At first, when I saw that Richard was going to be my foreman, it’s kind of cool. It takes the edge off of meeting a new foreman. I had already known him since I was like 15, so it was kind of cool,” Marcheschi said.</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">The SWEO apprenticeship is a two-year program during which apprentices get classroom training, on-the-job training, a paycheck, and ultimately their commercial driver license (CDL). Marcheschi’s hard work during his initial years with Public Works paid off; he was named the City of Phoenix’s 2023 Apprentice of the Year.</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“I think Lyon was the apprentice of the year because of his work ethic, his attitude, he comes to work every day, he works hard.," Cota said. “I was not surprised at all. He excels in pretty much everything we ask of him. I think it’s a good reflection on the department. It’s showing that this apprenticeship program works; we bring in good quality people.”</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“Lyon is out there now modeling for others around him on what it means to be a great city employee and provide an excellent service to our customers,” said Assistant Public Works Director Felipe Moreno, who nominated Lyon for the award.</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“It felt pretty crazy at first because you think back to when you’re a kid, and you kind of want to tell that kid that he’ll be getting awarded from the city, along with just getting to do the job, it would probably be – you couldn’t believe it,” Marcheschi said.</span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">Marcheschi has completed his apprenticeship and is now a full-time SWEO with his own route. His childhood dreams have also come full circle -- the kid who once followed around garbage truck drivers now has kids who come follow </span>
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<span lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none">“The drivers I saw growing up, they inspired me to do what they did,” he said.</span>
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</html></div> | https://phoenix.gov/publicworks | Video |
| Phoenix Fire participates in Collaborative Research Project Aimed at Reducing Cancer in Fire Service | https://www.phoenix.gov/newsroom/fire/2863 | Fire | | 9/20/2023 7:00:00 AM | https://www.phoenix.gov/newssite/Lists/NewsArticle/Attachments/2863/IMG_0697.jpg | https://youtu.be/l_QWmkc10uk?si=o6kjN_svKtTUrVeT | Phoenix Fire participates in Collaborative Research Project Aimed at Reducing Cancer in Fire Service | <div class="ExternalClass1C48436E6AAE4270A88F32CEFDF2F06C"><html>
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<p> </p>Firefighters face numerous health risks due to their exposure to smoke, chemicals, and other hazardous materials while on duty, and cancer is a significant concern in the profession.<br><br>Collaborative research efforts are crucial in finding ways to mitigate these risks and improve the health and safety of firefighters. The purpose of this Firefighter Collaborative Research Project is to test interventions to reduce firefighter serum PFAS levels, cardiovascular risk, cognitive disease risks, and epigenetic age. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made chemicals that are commonly referred to as 'forever chemicals' due to their inability to be easily broken down in the human body and the environment. Epigenetics is the study of how your genetic information is expressed differently based on your behaviors and environment. Epigenetic age is the measure of the rate of aging of your cells.<br><br>This <a href="https://healthsciences.arizona.edu/newsroom/news-releases/1022/new-center-leads-collaborative-research-improve-firefighter-health" target="_blank">study </a>is led by the University of Arizona Mel & Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health and includes Phoenix firefighters, as well as several other statewide agencies. By actively participating in such research projects, Phoenix Fire and other fire departments can contribute to the development of evidence-based strategies to protect the health and well-being of their personnel. These efforts can ultimately lead to a safer and healthier work environment for firefighters, reducing the incidence of cancer and other occupational health risks in the fire service.<br><br>Phoenix firefighters interested in participating are asked complete this <a target="_blank" href="https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=XGm5lg5PvUKK37p1V2A0a-9XBM6mvSBPszhr0a7MkkFUNlhXODNYT0xUVThMUzkxTEFFR0NTMTcyMS4u&origin=QRCode">form </a>to enroll. Requirements include one year or more of firefighting experience, two years or more until retirement, no major health issues, and the ability to donate plasma. <br></html></div> | https://www.phoenix.gov/fire | Video |
