Dakota County town briefs: Eagan Founation awards civic grants

The Eagan Foundation recently awarded $8,600 to 10 local nonprofits to support a wide variety of initiatives to help make the city a better place to live, learn, work and play.

The recipients and their projects:

• 360 Communities, to purchase food for meals prepared at its shelter.

• Caponi Art Park, to support the park's 2014 Summer Performance and Family Fun Tuesdays series.

• Cheerful Givers, to provide program support and purchase birthday gift bags for people needing the services of local shelters and food shelves.

• Dakota Center for the Arts, for the 20th anniversary of the 2014 Eagan Art Festival.

• Eagan Beyond the Yellow Ribbon, to help Eagan become a proclaimed Yellow Ribbon Community that connects service members and their families with community support, training, services and resources.

• Eagan's Men's Chorus, to help it present concerts at senior citizens facilities in Eagan or Dakota County during the year.

• Eagan's July 4th Funfest, for the Eagan Ambassador program, in which young people network with neighboring communities through community events.

• Kids 'n Kinship, for weekly youth activities for children ages 5-16.

• ProAct Inc., to help replace a wheelchair bus.

Dodge Nature Center will demonstrate maple syrup making from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on March 22, and March 29.

The Dakota County Public Health Department is seeking nominations of people and groups who are dedicated to improving public health in the county for the annual Public Health Achievement Awards

Community health leaders are recognized in three categories: youth, individual and community group (coalition, partnership or organization). Winners will be selected based on their leadership, contribution to solutions to public health problems, collaboration, advocacy, role modeling and evidence of influence.

The awards will be presented before the County Board on April 8 as part of Public Health Week.

Nominations must be submitted by March 14. For a nomination form and instructions, see www.dakotacounty.us and search Achievement Award or call 651-554-6100.

Worried about frozen water pipes? The city is offering a way for municipal water customers to leave a tap running to prevent freezing without taking a big hit on their water bill.

The $20 credit is calculated based on 11,800 gallons of water consumed, assuming a 1/16" diameter stream. Sanitary sewer billing will be adjusted to 2013 winter-quarter consumption levels. The city emphasizes that the credit is only available to those who notify the city beforehand of their intent to run the tap.

For more information, call 651-554-3200 or e-mail finance@sspmn.org.

The city is looking for volunteers to serve on a variety of advisory boards, including the planning commission, the economic development commission, the finance committee and the arts center board. The groups meet regularly and make recommendations to the City Council on matters in their areas of specialty.

For more information and applications, see http://tinyurl.com/lgc7q5l.