HottyToddy Hometown: Hernando, Mississippi

Hernando is proud and protective of its historical and architecturally significant places

• The city has five National Register Districts, and various Mississippi Landmarks and individually designated buildings, including the 1925 Water Tower, which was the subject of a New York Times article and graced the cover the Grammy-nominated North Mississippi Allstar’s Hernando album cover.

• Hernando is a Preserve America Community, a designation for cities blending historical assets with economic development efforts.

• Hernando is a Main Street Community. Main Street is an economic development program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

• The city has a Preservation Commission, started in 1997, that administers the historic design standards.

Progressive about helping the community get and stay healthy. • Hernando was the first city in the state to be named the Healthiest Hometown (in 2010) by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation. The award is given to the city in the state that is doing the most to promote a culture of health, especially via sustainable policy changes (like Complete Streets policy, no-smoking ordinance and mandatory helmet use for youth).

• Hernando’s mayor, Chip Johnson, is a wellness champion, talking to groups across the nation about how local governments can promote healthy living and help reduce obesity. He was one of only two mayors in the United States to be selected to help Michelle Obama kick off her Let’s Move campaign, designed to reduce childhood obesity in the country.

• The city sponsors an annual 10K race, has held an historic district walking tour, and regularly conducts a Healthy Eating and Active Living class, all to promote a healthy lifestyle. The Parks and Recreation program was non-existent 7 years ago, but now sports great programming and facilities. Hernando has an active bicycle club and running road race series.

• Hernando is home to the state’s largest and best Farmers Market (in 2012 the market was named Mississippi’s Favorite Farmers Market by the American Farmland Trust and was 5th in the Nation in Large Markets). The market consistently has over 50 vendors each week selling fresh, local fruits and vegetables, local milk, meat, eggs, honey, goat milk soaps and lotions, flowers, plants, natural laundry detergent, soaps, knife sharpening services, artisanal bread, baked goods, canned and preserved items, and some artisan items, all under the shade of large trees on the historic courthouse lawn. The market accepts food stamps, as well as vouchers for seniors.

• Hernando has a community garden within walking distance of the city’s most disadvantaged neighborhood, partnering with Head Start to begin healthy eating education at the earliest age, and working with faith communities to teach young people the value of local eating and helping the disadvantaged.

• The city has four times been named a “Playful City USA”.

• Hernando is a well-planned community that requires land developers to install sidewalks in all new and redeveloping areas, including residential, commercial and industrial areas. The city has striped bike lanes and is in the process of installing signage promoting safe cycling. Developers also must donate a minimum of 10% of the land they are urbanizing to open space/parks. Other development policies, like a requirement for connected streets, helps make the city more walkable and bikable. The city’s design standards, both those in the historic districts and citywide, make the community safer and more attractive, further increasing the possibility that citizens will walk and bike.

• Hernando has held a Ride of Silence to bring attention to deaths and injuries as the result of bike/auto accidents and sponsors an annual Bike to Work day. The city received an honorable mention as a Bike Friendly Community from the National League of Bicyclists.

• The city participates in the county’s Greenways program as well as the North Mississippi Land Trust, working to insure that there is more walking and biking infrastructure in the county, as well as conserving land for its ecosystem values (including land for growing food and keeping mature tree canopy for shade and trees for cleaner air and water). Hernando has a Safe Routes to School program to encourage walking and biking to school, by building new sidewalks and educating the public.

• The city is working with the local school district to fashion joint use agreements, providing more recreational space without increasing the tax burden with duplicative facilities.

• City staffers work with the local Community Foundation to help train local planning and elected officials in healthy eating and active living policy development via a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant.

Hernando was featured in a video used to announce the national County Health Rankings and Roadmap findings. The rankings are a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Public Health Institute. Communities use the rankings to educate themselves on what’s shaping health where they live.

• Hernando is a Tree City USA with an active Tree Board and development policies designed to promote environmental sustainability.

• The city has a once-a-week-pickup curbside recycling program, as well as recycling trailers (designed for county residents who currently do not have curbside recycling and for larger items). The city also offers decorative recycling containers in the downtown area.

• Pre-construction grading permits are required to help reduce polluting runoff and soil erosion.

• In 2009 the city sponsored the second annual Sustainability Conference, bringing elected officials, land developers and civil engineers together from across the state.

–Content from http://cityofhernando.org/