La Verne Listed as a Top Ten Town

La Verne earned a spot on Family Circle Magazine's fourth annual list of the nation's ten most family-friendly cities. The criterion to be included on the list is based on affordable housing, quality schools, access to health care, green space, low crime rate and financial stability. The result of the comprehensive survey appears in Family Circle's August 2010 issue, and highlights many of the City's qualities.

An additional quality that that could be added to the list of what makes the City of La Verne a top-ten town are its efforts in water conservation. Water conservation has been an important aspect of the City's water supply since the early 1990s, when a significant period of drought hit Southern California. Southern California is again in the midst of a multiple year drought and is also facing a reduction in imported water supplies because of environmental restrictions. To deal with an uncertain outside water supply, the City has continued to implement and add water conservation programs to assist in ensuring a reliable and safe supply to its customers.

These water conservation programs include:

Free Water Saving devices -- The City has distributed thousands of water saving devices such as toilets, shower heads, shower timers, smart irrigation control timers, water saving sprinkler heads, and hose nozzles.

Free Landscape/Irrigation Training -- The City has facilitated California Friendly Landscape Training classes annually for residents, providing simple education on how to transform yards into a more water efficient and beautiful landscape.

Free Water Audits -- The City has contacted its top residential water users to provide free outdoor water audits and retrofits. This program provided professional landscape audits and included the installation of smart, weather based irrigation controllers as well as water efficient sprinkler heads. The City also offers free water audits to any residential customer that requests one.

SoCalWaterSmart.org -- The City participates in the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California's rebate program on items such as high efficiency toilets and turf replacement. La Verne water customers need only visit www.socalwatersmart.org for program specifics and guidelines.

Mandatory Water Use Restrictions -- The City has also implemented mandatory water use restrictions including:

• Hose washing of impermeable surfaces is prohibited.
• Washing of vehicles, trailers, boats and similar equipment can't be done without a hose nozzle and can only be done for quick rinses.
• All leaks from indoor and outdoor fixtures must be repaired within forty-eight hours of discovery or notification.
• Watering of landscapes or other turf areas is only permitted between the hours of one hour before sunset and 10 a.m.
• Water runoff from landscaped areas into or onto streets and other paved areas is prohibited.

Last year, La Verne set a City wide water conservation goal of 10%. Water customers have answered that call with an overall conservation rate of 11%. The task facing the City and its water customers now is to maintain its success and to implement and improve on programs to help meet new challenges facing its supplies.

For more information on the City of La Verne's programs and operations, please contact JR Ranells at (909) 596-8744 or by emailing jranells@ci.la-verne.ca.us.