Casa Grande Public Library

Casa Grande Public Library Online Gale Courses Free to CG Library Users

The Casa Grande Public Library is pleased to offer access to Gale Courses for all our registered library users. The next monthly sessions begin Oct. 14 and Nov. 11.

What’s on your list to learn? Maybe you’d like to build up your business know-how, master a second language, or conquer code? Whatever it is, you’re bound to find something that piques your interest with Gale Courses. These classes are held entirely online, led by expert instructors and, best of all, are free with your library card.

Explore popular topics

Select from hundreds of personal and professional development courses covering a variety of topics: • Business, including human resources, management and marketing. • Computer and technology (beginner to advanced). • Life skills, from personal finance to parenting. • Health and wellness. • Continuing education credits.

Find a course that fits your schedule

While the sessions are six weeks long, the lessons are released twice a week — so you can keep up or catch up, whatever the case may be. A new round of courses starts every month. To learn when the next enrollment period for Gale Courses is, visit www.education.gale.com/l-casa30302.

Online Library Registration

Don’t have a library card? You can now register with the library online! This will give you access to all the library’s electronic resources, including Libby, Hoopla and Gale Courses. To register online, go to cglibrary.org, click on the “Log In” link in the top right corner, then click on the link to register now. To upgrade your account to borrow physical materials, please come by the library in person during our hours of operation (check website under “Library Info”).

www.cg.azsummerreading.org

PINAL COUNTY PRESS

ARIZONA CITY • CASA GRANDE • COOLIDGE • ELOY • FLORENCE • MARICOPA

CONTINUED…

Sheriff Launches ‘Citizens Posse,’ Gets 3,000 Applications

Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb is offering a free four-hour course for members of the public who want to learn more about the sheriff’s office and how they might be able to help protect their homes and communities.

Upon completion of the Citi zens Posse class, graduates receive an ID card identifying them as a member, and there’s a pos sibility they may be called out to help the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office during emergencies.

Since the program was first announced at the end of July, some 3,000 applications have come in. Though enrollment is not restricted to Pinal County residents they make up the vast majority of those who have ap plied, PCSO spokeswoman Lauren Reimer said.

She said about 200 applicants are from Maricopa, Pima or other LUCID AIR..cont. from page 70 roads, and numerous jobs related to manufacturing, engineering, supply chain and operations are posted at Lucid.com.

Pre-production is scheduled to start late this year, with the first customer deliveries expect ed at the beginning of 2021.

Arizona counties, while about 80 are from out of state and three from out of the country.

The first in-person class was held Aug. 15, with 17 students. Reimer said the department is hoping to keep class sizes at 20 or below. As of press time, the department was still working to finalize an online version to reach more applicants.

The course includes sections on constitutional law, search and sei zure procedures, home protection measures, firearms safety and use of deadly force. Participants spend time in a simulator where such decisions must be made.

“Our new Citizens Posse is first and foremost a citizens acade my-type program where residents can come to learn more about how and why officers and deputies do what they do,” Reimer said.

Lamb said during an August Pi nal County Supervisors meeting the idea came out of the racial jus tice protests and riots which began in late May.

“I’ve heard nothing on the na tional level but that we need to reach out more to our commu nities, and this is a great way to do that,” he said. Educating res idents on what law enforcement officers do could also head off any discussion locally about “de funding” police and the sheriff’s office, he added.

Some supervisors asked questions, which they said were inspired by concerns from the public.

District 3 Supervisor Steve Miller asked, “These citizens also are available to be called out (for emergencies)?”

Lamb said, “Supervisor Miller, with all due respect, you’re avail

able to be called out. As the sheriff, I’m able to command the aid of all inhabitants of Pinal County.”

Laughing, Miller said, “I get it. I’ll turn this off,” holding up his cellphone.

The posse classes are being funded by the department’s community relations budget, Lamb said, because most of the events it had planned on holding have been canceled.

PCSO is continuing to accept applications. All applicants will be put through a basic back ground check and are asked to disclose any history of felony convictions, though this isn’t an automatic disqualifier.

To apply, visit www.pinalcountyaz.gov/Sheriff/Organizations/

Pages/CitizensPOSSE.aspx

...continued from page 74

Also, when I started last year, we changed things around from doing the monthly e-newsletter, which was a PDF, and started a weekly digital e-newsletter. I think our numbers prove it is a welcomed change. Our open rate is almost 11% higher than the industry average. So yay for us! We send it out to about 1,100 people each week. It has given us an opportunity to connect with our members more; and to connect the readers with our members more using links to their websites, whether it’s a new member an nouncement, or a business brief. We’re also doing a Business of the Week. That’s a video that gets put on our YouTube channel, in the weekly newsletter and it goes out on social media. I think we’ve had an opportunity to find little ways to increase value to our members. And the Business of the Week is a hit! The business is excited at the opportu nity to be highlighted in this way. It’s a way to congratulate them. It’s not high-tech, but it’s a video and they love it. And they get a lot of positive reviews on our social media posts. In fact, during all of the shut downs due to COVID, we created a website that’s not limited to our Chamber members called www.casagrandeisopenforbusiness. com, because we wanted to make sure there was this one place people could look for a business in Casa Grande. The Chamber paid

for the URL, and APS has supported the updates and the design of the website, and the City of Casa Grande has been proactive in communicating about the site. We have over 150 businesses on it now. Not all of them are Chamber members. We don’t go and hunt them down to join, we hope they would want to become a member, but if they don’t, it’s OK. It’s really about sharing that our community is still open, because ultimately that helps all of us. GC LIVING: I recently saw an announcement from the city. One of the items on the email was they are moving forward with the com munity marketing organization or CMO. RENÉE LOUZON-BENN: Actually, it’s still on hold. But, the state of Arizona is doing a Rediscover Arizona campaign for tour ism. I keep thinking now more than ever, we need to get a Rediscover Casa Grande campaign off the ground. And that would be a complete website redesign with the community brand. Our current website is a bit of a tourism and Chamber website, but this would be a more robust website, a more exciting sense of arrival, and rich with images. And there would be add-ons that would be marketing the website to our community and beyond. It’s a Love Local campaign. We want people to shop local.

We want people to stay local, and we want this website to be marketed to our com munities and our area, so they think, “Oh yeah, Casa Grande, they have what I need,” and get them coming here. You don’t need to drive up to the Valley for things. It’s real ly about getting more people to our different businesses. It’s like a great small town of 60,000 residents. That’s what I like about

Casa Grande. It’s a growing city, there’s great industry, there’s great opportunity, but it still feels like a small town. I like to go to the places that are locally owned. I like to support BeDillon’s, A Latte Vino, Ricar do’s, Cook-E-Jar — I could go on, and on… you know, the places where you get to know them and they get to know you. GC LIVING: Sixty thousand people and you can run into people you know at the grocery store every time. RENÉE LOUZON-BENN: Yes! This is why I always think about what I look like before I leave the house. I always run into people I know. Now when I run into people, we talk about business and the Chamber and how are things going for their business. I think it gives me an opportunity to be support ive in a different way with our community members, our business members, and also to be part of growth in the economic development sector. In the short time since

I began, I’ve been able to do some new and exciting things, and I’m not done. Like the shirt says, “Casa Grande: Love It!” 

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