Hernando's mayor is among five officials from around the country to get this year's Leadership for Healthy Communities Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The real credit goes to the people of Hernando, Mayor Chip Johnson told The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (http://bit.ly/19tJnxu).

"Our constituents are the ones who tell us at City Hall what to do, and we do it," he said.

The foundation said Johnson's successes include establishing a new city parks department, creating more bicycle lanes and sidewalks, and helping start one of Mississippi's most popular farmer's markets.

Johnson received the award last week at the 2013 Leadership for Healthy Communities Childhood Obesity Prevention Summit in Baltimore.

Other recipients were Mayor Michael A. Nutter of Philadelphia; Superintendent John Skretta of the Norris School District in Firth, Nebraska; and two people from Maryland: State Delegate Joseline A. Peña-Melnyk, who represents Prince George's and Anne Arundel Counties in the state House of Delegates and Howard County Executive Kenneth S. Ulman.

Hernando was recognized in 2010 as a Healthiest Hometown in the state by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Mississippi, and the city helped DeSoto County lead the state in subsequent nationwide county-by-county health rankings by the Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest philanthropy focused on public health issues.