Building up Safety Town in Jeffersonville

Clark County

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May 21, 2009

New facility will replace original complex after nearly 40 years

RICHARD GOOTEE The News and Tribune Thu May 21, 2009, 02:13 PM EDT

City officials and supporters broke ground for Jeffersonville’s newest neighborhood Wednesday — Safety Town USA.

The popular summer safety program for young children plans to relocate and expand to a half-acre lot next to the city’s fire station along 10th Street.

Mayor Tom Galligan called the new facility a statement of gratitude to the Pilot Club for its work coordinating the program since it began.

“We’re going to build a new Safety Town out here that is going to be bigger, that’s going to have bigger buildings in it so it looks more like the streets that you go down,” Galligan said. “We’re going to have curbs and gutters; we’re going to have fire hydrants. We’re going to have everything out there.”

Former Pilot Club safety Chairwoman Eulalia Kratz, an employee of former Mayor Richard L. Vissing, created Safety Town in 1970 after she and Vissing toured Muncie’s version of the children’s safety camp.

Children will recognize Safety Town as their own city. Galligan said a mural of Spring Street will greet them at the back of the town, so the children will feel like they are downtown.

Deputy Fire Chief Tony Decker said the plans are to make the miniature city even more realistic. He hopes to have about 15 replica buildings done on a five-eighths scale. Businesses will be able to pay for a spot in safety town, he added.

Decker said the Jeffersonville City Council already allocated $5,000 for the project, and a small amount of bond money left over from construction on a new fire station also is available. A grant covered some of the construction costs, too.

Programs like this prepare children for the future, the mayor said.

“We think this is something we need to do, and Pilot Club has been doing it. We need to team up with them and give them a better location to do the things to help our kids live a better life,” Galligan said

The city’s original Safety Town is still in use, but the program deserves the update, said Matthew Gullo, a Kovert Hawkins landscape architect. He added that he has spent the last year laying out the new town.

“Right now, the Safety Town is kind of small and is on an old abandoned tennis court, and the kids really love it,” said Gullo, who’s the project head for the Jeffersonville company, which donated its services for the new town.

The old location near Memorial Park will hold the first classes this summer, said Pilot Club President Carolyn Wilson, until the new location is ready in July.

Decker said the new Safety Town will be about five times larger than its current location. He called the program and the new facility a perfect marriage for the fire department.

SO YOU KNOW

• Safety Town is a free program offered by the Pilot Club for children, ages 5 to 7. The program teaches real-life strategies for emergency situations, as well pedestrian, bicycle and motor-vehicle safety. Between 80 and 100 students attend Safety Town each year, according to club President Carolyn Wilson.