Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
The city of Sweet Home will host its inaugural Public Safety Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on May 17 at the Jim Riggs Community Center, 870 18th Ave.
The fair will be an attempt to promote public safety in the community, especially among children.
City officials hope to make it an annual event, organizer Cindi Robeck said. “The point is to promote safety in the community geared toward children, but there’s still a fair amount of information for parents as well.”
Among the activities, children can bring their bicycles and participate in a bike rodeo, Robeck said. The first 75 children to show up will receive a free bike helmet.
Along with that, the event will have a “passport for children,” who will be eligible to win prizes in a drawing if they visit at least eight safety stations and get their passports stamped.
Prizes include bicycles and a skateboard.
Complete children’s identi-fication kits, including photos and fingerprinting, will be available. Free blood pressure checks will be provided.
REACH Medical Services will be there and will provide tours of one of its helicopters.
Also attending will be Linn County marine deputies and the dive team, state police vehicles and troopers, Pacific Power with a presentation on electrical safety, Sweet Home Police Department, Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District, Sweet Home Sanitation, Poison Control, Linn County Juvenile Department, TIP of Linn County, the Masonic Lodge and Sweet home Public Works Department.
OMI, Inc., which operates and manages the city’s water and wastewater treatment plants, will provide free hot dogs and soda.
The city’s Traffic Safety Committee started organizing the event as a bicycle rodeo, Robeck said, but it has grown beyond that to the point where the city had to turn away vendors to avoid having it get too large too fast.