Public Safety Day is coming together, as members of the Emergency Management Committee ironed out details for the September event at their meeting Aug. 13.
The event is slated for 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, to coincide with the city's second annual Hay Days festival at the Bella Vista Arts and Crafts Festival grounds on Forest Hills Boulevard.
The committee will present information on services offered to residents, including Smart911, a website allowing residents to input pertinent information for emergency responders, and Firewise, a mitigation initiative to keep Bella Vista homes as fire safe as possible.
The group also will be offering children's fingerprinting and a dunk tank benefiting the Police Department's car seat program. In addition this year, the Benton County Sheriff's Office Mobile Command Unit will be at the event.
In other business, Fire Chief Steve Sims advised that plans for the city's fourth fire station are moving along and an architect has been chosen.
The firm of Wittenberg, Delony and Davidson of Fayetteville will draw up plans in the coming months to show what the city could do with the square footage desired. Sims said he estimates the station will be approximately 9,000 square feet. It is set to be built on Forest Hills Boulevard, just south of its intersection with Buckston Drive.
The station is expected to be opened by the end of 2015, Sims said.
The Emergency Management Committee will meet again before Public Safety Day at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3, in the training room at the Fire Department in Town Center.
General News on 08/20/2014