In The News
Caddo Sheriff’s Office breaks ground on Sheriff’s Safety Town
Thursday November 16, 2006
Under sunny skies, construction officially began today on Sheriff’s Safety Town, a much-anticipated safety learning center for children.
Community sponsors, citizens, area officials, and second graders joined Caddo Sheriff Steve Prator for a special groundbreaking ceremony at the construction site located on Terry Bradshaw Passway between Walker Road and Jewella Avenue. The children used gold-colored shovels to turn the dirt where Sheriff’s Safety Town will be built.
“We are elated for this day to finally be here,” Prator said. “We simply can’t build Safety Town fast enough,” he said, referring to the number of accidental childhood injuries that have been recorded in Caddo Parish. “Today we are providing an opportunity for every child in our parish to grow up safe and healthy. Hopefully, what students learn at Sheriff’s Safety Town will stay with them a lifetime and ultimately will be shared with their own children.”
Sheriff’s Safety Town will include a two-week curriculum that will be taught through the school system to area second-graders. At the conclusion of their studies, students will visit the wee-sized town where they will practice safety skills in an interactive environment featuring child-sized streets and sidewalks, traffic lights, bicycles and small electric cars. Safety Town will also include an educational building with two classrooms where children will learn safety lessons from Caddo deputies and Shreveport firemen. The first class is expected in the fall of 2007.
Safety Town has been on the drawing board since 2005. Since then, businesses and individuals have lined up to lend their support to the project. Early estimates were that the project would cost $1.5 million. Much of that has been received through cash donations, business sponsorships, and in-kind services.
But Prator said raising funds and awareness isn’t over. “We still have plenty of needs, some big and some small,” he said. “We haven’t finished the race, by any means, but we’re nearing the home stretch.”
Prator announced Mike Schofield, executive director of the Shreveport Associated General Contractors of America, as the project director for Safety Town. Fenner Consulting is providing architectural services for the education and maintenance buildings, and Mohr and Associates Inc. is the civil engineer. Road work by F.J. Burnell Inc. has already begun.
Contributions to date have come from Willis-Knighton Health System to fund the education building, and local philanthropist Bill Robinson and Clear Channel Radio to build the maintenance building. Summer Grove Baptist Church donated almost three acres of land to Safety Town. Mini-buildings have been purchased by McDonald’s – Griggs Enterprises, AmSouth Bank, State Farm Insurance, the Allstate Foundation, Barksdale Federal Credit Union, Brookshire Foods, Capital One, Circle K, Gannett Foundation and The Times, Hand Construction, the Shreveport Bar Foundation, Ivan Smith Furniture, Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart, Tango Transport, Time It Lube, Kilpatrick Life Insurance, and Rose-Neath Flower Shops.
Electric cars have been donated by the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission, the Shreveport-Bossier New Car Dealers’ Association, Fire Tech Systems Inc., Bell’s Towing and Recovery, Wray Ford, and Querbes and Nelson Insurance. Other donors include SWEPCO – observation tower and power safety display; Downtown Kiwanis Club – park; Mary Frances Querbes, James Huckabay Insurance, United Auto Workers Local 2166, and the Credit Bureau of the South – street signs; Lifepath Hospice Care Services LLC and Gary Norris Plumbing – bicycles; Coventry Healthcare of Louisiana – bicycle helmets and classroom curriculum; CenturyTel – safety message marquee; Crime Stoppers – park benches; Alliance for Education – school bus platform.
In-kind donations have been received from Wicker Construction, the Estopinal Group, Alliance Inc., BBC Engineering, Ridgways, the City of Shreveport, and Roberts Cherry Group. Donors also include the William Woolf Foundation, the Community Foundation / Kinsey Family Fund, the Crow Foundation, and the Edna Marie Allen Foundation, BellSouth, Belk, Delton Harrison, the Highland Auxiliary, JPJ Company, Allen Brothers, and the Southern Hills Business Association.
“We are elated for this day to finally be here,” Prator said. “We simply can’t build Safety Town fast enough,” he said, referring to the number of accidental childhood injuries that have been recorded in Caddo Parish. “Today we are providing an opportunity for every child in our parish to grow up safe and healthy. Hopefully, what students learn at Sheriff’s Safety Town will stay with them a lifetime and ultimately will be shared with their own children.”
Sheriff’s Safety Town will include a two-week curriculum that will be taught through the school system to area second-graders. At the conclusion of their studies, students will visit the wee-sized town where they will practice safety skills in an interactive environment featuring child-sized streets and sidewalks, traffic lights, bicycles and small electric cars. Safety Town will also include an educational building with two classrooms where children will learn safety lessons from Caddo deputies and Shreveport firemen. The first class is expected in the fall of 2007.
Safety Town has been on the drawing board since 2005. Since then, businesses and individuals have lined up to lend their support to the project. Early estimates were that the project would cost $1.5 million. Much of that has been received through cash donations, business sponsorships, and in-kind services.
But Prator said raising funds and awareness isn’t over. “We still have plenty of needs, some big and some small,” he said. “We haven’t finished the race, by any means, but we’re nearing the home stretch.”
Prator announced Mike Schofield, executive director of the Shreveport Associated General Contractors of America, as the project director for Safety Town. Fenner Consulting is providing architectural services for the education and maintenance buildings, and Mohr and Associates Inc. is the civil engineer. Road work by F.J. Burnell Inc. has already begun.
Contributions to date have come from Willis-Knighton Health System to fund the education building, and local philanthropist Bill Robinson and Clear Channel Radio to build the maintenance building. Summer Grove Baptist Church donated almost three acres of land to Safety Town. Mini-buildings have been purchased by McDonald’s – Griggs Enterprises, AmSouth Bank, State Farm Insurance, the Allstate Foundation, Barksdale Federal Credit Union, Brookshire Foods, Capital One, Circle K, Gannett Foundation and The Times, Hand Construction, the Shreveport Bar Foundation, Ivan Smith Furniture, Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart, Tango Transport, Time It Lube, Kilpatrick Life Insurance, and Rose-Neath Flower Shops.
Electric cars have been donated by the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission, the Shreveport-Bossier New Car Dealers’ Association, Fire Tech Systems Inc., Bell’s Towing and Recovery, Wray Ford, and Querbes and Nelson Insurance. Other donors include SWEPCO – observation tower and power safety display; Downtown Kiwanis Club – park; Mary Frances Querbes, James Huckabay Insurance, United Auto Workers Local 2166, and the Credit Bureau of the South – street signs; Lifepath Hospice Care Services LLC and Gary Norris Plumbing – bicycles; Coventry Healthcare of Louisiana – bicycle helmets and classroom curriculum; CenturyTel – safety message marquee; Crime Stoppers – park benches; Alliance for Education – school bus platform.
In-kind donations have been received from Wicker Construction, the Estopinal Group, Alliance Inc., BBC Engineering, Ridgways, the City of Shreveport, and Roberts Cherry Group. Donors also include the William Woolf Foundation, the Community Foundation / Kinsey Family Fund, the Crow Foundation, and the Edna Marie Allen Foundation, BellSouth, Belk, Delton Harrison, the Highland Auxiliary, JPJ Company, Allen Brothers, and the Southern Hills Business Association.