After reading a visitor post today about Safety Town at Positively Naperville Facebook and subsequent comments, it became apparent again that sometimes social media gets folks all in a tizzy before all the facts are known.
What I know from attending recent City Council meetings and watching workshops is that our deliberative City Council directed City staff to check all city-owned amenities and properties to establish long-term needs and possible revenue streams.
I think it’s safe to say that all Safety Town programs are valued and the pint-size city named last year to honor A. George Pradel and Patricia Pradel is not on the chopping block. After 20 years, the permanent Safety Town location simply needs a financial path to sustain its upkeep and basic maintenance.
Is there possibly a way to step up the use of the prized city amenity every season of the year?
PN’s files include many photos from recent years at Trick or Treat and Easter Bunny events that show paint peeling from many of the structures. We did not publish the photos of happy youngsters enjoying the special events because they failed to show Safety Town in its best condition. Recently, those buildings have been repainted as you’ll see in the gallery of photos below with a brief overview of Safety Town.
All that said, in my opinion, Safety Town has never been used to its potential capacity. We live within walking distance. We drive by Safety Town daily and every time we pass the miniature city, day or night, we wonder about other uses, possibly revenue producers for sustainability.
In a city where citizens continually are looking for evening meeting space, the other side of the facility with spacious classrooms is dark nearly every night of the year.
About 10 years ago, we tried to find out how to rent the classrooms for an evening. Our requests were denied because of the Safety Town Commission’s restrictions on public use. We were told only “safety” events were allowed there.
When we first read the post sent by the vice president of the Naperville Junior Woman’s Club on PN’s Facebook as well as the Naperville Safety Town Facebook page, it did occur to us that perhaps Safety Town could be used for safety and traffic school for speeding adults to remind them that the speed limit in Naperville neighborhoods is 25 mph unless otherwise noted.
Perhaps some of those speeding residents attended Safety Town events as youngsters. Perhaps lessons are still to be learned.
Just now as I was writing these thoughts, an email alert came from the City of Naperville with a Letter to the Editor from Mayor Steve Chirico. It’s linked here in a separate post.
Thanks to all the folks who have contributed to the success of Safety Town over the years, especially all members of the Naperville Junior Woman’s Club. Let’s be thoughtful, work together and try to figure out the best way to keep the popular city amenity as a viable place to learn for perpetuity.
That way, Safety Town will be here to stay.
—Stephanie Penick
Visitor Post at Positively Naperville Facebook
Some Naperville city leaders are actively pursuing holding traffic court for DuPage County at the Naperville Safety Town building twice a week. Not only would the building require extensive retrofitting, Safety Town was informed the 5-day a week summer program, which annually educates over 1,600 children entering Kindergarten and 1st Grade, would need to be shortened to 3 days reducing the safety curriculum the children would receive.
To keep most of the current curriculum, Safety Town would be forced to cut the number of sessions offered reducing the amount of students graduating from the program and also eliminating over $21,000 in revenue (over 1/3 of the annual revenue for Safety Town – a non-profit 501(c)3 run by volunteers). This reduction in income and negative perception could eventually shut down Safety Town, which has been in existence for over 40 years and educated over 60,000 children including 2nd & 3rd generations. Naperville Safety Town (officially named the A. George & Patricia Pradel Safety Town of Naperville) was started by George Pradel, then Officer Friendly, in the 1970’s. The current site was completed in 1996 and renamed after the Pradel family last year.
Please sign our petition to keep Safety Town from becoming a traffic court!
Another social media post is featured at Naperville Safety Town, also urging folks to sign the petition.
PHOTO GALLERY, Sept. 16, 2016 / After we received the info from the Junior Woman’s Club, we high-tailed over to Safety Town where we observed the adorable pint-sized structures set for kids’ learning recently have been painted. On the other side of Safety Town is a building with classrooms. The 20-year-old building appears to need a new roof and the parking lot with 50-some spaces is in need of resurfacing and maintenance.
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Brief Overview of Safety Town
In 1978, the Naperville Junior Woman’s Club (NJWC) introduced the community to a program called Safety Town. (Before we moved to Naperville, we experienced the nationwide program in Chatham, New Jersey.)
Once established, the NJWC coordinated, supervised and staffed the educational programs at temporary locations, usually at schools.
In 1993, members of NJWC and other community leaders set up the Naperville Safety Town Commission, aimed at finding a permanent location for Safety Town programs.
Shortly thereafter, plans to build Safety Town on the Naperville Public Safety Campus were embraced. Supported by many generous business leaders whose names adorn the street signs and tiny buildings, the Safety Town facility opened in June of 1996, located at the corner of River and Aurora Roads.
Safety Town includes a classroom building and a kid-sized town complete with buildings, streets, a fire safety house, railroad crossing and water safety display as well as traffic signs and signals.
The site also has a large parking lot to accommodate roughly 50 vehicles.
Using two large class rooms, Safety Town offers various safety and health-related programs designed for different age groups throughout the year, but mostly in the summer. Programs include Scouts Play It Safe, Scouts First Aid, Baby-sitting Clinics, CPR, Trick or Treat at Safety Town, Fingerprinting, Keeping Yourself Safe, WDSRA Safety Town Sessions and Safety Town Mini Sessions.
In January 2016, the Naperville Junior Woman’s Club hosted a fundraising gala to heighten awareness for maintenance and sustainability needs at A. George and Patricia Pradel Safety Town as it marks its 20th year as a popular city amenity.
Trick or Treat at Safety Town / Oct. 29
Hosted by the Naperville Junior Woman’s Club, Trick or Treat at Safety Town, also a food collection site for Loaves & Fishes that day, is set from 10AM to 2PM on Sat., Oct. 29, 2016.
Admission is $1 per youngster along with a nonperishable food item.
Thousands of youngsters in costume take a tour of the A. George and Patricia Pradel Safety Town every year to celebrate Halloween, collecting candy treats and safety tips all along the way.
Editor’s Note, Sept. 17, 2016 / The following reply was posted on PN Facebook by Heather Quinn Queen, Vice President of the Naperville Junior Woman’s Club: Stephanie… thank you for your perspective! We agree the city has a fiscal responsibility to make sure resources are being used and not wasted. We just don’t believe Safety Town should be utilized as a traffic court… although we firmly agree hosting a traffic court somewhere in Naperville is a good use of resources. As a non-profit, we take pride that since the site’s completion in 1996, Safety Town has raised the money via fundraising, sponsorship, and our famous summer program to pay 100% of all costs without taxpayer help.
While we were in a bit of disrepair a couple years ago, this was due to lack of contractor response and not a funding issue. We are excited about several buildings being repainted and the large renovation project completed last year.
Your idea to have a traffic safety class is fantastic! What a great use of the facility for the purpose it was created! We too want to ensure Safety Town is here for generations to come. 🙂
Also, we would like to clarify the date and times listed in the article for Trick or Treat were incorrect. Trick or Treat will be hosted by the Naperville Junior Woman’s Club on Saturday, October 29, 2016 from 10am-2pm. Thanks again for your continued support of Safety Town and our community!
Additional Info Received from Heather Queen, Sept. 20, 2016 / Safety Town’s Impact Extends Wider than Children’s Summer Safety Lessons
Non-profit organization is fully self-funded and serves thousands of children annually
In response to misinformation about Naperville’s Safety Town being propagated by city leadership, the following are important facts about the A. George and Patricia Pradel Safety Town of Naperville:
- April 7, 1993 the Naperville City Council passed ordinance No. 93-53 which required Safety Town and its facility to “be restricted to safety education and related safety programs.” This ordinance has been followed for 21 years without fail.
- Each year, nearly 2,000 students from Naperville schools learn fire safety lessons at Safety Town through the Learn Not to Burn program. Annually, 150 kids participate in Open Bike Night, 1,500 children attend the Trick or Treat safety event, 400 students participate in safety related Scouting programs, and about 150 area teens enroll in our Safe Sitter program.
- In addition to the 1,600 kindergarten and first graders who participate in our summer program, we have 500 teen volunteers a year who receive 6,000 leadership and volunteer hours annually. In fact, 20 students used their Safety Town volunteer experience on their National Honor Society applications in 2016.
- We are a self-funded 501(c)3 non-profit organization and receive no tax-payer or city dollars. We are financially sound and responsibly manage our income from programming and donations. We have created an endowment with the DuPage Foundation, to ensure safety education in our community can continue.
- Safety Town partners with organizations including KidsMatter, NCO, the Naperville Police and Fire Departments, First Student, and Nicor offering our unique space for safety related training.
“When considering the facts presented above, it is clear that more than a six-week summer camp will be adversely affected by traffic court proceedings in our building,” said Laurah Georgi, Safety Town President. “Although being touted by some city officials as a gain for Naperville, traffic court being held at Safety Town, a small yet impactful not for profit, will cause significant loss through reduced programming and lost income – just say NO to traffic court at Safety Town.”
—Heather Queen, VP, Naperville Junior Woman’s Club
Editor’s Note, Sept. 20, 2016 / Here’s hoping now that the 20-year lease is up, all players with a vested interest in the Safety Town facility and its programs will sit down together to agree on the facts, its most prudent use, possible new revenue-producing programs; and how to best fund all the care and maintenance in regard for public safety and the future of Safety Town before the new lease is assumed.
We also are reminded of the words of Crime Stoppers: Keeping this community safe is everybody’s responsibility.
The annual Public Safety Open House, “Partnering for Prevention,” is 10AM to 2PM Sat., Oct. 1, hosted by the Naperville Fire Department and the Naperville Police Department. The public is welcome to the event, free of charge.
‘Last Call’ at City Council meeting provides closure
ONE MORE THING, Sept. 20, 2016 / Under “New Business” at the end of the Sept. 20 City Council meeting, Mayor Steve Chirico issued a “last call” with closure regarding working with Safety Town as a proposed location for DuPage County Traffic Court to serve Naperville residents. According to a call from DuPage County officials on Tuesday, “none of the facilities that we had showed to them fit their needs,” Chirico said.
The City Council and City will continue to look at ways to better utilize and sustain the maintenance needs of the facility by working with the Safety Town Commission.
—PN
