March 25 Editorial

Home safety expo Thursday should be worthwhile for public


Part of the Marshall Police Department’s job is to be part of the community it serves — a resource for residents and businesses, and an organization the community can trust is looking out for its best interests.

That’s one of the many good points about the Home Safety and Security Expo planned from 6-8 p.m. Thursday at the MERIT Centre, at 1001 W. Erie Road in Marshall.

The Police Department is one of the organizers of the event, but, as Director of Public Safety Rob Yant said Monday, “we’re trying to do more than just locks and alarms,” as it promotes safety.

Locks and alarms are natural subjects for home safety, given some of the home burglaries that have taken place in Marshall in the past year. But Yant said it’s not been an epidemic of home knock-offs, and thinks the public got a more “realistic understanding,” of the situation thanks to publicity about the nature of the break-ins and safety tips provided by authorities over the winter.

However, you can still get tips for making your home more burglary-proof Thursday night. But that is not all.

The event also includes information on home and business insurance, carbon-monoxide and smoke detectors, animal care and owner’s legal responsibilities, gun safety, natural gas, pool and water safety.

There will be demonstrations on first aid, information about CPR classes, training in fire extinguisher use, how to use a free identity kid and protection against identity theft, and demonstrations on home security systems.

“We’re going to have a speaker from the Jacob Wetterling Foundation,” Yant said, another example the event will be more than locks and alarms.

“All the sort of things that relate to your home or small business in terms of what people can do to be safer.”

The event will also include vendors with home-safety products and advice.

“We want to come to the public and try to bring them together with retailers and business people that can help them,” Yant said. “If we just try to do something from the Police Department, that’s good. But if we can have a more complete event, that makes it more worthwhile for the public and more likely to be taken advantage of.

“We’re trying to make it worthwhile for businesses to come and, on the other hand, for the public to come and be more informed. Not from a preachy sense, but here are products that help you be more safe in a variety of ways.”

If it goes well, Yant hopes to make the expo an annual event.

One other key factor is, though, the police presence at the event. Some studies will say that police outreach and interaction with the public is one of the best safety steps a community can take.

Police do some of that already in the community, “and this allows us to do a little more,” Yant said.

Along with the Police, the event is sponsored by the Marshall Area Crime Fund, Chamber of Commerce, Marshall Radio, Marshall Independent and Marshall Community Services.

MERIT Center support

Yant also hopes the expo helps showcase the MERIT Center itself to the public. Local officials are seeking $300,000 in state bonding this year to expand MERIT safety training for wind turbines and ethanol plants. A company already has committed to providing some turbine equipment but the state funding will help with the expansion.

The funding for the center has moved along with the bonding bill so far, and Yant hopes that if the public sees the center and understands the training it provides industrial and rescue professionals, they’ll encourage lawmakers to back the bonding request.