MOUNT VERNON – Residents have donated a record number of fans to help their neighbors beat the heat this summer, and the Mount Vernon Fire Department continues to ask for more new fans.
“Our fan drive has been absolutely unbelievable,” Fire Chief Chad Christopher said.
He said the 57 new fans donated so far show how great the community is.
Businesses and individuals have donated fans, he said. They must be new fans in the box, with box fans a common choice, Christopher said.
The Fire Department brings the fans to Interchurch Social Services of Knox County, located next door to the Mount Vernon Fire Station on West Gambier Street, and that nonprofit agency distributes the fans according to need.
Fire causes traffic jam during festival
A fire on Saturday, Aug. 12, displaced a dozen people from an apartment complex on South Gay Street and disrupted traffic attempting to bypass the Mount Vernon Music and Arts Festival.
Fire Chief Chad Christopher said no residents or firefighters were injured in the first at 105 South Gay Street, though a pet cat died in the fire.
“The fire was contained to a second-floor apartment. All the residents there were displaced and provided assistance by the Red Cross,” Christopher said.
Police Chief Robert Morgan said that fire on Saturday afternoon slowed down traffic quite a bit because that road was the main bypass route during the Mount Vernon Music and Arts Festival.
“So, we had quite a traffic jam there for a couple of hours while the fire guys took care of that,” he said.
A recent fire at 1 Maplewood Ave. burned down the home. No one was injured, and the house was empty. The cause of the fire hasn’t been determined.
New firefighter starts part-time job
Jared Reffitt started working as a part-time firefighter on Aug. 14, Christopher said.
Firefighters will begin hydrant flushing in the northern section of Mount Vernon starting on Sept. 1.
He said the Fire Department has been conducting search and rescue and hose movement training in the basement of the former Mount Vernon News building.
Watch out for kids as school year begins
On Wednesday, Morgan renewed his request that motorists be careful as kids return to school.
“Everybody, please slow down and give yourself extra time. Watch out for kids,” he said.
The students might not use crosswalks properly or look both ways before crossing the street and may share the road on bicycles with vehicles. All summer, motorists have been used to school zones not having flashing lights on. But now they are running from a short time before schools open to slightly after the schools close. When those lights are flashing, the speed limit is 20 mph.
Morgan said fines for traffic violations of any kind, not just speeding, are doubled in a school zone. The minimum fine is $30 outside of a school zone; court costs bring the minimum to $150 before the fine is doubled.
A traffic light has been out in front of Dan Emmett Elementary School on Mansfield Avenue. Contractors have been working on traffic lights and did not complete the work before school started.
“So what they did was they erected temporary traffic lights on Old Mansfield Road between Belmont Street and Nuce Road,” Morgan said.
Some schools will have volunteer crossing guards, including Dan Emmett and Pleasant Street Elementary Schools, he said.
PAK United searches for buried treasure
On Aug. 10, PAK United hosted a guided metal detecting program at Ariel-Foundation Park with 15 to 20 kids participating.
“They found some old pop cans, they found some fishhooks, they found some money that might or might not have been seeded by my guys before we went out there,” Morgan said.
There “might” have been approximately $20 in change buried in the area searched. But not all the money was found by the kids.
Sunbelt Rentals bought three metal detectors and loaned them to PAK United for the event, even promising to let the group use them again if a similar event is held, he said.
