MUSKEGON, Mich. — A federal investment is aimed at improving community safety in Muskegon.
The funding was announced Thursday, April 25 at 10:45 a.m. by Muskegon Mayor Ken Johnson, Public Safety Director Timothy Kozal and U.S. Representative Hillary Scholten.
The city used the funding to purchase new mobile vehicle stop devices. The devices are designed to be rolled out with a small amount of manpower and help block vehicular traffic from entering an area filled with people.
Mayor Johnson says the barricades will ensure large events like the Lakeshore Art Festival and Bike Time go on with less risk of a vehicle driving into a crowd.
"In a city like ours, renowned for its vibrant entertainment scene and hosting a multitude of public events throughout the year, ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our residents and visitors is paramount. With hundreds of 1000s of individuals attending these events annually. It's imperative that we have robust security measures in place to safeguard everyone's experience."
The city used a $380,000 federal grant to purchase 144 of the devices. Chief Kozal says they would allow police to block off up to 20 lanes of traffic at any one time. With many public events requiring the use of Western Avenue in downtown, the barriers could help prevent a mass casualty event.
"We have over 100 events and it's growing. We are a very vibrant city with a lot of events here. And a lot of it centers on downtown and here at the farmers market. One of the things that I felt that we could do to not only protect our citizens, is to also reduce anxiety of our citizens. So they can come downtown so they can come to the farmers market and enjoy without having any type of thought of anything happening to them."
Chief Kozal says he first found out about the devices during an out-of-town conference. He was intrigued by the ease of moving the barriers into place while providing more protection than the traditional road closed signs.
"It's very important that we are forward thinking and practice and preventing tragedy when that tragedies especially intentional," said Mayor Johnson. "But there's also circumstances where you have medical incidents, and people veer off course of where they're supposed to be going with their vehicle. And so that's whether it's intentional or unintentional, this adds an additional security and protection measure."
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