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Arkansas Valley Fair Announces New Parade Route for 148th Annual Celebration to Prioritize Safety and Offset Rising CSP Costs
Description: The Arkansas Valley Fair released the following statement regarding changes to the parade route...
Arkansas Valley Fair Announces New Parade Route for 148th Annual Celebration to Prioritize Safety and Offset Rising CSP Costs
The Arkansas Valley Fair will celebrate its 148th annual event this August. We appreciate your continued support and sponsorship. This year, we are making some adjustments to the parade route to improve safety and efficiency. The Arkansas Valley Fair Board, the Rocky Ford Lions Club (the parade sponsor), the City of Rocky Ford, and the Rocky Ford Police Department are collaborating to ensure a smooth transition. Due to policy changes, the Colorado State Patrol (CSP) no longer provides free support for special events. This means that we will incur costs for detouring traffic and managing
roadblocks on Highway 50 for both east and west-bound traffic.
The adjustments to the parade route were made for the following reasons:
The permit for special events now requires a fee to the CSP for personnel to cover all road detours, both east and west of town. Last year, the Arkansas Valley Fair paid this fee, and additional CSP manpower is requested this year at an estimated cost of nearly $5,000. The State Patrol has the authority to deny the shutdown of the highways at any time.
Safety is our top priority: statistics from July 2024 indicate an average of 6,250vehicles traveling daily on Highway 50 in both directions.
The intersection of Highways 71 and 50 presents several hazards and a high potential for accidents.
Detouring hazardous materials (Hazmat) semis off their scheduled routes poses significant risks and may even be illegal.
This also raises liability concerns for law enforcement.
By reallocating the funds, we would have used for traffic management, we can support various projects.
The staging area for the parade will be the same as in previous years, located at the south end of Main Street. The parade will proceed north on Main Street to Front Street, then continue to 10th Street, and finally to Pine Avenue, where participants will be dismissed.
Thank you for your understanding and support as we make these necessary changes!
