Letter: Enjoyed National Night Out, let’s advertise Oak Ridge events

To the Editor:

I had the pleasure of attending the National Night Out event at the Oak Ridge Civic Center park earlier this month.

This was a wonderful event for Oak Ridge and surrounding communities. There were many booths with important information regarding home and neighborhood safety, with education regarding drug addiction and meth labs.The Oak Ridge firemen and police officers had such interesting activities for children including a ride in the fire truck bucket! There was free food provided by Pizza Inn, Baskin Robins, Chick-fil-a, Coca Cola, and more! There were many exciting activities for children including bucket rides in the City of Oak Ridge truck, fire trucks to tour, and bounce houses. What a delightful experience for my grandchildren!

I was surprised at the small number of attendees there. I have been told by friends, when I mentioned going to this Neighborhood Watch event, that they would have loved to have been there but didn’t know about it. This reminded me of the recent City Council discussion of sign regulations for businesses in Oak Ridge. If we could have signs in prominent places where daily traffic is heavy, advertising events a few days before they occur, it would be a big plus for living in Oak Ridge. We are told that many people live in surrounding communities because there is “nothing for young people to do” in Oak Ridge.

I applaud the businesses that are willing to place events on their signs and Oak Ridge Today for listing events (which is where I found out about National Night Out). Let’s advertise to DOE employees as well as thousands of others who work in Oak Ridge and live elsewhere the many reasons to spend weekends and evenings here in our town!

David Stanley

Oak Ridge