CRESTVIEW — The annual Main Street Christmas Parade will be safer this year thanks to the Community Redevelopment Agency Board’s unanimous approval Monday night of the purchase of an additional 870 feet of crowd control barricades.
The Main Street Crestview Association requested the extra barricades to complete the route from Courthouse Terrace to the parade route end at Cedar Avenue and Wilson Street.
The 100 new barricades will cost $9,375 and will supplement the 560 barriers already owned by the agency.
The original barricades, purchased in 2008, were meant to cover the Main Street parade route from the railroad tracks to the Wilson Street end.
“Since most of the parades start at Martin Luther King (Avenue), the barricades only stretch to about Courthouse Terrace,” Public Works Director Wayne Steele said.
“As our parades continue to grow, it's getting more and more dangerous at the end of the route,” Mayor David Cadle said.
Steele reminded the board that at last year’s Christmas parade, a boy was injured when he ran in front of a parade float on Cedar Avenue, which had no barricades.
The new barricades will be purchased from Inline Barricades of Diamondhead, Miss., the supplier of the city’s existing barriers. The $89 sections cost $3 more than in 2008, Steele said. The new units are expected to arrive in time for the Dec. 6 Christmas parade.
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This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: 100 additional barriers will protect entire downtown parade route