Keeping the Circleville Pumpkin Show safe

CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio ( WCMH ) — The Circleville Pumpkin Show is back for its 117th year.

The city’s downtown streets were lined with people Wednesday for the first day of one of the state’s largest street festivals, with people coming near and far to see the pumpkins, like Jayme Edwards.

“I’ve lived here my whole life, so we take off the whole week and come here every day,” Edwards said.

Edwards and her young sons are no strangers to the big crowds. They even have a meeting spot in case they get separated.

“The police officers always pass out wristbands so that they know where to go and they have our information on and everything as well,” Edwards said.

According to organizers, it truly is a group effort to provide security. With hundreds of thousands of people expected to attend the show, safety was at the forefront of planning.

Circleville Pumpkin Show President Marc Rogols said they don’t cut any corners.

“We always have law enforcement on the grounds 24 hours a day,” Rogols said. “We’ve implemented at the entrances and exits, new barricades to kind of reduce or prevent a terrorist threat.”

Circleville’s Public Safety Director Rob Ware said the festival receives a lot of outside support from police and fire agencies around Pickaway and surrounding counties.

“We’re also trying to work smarter, not harder,” Ware said. “So we’re bringing in a lot more video equipment so that we can see all areas of the festivities and still have the police presence walking around, too, to ensure safety and make people feel comfortable.”

Ware said their main role is to accommodate all of the people coming to Circleville and ensure they have a safe visit.

“A lot of families come in and a lot of small children,” Ware said. “So what we’ve done is we’ve coordinated our traffic planning just to provide emergency ingress and egress to allow for pedestrian access, reasonably close parking.”

There are new security measures that have been put in place behind the scenes

“This year we implemented new water barricades at the entrances,” Rogols said. “We also put out what’s called a meridian barricade, and it’s designed to prevent a high-speed entry of a vehicle.”

Organizers do have tips should you get separated from your group.

“Anybody in an orange jacket is a trustee or an officer of the pumpkin show,” Rogols said. “Walk up to them, they can contact whoever you need.”

According to organizers, planning for this massive event begins the day after the show is over. It’s a constant coordination between city and pumpkin show officials to make sure they can pull the event off safely, and at a low cost since it is free to the public.

In about three weeks, Rogols said they’ll have a post-pumpkin show meeting where they essentially prepare a list of what they need to do better the following year.

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