Barron County Truck Show raises funds for 8-year-old, parades through city

The Barron County Truck Show, held Sept. 27-28, continued the truckin’ tradition of raising funds for local families in need with lines of shiny semi-trucks parked at the Barron County Fairgrounds for people to see before they paraded down Rice Lake’s Main Street Saturday evening.

But the show did not go off without some debate over the scope of the parade as organizers had hoped for help from the Police Department and Community Services Department to block intersections and turn lights green on Main Street and Highway O to keep the procession flowing smoothly and quickly.

Organizers brought their request for a street permit to the City Council on Sept. 24, but Chief of Police Steve Roux and Community Services Director Jim Anderson expressed reservations over their request.

The organizers, represented at the meeting by Shayla Skjerly and Kevin Roske, came to the meeting to ask for help from police for traffic control to hold the truck parade of mostly 18-wheelers from 8-9 p.m. on Sept. 28, starting at the Fairgrounds, traveling south on Main Street and then turning west on Highway O to Wisconsin Avenue.

Skjerly anticipated that approximately 50 to 70 trucks would participate, and Roske said if the traffic lights remained green for the parade the trucks could move through in about 15-20 minutes.

Roske said if there was an emergency the trucks would abide by the traffic lights.

But Roux expressed concerns over the length of the route and the resources it would require from the Police Department.

“I’m all for having these kind of events, I think they’re great for a community, they bring people around, especially for a great cause,” Roux said. “The problem we have here is we have so many intersections, we have such a narrow roadway, we have dark, we have controlled intersections, we don’t have enough people.”

If all police squads with staff were brought into service and Community Services barricaded intersections, they could make the proposed route work, but it’s not a good idea, the chief said.

“I think you need to scale it back and scale it back significantly,” he said.

Another issue from the past with the truck parade was the number of complaints the city fielded from people annoyed with the noise from the air horns.

Skjerly, Roske, Roux and Anderson discussed the request while the City Council took a 10-minute recess and came back with a proposal to shorten the route.

The parade route was changed to proceed south on Main Street from the Fairgrounds, with trucks turning west at Allen Street to disperse. It was limited to 50 trucks, and any that wanted to follow behind had to abide by the rules of the road.

Air horns were only allowed to be blown once on the stretch between Charles and Allen streets next to Marketplace.

“This is something that the Community Services Department and Police Department think that we can staff and control and still have a safe event,” Roux said.

The day after the meeting, however, Roux sent an update to the City Council saying that parade organizers planned to have the parade follow the rules of the road and wouldn’t require city assistance at intersections.

“The trucks followed the original planned route partially because it kept the large trucks on four-lane roads and gave other vehicular traffic room to travel without being impeded,” Skjerly said. “It also kept us out of residential areas. The trucks did abide by the rules of the road. The participants felt this was the safest option.”

The community supports the Truck Show, which raises funds every year for a family in need, Skjerly said. The recipient of the truck show this year is 8-year-old Blaire Helstad of Rice Lake, who has been hospitalized since March at UW-Health American Family Children’s Hospital.

“In our first four years we raised over $100,000,” Skjerly said. “This year we were fortunate enough to raise more money than all of our previous years. It is too soon to total all our numbers, but they will be posted soon.”

Roske told the City Council he hoped they could work out an agreement next year regarding the parade.

“And we hope the event continues to grow and improve,” Skjerly said after the two-day event that featured live music, a truck pull and meals for truckers. “Drivers, trucking companies, local businesses and individuals have amazed us with their generosity and support of taking care of our local families in need.”