If you didn’t know that this past Saturday was Public Safety Day in Perry, it might have been alarming to see so many emergency vehicles parked in the Hy-Vee parking lot for a few hours.

The Perry Police Department, Fire Department, Public Works Department, and Dallas County Emergency Medical Services were each represented during this year’s event, which ran Saturday from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Attendees could sign the snow plow blade, take part in a CPR demonstration, sit in the police car, and even watch the Fire Department demonstrate how their extraction equipment works as the cut a car in half. The Mercy Life Flight helicopter also showed up, and people were able to see how an air ambulance works. The overall purpose of the event though, as Fire Chief Chris Hinds explained, was to show the public why all the equipment and vehicles are necessary.

“When we go to the City Council and ask for a piece of equipment or something like that, many of these things are so, so expensive that the public immediately wonders, ‘Why do they need that expensive of a piece of equipment?’ So we kind of show what the equipment is that we have and how we use it, as well as the trucks and things that we have purchased over the years. We can put them on display and people can see what they’re getting for their money, and what they’re capable of doing.”

Hinds was pleased with the turnout, and he believed everyone left entertained but also informed. The Raccoon Valley Radio Big Red Radio was also in attendance at Perry Public Safety Day, as we broadcasted live, played music, and provided public address services.