By Janel Davis
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Over a period of three hours each weekday, some Cobb County students become safety experts as they go through a simulated city with very real situations.
On 8 acres along Al Bishop Drive in Marietta, set among a number of county government services buildings, Cobb’s Safety Village is the destination for hands-on safety training for the county’s students and seniors.
Inside is a portion of a full-scale neighborhood with a Main Street, Strand Theater and a home, complete with a model kitchen and bedroom. Here students learn the hazards of leaving chemicals on low shelves, overloading electrical outlets and how to climb out the window of a burning house.
The village’s motto says it all: “Tell me and I will forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I will learn for a lifetime.”
Cobb’s Safety Village broke ground in 2008, a decade after County Manager David Hankerson pitched the idea. At that time, divisions of the county’s police and fire departments were making trips to each county school, visiting every kindergarten, second- and fourth-grade class providing safety training.
“Efficiency was the motivation,” Hankerson said. “I saw the school system’s growth, and we were trying to meet the safety mandate for the schools and I realized that we wouldn’t be able to sustain it.”
Searches of 14 other safety villages in the United States and Canada helped county officials devise Cobb’s plans, and the village opened in 2009. Using money from taxes collected through the fire fund, the county constructed the main village building for $5.2 million. Four firefighters and two police officers permanently staff the village, along with 12 swing instructors available from the departments each day as necessary. By combining the safety training at the village, the county cut its school education overtime budget by 30 percent and reduced the number of instructors by 20, said Capt. Scott Dodson, the village’s director.
The village’s budget for fiscal 2011, which began in October, is $147,000, including Dodson’s salary. Police and fire personnel are paid through their departments.
The first school year, August 2009 through May 2010, 20,000 students visited the village, and 5,000 students have visited so far this school year.
The village offers the requisite safety training to second- and fourth-grade classes in Cobb public and private schools, Marietta city schools and home schoolers. The facility also offers programs to seniors through the county’s senior services. The Safety Village is not open to the public, but it is being considered, officials said.
Still to be completed is an condensed outdoor replica of Cobb County just behind the main building. Here, along paved streets and sidewalks, sit several buildings sponsored by such Cobb mainstays as WellStar Health System and Cobb EMC. In the middle is a small park, similar to Marietta’s Glover Park, but named Mimms Park.
“How could anybody go through that place and not be impressed?” said commercial real estate developer Malon Mimms, whose donation funded the park. “If it could just save one life, it would be worthwhile, but I think it will save many more lives than that.”
The outdoor “county” is funded through donations and overseen by a foundation, Dodson said. He expects the area to be open in January and allow for additional traffic, pedestrians and driver training.
The future of the village is limitless, said Commissioner Helen Goreham, an early supporter. For her, the village’s mission is best told through the story of a student who called for help during a domestic violence situation because of her Safety Village training.
“You get goose bumps when you realize that this had made a difference to someone’s life.”
Copyright 2010 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution