TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Candy, Beads Banned At Parades

ADVERTISEMENT

By RAY REYES, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 19, 2008

PLANT CITY - Commissioners on Monday voted unanimously to ban the distribution of beads and candy at parades.

The decision appeared to trouble several commissioners, who said they were aware that the ban would affect the spirit and atmosphere of parades and that there may be smaller crowds as a result.

"It's what attracts the kids," Commissioner Bill Dodson said. "It's possible, in my mind, the attendance will decline."

If there are no beads and candy distributed from floats, Mayor Rick Lott said, "you take out the heart and soul" of parades. But Lott, along with his fellow commissioners, said they must heed the recommendations of city public safety officials and put the ban into effect.

"I'd have a hard time going against both chiefs and saying no," Lott said, referring to Police Chief Bill McDaniel and Plant City Fire Rescue Chief George Shiley, who were part of a committee that studied parade safety and released a report Jan. 11.

The action was taken in response to the death of a 9-year-old Inverness boy who was run over by a float in the Plant City Christmas Parade. Jordan "Booka" Hays was distributing candy from a church float when he was caught under the wheels and killed Dec. 7.

The ban immediately affects the parade held today in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other parades, including the Florida Strawberry Festival's Grand Feature Parade in March.

At their meeting Monday, the commission also voted unanimously to create a task force that would discuss the recommendations and implement uniform safety standards.

The task force of public safety personnel and parade officials "may come up with a process in the future to safely distribute beads and candy," Commissioner Dan Raulerson said. The task force also will look at the possibility of moving the Christmas parade from night to day.

Placing temporary pedestrian barricades along parade routes will be decided during city budget hearings this year, City Manager David Sollenberger said. Purchasing barricades would cost $200,000 or more; renting barricades would cost about $25,000 a year, Sollenberger said.

The crowd at the Christmas parade was not a factor in Jordan's death, McDaniel wrote in the city report, but the police chief acknowledged that "parade crowds are becoming increasingly challenging to manage."

"Jordan Hays was not surrounded by a crowd at the trailer wheel when he was crushed, nor was he being pressed, pressured or harassed by the crowd where and when he was killed," McDaniel wrote.

In the report, the police chief faulted the design of the float used by the Greater Heights Family Worship Center. The float's design "included outrigger-style wheels that created a hazard to persons approaching or standing" in front of those wheels, McDaniel said.

Jordan tried to retrieve candy to distribute when the float momentarily stopped. He was standing in front of the float's fender-shrouded wheels that protruded from the sides of the 20-foot trailer when the float started moving forward, McDaniel said.

As Jordan retrieved candy from boxes inside the trailer's side rails and the float began to move forward, the boy "was pushed to the pavement and subsequently run over by the right-side wheels of the trailer," the report said.

Rickie Tarlton of Lithia, who was driving the pickup that pulled the float, moved forward without ensuring it was safe to do so, McDaniel wrote.

The adults on the Greater Heights float also "failed to eliminate the risk caused by placing boxes of candy in front of the trailer's wheels," McDaniel wrote. Also, Jordan was too young to have been walking around moving vehicles, he said.

The Rev. Joe Kelley Jr., pastor of Greater Heights Family Worship Center, could not be reached for comment.

The report recommended banning floats with protruding wheels, and Commissioner Robert Brown suggested a motion on that issue during Monday's meeting.

The commission, however, voted 4-1 against Brown's motion, allowing floats with outrigger wheels in parades.

"I've got a report from my chief of police," said Brown, who cast the dissenting vote, "and my conscience says we shouldn't have these types of floats in Plant City."
Sollenberger said he would not yet recommend banning because refitting floats for the upcoming parades "may not be feasible" for participants who are nearly finished with designs.

With the ban on trinkets now in effect, children would not be near a float with protruding wheels, Commissioner Bill Dodson said.

Reporter Ray Reyes can be reached at (813) 865-4433 or rreyes@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT