Sheriff Greg Pollan told the Calhoun City Chamber of Commerce Tuesday that the recent “active shooter training” conducted by his department at Vardaman Elementary was a great learning experience, and similar training events are being planned for the near future.
Sheriff Pollan
“It was great for us as a department and the school to see how we respond to certain things and where we should make improvements to our emergency plans,” Pollan said. “Since that training session, two more schools have contacted us wanting to have similar sessions at their school.”
Pollan said more intense training for local departments was ordered in recent years as a result of school shootings around the country and the slow response time of state and federal agencies.
“We’re obviously going to be the first to respond to that kind of tragedy so we need to be trained how to handle it,” Pollan said.
In other news, Chamber President Laura Edwards said plans continue to come together for the annual arts and crafts festival now known as SquareFest.
This year’s festival will take place May 30-31 and feature some new attractions. A movie night will be hosted on the square Friday night of the festival and a 5K Glow Run will be held with all proceeds benefiting Excel.
Edwards expressed her thanks to everyone who participated in the recent “Spring Fling” business event.
“We thought we had a wonderful event and people seemed to really enjoy it,” she said.
The chamber will have its regular monthly meeting in May, and then the annual banquet will be held June 10 at the Methodist Corner.
Rep. Jim Beckett is scheduled to be the guest speaker.