A Weekly Note from Mayor Gary L. Graham
“Traditional Values, Progressive Thinking”
Memorial Day weekend is the beginning of the travel season in America when many of us take to the road for vacations and weekend trips. Whether your Memorial Day trip is across the country or just across town, you can rest assured that you and your loved ones will arrive safe and sound if you practice the following safety tips.
· Plan your trip so that you have plenty of time to reach your destination.
· Avoid aggressive driving behaviors such as, speeding, tailgating, failing to yield the right-of-way, and following too closely.
· Drive defensively.
· Make sure your vehicle is well maintained. Check tire pressures and tread, clean all lights, check brakes and battery.
· Use seat belts each and every time you are in a vehicle. Buckling up can substantially reduce the severity of injuries in nonfatal crashes.
· Always secure children in child car seats in the back seat.
· Allow someone else to drive when taking medications or when you are drowsy.
· Don’t let drinking and driving turn a holiday celebration into a tragedy. Even moderate consumption of wine or beer impairs your ability to make proper decisions on the road.
Memorial Day weekend also provides us with an opportunity to pause for a moment to remember and honor veterans who have served our country. This Memorial Day holiday is a special one for the O’Fallon community. A dedication ceremony for the new Veterans Monument will be held on Monday, May 29, 2006 at 1 p.m. at 737 East Wesley Drive. Everyone from the community is invited to attend the formal unveiling of this spectacular monument.
The monument was erected to honor all veterans who were honorable discharged from any branch of service and who lived in the O’Fallon Township High School District at any time in their lives. It is a living monument with the ability to accommodate another 4,000 names in the future.
The O’Fallon Veterans Monument has been a great public-private partnership and it is exciting to see all of the hard work coming to fruition. The City provided the land for the monument and paid for the parking lot and electrical extension to the site. In addition, the City recently approved an agreement with the Veterans Monument Association to provide basic maintenance for the monument grounds. The Veterans Monument Committee raised money to pay for construction of the monument and has established a perpetual fund to maintain the structure over time.
If you aren’t able to attend the ceremony, I encourage you to pause for a moment of silence sometime on Monday, May 29th to show respect for those who have gone before us. The compassion and respect that our residents exhibit towards one another is yet another example of why O’Fallon is such a great community in which to live.
| 
