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Police and public works outline staffing, safety plans and new French Market for 2025 special events season
Summary
Roselle’s police and public works departments described incident action plans, staffing impacts, new barriers and a new French Market that adds 13 event days; trustees discussed volunteer support, costs and whether to subsidize nonprofit organizers.
Police Chief Rob Barreto gave a detailed overview of the Village of Roselle’s 2025 special events calendar and the planning, staffing and equipment required to run downtown events safely.
Barreto said traditional events — Rose Fest, Rose Parade and the Taste of Roselle — remain on the calendar and the village added a French Market running June 4 through Aug. 27 that will add 13 days requiring village services. He described the incident action plan (IAP) process used to plan events, the assignment of an on‑scene sergeant to each event, interdepartmental coordination with fire and public works, volunteer reliance, and the need to balance event staffing with response capacity to 9‑1‑1 calls.
The chief listed equipment and safety upgrades procured for events, including portable truck‑stop meridian barriers that can stop a vehicle (the department obtained new barriers via grant), the use of drones for overhead surveillance and detailed medical staging and severe‑weather plans. Barreto said staff developed small/medium/large event templates to streamline planning and that the village moved permitting to a cloud‑based system to cut paperwork and centralize incident documents.
Trustees and the mayor asked about cost recovery. Barreto and Village Administrator Tom (last name not specified in the record) said the village sometimes discounts fees or staffing charges for partner organizations when the village is a formal event sponsor, but they did not have precise percentages at the meeting and said staff would compile reimbursement figures for the board. Trustees discussed whether private security or mutual aid from neighboring departments could be used; Barreto noted outside security still leaves ultimate liability and reputational risk with the village and that neighboring department mutual‑aid requests sometimes come back with few volunteers because municipalities share similar event seasons.
Board members praised recent events and the new plaza as an easier, contained venue for downtown activities. No policy changes were voted; staff said the presentation was intended to inform the board as the summer season begins and to set expectations about overtime, volunteer needs and potential future staffing or equipment requests.
