ClayRadio's Podcast
The podcasts are recordings created from programs that stream on internet radio station ClayRadio in Clay County, Florida. The shows are made available to the public on the podcast following the debut of the program online.
ClayRadio's Podcast
CCSO Off the Cuff: LT Ken Wagner and Deputy Ronnie Freshour
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Lt. Kenny Wagner reviews the crossing guard program in Clay County. Deputy Ronnie Freshour explains how you can join the Clay Watch program.
And PIO Ben Ryan takes you behind the scenes on how critical wildfire info gets out fast during emergencies in southern Clay County.
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Hey Clay County, welcome back to Clay Radio. This is CCSO Off the Cuff. It's a collaboration between community radio station Clay Radio and the Clay County Sheriff's Office. If you would like to let us know that you want to hear a particular topic on the program or any of the Clay Radio shows, simply drop us a line at ClayRadioOnline.com. Now we do have a full lineup of guests in the studios today, and so let's get right to it and introduce them to you. First off, we'll start with uh Lieutenant Ken Wagner. He's uh with Community Affairs uh in charge of patrol support and crossing guards as well. Lieutenant, thanks for uh being here once again.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_00Early part of May, so we're coming down to the end of the school year. We'll get to talk a little bit about uh the days left. Nineteen days. Nineteen days. He had that one, uh he had that stat ready, uh ready to go, so that's uh that's pretty good. All right, so uh we'll get back to you on that. We also have uh Deputy Ronnie Freshour from Community Affairs, and uh Ronnie is a familiar face to uh folks here in the Clay County. I mean, born and bred, right? Yes, sir. Very good, good to have you here with us as well, Deputy. And uh also uh we've got uh our PIO Ben Ryan here. Ben has been practicing uh in earnest the email address to uh let everybody know how to get a hold of us. Go ahead and uh do that. Might as well get that out of the way early. As always, happy to be here at sheriff at claysheriff.com. Send us an email if you need something. Very good. All right. So uh the uh folks here are with uh CCSO, of course, and uh we'll start with uh Lieutenant Wagner. And uh thus far, uh Lieutenant, how the how's the uh year been?
SPEAKER_02It's been a phenomenal year. Um you know, we have a lot of crossing guards, and I I have to put the plug in. I always need crossing guards, so I'm I'm still 10 positions short. Um, but we do have a hybrid program here at the Sheriff's Office, which both PSAs and crossing guards, which we'll touch on later on. Uh it's been a great year. Um we haven't seen any major incidents in in the 42 crossings at uh schools that we're at where we have crossings, so we've had a phenomenal year so far.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and uh in terms of uh those uh requirements to be a crossing guard, anything specific that the average person would have trouble with in terms of crossing?
SPEAKER_02But it is rewarding, it does have an intrinsic reward.
SPEAKER_00And uh is it required that they do a morning shift and an afternoon shift or it could be a combination of some some work.
SPEAKER_02I have some crossing guards that work all three of the different schools because they're different schools lines, high school, junior high, and uh elementary. I have some that just work just elementary schools, some that just work junior highs, some that just work in the morning. It's a myriad. However, I can get the uh to have the 66 posts that we have per day covered, uh we get them covered.
SPEAKER_00That's uh that's pretty good. All right. So uh uh we're uh doing well in in terms of uh the uh the school and having the uh resource officers there. How that how's that aspect of things going?
SPEAKER_02I think it's been going very well since the transition that the sheriff's office being back, and I think it's uh gone very well, you know, especially from coming from the sheriff's office to the district and back to the sheriff's office watching it from a from uh uh 30,000 feet. I think they've been doing a phenomenal job.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Uh in in terms of the resource officers, anything that you'd uh see that we we've got to look towards, uh, you know, I know we're doing a number of things uh in terms of working together. Uh we've got canines in there. Anything more like that coming along or not that I'm aware of.
SPEAKER_02Um it is in a different wheelhouse for me because it's under school safety and um uh I'm actually in community affairs. But but looking as an observer and and working uh in partnership with that branch of the agency, um I don't foresee anything different coming other than constantly and continually improving.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, in terms of community affairs, uh let's uh talk a little bit about that because the Sheriff's Office has uh been uh recognized as uh being very much upfront and uh forward in terms of getting information to people. Community affairs, uh what kind of questions are you do you typically get when you're you're talking uh with uh the average citizen?
SPEAKER_02Um I do get questions about uh some of the laws relating to when they're in a school zone or what time school zones come on. I think the biggest thing that a lot of people probably don't realize, and it's a twofold answer, it's their cell phone use. You have to be 100% hands-free while you're in a school zone and also a work zone. So I do see that quite often. And I do, you know, wave at folks and give them the the hey, you're on the phone, put it down uh as they're driving by, and I'll get a thank you. And sometimes I get the number one, um, and it happens, and you know. But uh you know, I I I do get that question often. I do get uh I get questions that usually come directly to me as what is the role of a crossing guard, since I'm over them, and a lot of folks think that because they have a stop sign or the way that they appear, that they're actually traffic directors. They are not, they are basically a marked pedestrian with a stop sign to to bring awareness, to give that visual uh to motorists that there are people in the crosswalk, and that crossing that crossing guard will most likely have a small child in tow when uh when crossing. So that's what it is. They they don't uh direct any traffic, they don't enforce any laws, they're just that guide, that coach to uh get our children to and from school safely.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's an interesting point. I never never really thought of it in that regard. I mean they do control traffic only in the sense that they mark that they're crossing and you should watch out because I'm in the crosswalk and I've got a sign that's telling you that I'm here, uh, but they don't have the uh the ability to say, oh, you hold it and and start waving traffic around.
SPEAKER_02That is correct. Whereas a PSA who also work as school crossing guards, they are a little bit different. They are the ones that are able to direct traffic. They can actually step out in the complete intersection and hold the whole intersection and allow children to cross from multiple directions. So they're a little bit different, and they're easily recognized because they have that highlighter green uh shirt that they wear. Yes. And then they also have a they they do have a marked car that says public service aid and flashing yellow lights. So that's uh another awareness thing that you are approaching. In the school zone, there is flashing lights or signs, and then when there's a PSA that might be working that, there they have lights that are visibility to to help warn motorists that you're in an active school zone.
SPEAKER_00All right. So uh if uh you're coming to an intersection, plain clothes, somebody with a stop sign, they're a crossing guard and they have a different uh ab ability or responsibility than the uh the PSA, who we may be at a secondary uh crossing uh down the down the block.
SPEAKER_02Yes, the the the crossing guard will have a traffic vest on that's also a green in color. They'll have the stop sign in their hand, they'll have either a a whistle in their mouth or they'll have the electronic whistle to uh provide a stimulus to drivers so that they know that they're there. And then, of course, the PSAs are completely uniformed.
SPEAKER_00Okay. All right, so uh that's a good uh good subtlety that people uh should understand.
SPEAKER_02That's because I do I do hear from my crossing guards that sometimes people get mad is how come you're not allowing me to to cross, or how come you're not allowing me to they're not, they're just acting in the full capacity of just a a markered pedestrian is probably the best way to describe a crossing guard.
SPEAKER_00That's uh something uh new that we learned here today, so that's uh that's a good thing. Always good to uh learn new things. For the most part, though, uh other than not having enough crossing guards, uh are we uh depending more on uh technology and those kind of things to to uh keep uh folks under control zones?
SPEAKER_02We do have some technology that we use. There's a couple places throughout the county. One is in Oakleaf at the uh roundabout. While there's no crossing guards because it's not in a um a marked school zone, however, there is a lot of traffic that goes there. There's them flashing lights that a pedestrian will come up and push the buttons and it'll it'll have amber flashing lights to warn that there's pedestrians. We also have one right there at uh as you're going on County Road 218, as you're going westbound, there is a crossing there because it's outside the school zone. You they push the button and that will alert drivers there's somebody about ready to cross. Since the change of last year, going into this school year, the 25-26 school year, when the busing restrictions changed, we have a lot more students that now walk to school or bike or anything like that. So we had to mold and change our some of our patterns in order to uh accommodate some of these where where folks are coming from, the parents or children or wherever, because they're you know that's something new because we don't know who what residents are there and who's ultimately going to walk and who's not gonna ride a bus, you know, because you have both special needs students, you have regular ed students, some get bused, some don't. So it just it there's so many things and we learn every day and then we listen to our community, whether it comes through our safer watch tips or an email to me or a call into our dispatch center, then we'll address that. And uh before we got on the radio, I was talking that we work collaboratively with the county and the um uh road department and signs and signal maintenance, which is a very good partnership, and they they work hand in hand with us in order to address concerns.
SPEAKER_00And we do have a uh in Clay County a safety committee that uh works with uh those things, right? If there's a problem, how do we get uh you know the whole group together to figure a way to solve it?
SPEAKER_02We do, and that's what the Florida Department of Transportation we meet monthly through Zoom and we talk about all the different things. We even have uh folks that are in the uh the local bicycle clubs that come together and they talk about their concerns. So I think it's a holistic approach to what everybody does in our own county to come together and then address some of the issues that we do have and and resolve them as best we can.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know your challenge is that there's uh a lot more kids doing a lot more things to try to get to school, whether it's bikes or uh scooters or or all those things that uh you didn't have to worry about because some of them may have been on a bus at some point. So driving through four uh school zones every morning, I see kids pop out of everywhere. Yeah, and more so than I've seen in the past.
SPEAKER_02You brought up something that's a a strong concern for mine since we work a lot of traffic crash, because I'm in charge of the PSAs also. We have a lot of children who use their e-bikes, they use their e-scooters, and they're not really paying attention to what they're supposed to be doing. You you have dart outs and you have dart outs that uh have traffic crashes that result in that. And unfortunately, sometimes the child is at fault stopping when they're supposed to stop.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I I really truly think whether it's on the county level or even the state level, there's got to be something done with the e-bikes because I think it's getting to a critical mass. I said uh I saw about a half a dozen kids congregating in a parking lot of one of the uh restaurants down 220, and they were standing there, and I said, Well, that looks like trouble. And I I think there's there's six of them sitting there.
SPEAKER_02I think there's also some community confusion about there's e-bikes, then there's e-motorcycles. E-bike has pedals and a certain wattage. I had just on my way here to meet with you, I saw a a young, it's probably probably a young adult, but he was on an e-motorcycle. You can't ride those on the sidewalks. You can't you can't ride those on the um the roadway. You have to be licensed, they have to be registered. They're strictly off-road because they have no pedals. So whether it has an uh internal combustion engine on a motorcycle or whether it has an electric motor, it's still a motor engine.
SPEAKER_00It's still a motorcycle.
SPEAKER_02Kind of like what I what I think about well, we have Teslas who don't have an internal combustion engine, but you've got to have a driver's license for them. So I want I want folks to also be very mindful because you have a lot of parents that are buying their kids that. And I see in that, especially around Fleming Island High School, some of these older kids riding these e-motorcycles, and it's illegal. And one thing I would caution very parents, there is a there is a statute that makes it criminal. If you allow an unauthorized person to operate a motor vehicle, you as the parent can be criminally responsible. It's a misdemeanor. So obviously that's not always my goal. I'd rather educate, but parents need to understand when they buy that type of equipment for their child, they need to understand the consequences should they do something like that.
SPEAKER_00I still think that there's gonna have to be something done that that clarifies that and and puts it.
SPEAKER_02I think there is some legislation working that's gonna ultimately pass down to counties. I think St. John's did something recently, and I'm sure it's on our BCC now that are looking at what to do. Because I I know if we're if we're receiving those messages, I'm sure our county commissioners are getting those same messages as well. So I'm I'm sure it's not falling on deaf ears.
SPEAKER_00Well, even over at Fleming Island Plantation uh CDD meetings, we get those now. People are talking about the uh kids on on bikes, e-bikes, whatever the case may be, they're they're uh you know all over the place. So uh that's something that's got to be uh sort of taking a look at, finalized, or uh or made legal one way or the other what as to what it's gonna be. Agreed. All right, we've uh been talking with uh Lieutenant Ken Wagner here on CCSO off the cuff. We've got uh Deputy Fresh Hour waiting. He's been patient. I don't think I've ever seen him uh be quiet for 13 minutes. I don't think anyone has to be. I like everybody that's here right now. There's a lot of good stuff that uh Lieutenant Wagner's talking about. Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_01And very important. It crosses over into what I do with community fairs a lot. We get a lot of questions about the the school zones, the e-bikes, the e-motorcycles, and all that stuff too. So there's it's definitely not falling on deaf ears. We are hearing everybody that's having any kind of conversation or complaint about it. I I also did hear something about St. John's working on something that they've pushed out, and I did have a conversation with a representative for one of our Florida representatives that said that there's a bill in in progress right now for clarification on all that because it's just unknown territory.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Terrific. All right. Well, hold those thoughts. We're gonna uh take a time out and uh we're gonna come back with uh Lieutenant Ken Wagner, Deputy Uh Ronnie Freshour. We got uh PIO Ben Ryan here. We've got the uh the group. It's a it's a trio. Yeah, it's a good trio. And I understand uh Lieutenant Wagner, we've got some stats from uh 2025 as well, right? I do. You've got them handy.
SPEAKER_02The Sheriff's Office just put out their uh annual um annual report, and I do have stuff that uh we're actively involved in.
SPEAKER_00All right, we'll talk a little bit about that too, find out what uh Deputy Fresh Hour does uh to keep himself busy, and and I'm sure that it's a long list. Uh stay with us, or we're back with more here on CCSO Off the Cuff after this.