Patrons who plan to attend the Mendon Fire Carnival may find this guide helpful.
There are three onsite parking entrances for Guests. Referring to the accompanying photo, one is reserved for handicapped parking and is delineated by the blue flow. Access to this entrance and parking is restricted to parties who have and display the appropriate handicapped tag.
There are two general parking entrances. One is located on Rt 64 at the north edge of Fire Department property and is marked by the green flow. The second is located on Taylor Rd. at the east edge of Fire Department property and is marked by the light green flow. Both flows are intended to be one-way on their main route. They merge on the back lot and exit through the common exit onto Taylor Rd.
From opening until 9PM guest parking will be flagged by Boy Scouts. Two adult scout leaders will remain in the lots until 10PM. Please follow their directions both when parking your car and when walking through the lot into and out of the carnival. They will be doing their level best to mitigate traffic congestion in the lots and keep everyone safe.
This post is for all Mendon Fire Carnival patrons who will be dropping-off adolescent children at the carnival to avoid the congestion in the guest parking lots. This year, we will be experimenting with a new traffic management strategy to better accommodate parents who are dropping off students and later picking them up.
Some background is in order here. In the past, parents have been simply dropping off their children on the shoulders of Route 64 and Taylor Road and later, and most significantly, after dark, they have been standing on the shoulders of 64 and Taylor waiting to pick their children up. Last year on Friday night, there were as many as 40 cars waiting for children between the hours of 9 and 11PM on the two roads. Many of you might have observed this. Adolescent children jaywalking on darkened streets looking for their ride present a significant safety hazard.
Some of you might ask why we do not deploy our Fire Police to act as a ‘safety patrol’. There are several reasons why this is unworkable. No demarcated crosswalks, students crossing the road at random places instead of the intersection of 64 and Taylor, no traffic signal at this intersection, and most importantly, as a matter of State Law, our Fire Police are not permitted to be in the road directing traffic outside of three specific circumstances. 1. A parade for which a municipal permit has been issued. 2. A funeral procession. 3. A reported 911 emergency incident.
In the interests of safety and our carnival patrons’ experience, we will be opening up the west and south parking lots at the Mendon Firehall as combined Student Drop-off/Pickup and Uber/Lyft stand. There are 42 spaces available in these two lots. This is barely enough to cover the peak student pickup traffic we observed at the 2025 Carnival. We ask parents to remain in their cars while dropping / picking up students. Drop-off/pickup will be permitted from 4:15PM-Closing on Thursday and Friday and from 11:15AM-Closing on Saturday subject to these exceptions. On Friday 5PM-6:45PM, this space must be shared with patrons of the Ladies Auxiliary Chicken BBQ. Parents may continue to drop off students at this time but we ask that parents remain in their cars unless also attending the BBQ. On Saturday, student drop-off entrance will be closed [and blocked by the parade reviewing stand!] for the duration of the parade, approximately 6:15PM – 7:45PM. It will re-open when the parade reviewing stand is removed from the entryway.
Traffic through the lots is ONE WAY. Parents must enter via the West (Rt 64) entrance to the firehall, make a right turn into the west lot. The south lot (and one-way exit) may be accessed by driving through the west lot and making the left turn into the south lot. Exit is a right turn out the south firehall entrance onto Taylor Rd.
See the black arrows on this aerial view of the firehall.
