Brooke-Alvinston council is promising to help manage the traffic anticipated to flood into Alvinston when the RCMP Musical Ride comes to town.

The Brooke-Alvinston-Watford Fair is bringing the iconic ride to the community Sept. 14. Fair president Pam Hills says the little village will have to have a plan to manage thousands of people.

“This is a super exciting event and this is the only place in Lambton County that it’s coming,” she says noting It will be in Dresden later in the fall.

“We already have bus tours booked,” Hills says. She’s recently told Brooke-Alvinston councillors that she’s been investigating just how many people may come and there are some “kind of scary numbers…not bad scary just wow, that’s a lot of people for our town for three hours.

“I would think 2,000 would be our low number and five to 7,000 would be our high number.”

Hills says while the numbers are daunting, it is very exciting. “It’s great for Alvinston, really is fabulous,” says Hills. “These aren’t going to be all Brooke-Alvinston-Watford people coming..i.t is these people who follow the musical ride and they’re from all over southwestern Ontario.”

Council agreed to help with traffic and crowd control. Mayor Don McGugan says it won’t be a new experience – thousands came to Alvinston several years ago to see the Stanley Cup. Then, cars were parked at the former Ministry of Transportation of Ontario yard on Nauvoo Road and brought the people in by bus – something which could be done again.

“We’ll make it work,” says Deputy Mayor Jim Hayter. “We’ll get some busses.”

The fair will be selling tickets, $5 each for adults while children will get in free for the event which starts at 6pm at the fairgrounds.

Other councillors vowed to help in other ways – something Hills was glad to hear. “We’re going to require a lot of help.”