'Traffic Garden' Dedication For Fallen Hatboro Officer Sunday

HATBORO, PA —The borough has completed a new garden at the former Pennypack school property. But this garden will be aimed at improving youth knowledge of the road and also dedicated to a fallen police officer.

Borough officials will dedicate its newly finished "traffic garden" to Sgt. Jim Petrik, who died in March 2020.

The dedication will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday in the back of the former Pennypack Elementary School at 130 Spring Ave.

Borough officials said during the dedication will also celebrate all Hatboro heroes.

The garden features scaled-down streets with intersections, stop and yield signs, painted roads, roundabouts, colorful spaces, and more. Officials say it will be used for organized safety lessons, but will also be open to the general public.

The garden was put together by the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of Public Health, and the Hatboro Public Works Department.

It's funded by a Health Services Block Grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Preventive Health and Health Services.

The borough is partnering with the county to distribute free-fitted bike helmets to children in our community on this day as well.

Petrik had served in the infantry of the U.S. Marine Corps and also had worked as a dispatcher with the Horsham Township Police Department.

Petrik worked in the Hatboro Borough Police Department for 21 years.

Borough officials said Petrik loved spending time with his wife and three sons and was able to have one final family vacation before his oldest son left for USMC boot camp.

"On behalf of the Borough of Hatboro, we thank Sgt. Petrik for all he did for the borough and our community," the borough said in a Facebook post. "Sgt. Petrik is greatly missed and will forever be a part of Hatboro."

(Photo Courtesy of the Borough of Hatboro)