Bigger and better.

That's how Millersville Borough's third annual National Night Out is shaping up.

The event is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 4, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the municipal building, 100 Municipal Drive, and in the parking lot of the adjacent Charles F. Snyder Funeral Home. The rain date is Wednesday, Aug. 5. Some off-site parking will be available at the borough park or John Herr's, and Snyder's will use golf carts to transport people back and forth.

"We've had great participation the past two years," said Mary Lyons, a member of Millersville's Civil Service Commission who helps organize National Night Out. "We've had about 400 attendees. I see that it's going to continue to grow."

Everything will be free. John Herr's Village Market is donating hot dogs, and Synder Funeral Home will provide water.

Local emergency responders, Millersville VFW Post 7294, and Millersville University are just a few of the local organizations that will participate.

Borough police chief Jeff Margevich noted that this year's theme is Back to School Safety. "If you Google and look up the origin of National Night Out, it came about to serve the purpose of fostering community interactions and relationships between the police and the community," Margevich said.

Bike helmets will be given away. "We will be handing out little bags of back-to-school trinket-type safety stuff," said Margevich. "We're always pushing our CRIMEWATCH page (www.millersvillepolice.org). It's basically our police department page. There's a Millersville Borough web page, but there is not a separate Millersville Borough Police Department page. CRIMEWATCH is a solution to that that we've had and a lot of the other departments around us have CRIMEWATCH. We created a webpage for the police department at a low cost, and it allows us to advertise events and notify the public of safety issues. It's not just posting of our arrests that have been made. ... People say police departments need to be transparent. That's the whole purpose. People can see what the police department is doing on a daily basis."

The chief stated that National Night Out is especially meaningful in small communities. "People can even walk to the event from the streets surrounding us right here," said Margevich. "You only have a 2-square-mile borough, so if people just want to get out of the house that night, they can take a walk up the street and go check it out. That's unique."

Lyons added, "It brings us together as a community, and also it's kind of like a reunion for people. I've seen people that I haven't seen since my kids graduated from high school. We get some engagement with the police department. We just want interaction back and forth and engagement."