GENERAL MEETING –

The next General Meeting will be July 21, 2009 at 6:30 P.M. at the Police Department on Creighton Avenue. We do not have an August General Meeting scheduled at this time. Our saturation patrol is still being worked on with no specific dates set yet. Plans for reporting the neighborhood participation results for “National Night Out” should be discussed at this meeting. We record the number of porch lights that are turned on and the number of people out of doors enjoying the weather and their neighbors. The July 4th weekend Zoo will be another topic of discussion as well as the Zoo Luau (July 20th) patrol. It should be an interesting meeting as we close out the summer season.

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YOUTH VANDALISM –

It is beyond midpoint of the school summertime vacation, but it is not too late for neighborhood associations to “guide” the young residents away from vandalizing neighborhood properties by creating jobs cleaning up and maintaining these community properties. I have witnessed young adults performing jobs that are not high on the list that would be jobs to brag about having. Yes, they are being paid to perform these jobs, but the lessons they learn from working on them makes them appreciate the efforts involved to maintain this property. Picking up trash by hand, cleaning animal cages, and even washing the trash containers will only promote an appreciation of the “dirty” work involved to make the zoo grounds nice for the patrons. When they become “patrons” in our community, in our neighborhoods, in our businesses, and in our schools, these young adults that I have observed will remember the lessons they have learned from their summer jobs at the zoo. I can see the same lessons being learned from jobs created within the neighborhoods. The youths that vandalize may not be the ones that your neighborhood hires for these jobs, but I believe that these youths can give you names of the vandals and prevent some vandalism.

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SUMMERTIME CRIMES –

Theft from autos and burglary are still the most frequently committed crimes this summer. According to comments from the police department, “theft from auto” crimes are happening mostly to cars that are not locked. And when the weather is HOT, too many cars that are parked in the sun have their windows rolled down slightly to permit the heat to escape, which is not really an invitation in itself for the thief to break into the car, but the items that are left in view for the thief are an invitation.

The burglaries that have been taking place this summer are mainly from garages and involve tools and lawn equipment according to the police reports. In most of these cases, the homeowner is leaving the garage door open while doing other things.

In both of these crimes, the victims are not diligent in CRIME PREVENTION. If only we could consider what results our careless actions may have, we may never know the suffering of a victim.

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CCW MAILING PROCESS –

The postal authorities currently require that our newsletters have “Return Service Requested” or the name and “or current resident” on the front of the newsletter. If we use the first example, we are assured that the letter will be delivered to the addressee or will be returned to us, which is what we prefer. The problem that creates is that all “returned mail” costs first class postage and we cannot afford that. Therefore, anyone that has his/her newsletter returned for any reason will be deleted from our mailing list. If you care to receive our newsletter, you will have to contact me before the newsletters go out (usually the second week of the month) or visit our Website to read the letters. I am going to continue mailing a newsletter to the neighborhood presidents every other month, as signaled by the red mailing tab, to reduce our mailing expenses. Thank you for your understanding and your support. Visit our Website through www.fwpd.org/links.