OLD DOVER SAFETY & SECURITY COMMITTEE

MEETING – 12/08/09

Attendees:

BPD: Supt William Evans, Capt Ed Wallace, Lt Det Michael Conley, Ofc Gino Provenzano (replacing Kevin Power)

Mayor’s Office: Tabitha Bennett

State Legislature: Rep Aaron Michelwitz

SEBA: Stacy Koeppel, Peter Crossley

Washington Gateway: Linda Royer

Old Dover: Suzanne Bacon, Liz Cahill, Sarah Hutt, Bob & Chris Wells

Laconia: Bacon, Cahill

Hub Bldg: Hutt

City Lights Bldg: Wells

Rollins: Ellen Payzant

485 Harrison: Leon Femino

Gateway: Adam Stillman

Boston Courant: Melina Schuler

NOTES:

After a quick review of the November Update, we discussed how we would organize a Neighborhood Watch. We reviewed some suggestions from Carolyn MacNeil on who to organize, a suggested agenda for the first meeting and some other ideas. (Meeting outline is in a separate PDF for reference.)

Adam Stillman from Gateway described how they have organized and what has been successful to date. Suzanne Bacon described some of the issues that Leslie Miniasian from Gateway shared with her since she was unable to attend. Their team was able to meet with the Mobil Station owner and arrange for cameras to be installed, pay phones removed and arrange for more fencing. At Gateway they have been diligent about blocking access by locking gates and are installing new gates and fences. They also have installed more lighting. They have negotiated with BPD for more presence on Fay Street, an area fraught with opportunities for loitering, hiding, etc. ‘No Trepassing’ signs give the police more authority to approach suspected violators and should be in all areas that invite loitering. Police observation posts are now located at Medieval Manor. Negotiations with Pine Street have resulted in increased police detail, and better lighting. To date, the moving of the Long Island bus stop has not been resolved.

From Leslie’s perspective, the biggest challenge is to get people to call 911 when they witness something and to actually document incidents. People need to realize that this is so important to help the police and bring our area to their attention.

A question was posed to BPD about methadone clinics nearby. They were originally located in non-residential areas but these are now closer and closer to residential neighborhoods. It was suggested that JimGreen, from the Emergency Shelter Commissionbe contacted to get a list of all social services agencies/offices in the area.

One initiative that we had discussed was creating an inventory of security cameras in the neighborhood with locations, areas covered, and who to contact if the police need to when following up on a crime. The police stated that this information would help them tremendously.

We distributed cards with the WHO TO CONTACT information. It was suggested that we add the suspect description info on the back.

Peter Crossley reported that the businesses have been meeting with Kevin Power from D4 and they will continue with Gino Provenzano our new Community Liaison Officer. The next meeting has not been scheduled but someone from Old Dover should be there to update that group.

Capt Wallace reported that recently they have been bringing in the drug sniffing dogs into Pine Street and the surrounding areas. It was suggested that they also do this on Fay Street and the Laconia alleyway.

In discussing the role of Building Captains, it seemed evident that a package should be prepared for them to kick off their first meeting. It was suggested that the first step would be to meet with building trustees and that the management company should be brought into the discussion as well. Some buildings might want to organize by floor. In the next few weeks, we need to identify Captains for all buildings, give them a package and encourage them to move forward in the month of January. Our next meeting of the overall Committee is tentatively scheduled on the first Tuesday of February

We had a brief discussion about the use of technology to communicate among the various constituencies. Adam Stillman offered to look into PK Shui’s Kind Neighbor site as a possibility. Yahoo groups might be another option. We decided further discussion of this could be deferred until our next meeting. SEBA offered a page on their web site and we also can use the ODNA website if that seems appropriate. Aaron Michelwitz announced a community coffee on Dec 19th, 9:00-11:00 AM at Berkeley Perk Cafe on Berkeley Street. It is a good opportunity to raise safety and security issues with him and others who need to be aware.

Action Items for next meeting:

  • Complete the list of building captains and send them materials to kick off their efforts prior to our next meeting – Cahill, Bacon, Hutt
  • Inventory security cameras (develop a form and distribute to all buildings and businesses) -- TBA
  • Research tech solutions – Stillman, Bacon
  • Develop Bldg Captain package with input from Carolyn MacNeil from BPD – Bacon
  • WHO TO CONTACT? Cards (printed back and front), refrigerator magnets? -- TBA