Thanks to the efforts of Knollwood resident Kathy Cochrane, our City’s Neighborhood Watch (NW) program will soon be up and running in Bel-Nor. Kathy has volunteered to be the Group’s overall Coordinator and has recruited over a dozen people to serve as Block Captains. We are in the process of dividing streets and blocks into groups of approximately 15 homes for each Block Captain to be responsible for. Around the fourth week of April, Block Captains will be going door-to-door inviting residents to register for the program by providing their name, address, and email address, along with a preference as to how they wish to be contacted when the NW has important information to pass along.  These volunteers will have identification badges showing their affiliation with the City.

 

Typically, a NW program is meant to keep people informed about public safety issues (e.g., suspicious or criminal activity) and to provide a means for our Police Department to communicate ways of keeping you and your property safe, but it also serves as a means of alerting neighbors to “help needed” situations like health problems, snow shoveling, etc. Neighborhood Watch can definitely be a force for neighbors helping neighbors, and we hope most residents will sign up. Personal information gathered by Block Captains will be handled confidentially and no contact information will be shared outside of City Hall and the Police Department. 

 

Doing the math, with about 700 homes in the City, we need about 45 Block Captains if every street is going to be covered. The need is most acute in Bel-Nor South (aka Little Bel-Nor), where no volunteers have yet come forward. Altogether we are about one-third of the way to our goal of 45 Block Captains.