Jon and Rachel Schuts hosted the Neighborhood Watch Meeting today at their home on Tufts Street.

There was a brunch buffet and a plant sale organized by Fran Clarke to benefit the Neighborhood Watch fund.

The overall turnout was low this time compared to our last meetings due to the garage sales happening today and a football game that coincided with the meeting. Nevertheless, it was still a well-attended meeting.

I ran the meeting and we discussed the following:

Recent crime in the neighborhood. It has been pretty quite lately, but there was a radio stolen out of a car on Meckel this last week. In addition, someone siphoned gas out of a car on Damon Avenue. So be aware of where your car is at night. Get a locking gas cap and keep your car in a well-lit area at night.

Future meetings. We are planning a fall tree walk with Fran Clarke in early November. For December, we are planning another holiday buffet and in addition, we are hoping to have a guest speaker from the Sheriff’s department.

Open discussion. We talked about the issue of all the cars parked on Hemlock during this new semester and how difficult it is to turn onto Hemlock Street from Damon. I will investigate what our options are for what to do about it. Ideally, we would like a no parking zone at the corners to give us more room to see oncoming traffic.

Neighborhood nuisance issues as well as what to do about situations as they come up. Noisy parties and kids in loud cars peeling out late at night are the latest concern and specific instances have already been reported to the local POP (Problem Oriented Policing) Officers a few weeks ago. It has been relatively quiet since then.

My thanks to all who participated and especially to Jon and Rachel for hosting, to Mike Keefe, Rachel, and San Blois for helping distribute the flyers and to Fran Clarke for organizing and running the plant sale!