City of Bellemeade

Wonderful!!!!  You just took the first step!  The only alert plan that will work consistently is one that is tailored by and for the residents of the community.  Thank you for your input.

 Cat,  I'm sorry I didn't reply sooner. I know it's hard to get everybody on the the same page regarding alerts. I'm thinking of a alert tree/phone tree. It might be difficult to start and it might have some flaws at first but when we can work the bugs out, it just might work. We always have 911 if something needs immediately response but areas like door to door solicitors, scammers, unless it is posted at the entrances of Bellemeade and a "no solicitors" sign on our front doors, there's not alot we can do to keep them out of the neighborhood.

  I will work on the "phone tree" and hopefully have it ready for distripution by the "block party" later this month. Starting from scratch is a difficult but possible so give me a little time and I'll try to improve our watch program. MY main goal is to make all our residents feel safe and secure all the time.

    Dave Trimble

Again, I  must thank you for offering to be Neighborhood Watch Captain.

But, are you not aware that there is a METRO ordinance that requires solicitors to purchase a permit that must be completely visible before they knock on a door?  LMPD will respond to a call about  unlicensed solicitors; they have responded several times in the past according to posts on this site by more than one resident for as long as three years ago.  In fact, one of my neighbors called LMPD less than amonth ago about the magazine scammers, but he did not know how to pass it on to Neighborhood Watch.

As an FYI, 911 is to call the police which I trust you are already aware, but what about the other people in Bellemeade when Larry calls 911 and then never bothers to pass it on through Neighborhood Watch or he does post it on this site but 40 % of the residents do not ever view this site or view it once a week or when he wants to pass the info on through Neighborhood Watch his block does not have a plan or active block captain or there is no city-wide plan, or someone calls police about a suspicious vehicle and never alerts anyone else with detailed data to include vehicle description and plate number or post a pic like Larry posted the pic MR.M made of the suspicious van?  I realize I rambled there but there is a lot to be ironed out.

And I must take issue with you about something else you said about starting from scratch.    Are you kidding?  My block captain was getting alerts from Neighborhood Watch in August of last year.  Start from scratch?  I have seen a phone tree with the names, phone number, street addresses, and email addresses of  two former Neighborhood Watch Captains,  Alternates, Block Captains for most of our blocks, and alternates from nearly a year ago.  Our Block Captain approached my husband about being an alternate back in early winter and he had all of that information in hand. 

Why are you are going to construct a phone tree for the entire city?  Are you telling me that the residents are not able to construct phone trees for their block with some leadership from you and their block captain?  My block captain said he is disappointed that there has been no folow-up to that meeting twomonths ago - time flies.  Why is it that most people when put in a position of authority tend to do everything themselves rather than supplying the leadership to get the regular people involved and create a plan that will work for them rather than one size fits all?   Ownership is the key to the success of any project including Neighborhood Watch.  We do best things things which we do for ourselves.  I understood you are an Army officer; surely you know the difference between leadership and control.  I did not say that sarcastically.

Again, that you for volunteering. 

Did anyone ever consider the suggestion for each block to have a Neighborhood Watch cookout all on the same day.  The people in each block could party and organize in one fell-swoop.  Hello leaders???????  If we have 19 blocks, we would have 19 simultaneous cookouts and organizational meetings.  Let's get this done before we have bad weather ... please.