Crestmoor Park (Filing 2) Homes Association

Crestmoor-Security Patrol Approved

Wednesday November 9, 2005

Subject: Crestmoor-Security Patrol Approved
Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 09:40:08 -0700
From: "John Sadwith"
To: "Crestmoor Home Owners Assoc"
CC: marcia.johnson@ci.denver.co.us, "Gina Lorenzen"

Residents of Crestmoor Park (2nd Filing) Homes Association:



The Crestmoor 2nd Filing Board met last night. Present were: John Sadwith, Tom Deline, Scott Sinelli, Stuart Gottesfeld, Robert Brown and Tim Celesta. Absent was John Simonet.



The entire meeting was spent discussing the hiring of a private security agency to patrol the neighborhood. We had, previous to the meeting, solicited input from District Three Police Commander Pat Flynn and Country Club Neighborhood President Neil Dermody. We polled the neighborhood (all neighbors we had e-mail addresses for) by e-mail and we interviewed six private security companies.



The Country Club neighborhood has done patrols for many years. They are very happy with their service and both their President and Commander Flynn attribute a drop in their burglary rate to the service. Their current dues are $150 a year with a proposed dues increase to $175 to be voted on in January. They patrol four times in every twenty-four hour period and have a very successful open garage door notification program.



Our neighborhood, unscientific, e-mail poll was answered by fifty-eight households. Forty-nine voted in favor of a dues increase of between $65-$85 dollars to fund a security patrol and nine households voted against.



The security company interviews solicited recommendations for types of patrols, timing of patrols, day versus night patrols, frequency of patrols, estimated costs, insurance coverage and licensure questions, other clients of each company, marked or unmarked patrol cars, armed or unarmed patrols and other questions. We asked two companies to make presentations to the board and both presentations were well received.



After considering all of the above, our financial situation, the great increase in strangers in the neighborhood due to the large number of construction sites, and the pros and cons of starting such a program the board voted unanimously to initiate a security program immediately. The also voted to contract with Covenant Community Services owned and operated by Michael Gargaro. Michael is a retired Denver Police Detective who worked in District Three for many years. He was highly recommended by Commander Flynn and Retired Police Officer Larry Carr who was out Community Resource Officer prior to his retirement. We will use unarmed civilian patrols in marked cars and the frequency and timing of their patrols will vary. Once every several weeks they will patrol deliberately during work hours and contact all construction sites in the neighborhood to make sure the contractors and subcontractors know that we are patrolled and to answer any question they may have. They will manage an open garage door program that will allow you to register your permission to be contacted, at any hour, if your garage door is found to be open. They will continuously analyze the crime statistics for our neighborhood and consult with us on any changes to our program that should be made in response to those figures. Signs will be posted at our entryways to the effect that we are a patrolled community.



The initial cost of the program will be paid for from our reserves. We will call a special membership meeting for January to vote on new dues of $75 annually which is an increase of $50 over the current dues of $25 annually. Your board feels that this is a small price to pay per household for the type of service that we will be offering. Some have suggested that you might be able to get a premium credit from your homeowner’s insurance company if this program is in effect. Please welcome Covenant Community Services when you see their white SUV’s with green signage. Once the program starts we will send out more information about how to contact them and how to give permission to participate in the garage door program. We will mail notice of the special membership meeting at least thirty days prior to the meeting. Thanks for giving us a chance to make your Crestmoor neighborhood an even better and safer place to live.



John Sadwith