Better late than never, right?
My wife and I attended the monthly meeting of the Great Northwest Neighborhood Watch this past Wednesday and I took a few notes which I will keep very brief.
Investigator Kelly Gleason from the Bexar County Sheriff's Office Vehicle Theft Unit came and gave us a great briefing on the auto theft task force that he is part of. First, it is nice to know that we have a multi-agency task force working the auto theft issue. You may have noticed some of the TV commercials playing regarding taking your keys out of your car. If you think this is a ridiculousness waste of money, consider that about 25 percent of the vehicles stolen here have the keys left in the ignition or they leave the second set in the car. Dumbasses.
Oh, and I didn't know it was a crime to leave your keys in your car, but it is.
A few other fun facts: In San Antonio, you have a 67 percent chance that your car will be recovered if it is stolen. I'm sure you will appreciate the beer and puke smell leftover by the little joy riders. If you are thinking that your car is headed straight down to Mexico when they steal it, it probably isn't. The recent war on terror has resulted in a lot more scrutiny along the border, and in fact, a lot of the money that places like Houston, Dallas and SA used to receive in grants for this type of work is now going toward the valley.
Also, every five minutes a car is stolen for 959,000 per year or a total of about $84 million in claims paid out a year. Hearing that makes me feel like my insurance rates are going up by the minute.
Following the theft presentation, Chief Roger Burton of the GNW Security staff provided us with some info on GNW reports in the last month. During the Q&A session, several audience members had some pretty tough questions for the chief regarding trends, follow-up of actions and exactly how the full GNW area is patrolled.
Based on a conversation I had with another resident, I asked the chief specifically about how the area is patrolled by his officers, and more pointedly, was there a fair amount of coverage in all areas. The person I had spoken with has had the benefit of living in both Emerald Valley and Silver Creek, and her observation was that the patrols seemed more frequent in Silver Creek than in other neighborhoods in the GNW. Chief Burton disputed this outright and suggested that, while he does not map out a specific patrol pattern for the security staff to drive, he is confident that his officers hit the entire GNW area several times per shift. Further, he elaborated that in areas where they see problems, they get even more patrols.
Chief Burton did state however that he was not going to simply sit in front of a resident's home, even if he suspected that the teenagers living there were causing problems. This would be harassment.
I am going to discuss this a bit with some of my neighbors and I will gladly consider e-mails from readers with thoughts, but I do have several items that the staff or the board may wish to consider in ways that we as a community may be able to deter some of the problems people occasionally see.
The thing that residents need to remember however, is that our security staff is more of a courtesy staff. They aren't conducting investigations or arresting people, so you can't be upset if they don't whip out the 9MM and start busting caps when some little JD is smokin' and jokin' down the street.
But, I welcome your input.
How's that for a snappy and inviting topic? Okay, I'll keep it short.
My wife and a few neighbors attended a nice seminar put on by the Deed Restrictions and Architectural Control (DRACO) officer for GNWCIA, Jose Morlett on Tuesday evening and it was well worth the two or so hours.
A few things to consider. Did you know that in the Great Northwest, there are 4,958 homes? Did you know that in Emerald Valley, about 45% of the homes are rental properties?
One of the things we learned was that when a first notice of a deed restriction violation is warranted, the "door hanger" type ticket goes to the home (occupant). On the 11th day, if no action is taken, the letter with a picture of the violation goes to the homeowner. With so many rental properties, can you see the disconnect?
Another interesting thing: From 1976 to 1996, there was no full time DRACO. So, you may have been living here for 20 years with a violation and then all of the sudden, somebody comes up and says, hey, that's a violation!
The DRACO understands this and his intention is to work with homeowners to make everyone happy and work things out in the best interest of the neighbors. Jose always welcomes your reports of violations and will keep your name out of it. So call him at 681-2983 or e-mail him and let him look into the chickens in your neighbor's yard so the issue can be resolved for everyone.
John Kelly, the Code Compliance supervisor for our area gave a really nice and informative presentation regarding common violations and some of the limitations his officers have. He pointed out that the city has multiple ways of contacting his office including via the city portal and a handy code compliance reporting web page here. Check it out.
There were lots of questions from the attentive audience. One smart audience member raised the question about garage sale signs. He stated that if you pay a fee in order to obtain a garage sale permit, should that not include the authorization to post signs for the garage sale? The answer is that at one time it did! But, when some city council member got tired of seeing garage sale signs still up on Mondays, they changed it. Luckily for all of you holders of weekend flea markets, they usually won't take action on the signs during the weekend.
Officer Kelly hit too many other areas to list, but he did mention that on the weekends, they do patrol for garage sale permit violators, for people attempting to use the HEB parking lot as an extension of the Red McCombs used car lot, people selling or giving away dogs along the side of the road, and those guys who post the bandit signs such as "We'll buy your house cheap" or "Vote for Sheriff Ralph Lopez"
I'm not quite sure why I find that funny, but I do.
Ms Sandra Hackard from the Bexar County Dispute Resolution Center came and passed out some materials and gave a nice talk on the services provided and the benefits of dispute resolution. Did you know that $15 of every lawsuit filed in Bexar County goes to support the Center? I didn't.
They offer information, referrals, and other information, but they don't offer legal advice. Basically, if you contact them and they can't help you solve the problem on your own (get you to talk with your neighbor first), then they figure out exactly what the dispute is, send out letters to both parties and within two to three weeks, you go and have a resolution session.
The center has over 130 volunteer mediators - people who are lawyers and counselors and such. And, they handle everything from family disputes, child visitation complaints, sold vehicle complaints etc. This is a free service!
And that was that. By the way, the GNW provided coffee, sodas, cookies and sammitches and this was really a worthwhile event. Kudos to Jose Morlett. This guy needs a raise and a bonus!
In spite of the rain earlier in the morning, and the fact that my newly tiled back patio took a total beating from the dirt and sand that spilled over the border onto it, my wife and I still had to get some important HEB Plus shopping done, and we needed to make a quick trip into that new Wal Mart over on Potranco and 1604 to get some keys made.
I had just pulled into the turn lane to go outside of 1604 on Potranco when I noticed a Bexar County Sheriff checking out the water flow over Potranco Road. It would appear that he made the decision that the water was still coming across fast enough, and deep enough that he should leave the road closure barriers in place.
If you aren't from San Antonio or south central Texas in general, it is sort of strange to think that there are regular roads that routinely flood every time it rains more than an inch or two. I know, you'd think it would be smarter to just build the roads higher over those areas, but considering that most of the time, San Antonio is a desert and we are in environmentalist-whacko generated water rationing, people go the cheap route and hope for the best when it rains.
So, the other thing you should find strange is that, anytime we get any amount of rain, the local news goes on and on and on about how you should never go around these barriers and of course, they show footage of the dumbasses that go around the barriers, then get caught in the water and then have to be rescued at great expense. Every road that is subject to flooding has a sign that reads, "Turn Around, Don't Drown", yet, every night on the news, there are more pictures of people being idiots.
So, I see the sheriff and I see that he is leaving the barriers up so I get out of the turn only lane and back onto 1604 so I can go down the road less than 500 feet and enter Wal Mart from the other side. No problem.
As the sheriff leaves and as I wait at the stop light, people waste no time at all going around the barricade and through the water.
I know this sounds really cruel and mean spirited, but just once I'd like to come across somebody who has gone around the barrier, gotten trapped and then be the guy who throws them a rope and a life jacket. Then, before I pull them in from certain drowning, I'd like to have them state to awaiting video cameras being beamed onto the 10PM news, "I am a dumbass. I do not care about the safety of firefighters and police officers who have to risk their lives to save my lazy ass, because I am a dumbass who violated the law and went around the barricade set-up to keep me safe."
Then, I would reel them in and bap them on the head.
