Traffic & Safety Committee: Community Safety

During the last couple of years several of our neighbors have experienced fires in their homes necessitating the response of the fire department. Of the two I am most familiar with, each family sustained thousands of dollars in property damage, but thankfully no one was injured. Family members in each case reported that they were able to minimize the overall damage to their homes by using personal fire extinguishers. They had these devices readily available, and used them while awaiting arrival of the fire engines.
Having a fire extinguisher readily available is a great idea even if it saves only one treasured family memento. I did a little research on this and found that you can purchase literally hundreds of these devices for under a hundred dollars at hardware stores or on line. Of course the key is to get one that suits your family and remains readily available. For my wife and I, we are buying one for the kitchen and another to cover the rest of the house.
Lock it or loose it:
Thieves continue to strike unlocked cars in our community. I am not aware of one single incident involving a forced entry into a locked vehicle. The M.O. of these car clouts is to simply walk down the street and test the door handles on parked cars. If they come upon one that isn’t locked they will enter the car and take what they want. The sad thing is, that if you left your car parked outside and unlocked on a regular basis during the past year, I would be surprised if a thief had not entered it at least once and conducted a survey of your property.
Almost all thieves are aware that entering a locked car to steal something is a felony that could possibly result in an eventual sentence involving a year or more in jail.
As the result, thieves generally don’t take that chance any more. Instead they specialize in stealing from unlocked cars with less risk of being caught, and even then if apprehended the misdemeanor crime carries only a light penalty.
Frustration at the Gate:
On a regular basis someone, normally a guest, loses his or her composure when being denied entrance at the Mariner Gate. On some occasions former guests or family members have intentionally been excluded by the host resident.
However, that typically is not the case. Most often it is because our guest lists have not been updated. Our security personnel will work with the prospective guest and attempt to contact the identified host. Unfortunately, sometimes contact cannot be made and the individual has to be turned away.
A lot of anxiety can be avoided if we carefully keep our guest lists updated and add new guests as soon as practical. Please be patient and understand that proverbial last minute guests entered via home computer, may or may not reach the system at the gate for as long as one to two hours. To minimize the potential for conflict in these situations, please ensure that these last minute guests know your name and phone number so that you may be contacted for verification. We should also realize our guests cannot authorize the admission of other guests.
Finally to avoid unnecessary frustration please remind our guests to clearly display their guest passes on their dash to avoid a citation and/or towing.
God bless……….
—Tim Murphy