Woman seeks to restore block watch
Vandals who prey upon the homes and cars of Uniontown residents picked on the wrong person when they made an uninvited late-night stop at Nikki Beck’s house on West Craig Street. She woke up Monday morning and called city police after discovering kiwi fruit smashed on the trunk and rear window of her car and a scratch along one door.
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, Beck announced her intentions to “call upon citizens who have had something happen to them like what happened to me” to renew a neighborhood block watch.
Police chief Kyle Sneddon said residents should “get mad” over vandalism done to their homes and cars – not mad to the point of vigilanteism, but upset enough to organize and hopefully sustain neighborhood watch programs.
“Neighborhood watch is an excellent program,” Sneddon said. “Neighborhood watches have been organized twice since I’ve been chief, but fizzled out. They go full speed ahead for a couple months and then they fizzle out.”
He said volunteer coordinators are needed to organize neighborhood “eyes and ears” who will tell police about suspicious people on their streets.
There are regular reports about mischief and unsupervised juveniles on the streets late at night and watchful residents would help police combat the problem, he said.
“Be our eyes and ears. We’re only as good as the people who help,” Sneddon said.
Beck said she plans to begin organizing a watch program in her neighborhood.
Sneddon added that watch programs would also help in the event of a child kidnapping.
“I’ve had sleepless nights,” Sneddon said. “That’s my biggest fear, worrying about kids.”
The city is involved in an alert system, which notifies all law enforcement branches and media when a child abduction is reported, he said.
Several other police business items were discussed Tuesday, including a hearing on a $21,062 grant the city received from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Sneddon said the police department annually receives funding from the U.S. Justice Department’s Local Law Enforcement Block Grant program.
This year’s funds will be spent on overtime wages for special projects like drug law enforcement, buying a used unmarked vehicle and equipment for the Emergency Services Unit and for criminal investigations.
In other police news, council unanimously appointed Donald M. Gmitter to a permanent position as a full-time patrolman, noting that he successfully completed his six-month probation, and approved adding a bicycle patrol to the department.
In unrelated business, council:
– Accepted the resignation of Druella F. Mosier from the sewage office retroactive to July 9
– Appointed Thomasina A. Burner as supervisor of the sewage collection office and license officer retroactive to July 9 with a six-month probation period.
– Appointed John W. Ptak to a five-year term on the redevelopment authority board ending Aug. 5, 2007.