*CVR Community Meeting Report - re: Neighborhood Watch
Feb. 20, 2010
A meeting of some Chihuahua Valley neighbors was held on February 20th to determine the need for a Neighborhood Watch program.
Barbara
Wallace (S.D. County crime prevention specialist) and Eric Munzenmaier
(S.D. County local sheriff) discussed the basic tenants of the program
which included receiving crime reports from online crime tracking
sources: http://nixle.com & http://CrimeMapping.com
These links may be accessed at any time via our Community Links page
If you wish to receive email-reports of crimes committed close to where you live, go to nixle or crimemapping
to sign up. Barbara Wallace said that to keep from being inundated with
too many emails you must keep the parameters of your information very
narrow when submitting your information to these sites. For example:
sign up to receive reports for CVR only, not for the entire Hwy 79.
It was agreed by all who attended the meeting that the Neighborhood Watch program would be a welcome addition to our valley.
Best regards,
Hillary Willhite
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*CVR Community Meeting Report - re: burglaries & wildfires
Nov. 21, 2009
Greetings to our Chihuahua Valley neighbors!
The
following is a brief report of a community meeting held at the Patton's
barn on November 21st regarding criminal activity over recent months in
the valley and surrounding areas.
Sam Kemp introduced our local
sheriff, Eric Munzenmaier, who reported on some of the 6 cases that he is
handling. Another deputy is handling about 5 other cases. The
burglaries have been on vacant properties that were being used for
storage. The suspects are a white male & white female who have
been stealing trailers in Hemet and bringing them up to the valley to
haul away their booty. They break locks on gates and storage
bins---replacing them with their own locks so they can come & go
without raising suspicion. They have taken items that are valuable to
resell such as ATVs, tractors, solar panels, and even a large water
tank.
Sheriff Eric says that the authorities have suspects or "people of interest." They've been gathering evidence, including DNA.
In
the meantime, neighbors have been asked to watch for strangers in a
small white pick-up truck or maroon Honda Accord. DO NOT CONFRONT
THEM! Instead, write down license plate numbers. Also, note the time
and location. Be prepared to describe who you saw and what they were
doing. Call either 760-782-3353 (sheriff station in Ranchita) or
858-565-5200 (non-emergency number) to report anything suspicious.
PLEASE phone 911 only in the case of a real emergency.
GUN
OWNERS: When phoning 911 be sure to declare that you are the property
owner and are carrying your firearm for self-defense reasons. If a
police officer comes on to your property you must immediately say that
you are the property owner and are armed with a gun for your own
self-defense. Sheriff Eric said "you must articulate properly." That
way the police won't mistake you for a bad guy and shoot you when they
see your firearm!
This Neighborhood Watch and the meeting held
on November 21st will hopefully deter any future mischief. Sheriff Eric
believes that there is probably a "caser" in the neighborhood who tells
the Hemet couple about easy properties to burglarize. If this "caser"
and his fellow criminals know that everyone is on the lookout here in
the valley, maybe they'll decide to move their operation elsewhere.
Hopefully they'll be arrested soon.
There have also been two
known fires in the neighborhood very recently. The log cabin (BFR
Ranch) next to the water wheel on the old Mitchell Camp Road burned
down on November 18th. Squatters are suspected. The other fire
occurred on CVR near the hairpin turn at the 6 1/2 mile marker. A log
was set on fire which burned the surrounding grasses. Arson is
undetermined at this point.
A special thank you to local
volunteer firefighter, Ron Rogers, and the Sunshine Summit 99 volunteer
fire department for helping to quickly extinguish the fires before they
could burn out of control.
This brings up a very important issue
that was not discussed at the meeting: BRUSH CLEARING. A fire
marshall is making the rounds and warning people of possible fines from
the county. If private property is not sufficiently cleared of brush
for fire suppression the county will contract out the clearance work
and send you the bill.
This does NOT mean to scrape everything
down to bare dirt. But it DOES mean mow weeds, thin out bushes, remove
dead wood, and prune tree branches six feet up from the ground and nine
feet back from all buildings.
The chaparral is extremely
flamable during these current dry/drought conditions. The sheriff told
my husband that "WILDFIRE SWEEPING THROUGH THE VALLEY IS NOT A MATTER
OF IF, BUT WHEN."
Please copy & paste this report into an email, then send it to your neighbors.
Thank you,
Hillary Willhite
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