As advertised the Bearberry Wapitana Society initiated a
first follow-up meeting how to prevent Crime, such as break & enters and
especially poaching, in the Bearberry area. This meeting was held on February
10, 2020. It was attended by 23 Bearberry Residents.
The meeting was meant to gather information and ideas what
the Bearberry residents could do to help each other in the event that
- someone sees a
suspicious vehicle in their driveway,
- strangers trespass their
land,
- scouting on private
land,
- seeing or hearing
someone shooting out of hunting season,
- shooting wildlife from
vehicles, etc.
- and any other suspicious
behaviour.
We learned that there were incidents over the last years and
people got frustrated because they got the impression that there was nothing
done by local authorities. Therefore the attendants came to the conclusion: “We
have to help ourselves” and communication is the key for success.
In an effort to reduce crime in the
area, it was discussed, that we will be creating a Bearberry Crime Watch
Fanout list. Because not everyone has his private phone number listed
in the local phone book and maybe someone doesn’t have a land line, there is no
chance to reach your neighbours anymore. Therefore, in order to be able to
reach as many interested Bearberry residents and to follow the Privacy Act Law
we need to get permission from everyone who would like to be on this
distribution list. This list is different from the one the Society uses for
updates about upcoming events or other information sent from time to time.
The Bearberry Crime Watch Fanout
List will be communicated between those Bearberry residents who express
their interest to get informed about ongoing suspicious activities in the area.
The idea is that one neighbour informs the other neighbour and from there the
words are spreading. There will be not one single person responsible to inform
everyone!
If YOU, as a resident or landowner
in Bearberry, would like to have YOUR name added to the list, please email the
following information to Alex (lingerwood@icloud.com):
1. Your name (s)
2. Location (TR/RR)
3. Preferred method of contact info (cell phone, home phone, email, messenger,
etc.)
4. Second method of contact info
Alex volunteered to create a
database with the provided information. With your information you give us
permission to distribute your contact info’s within the Group.
The Bearberry Wapitana Society just
recently created it’s own “Bearberry Community Hall” Facebook page where
we will post messages about ongoing events and issues in the Bearberry area.
https://www.facebook.com/Bearberry-Community-Hall-294176483964293/
We hope we can use this tool to spread
out the word about suspicious activities in a timely manner as well.
Our preference is to send out
information via text fanout, but we recognize that not everyone uses their cell
phones constantly or is not a Facebook user. Therefore it is important to be on
the fanout list.
Please spread the word to others in
the area you know who may not have Facebook or email access. Thanks!
There will be a follow up meeting
on May 11th, 2020 at 7:00 pm at the Bearberry Community Hall to “prepare” us for
the May long weekend! In addition we would like to get feedback from
participants and suggestions what works best at that meeting.