July 21 Meeting

The Latest News
From the Eagle Ridge Neighborhood Watch Program
Second edition
July, 2009
Welcome to the second edition of the Latest News. This newsletter is brought to you by the Eagle Ridge Neighborhood Watch Program (ERNW) and is meant to give you the latest and greatest news and information from around the neighborhood.

Next Meeting - Block Party
August 8, 2009 at 4pm
Please join your neighbors in our First Annual Block Party! We have invited Deputy Val Beemer (our OCSD liaison) to join us as well. Our location is in the empty lot between Ruuwersma’s (363 Creekside ) and Hammond’s (379 Creekside) where Red Tail ends at Creekside. We plan to have a pig roast, keg, something for the kids (blow up thing), maybe some music, etc. Please e-mail the ERNW address if you are interested in helping out or have any ideas. Deputy Beemer is getting back with us regarding any restrictions the city may have.

Meeting Agenda
1. HAVE FUN! And get to know other people in our subdivision.

Summary of 7/21/2009 Meeting
I think we had another great turnout!
Deputy Val Beemer had some great information for us to continue on our ERNW program. She also introduced Deputy Marc VandenBerg who works the 6pm to 6am rotation. The other two Deputies that cover our area on other days are Deputy Travis Babcock 6am-6pm and Deputy Dan Lewkowski 6pm-6am. There is one officer on call at any given time that covers our subdivision. There are other officers in the area (one at school and another covering the township) as well, but these are the 4 that we will see most often.
The Deputies reminded us to have our house numbers clearly marked and visible from the road. The green reflective signs are available from the fire department and city hall.
Questions were raised regarding Peddler’s in the neighborhood, selling vacuums, cleaning supplies, etc. They should have a valid peddler’s license on them. The city of Coopersville has an ordinance regarding this, as well as other ordinances that may be of interest. These ordinances are available to view at the city of Coopersville’s Website.
Deputy Beemer expressed the need to ‘be the best witness you can’ if an incident needs to be reported. Try to get a good physical description, make and model of vehicle and license plate numbers if possible. This is the best way for them to catch the bad guys! She also reminded us that a good majority of the breaking and entering calls they get are during the day, while people are typically working.
Block captains are urged to get contact numbers for the area they are covering, please get this information to either Jill or Dianne. Anyone interested in being a block captain, please contact Jill Szyszko. As of right now, one captain has 20 homes on their list to contact. We could easily break this down more. This would help get us closer to a complete ‘phonebook’ for our subdivision.
The OCSD is more than willing to share information with us, but some information cannot be shared. But they will keep us as informed as they can.
We are urged to contact the OCSD with anything suspicious. Being proactive to criminal activity is better than reactive, if you are unsure, just give them a call. Better to be safe than sorry!
Deputy Val Beemer is looking into any grants that will help fund our efforts for signs, block party, paper and ink for flyers. She is getting in touch with DPW about the possibility of getting speed limit signs posted in the subdivision.
A HUGE thank you to Deputies Val Beemer and Mark VandenBerg for being available for information and questions. And also to those of you who have volunteered for the block party planning and street captains! This is turning out to be a HUGE project and we welcome anyone who would like to be more involved.

Contact Information
Emergencies always use 911!
Non-Emergency police – 1 (800) 249-0911 (THIS IS NOT TO BE USED FOR EMERGENCIES. Please continue to use 911 for emergencies/reporting incidents.)
Ottawa County www.miottawa.org
City of Coopersville www.cityofcoopersville.com
Eagle Ridge Neighborhood Watch Discussion website: www.ernw.blogspot.com
ERNW e-mail: eagleridgewatch@gmail.com
Deputy Val Beemer e-mail vbeemer@miottawa.org
Deputy Val Beemer: 1 (888) 731-1001 ext. 1539 (this is a voicemail system that is available 24/7 for questions/concerns for her. ) THIS IS NOT TO BE USED FOR EMERGENCIES. Please continue to use 911 for emergencies/reporting incidents.