Wellington residents and village officials took part in a joint neighborhood watch meeting Wednesday, Oct. 14 at Village Park on Pierson Road. At the meeting, attendees learned about ways to keep their neighborhoods safe.
Dawn McCormick with Waste Management explained her company’s Waste Watch program.
“It’s a national program, exclusive to Waste Management,” she said. “We have trained all of our drivers, including all of those who serve Wellington, to be an extra set of eyes and ears in your community. If you think about it, our waste drivers are up and down your street multiple times a week, collecting trash, collecting recycling and collecting your bulk garbage. They drive those streets day in and day out all year round. Many of our drivers have been on the job 10, 12, 15 years.”
The drivers, McCormick said, are aware of comings and goings within a community, and often who does and doesn’t belong in a neighborhood.
In Waste Watch, employees are trained by local law enforcement to learn what is and isn’t normal for a neighborhood, and what to do if a problem arises.
“When we rolled this out in Palm Beach County, we did this in concert with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, and they are completely on board with this program,” McCormick said. “Our drivers are trained to observe and report suspicious activity and any emergency activity.”
In Collier County, for example, a driver saw a toddler in the street alone early in the morning. The driver called 911, and it was discovered that the child’s father was at work and the mother was still sleeping. The toddler had wandered outside. “They were able to reunite that child safely with the mom, and there was no harm,” McCormick said.
Recently, in Miami Beach, a driver smelled smoke in an industrial park early in the morning and called 911. It turns out that someone was sleeping in the back of a burning building.
“The fire department said that if our driver had not noticed, had not taken the time, had not made that call, that gentlemen who was sleeping through this most likely would have died of smoke inhalation,” McCormick said.
In Delray Beach, a driver heard something that sounded like a cat crying, checked up and down the block and saw a garage door open, discovering that a senior citizen had fallen in her garage and was unable to move. She was suffering from dehydration. The driver called 911 and got the woman help.
“We just want you to know that we have our drivers out on the street,” McCormick said. “They take it very seriously, and they appreciate being empowered to watch over you. That’s going on in your community and you may not even know about it.”
PBSO Deputy Scott Poritz, who helps oversee the neighborhood watch groups in Wellington, explained that neighborhood watch is about observing and reporting, not engaging.
“It also has to do with the fact that you’re putting your community back in your hands,” he said. “You’re being social, you’re being out and about. You’re noticing things a little bit better, and that’s something we take pride in and we push with all of our neighborhood watch groups.”
Wellington is fairly boring when it comes to crime, Poritz said, adding that the most common issues are “crimes of opportunity,” such as burglaries from unlocked vehicles. That is a problem that spikes over the summer and on school breaks.
“Please do yourselves a favor, do your neighbors a favor, and lock your vehicles,” he said.
Poritz urged residents to call in suspicious activity, and to call 911 if something is in progress. For non-emergencies, call (561) 688-3000.
Neighborhood Advocate Jonathan Salas noted that changes have been made to the village’s Beautiful Wellington grant program. The matching grant has been increased from $1,000 to $1,500, and includes irrigation and driveway work. Minor repairs, such as cement cracking, are also included, though they are on a case-by-case basis.
After two years, residents are allowed to reapply for the grant, but work should not be done before the grant has been approved. The committee, Salas said, meets on the 15th of every month, and decides which grant applications are approved.
The Neighbors of Wellington (NOW) grant, which supplies $250 for a block party, is also available. Different groups have done different activities, such as an ice cream party or a pizza party, both of which were covered within the grant. The NOW grant can be applied for every six months.
To learn more about the various grants, call Salas at (561) 791-4764.
Other programs offered by Wellington’s Community Services Department have had positive impacts on the community. Neighborhood watch captains were presented with certificates, and Salas pointed out that the neighborhood watch program originally began with 12 communities and has increased to 20 in just one year.
“We have doubled in size in a year. We must be doing something good, so keep up the good work, captains,” Salas said.
Also at the meeting, Edward Russo from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children gave a presentation on Internet safety, explaining the dangers of the Internet and the importance of awareness.
Russo explained that many devices provide access to the Internet, and bullying is no longer just at school. Tablets, cell phones, e-readers and even gaming devices provide Internet access — it isn’t just computers anymore.
A program created by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which is available to schools, is called the NetSmartz Workshop. Resources are available at www.netsmartz.org and www.netsmartz411.org.
ABOVE: PBSO deputies Daniel Delia and Scott Poritz.
