Over in nearby Chesterfield, there is one neighborhood who is taking a serious bite out of crime. The Meadowbrook Estates have powered up the local residents to take back their neighborhood. This is being accomplished with random patrols, a log book of criminal activity and rapid response from the police who are alerted by neighborhood watch volunteers of any nonsense. It starts with designating the area as a neighborhood watch zone. In other words, folks are on the lookout.
“It says six youths were trespassing at their pool property,” said neighborhood watch president, Julius Higgins. He was sharing an entry from his log book with a local news station. Team members are encouraged to write down any incident. “Let’s say if I was coming on today, I could read the narrative and say, ‘ok, this is what happened and I know what to look for.’ Communication is the key. Education is power.”
In addition to keeping an eye out for trouble, the neighborhood watch volunteers also do their part to keep the area clean by picking up trash. It appears to be working. Police say that involvement is paying off.
“This neighborhood has come full circle,” Cpl. Scott Gordon with the Chesterfield Police said. “When I started 24 years ago as a police officer it had its issues and it was things like a little bit of blight and people weren’t taking care of their properties like they should.”
That issue of “blight” is something we can all work on. If you live close to a vacant lot you can see how easy it is for that lot to be turned into an illegal dumping ground. All it takes is one sofa or tire to be tossed in there any folks think this is the place to leave their trash. For a vacant lot you might want to put pressure on the city for the cleanup.
Of course, you can help the effort by making sure your own property doesn’t have junk scattered about. To help clean that up you need only call Junk King Richmond. These are the junk removal pros that will show up at your property with a truck and hard working crew. They’ll be doing all the work which means you only have to point out what you want removed. In no time you can have your front yard, your garage, your basement and your attic cleared of all kinds of clutter. One call to Junk King will help you and your Richmond neighborhood clean up.