The force created by the bottle explosion is enough to remove fingers, seriously disfigure your face, or destroy a mailbox. Thus it behooves you to approach any closed bottle containing liquid with caution. If the bottle appears to be melting or seems swollen call 911 and ask for assistance. I haven’t heard about these kinds of incidents here but it can’t hurt to be on the safe side.

Faith in Action is an interfaith, volunteer organization that provides vital, non-medical assistance to the elderly and adults with disabilities free of charge.  Volunteer care givers take seniors to appointments, assist with grocery shopping or paperwork, make friendly visits, and provide daily telephone reassurance calls among many other services.  The personal connection between volunteer and care receiver is one reason the organization has been active in the region since 1996.  The services provided help seniors remain in their own homes and improve the quality of their lives.  Faith in Action serves the elderly and adults with disabilities in Cabell and northern Wayne Counties in WV and Lawrence County, Ohio.

The public is invited to stop by the office on the 21^st to learn more about Faith in Action and volunteer opportunities; to enjoy light refreshments; and to thank the volunteers who make it all possible.  Anyone with questions may call the Faith in Action office at (304) 697-1274 or (toll free) 877-367-1271.  Office hours are Monday-Thursday, 8:30 am-4:30 pm.

1. Install lights on your garage or outbuilding that lies along an alley way. By lighting the area you will automatically make that alley less inviting to a passing vandal.
2. Remove Graffiti as soon as you can. By removing it the vandal will grow discouraged that their work keeps getting removed. Sure, at first, they might hit again out of frustration but eventually they will realize you won’t back down (and you shouldn’t!)
3. If you see vandalism occurring – report it to the police! If you remain silent when the crime is occurring how can you complain about it happening? We need to work together with law enforcement to reduce the crimes in our communities!

Those steps alone will make a huge impact. If you are the neighbor to someone who gets vandalized encourage them to clean it up and offte to help them. If they won’t and you can then just do it yourself otherwise you’re just inviting the vandals to return and the next time they will probably be on your property.

If you’d like more information on why fixing vandalism quickly can help prevent future vandalism you should check out the book “Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order And Reducing Crime In Our Communities” by George Kellilng and Catherine Coles.

Finally, we could come together as a community and provide a better opportunity and outlet for the people who want to create grafitti. Perhaps we could organize a mural project along the floodwall downtown.

Calling All Volunteers, We Need You:
Bring gloves, hoes, shovels, spades, trash bags, and whatever else you can think of, especially friends or family that could lend a hand Our next meeting is this Saturday at 2pm at the Barnett Facilities building, located at 1524 10th Avenue across from White Way. We need lots of volunteers to help work in the garden area, doing things like marking the beds with twine, cleaning and clearing the surface, turning the soil, weeding, etc. Also, on Tuesday next week, I need volunteers to help clean-up and prepare the Webb’s donated gardening area, especially clearing out their old burn-pile. We’ll meet at the Ace Hardware parking lot on 5th St Road at 1pm.

Confirmation Email:
Email us at our communitygardenshunt@gmail.com account to confirm that you are Volunteering. In that email, we will need your full name, which days you can Volunteer, and the best way to reach you by phone if there is a last-minute change of plans. This will be especially necessary when working on privately donated garden spaces, such as the Webb’s property, so that property owners know in advance who will be visiting at what times and for what purposes.

Weather:
The weather looks GREAT for Friday-Wednesday, so keep your fingers crossed!
See You Saturday and Tuesday!

It’s an age old rule of thumb that you change your batteries when you change your clocks – even if you don’t think your battery needs changing. Why risk it? A 9 volt battery is an inexpensive bi-annual investment that can help save the lives of every member of your family. So please, take a few minutes this weekend and change out your batteries and test your smoke detectors!

• Clean.Keep YOUR yard and the street neat. Place trash in a trash can, sweep grass clippings and leaves away from the sidewalk and curbs.
• Light & Lock.Lock doors and windows, open or close curtains often, turn porch and post lamps ON dusk to dawn, install motion detecting lights and when away from your home, turn on a tv or radio and use automatic timers to turn fixtures on/off. Don’t give thieves and vandals a place to hide – keep property organized.
• Report suspicious activity.Call 696-4444 to and relay details anonymously. Be brief, but specific. Provide detailed information about vehicles and individuals. If something happens on your property always file a police report.
• Be Neighborly.Watch and talk to or call those around you; ASK if they need anything, watch for unusual activity or people and notify them and call the police.
• Stay informed.Read the paper, watch Channel 24. Participate in decisions that affect you – VOTE!
• Communicate. Contact your city representatives to ask questions, discuss issues or to say thank you.

Following these six simple tips will help make both your home and your neighborhood safer.

Not only is getting out of the way a good suggestion to improve safety it is the law. The more people who actually get out of the way the easier it will be for the driver of the emergency vehicle to navigate. Imagine if the firetruck were trying to get to your house, or the ambulance were carrying you – you’d want it to be able to reach it’s destination as quickly as possible. Well, the person who needs that emergency responder that is stuck in traffic behind you wants the same thing so please, let the emergency crews do their job by getting out of their way.

Even if they pronounce things properly but you are feeling even a little unsure of the solicitor at your door don’t be afraid to ask them for ID; specifically a drivers license. While a scammer may still be willing to show you their ID an honest door-to-door representative definitely won’t deny your request.

A Gun Safe

If you have a large safe, say a gun safe, in your home there are a couple things you should keep in mind.  First, the most obvious, you should bolt it down.  Without bolting it down even the heaviest safe could be carried out of your home by a determined team of thieves; at least with bolts you deter almost any casual thief from trying any harder.

The second tip is to put your safe in the basement (assuming you have a dry basement).  Granted, putting the safe in your basement may seem inconveinent and awkward but in the grand scheme of things it is the safest place ot put it.   Let’s imagine, for a moment, that you can’t bolt your safe down but you can put it in the basement; well, then you’ve already detered the casual thief who wouldn’t want to carry the hulking thing up the stairs.

If you don’t have the safe bolted and it is upstairs then the thief can just let gravity do the work of carrying your vault down to the first level and, in the process, doing a lot of damage to your home.

Another consideration for putting your safe in the basement, instead of upstairs, even when bolted is the following scenario.  Imagine what would happen to your home if a group of determined theives were to run chains through your house, connect them to your safe and their tow-hitch, and then use their truck to try and yank your safe out of the house.  Having the safe upstairs facilitates this form of theft while having it in the basement basically defeats it.

If you thought having the safe dropped down your stairs would do a lot of damage imagine how much that same safe would do if it were being drug through your house on chains by a pick-up?  It’s not a pretty site.

Mailbox with a Lock

I realize most people don’t have mailboxes with locks on them; but they should.  An endless stream of sensitive documents are delivered to our mailboxes daily yet almost nobody actually locks their mail.  Sure, it’s a felony to steal mail, but folks interested in identity theft aren’t too worried about the punishment for mail theft.  Credit card offers and balance transfer checks are being shipped out to people all the time and are just waiting, in their mailboxes, for someone to steal them.

A lockable mailbox might cost you $100 now, but, in the long run it could save you tens of thousands of dollars and a huge headache as you try to reclaim your identity.  Even if you just have to retrofit your standard mailbox by adding a padlock and cutting a slot in the door (just make sure you don’t leave sharp edges) it is better than leaving your mail unsecured.

You can buy a locking mailbox at Lowes or Home Depot or even online.  I have a mailbox similar to the one shown here that is mounted to a post beside my house.