1. Welcome a new neighbor with a plate of home-baked cookies and information on how they can get around in their new location; where the grocery store, nearby restaurants and banks are, etc.  It’s hard, especially if you are shy, to reach out to a stranger, but the rewards are great.

2. If you plan to throw a party featuring music and a crowd, be considerate and inform the nearby residents. That way, they can plan accordingly. They will appreciate the warning. Wouldn’t you? Note: Turn the music down after midnight.

3. See what you can do to assist your senior neighbors who may need a hand with getting their garbage out to the curb or groceries carried in from the car. Knowing that they can call on you during an emergency situation will be a great relief to them. Helping another feels good in and of itself.

4. Frequent the businesses in and around your neighborhood. It pays to make our money work for us in building these businesses and improving our neighborhoods.

5. When voting time comes around, study the issues, some of which will directly affect where you live. And vote.

Make time to take an active interest in your community. Think of it as your extended family. Loving your neighbors is like loving yourself. Try it. It works.

Patty Mooney has been writing since the age of 16. Her favorite topics include women’s issues, homelessness, homeless veterans, the arts, cinema, biographies, nature and video production. Her work has appeared in many publications around the world, including the Los Angeles Times, The San Diego Reader, Create Magazine, Post Magazine, Women’s Sports & Fitness, Yoga Journal and others. You can read her blog, “A Diary Left Open” at http://www.sandiegovideoproduction.blogspot.com Her business site is http://www.crystalpyramid.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Patty_Mooney

I remember those days.

Parents of my generation can look back upon the summer ritual of flagging down the ice cream man as a fond memory. A quarter bought a red, white and blue Bomb Pop. Ice cold to the touch, you tore the wrapper off, tossed it to the street, squealed in delight when your tongue momentarily stuck to icy goodness and smiled brightly as your lips turned a bright red or blue.

Mom or dad may have watched from a distance as you made your purchase. Most likely they didn’t bother. They had nothing to fear. In those days everyone trusted the ice cream man.

Times change.

Struggling in an age of paranoia, parents today will march right out to the truck, make the purchase, eye the ice cream man with suspicion and keep their kids out of reach. Public perception of the ice cream man has turned sour. Perception is reality and every ice cream man is a potential pedophile. One need only look at the battered truck, peeling labels and smoke belching from an exhaust pipe.

Times change, indeed.

Recently, Tennessee lawmakers decided to study background checks for ice cream truck drivers over the summer. According to an article at CommercialAppeal.com there is need “to work out matters such as who should pay for the background checks, who should conduct them and penalties for violations.”

Any employee of any company should go through a comprehensive background check that includes the following:

* Social Security Number Trace

* County Criminal Records Search

* Motor Vehicle Records Search

* Nationwide Background Check

* Sex Offender Registry check, both statewide and national

The same should hold true if the truck is operated as an independent contractor. Anyone that interacts with children in a potentially unsupervised way MUST be background checked. The legislature in Tennessee, or any state, should mandate a thorough background check as a part of the licensing process.

A thorough criminal background check as part of pre-employment screening or even post-hire screening is a low cost endeavor when compared to the incalculable human cost that could occur.

Thomas Kenney is a web writer based in Southern California. His primary interests are creating safe environments for at-risk populations and works through his company, PreScreen Solutions, to achieve that.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thomas_Kenney

But first, let me tell you a little story. I know a single mother who was looking for a house. Her main requirement was that it had to be safe for her children. After months of looking she found the perfect house on a cul-de-sac in a great neighborhood and the price was right, too. After moving in one of her neighbors stopped in to welcome her to the neighborhood. One comment from the neighbor got her attention, though. She said she really admired her bravery.

Naturally my friend was curious what that meant. After pressing the neighbor she told her that her new next door neighbor was registered sex offender. That’s why the house had been priced so low – because nobody wanted to buy it because of the sex offender. And that’s why the previous owner was desperate to sell. And apparently the the offender really liked young children.

Needless to say my friend was frightened. She couldn’t turn right around and sell the house so she ended up installing a new fence and alarm system. And her kids never left the house without her. That’s no way to live. And it’s a shame because it is so easy to perform a sex offender search. And it doesn’t cost anything.

Thanks to the internet and the need for people to be aware of their surroundings the government has made it much easier to find out if offenders are lurking in your neighborhood or wherever you may be moving. And it will tell you exactly where they live and include photos. I know my wife was shocked the first time she did a search to find out how many offenders were near us. Of course this is for information purposes only, it does not give you the right to camp out on their lawn or otherwise harass them. You may want to but it is against the law.

Not all details are included on the sites. It won’t necessarily tell you their exact crime but will give you a good idea of what they may have done. And having this information could have saved my friend a lot of grief and money. So how do you search? It really is easy.

Go to Google or your favorite search engine and search for “Sex offenders in [your state]“. This should show you the state site where you can find everything you need.
Do you really know who’s living next to you?

David Lemon is the owner of TDL People Search. You can visit his site at http://www.tdl-people-search.com where you can search for anyone you’d like to find as well as perform background checks.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Lemon

A neighborhood association is basically a group that organizes crime watches, welcome wagons and special events. A neighborhood yard sale or block party can help people raise money and meet new people. If you are really ambitious you could even start a neighborhood newsletter. It is community efforts like these that help neighborhoods grow closer and give each other the support system that is so important – especially during tough times like these. There is a comfort in knowing who your neighbors are, knowing that they will be there for you during difficult medical or financial times or even just when you need a friendly shoulder to lean on or a cup of sugar.

The first step to starting a neighborhood association is deciding on a place to meet. Usually a community resource like a youth center or school will let you use space for free. You could even use a room in your house if it is large enough to hold a moderate-size group of people.

Next you’ll want to print out flyers announcing your initial neighborhood meeting. It doesn’t have to be fancy or elaborate, just a simple sheet detailing the purpose of the meeting, location, time and date. Hang flyers up in prominent areas in the neighborhood such as churches, grocery stores, schools and recreation centers. It may also be appropriate to leave flyers on people’s doorstops. My neighborhood association set up a refreshment stand during Halloween and offered a sign-up sheet for people interested in joining the association. Later they could use the contact information to get people together for neighborhood meetings. However you get the word out the next step is preparing for the event/meeting. Some planning is a good idea at this time. Write an outline of the points you want to discuss and some plans you have for the future of the neighborhood. Next you’ll want to provide some coffee, fruit punch and maybe some baked goods for the meeting.

At this first meeting you can talk about the different functions that you would like the organization to perform. For example, you’ll need a committee to oversee the neighborhood association. Other possibilities are a welcome wagon which will welcome new families, introduce themselves and provide a basket with neighborhood information, coupons from local businesses, and possibly a little welcoming gift. Or possibly a group of neighbors would like to work together on a neighborhood newsletter to keep the neighbors up to date on the goings on in the area, such as births, deaths, school and church events, weddings, etc. You can also set up a group to act as a crime watch to either patrol the streets at night or at least keep an eye on homes while the residents are out of town.

You won’t believe the feeling of belonging that comes over a neighborhood when the members of it is working on making it a safe, clean, peaceful and friendly place to live.

For more information on becoming active in your community, please visit http://www.lendahandri.com

Jenn Carpenter works as a freelance writer, blogger and internet marketer from her home in Warwick, RI. She is a mother of three as well as an active member of her community. To learn more about her amazing story check out http://www.livingmybigdream.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jennifer_Carpenter

After answering several inquiries regarding our success at eradicating weeds from Sluice Pond and raising funds to establish weed control, I thought an article describing a successful process would help others in Massachusetts and New England.

A brief history-Sluice Pond is a 50+ acre body of water with approximately 165 homes that abut the pond. Sluice Pond, fed by the Cedar Brook and natural springs, is one of five ponds located 10 miles Northeast of Boston that meander in a “Strawberry Necklace” through Lynn, MA to the Atlantic. There is a public boat ramp in a northern cove at Briarcliff Lodge that enables the general public to access the pond for boating, fishing and swimming from their boats.

The pond has 12 deeded right of ways that each enable about 65 property holders on nearby parcels to egress (enter or leave the pond). These pond paths were once water access paths for cattle, which were deeded to neighbors when older farms and estates were divided into building lots. Basically, there is a good deal of access to the pond as a four seasons recreational resource for both the general public at the boat ramp and through deeded egress for neighbors via the paths. The same public access is true at neighboring Flax Pond, which has a public beach for swimming. These access points helped us to qualify for public funding.

Evaluation & Water Level

Last summer Sluice Pond was at the lowest water level in 20 years due to a new gate system that remained open and there was tremendous weed growth. Preliminary research (backed by the experts in the evaluation process) showed that some of the rapid weed growth might be due to the low water level, which enabled more sunlight to hit the ever present weeds on the bottom of the pond in a greater number of places than usual causing rapid growth along the shore.

This year the Sluice Pond Association designated a Gate Liaison who communicates regularly with the local water commission and the water level has been much higher. Consequently, there are fewer weeds visible than this point in the summer last year, even in the coves which are largely overgrown by now. No treatment for weeds has taken place yet. We continue to record and investigate water level weed control. Weeds are also plants and respond to fertilizer run off from abutters lawns, so we have initiated an effort to ask abutters to please not fertilize near the lake edge.

After several discussions regarding the abundant weed growth last summer, we called Aquatic Control Technologies, ACT (there are only two weed treatment groups in the state). ACT had been the choice in 2001 when the pond received a chemical treatment. ACT sent an evaluation team upon request, a free service. They went around the shoreline in a boat last November to inspect the weeds and to provide us with an evaluation of the types of weeds present. They gave us a preliminary estimate for the treatment. I wrote up a summary of everything they said including that we did not have Milfoil, a weed that has been treated successfully biologically with weevils that eat the weeds and die. Other weeds don’t have these biological solutions, like weevils that eat Milfoil.

Our weeds included native Broadleaf and other invasive weeds (brought in by boats), but not Milfoil. The Milfoil was successfully treated by ACT in 2001 and has not returned. Dredging was discussed since that was the choice method 25 years ago for one of our coves. Today it’s too costly and not as effective as the chemical treatments available. ACT also provides dredging services, but not often on larger bodies of water now that safer chemicals are available. Sluice Pond is not a drinking water supply pond, so our estimate was much less than the hundreds of thousands of dollars in estimates for some communities that are trying to treat their water supply ponds.

All of the chemicals ACT proposed using have been EPA tested and approved with no detectable effect on fish or wildlife in proper doses. The application requires 1-3 days of no swimming, fishing or boating and no use of the lake water for irrigation for 90 days. Since Sluice Pond is not in an endangered species zone; all that was required was a permit from the state DEP and approval of the local Conservation Commission. The license is good for 3 years in this state. It helped that our local city councilor works for the state in environmental protection. We received the information we needed easily regarding the permitting process, the application and the timeline for hearings. He helped manage the timetable for local hearings with the Conservation Commission.

Funding

We have received city, state and perhaps federal funds for the Lynn Ponds Restoration Project and conducted successful private fund raising. We only knew that finding funds would be necessary after we had an evaluation and an estimate for treatment in hand. Based on 2001 when the weed treatment cost the Sluice Pond Association $3,500 we initially thought we could get the money together from our local fund raisers without grants. After the evaluation brought in an estimate closer to $20,000 only for immediate weed treatment without a long term maintenance plan, we knew we needed assistance.

We requested and received information from ACT about the treatment, wrote a plain English, non-scientific summary to notify pond property owners and abutters of our intentions. We held meetings to organize the Sluice Pond Association, elect a Board of Directors and organize a Weed committee. We created a web site at www.sluice.org to help us raise funds. Prior to submitting our application for treatments with the city and state, we took the information from the ACT evaluation of our weed problem and

(1) vetted the issue among property owners and abutters with the newsletter,

(2) hand carried notices to all abutters every other week for six week prior to the local public hearings,

(3) held several SPA meetings prior to the official meetings to hear concerns,

(4) asked our city councilor to attend eight monthly meetings and to plan the project with us so that we could get help to secure funds from the city and the state,

(5) set up a tax exempt organization, an organizational budget and a project budget,

(6) submitted an application for federal assistance from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to be used with other funding sources and the city/state,

(7) held a raffle and raised money for ACT to complete the initial permit applications for the state and city,

(8) attended the official hearings with ACT to make a presentation and an appeal,

(9) worked with our local state reps to access state funds in case the federal money did not emerge and

(10) worked with our local city councilors to get the Parks Commission, Water Commission and City to provide matching funds for grants and help with permits.

Whatever your situation, a publicly used recreational pond might qualify for weed treatment funding. If it is a private use pond with no public uses you might want to get an estimate from ACT (free) or a local water technology group and then determine if the abutters can handle financing the treatment or if there is some private support through local foundations with interest in preservation of land in your city or town.

We did the majority of the work to preserve a recreation area used by us, our neighbors and the public. But our motivation actually came from

(1) not wanting to see people drown in our backyards, tangled in weeds and

(2) the Supreme Court’s decision in Connecticut to take away personal property and give it to developers.

Long Term Maintenance

The Sluice Pond Association is still in the process of developing a long-term maintenance plan for weed control. We are busy sharing our fortunes at fund raising by first and foremost getting results for Sluice Pond, providing neighboring ponds with assistance in organizing or fiscal management and providing information for other citizen’s groups.

Sluice Pond is a 5-15 minute walk from a beautiful publicly maintained golf course and the nation’s 2nd largest urban park, Lynn Woods. Greater Lynn Senior Services is on the pond and we have many elder neighbors who have resided here their entire lives. However, we are just down the hill from private land developments behind the local Union Hospital.

Hopefully our state legislature will pass very stringent laws in Massachusetts regarding the taking of private property by imminent domain for “public good” that turns out to be “good” primarily for a tiny handful of developers. We are protecting ourselves and each other from economic predators by using the common issue of the pond weeds to create a strong, local citizen’s organizations that will not tolerate private property largess at town hall. We stay in close contact with the local ward councilor and city councilors-at-large. The new Board of Directors appointed a Government Liaison representative who attends every city hall meeting regardless of relevance to our pond. We are happy to supply any other groups of citizens who are trying to organize with information about our process.

About the Author

Some neighborhoods have very well organized groups and some don’t. You will soon find out which you are in if you just moved to a new area. An organized group will be on top of many issues and pretty well connected to local law enforcement and other groups of interest. If you are a pioneer and have purchased a fixer upper in an old neighborhood then you need community support. The move closer to your city center has a ton of charm and beauty and some other issues that you don’t want to deal with alone. If you can band together with your neighbors you will get a sense of safety, hope and community togetherness.

Get out and talk to people to see if there is any type of neighborhood association. If you want to improve the area you just invested in, you can’t do it alone. Most likely you will run into a lot of other people that are doing the same thing. They are tired of the driving from the suburbs and sick of strip malls and boring houses. Those old neighborhoods have interesting and charming houses. The streets are wide with huge old oaks and other established growth. If you have a group of homeowners that are fixing up houses you can swap stories and advice.

One way to get people wore involved is by giving yourself an identity. If you do have a neglected neighborhood organization they will probably be happy for the fresh interest. Get a little paper started with info and articles. Create a logo that includes your area name. Most neighborhoods have names. You can start using that name on some promotional products. The first issue of your newsletter will be hand delivered and hung at each house. Put an application to join the association or club inside. Have your association website listed so that people can join up online. You get them to pay a small amount of yearly dues and they can go on the online information network. This is the best neighborhood watch ever. It is instant information.

The newsletter will generate a little more money by the sale of ads for local businesses. That will keep it going and could possibly cover the initial cost of a new promotional shirt that bears the community logo and name. You could include a t-shirt in the cost of yearly dues as an option. If someone has clothing that is claiming the neighborhood it gives them pride. You also want to cover any website costs. The idea of being able to contact your neighbors any time through e-mail is really good. If someones dog gets loose they can tell people to keep an eye out. If someone was seen jumping the fence at another house then the whole neighborhood can know about it too.

All of these things together will begin to build a lovely connected community that will feel like home. It is up to you and your neighbors to make your association work for the community.

About the Author

Kris A Ann