The Blockwatch Beat is grateful to be reporting this month from a situation wherein we are trying to make lemonade out of lemons.
Although no power seems like a major inconvenience, I am going to share some of my family’s blessings with you:
• We have water, including hot water, which is way more than those on the gulf coast have.
• We now have a squeaky clean fridge and freezer!
• We have an awesome mom in the area who has power and has opened her home to us with fridge/freezer use, computer use, laundry facilities, and hot meals.
• We have friends who have opened their homes to us in case we need anything and have shared something as basic but necessary as batteries with us.
• We have an awesome neighborhood! From neighbors helping neighbors to a local church offering a free dinner to those without power, the Hilltop is a great place to live!
• What a blessing to come home to the unexpected surprise of restored electricity. Just when I was getting used to the one-burner propane camp set up on my stove top….Thanks to all the EMS, firefighters, police officers, and exhausted power crews who turned our lives back on!
• Finally, but not least, we have our lives and we are uninjured.
As difficult a time as this is, it is wonderful to see people pulling together, setting differences aside and making life go on for each other.
Going along with the theme of the Hilltop being such a great place to live, the Blockwatch Beat would like to honor those who have blazed the trail long before we came along.
There are many folks, too many to name, who have lived on the Hilltop before us or moved in recently and have helped many folks in many different ways. From the first blockwatches to neighborhood associations to block parties, many others have toiled for the greater good of the Hilltop long before the Blockwatch Beat.
The Hilltop is a spirited and energetic community, I was once told by a long-time resident, and folks work hard together to continue to better it. I would like all of you reading this to take a moment to think of your favorite Hilltopper who has helped you in some way and made your corner of the world a little brighter and nicer!
We don’t live in a utopia, so we are not crime-free and the report this month is to continue to watch the vacant houses or homes for sale in your neighborhood for theft. Whoever is going in and stealing copper piping is watching when folks move out and in one instance, within 12 hours, had stripped the house.
Also, petty crime and kick-ins continue to be a problem and there has been one report of a resident hearing someone try to siphon their gas from their car. Taking care of that problem is easy: we went to an auto parts store and bought a locking gas cap for under $20.
Do we continue to have inner-city style crime? Yes, but so does the rest of Columbus. It is not abnormal anymore for the suburbs to be fighting the gangs and petty criminal activity the same way that we do.
Also, there are folks in the middle of nowhere in the country who are fighting drug crime because the drug lords are using small towns for distribution centers. So, yes, there is crime. Yes, it is a pain. But we need to fight it together: the community that works together, stays together.
Please continue to report suspicious activity to 645-4545, attend your blockwatch meetings and talk to your neighbors. Until next time – crime is negative, but community action is positive!
Lisa Grazier is coordinator of the Camp Chase Blockwatch.
