Towards better communication and a welcome to new 'emailers'

This past month the CRA has been busy updating its records, particularly in respect of email addresses. To those who haven't in the past received our regular electronic newsletter, we hope that you'll find it helpful and informative. We're convinced that the majority of our residents have access to email but we’re sure we are still missing many names. We’d really appreciate it if you could send us the email address of anyone you know in our area. We’ll follow up if we don’t already have their address.

The CRA believes that keeping the community informed is vitally important so anything you can do to assist will be great.

In the meantime we’ll continue to produce the Crier as a hard copy newsletter. One is to be produced shortly and will contain updates on town planning and a number of other important issues. It will be distributed by SAS in Craighall, and in Craighall Park by the ADT patrol vehicles (the ones employed by we who have subscribed to the CRA’s enhanced security scheme) - this way you’ll also know that every street will be visited by the SAS and ADT teams.

****************   2007 AGM   *************

Don’t forget to diarise this!

·         Date: Wednesday 30 May

·         Time: 19:00 for 19:30

·         Venue: Craighall Primary School, Grosvenor Ave, Craighall Park

Guests will include Senior Superintendent Moodley from Parkview Police station. We’ve approached a well-known personality to be our guest speaker but await confirmation of his availability – we’ll keep you posted.

The CRA ‘fight crime’ plan renamed Craigpark Community Security Scheme

We know we’ve bombarded you with information about the scheme but until we have more subscribers on board, we are just not going to have the optimum coverage that will ensure a more proactive approach to crime prevention. Both SAS and ADT are involved. SAS elected to provide extra vehicles as their client base increased. ADT offered a more comprehensive service, provided this was paid for.

To recap for new readers, the scheme entails the following:

·         The scheme operates on an incremental basis. At this stage there are two extra vehicles. However, as subscribers increase, so will the number of vehicles. Each dedicated ADT 24/7 patrol vehicle has a 2-way radio, a cell phone and other equipment.

·         In the case of an emergency or situation such as being followed, subscribers need only dial the vehicle cell number for a swift response.

·         Both the SAS and ADT teams are constantly on the alert for any suspicious activity with the goal of preventing a crime before it happens.

The cost is R182 per household per month, payable to the CRA or, if an ADT client, ADT will cap the monthly subscription at R500 (their fee and a portion of the CRA fee). Complexes pay R40 per month per unit – for the cost of a pizza, we think that this is good value. Business premises pay R400 per month.

CRA exec members John Turpin and Wendy McAllister had a productive meeting with senior ADT representatives on 11 April. ADT assure us that wall plaques for subscribers will be ready shortly, as will identification of the patrol vehicles. If any subscriber has not yet received the dedicated cell phone numbers for direct contact with the patrol vehicles, please contact John at 011 325-4547 or 083 381-1069 (noting that subscribers are asked not to divulge the numbers).

The CRA has implemented the scheme because residents asked for it – now we need your support! Again we appeal to everyone to support this initiative. If you haven’t yet joined, please don’t let your community down – sign up now. Remember your initial commitment is only for one year. Debit order forms are available from:
Peter Heritage 083 261-7576
Roly Meyer 011 442-6801
John Turpin 083 381 1069
Wendy McAllister 011 325-7165
Or downloadable on-line at: www.cra.org.za/fight_crime.htm (for either CRA form or ADT Addendum form)

Thanks to residents

Thanks to all those residents who have been proactive, helping us enlarge our emailing data base or bringing more people on board for the Community Security Scheme.

Other residents have offered us services, either at a minimal or no cost. Here we’d like to thank Harry Rosen whose company Tas-online has taken over what for us used to be the onerous task of mailing out the newsletter in small batches.