Southside Neighborhood Association
The Derrick
(As reported in The Derrick)
Thursday, August 02, 2007
By MICHAEL MOLITORIS
Chief takes message of vigilance to latest crime watch gathering
Keeping the momentum going, Siverly resident Scott
Smail leads a Siverly Safe neighborhood crime watch meeting Thursday
evening at the Free Methodist Church on Willow Street. Neighborhoods on
Oil City's North and South Sides have also formed neighborhood crime
watch groups to combat the increasing drug traffic in the city.
More Oil City residents plan to keep suspected drug dealers and users playing cat and mouse until justice ultimately wins.
With neighborhood associations now formed in the city's North and
South Side communities, a new watch program held its first meeting
Thursday night in Siverly.
City police Chief Robert Wenner, a familiar and encouraging fixture
at earlier association meetings, delivered his keep-a-watchful-eye-open
pep talk to Siverly's new contingent at the Free Methodist Church on
Willow Street.
They're more afraid of you than you are of them, Wenner said to the
gathering, which only included seven Siverly residents, representing an
area bounded by High Street, Willow Street, Kramer Avenue and Martin
Street.
He illustrated that point with an example of what typically happens
when his department conducts a drug raid or bust on one side of town.
When we make a hit on the South Side, we have an emergence on the North Side, Wenner said.
Siverly watch organizer Scott Smail said that's what he wants to combat with the formation of the city's third watch program.
I want to keep the momentum going that's already developed with the
North Side Association and the South Side Association, the Oil City
native said. The 1973 Oil City High School graduate lived in the South
for several years and returned to his home turf last year. I want to
get ahead of the curve (so people know we're watching over here, too).
Wenner left a stack of his business cards bearing his private
cellular telephone number for Siverly residents to use if they see
suspected drug activity. He's also distributed the cards at North and
South Side association meetings. Thursday, he told how residents and
his department have been working together to fight crime, disturbances
and drug activity.
Last Saturday, a member of the South Side group called Wenner after
East End residents continued their second consecutive night of
drunk-and-disorderly conduct in public areas. The woman called Wenner,
and he was on the scene within minutes with three of his children and
his fiancee in the vehicle.
I happened to be in the area, and now one of those people is in
jail, Wenner said. I am here to help you, to assist you and to do
whatever I can to help you. But I can't do it by myself and my men
can't do it by themselves.
The South Side woman said the disorderly residents had been using
foul language and mentioning the South Side watch program to her during
the disturbance an apparent sign that the watch concept is working
locally.
I always say the key is observation, not confrontation, Wenner said.
That makes them paranoid. If we quit caring, we're at greater risk.
Every time we let (illicit activity) go on, we let our neighborhoods
die a little bit.
Smail said he was discouraged with Thursday's small turnout which
also included members of the other associations, a city council member
and other volunteers but said he's keeping with it.
He asked residents who did attend the meeting to talk to their
neighbors about the proposed watch group and encourage them to attend
its next meeting.
The first order of business will be to establish group leadership, Smail said.
Different from what's happened at other city neighborhood
association meetings, Smail offered Siverly residents a look at
criminal charge statistics he drummed up from the Administrative Office
of Criminal Courts of Pennsylvania.
His data looks at individual charges filed in Oil City between
January 1998 through February 2007. During that span, 11,166 charges
have been leveled in Oil City but those do not reflect the number of
individual criminal incidents that have happened, Smail said.
He also pulled out Siverly-specific data from those statistics, highlighting the top 10 crime areas in the neighborhood.
Colbert Avenue topped the list with 276 charges during the span.
Martin Street logged the least with 27. In order of largest to
smallest, the list included Colbert Avenue, Glenview Avenue, Fern
Drive, Fern Court, Plum Street, Oak Grove Street, Bernie's Tavern,
Siverly Avenue, Willow Street and Martin Street.
Please contact us at:
PO. Box 805, Oil City, PA
16301or email us
at:
Email: Southside
Neighborhood Association
Southside Neighborhood
Association
We Watch Out For Each Other