SABINA, Ohio — Originally started 15-20 years ago by a woman who moved away, says Roger Starnes — founding member of the current group’s iteration — the Sabina Neighborhood Watch (SNW) is still in the planning stages, laying the groundwork to establish a community-led initiative to make the village just a little bit safer by creating a network of community members looking out for each other.
Though the group has been meeting for some time, the watch, which had not met as much throughout summer, has started meeting regularly, once a month–a fact that seems noteworthy in the wake of two major issues that struck Sabina in September.
With the structure fire at Sabina Park and a water main break which left most of the town without access to water, as well as damage due to storms from Hurricane Helene remnants just a week later, the SNW seems all the more important.
“The goal is to have an organized crime prevention group that is defined with staff to support the village whenever something is going on,” said Starnes. “So residents know who to contact near them to get action on any problem.”
With most of the members of the group working day jobs, time has been a major issue in setting up the group and getting the word out to the wider community.
“Dedicating more time to get things started has been slow, but has been progressing,” said Starnes. “We have good volunteers, but not all of us are spread evenly throughout the village. That is what we are trying to button up.”
One of the ideas floated in recent meetings was the need for so-called “block captains,” who are assigned to certain parts of the neighborhood in order to cast a wider net.
“The goal is to have (block captains) for every four blocks,” said Starnes.
Still, despite solid plans, the group has had trouble getting wider community buy-in, which is sorely needed for the watch to be effective.
“That is the one thing I am most anxious for, but we are not there yet,” said Starnes. “Once we get our block captains set, our communication channels with the police and/or sheriff’s departments, and we have a web and social media presence up and running, we invite all who want to share concerns and to know about the SNW to join in a community talk on the group and purpose.”
Beyond community buy-in and cooperation, one of the more difficult parts has been how exactly to communicate issues with law enforcement, with the village’s e-alert system or something akin to that being pitched as a way to better communicate. Regardless, the group is very aware that the SNW needs to communicate with each other and with law enforcement to deal with issues happening in the village.
“For now and for any high-level threat, we want residents to default to using 911 – always,” said Starnes. “But for lower-level issues that may not normally garner police attention or focus over other pressing things, we’ll try to be mediators on those things, sharing them with both police, and village council and mayor, if possible. Even the urgent things that get 911 calls can be followed up to see if there were things we could have done to stop the problems or see how to avoid them in the future.”
Still, no matter how well the community watch works, there will be unseen dangers and issues that the watch will not be able to deal with. Namely, things like storms and water main issues, as well as other natural disasters and unforeseen calamities, which cannot be helped. For this, Starnes points to the neighborhood alert system.
The alert system sends emails and texts, alerting residents to issues within the village area. Sabina residents can subscribe to texts and emails or download the app from the village’s website, or by visiting https://www.villageofsabina.gov/home/pages/civic-ready.
That said, members of the watch hope that the neighborhood watch can provide another safety net for the community in order to react to issues happening within the community.
“We want to help residents better communicate concerns so that those concerns are heard, acted on and we report the actions taken,” said Starnes, echoing the sentiment laid out by Sabina Police Chief Joe Noland who has been working with the SNW and meets with them monthly.
“The community is the driving force behind this group,” said Noland. “The ability to collaborate with village residents to effect real change in the community is what this is all about. Once fully up and running, I see this as a force multiplier, assisting the police department with community eyes and ears. The police department is a facilitator for this group and looks forward to working side-by-side with the Sabina Neighborhood Watch group to better quality of life issues in the village.”
The Sabina Neighborhood Watch meets once monthly on the first Tuesday of every month in Sabina’s Village Council chambers at 7 p.m. Their next meeting is set for Tuesday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. All community members are welcome to attend.
