About 25 people from the Genesee Schmitz Neighborhood Council met for their 2nd general meeting on Oct. 21 to discuss crime prevention, emergency preparedness and the future of the vacant Genesee Hill School property.

First to the podium at the West Side Presbyterian Church was Benjamin Kinlow, crime prevention coordinator for the Seattle Police Department.

“I encourage each of you to think about safety as your responsibility,” Kinlow said in reference to neighborhood crime prevention. “One thing that you can do about safety is start in your own home. We encourage everyone to take a look at their home to make sure its secure and make sure you don’t let your guard down because there are burglaries happening every single day.”

Kinlow said the best approach for reducing burglaries and car prowls is to set up a block watch program, whether it be formal or informal. He encouraged Genesee Schmitz neighbors to share phone numbers and emails and become Facebook friends – any steps that can be taken to keep each other informed of suspicious activity on their blocks.

He also encouraged blocks to reach out to their adjacent blocks, saying the more people who are connected, the better chance at reducing crime.

“We want to encourage you to become more trigger happy in calling in suspicious behavior (to the police),” Kinlow added.

He then told the story of a woman in West Seattle who awoke to her dog barking late one night. She peeked out the window and saw two young men with empty backpacks walking down the street, thought nothing of it and went back to sleep. She awoke to her dog barking again a few hours later and peeked outside. This time she saw five young men with full backpacks outside, and one of them was trying to get into a parked car. She called police at that point, but it was too late and the burglars were gone by the time police arrived.

The neighborhood council brainstormed ideas on how to make their houses less attractive to burglars. One man mentioned buying and installing fake security cameras from Ebay, buying an ADT security systems sign for your lawn (even if you don’t have the system), putting up an American flag and purchasing a $20 motion detector system from Harbor Freight Tools. He installed his detector under his car seat, and if anyone gets into his car at night an alarm will sound in his bedroom.

Kinlow ended his speech by encouraging anyone who wants to set up a block watch program to contact him at (206) 684-7724 or Benjamin.kinlow@seattle.gov.

Next to the podium was Cindi Barker, West Seattle Emergency Communication Hubs coordinator for the Southwest and Delridge District Councils, whohas taken the helm in coordinating designated emergency community gathering sites in case of a major emergency, most likely an earthquake.

She spoke to the Genesee Schmitz Council about what is required of a gathering site so they could discuss whether or not they want to form one. Currently, there is an Alaska Junction Hub at Ercolini Park, but nothing to the north until the Alki Community Center so another hub would be helpful, she said.

“It’s about taking care of ourselves when such a significant disaster comes that we know city resources will be shut down for a couple of days while (the city) tries to recover,” Barker said. “The city says over and over again, plan on supporting yourself if there is a big earthquake for like three days … If the West Seattle Bridge goes down and the roads are seriously impacted emergency response people cannot get around.”

The neighborhood council did not make a final decision on creating a new hub for West Seattle, but Barker provided the information to make the decision in the future.

“I think it is amazing community service,” Dick Miller, president of the GSNC, said of Barker’s work.

GSNC vice president Mary Fleck took the microphone next to discuss the future of the Genesee Hill School property, which is currently “on inventory,” Fleck was told by the school district. Basically, that means they do not have a plan for the building, she said.

Fleck said the district is unsure of their future needs for the building, and they imagine it could sit, as is, for the next seven to eight years. The school is in pretty bad shape and if they do decide to use it again major renovations or demolition and rebuilding would be required, she said.

In the meantime, the school is up for lease at $40,000 a year (which Fleck doubts anyone will agree to), but they are discussing the possibility of leasing portions of the building, such as the auditorium, at a much lower rate. Fleck encouraged anyone with ideas for future use of the school to contact her.

Although the future of building itself remains uncertain, Fleck said a group of volunteers has been working with the school district and they have been given the go-ahead to clean up and develop the six acres of green space around the building.

Dubbed the “Vibrant Gardening Committee,” volunteers are currently readying plots for a community garden at the school. They have had five cleanups and work parties so far, and have nine plots ready to be planted.

Additional ideas for Genesee Hill include having artists do murals on the school windows and talking with Sustainable West Seattle about having a tool bank annex at the school.
Liz Vivian spoke to the GSNC about becoming part of a long range planning committee for the school property, with the goal of developing a vision for what the community would like to see happen with the vacant property and taking that vision to school and city officials.

Vivian said they intend to start working on that vision early 2011 with the goal of presenting a plan to the city around June of 2011.

At the onset of the meeting, GSNC president Dick Miller thanked everyone for coming, but mentioned that he hoped they could have filled all the seats.

“Until we can form our community council into an effective (one) where people know each other and can effectively communicate and share ideas then we will be stuck in a passive reactive mode,” Miller said. “That puts us one step behind and we want to be one step ahead.”

For more information in the Genesee Schmitz Neighborhood Council, visit www.gsnc.wordpress.com or email carol.vincent@comcast.net.