Our latest Neighborhood Watch Meeting was scheduled for Saturday, August 22, and was to be a review of the basics of the Neighborhood Watch Program as well as an update on the local issues involving the lake. However, a last-minute personal problem for Officer Varasconi caused the meeting to be cancelled. The meeting will be rescheduled and we will notify everyone of the exact date and time.

Neighborhood Watch is a crime prevention program that teaches citizens how to help themselves by identifying and reporting suspicious activity in their neighborhoods. It also provides citizens with the opportunity to make their neighborhoods safer and improve the quality of life. Neighborhood Watch groups focus on observation and awareness as a means of preventing crime, “watching out for each other.” It is not a vigilante organization.

The meetings also allow residents to discuss local neighborhood issues with the Police Department.

Officer Robert Varasconi is Winchester’s Community Relation Officer for the Police Department, and he has done an excellent job leading our Neighborhood Watch Program. He and Chief Nick Guerriero have been great supporters of the HLWA program.

Special Report:
Stolen Boat Engines
There have been reports three motor boat engines were stolen this summer from residents of East Wakefield Boulevard as well as items from a parked boat on East Wakefield. The principles of the Neighborhood Watch program are if you see anything on your neighbor’s property that doesn’t look right, call the police at 860.379.2721 immediately.

Driving Boats While Impaired
At the annual meeting, we reported the Connecticut legislature had passed tougher boating regulations effective July 1, 2009 that made the penalty for killing someone on the lake while driving a boat under the influence comparable to the penalties for drunken driving an automobile. This warning was no sooner said than we heard reports a Highland Lake resident who allegedly was under the influence was driving recklessly on the lake in early August. Allegedly the person hit a boat on the lake twice and then damaged a dock.

Although the penalties for driving a boat while intoxicated are now more severe, that shouldn’t be the only reason to refrain from drinking while driving a boat. If it doesn’t make sense to do so in an auto, there is no reason it is any more sensible to drive a boat while intoxicated.