Letter from the President
Welcome 2018.
I hope you all enjoyed your holiday season.
My name is Jamie Reynolds, I am excited to introduce myself as your new VRA President for 2018. My wife and I moved into the Village in 2015. I am interested in local history and enjoying everything our village has to offer. Walking throughout our village, talking with our neighbors on our front porch, enjoying the music in Lincoln and Lions parks, enjoying the Fall Festival, to bundling up for a sleigh ride during Christmas in the Village; our town has so much to offer its residents.
This year, your VRA Board would like to focus on building our membership through social events throughout the year and focusing on ideas our members have to help enrich our lifestyle as Village residents.
In the coming weeks, I will meet with Board Members to develop our agenda and set a date for our next VRA meeting.
Town Council Insights:
Important to remain vigilant in our safe community
I hope this note finds each of you enjoying friends and family during the holiday season. I certainly love this time of year, especially walking around the Village seeing the various decorations and displays. It certainly makes you appreciate living in Zionsville.
Despite these good vibes, we recently had a scary incident in my own neighborhood (Raintree). An individual drove through and randomly targeted one of the homes during a late evening. This individual allegedly found a garage door opener in an unlocked car and gained access to the house while the family was home. The wife smartly called 911 and the burglar was pulled over and arrested by ZPD, including one of our K-9 officers, as he was leaving the neighborhood.
I spoke with Police Chief Knox about this incident to both compliment the officers involved but also ask what advice he might have for Zionsville residents. His response was straightforward:
1. Lock your cars and homes, even when you are home. You should feel very safe in our community, yet crime does occur. It is often crimes of opportunity that are the easiest to prevent as well.
2. Don’t leave out valuables. Chief Knox told me that criminals will often peer into kitchens and see what they might be able to steal. Leaving out laptops, mobile phones, purses, and other belongings are attractive targets. Hiding those away may have a thief moving on without an obvious easy score.
3. Motion sensors. He is a big proponent of motion-activated lights for your exterior areas. Something as simple as a light coming on in the middle of the night is enough to spook a potential criminal who prefers staying in the shadows.
4. Call them! Finally, Chief Knox said if you hear anything, no matter how silly, call them and they will investigate. He has told me of stories where people didn’t want to bother the police. His direct quote when I asked about calling them was “that’s what you pay for."
I’m going to add my own 21st century trip around social media. Posting photos of your great vacation, while on vacation, can be used against you as it can be an open communication that you are not home.
One of the many benefits of living in the village is neighbors know each other and are friendly. Keep an eye out for each other and reinforcing my point above: If you see something that seems strange, give the police a call.
