Santa's Broken Sleigh

Thank you so much to all the neighbors who so generously donated to Santa's Broken Sleigh, which our luminary committee chose as a charity this year.  Our neighborhood was able to purchase "wish list" gifts for eight children.  These gifts will be delivered via firetruck by Bloomington fire fighters on Christmas eve and Christmas day. For updates and pictures, please visit the Phoenix Foundation, Inc. Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PhoenixFndinc . Happy holidays!

Images of second annual Miles of Lights luminary display

Thanks so much to all the neighbors who helped with this year's display. It was a beautiful!

Miles of Lights luminary display Sunday, Dec. 8

We have lots of snow on the ground but so far the forecast looks good for the second annual Sherwood Oaks Neighbors Miles of Lights luminary display. Weather permitting, Miles of Lights 2013 will be Sunday, Dec. 8, 6-9 PM.

Deer safety guidelines

This buck was browsing along Jackson Creek Trail this morning. Seemed like a good time to share a link to City guidelines on deer safety:http://bloomington.in.gov/documents/viewDocument.php?document_id=5673

Refreshed Sign

If you enter the neighborhood via Winslow/Allendale you will see our "Sherwood Oaks" sign has been nicely refreshed. Thanks to Bob Boch for washing, and to Art Lyon for painting.  Art was able to unearth some scrollwork designs that had been overpainted in the past. Take a look. It's beautiful!

Minutes: SON Meeting October 21, 2013

Sherwood Oaks Neighbors Meeting Minutes  OCTOBER 21, 2013
Fireside Room, Sherwood Oaks Christian Church

1. Call to order

Lisa Wrasse welcomed all in attendance. Approximately 20 attendees introduced themselves and reported the street where they live.

2. Bylaws

Lisa reports that the SON bylaws indicate that an executive committee be maintained.The committee is to be elected every two years. The current exec committee members will have served two years as of spring 2014. If anyone is interested in being on the committee please e-mail sherwoodoakneighbors@gmail.com. Election to be held at the next meeting.

3. Trail to Sherwood Oaks Park

The trail down to the park off Linda Way is now complete.  Thank you Fischers and Smiths for donating property bordering the sidewalk. We received a grant for the materials (City of Bloomington HAND Neighborhood Improvement Grant), and labor was provided by Wes Clark, his Boy Scout troop, SON volunteers, friends, & family. Wes completed the improvements as his Eagle Scout Project.  Thank you, Wes.  If there are other project ideas for the neighborhood, please e-mail sherwoodoaksneighbors@gmail.com or post on the SON Facebook page. 

4. Tree Project

Last year, SON received a grant with the City of Bloomington to have trees planted along the streets in the neighborhood.  The City has contacted us again and offered to plant additional trees spring 2014 at no cost and without the writing of a grant.  If you are interested to see if your property would qualify for free trees, please contact Barb Fischer at barbf49@aol.com, or e-mail sherwoodoaksneighbors@gmail.com.

5. New neighbors

Discussion held about welcoming new neighbors.  We could use a volunteer to coordinate this effort on a regular basis.  If you are interested in doing this please e-mail sherwoodoaksneighbors@gmail.com.   A flyer about our SON group and City of Bloomington magnets are available to distribute to new families. If you don't want to coordinate new neighbor outreach on a regular basis but just personally want to reach out to new neighbors please contact SON and we can pass along flyers and magnets to folks as needed.

6. Treasurer Report

Treasurer Bob Boch reports we have $171.00.  Nothing has been spent. 

7. Sign Painting

The Sherwood Oaks sign at Allendale and Winslow Road needs painting. Bob Boch has volunteered to pressure wash the sign.  We are looking for someone with some professional skills who might be willing to paint the sign. Art Lyon volunteered. Bob and Art will work together to get this done when the weather cooperates.

8. Crawford House

Bob Bock reported he is still the liaison between neighborhood and Crawford House apartments.  There have been no issues to date.

9. Luminary display

Discussion held regarding Miles of Lights luminary display in the neighborhood again this year. No date was decided upon but the time will be 6-9pm.  Lisa will send an e-mail to see what dates are best for residents.  Discussion held that we would still do the main streets and if there are more volunteers this year, we could expand to some side streets especially those streets or cul-de-sacs visible from the main streets.  Bags and sand will be donated.  We will need to have votive candles donated or purchased out of our budget. Discussion also held might be nice to do the same weekend as the Sherwood Oaks Christian Church drive thru nativity display.  Lisa will  check dates. Will be needing more volunteers for each street. And, if someone would like to volunteer to coordinate this entire project, that would be lovely. Be looking for emails on this topic.

10. Miscellaneous

Thanks to Bob Boch for the donation of SON meeting signs.  The dates and times of future meetings can be written on bottom of signs.

Discussion held about block parties.  Several attendees mentioned that some of the smaller streets or cul-de-sacs already have block parties.  Attendees were encouraged to organize block parties if interested.  Discussion held about possible ice cream social in SO park or potentially a 4th of July parade. Suggestion to involve neighbhorhood youth. 
Discussion held about a neighborhood wide garage sale, possibly to be coordinated with the Peppergrass garage sale. These items will be added to the next SON meeting agenda.

Reminder that we have a Neighborhood Watch program. Our neighborhood rep is Ceci Schrock (ccjones@iu.edu).

Discussion held that some older homes in SO may have aluminum wiring.  One resident recently upgraded to copper wiring and was advised by insurance agent that older homes with aluminum wiring may be not be able to be insured in future (in case of possible sale of home). 

Meeting adjourned at 8:10pm.

Brenda L. Ogborn

Work Complete on Jackson Creek/Linda's Way Connector Trail

Thanks to City of Bloomington Housing and Neighborhood Development Neighborhood Improvement Grant for helping to fund improvements to the trail through the woods connecting Linda's Way and Jackson Creek Trail roundabout. Thanks also to neighborhood Eagle Scout candidate Wes Clark, his family, & Scout troop for constructing new bridges and all the work yesterday clearing brush, spreading mulch, & installing the bridges. And, last but not least, thank you to all the volunteers who helped!

Volunteers needed to work at Sherwood Oaks Park Saturday, October 12th

This Saturday, Oct. 12, 9am-noon we can use volunteers to help with the final phase of work on the wooded trail from Linda's Way to the Jackson Creek Trail roundabout. Bloomington Parks Department will deliver new mulch for spreading and will haul material cleared from the trail; Boy Scouts will install new bridges. If you are able to help please meet at the trail and bring rakes, shovels, work gloves, clippers, and any other tools you may have for clearing out plants. Thanks!

Fall Meeting Announcement

Please mark your calendars for the next Sherwood Oaks Neighbors meeting: Monday, October 21st, 7:00pm, Sherwood Oaks Christian Church (Fireside Room--Door 20).  This will be an important planning meeting for the December Luminary display. We will also have updates on other neighborhood news. Hope you can make it!

September '13 update from the SON executive committee

Dear Neighbors,

The Sherwood Oaks Neighbors executive committee met last week to plan for this fall.  We discussed the following items, which will be on our fall neighborhood wide meeting agenda:

1) Jackson Creek Trail/Sherwood Oaks connector trail project: As you may know, this trail connects the Linda's Way cul de sac with Jackson creek Trail. Using funds SON received through the City's Neighborhood Improvement Grant program a handrail and new concrete pad have been installed by ABC Construction. It is now time for phase 2 of the project, which involves clearing overgrowth & debris, installing 5 additional boardwalks, and spreading mulch.  For this phase we have the very great fortune to have an Eagle Scout candidate, Wesley Clark, in the neighborhood. Wes, his dad Tom Clark, and his Boy Scout troop have volunteered to complete this phase of the project by mid-October.  If they find they need additional volunteers I will get the word out. So please stay tuned for announcements about that.  It's going to be beautiful. Thanks Wes!!

2) December Miles of Lights luminary display: To cover more of the neighborhood this year we, ideally, need a volunteer from each street or block. If you are willing to help with this project please e-mail sherwoodoaksneighbors@gmail.com.  We have a tentative date of Dec. 13th for this year's Miles of Lights but that's not set in stone. If you missed our first annual Miles of Lights last year you can see pictures here: http://sherwoodoaksneighbors.blogspot.com/2012/12/images-of-miles-of-lights.html

3) Greeting new neighbors: We talked about the need for reaching out to new folks moving into Sherwood Oaks to let them know about SON and just help them feel welcome.  We have magnets from the City of Bloomington with useful info for this very purpose, and we can also come up with a little SON brochure, etc.  As with the Miles of Lights it would be nice if we had block captains or something similar for this project. But, we'll happily take any volunteers we can get. If you are interested in reaching out to new neighbors please e-mail sherwoodoaksneighbors@gmail.com. 

We are looking at planning an October neighborhood wide meeting to discuss the above items. More on that soon. Thanks!

Happy Autumn (well, almost),

Lisa

Neighborhood Watch article in the HT (features SON)

Herald Times 

Thursday, July 18, 2013 

By Abby Tonsing 

Ceci Schrock does not arm herself with a gun and patrol the streets of Sherwood Oaks in her role as a volunteer for her neighborhood watch program.

Instead, she fields emails and questions from concerned neighbors and passes that information along to Bloomington Police Lt. Scott Oldham.

Recently, a neighbor emailed Schrock to report hearing the sound of people rummaging through recycling bins at 3 a.m.

She emailed that information to Oldham, who said he’d look into it.

“I definitely don’t patrol my neighborhood or anything like that,” the mother of two said. “I’m just forwarding things that neighbors are wondering about.”

The roles of neighborhood watches came into sharp public focus after George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain of a gated Sanford, Fla., community was acquitted Saturday in the February 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager.

Bloomington has its own neighborhood watches — ones that rely on communication between the public and police, who discourage roving patrols of volunteers.

Schrock, who works in media relations for Indiana University, has lived in the Sherwood Oaks neighborhood for four years. A few months ago, she decided she wanted to become more involved with her neighborhood association, become better acquainted with her neighbors and help build a sense of community.

Knowing your neighbors and instilling a sense of community belonging are the cornerstones of Bloomington’s neighborhood watch programs, Oldham said.

“Get to know your neighbor. From that, grows the safety,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday.

“We don’t encourage them to go out. The building block is to know your neighbor. What I need is people paying attention. If you see something, you need to call us. And we’ll take care of business,” he continued.

Oldham has served as the Bloomington Police Department’s neighborhood watch liaison since 2001. The Old Northeast Downtown, Highpoint and McDoel Gardens neighborhoods were among the first to show interest in establishing neighborhood watch programs.

Some neighborhood watch programs have come and gone over the years. Some have only been active for six months at a time. Other core neighborhoods have had watches from the very beginning.

Now, an estimated 20 neighborhoods and community groups have watch programs. Some of those groups, however, only contact Oldham once or twice a year.

Oldham and Vicki Provine, a program manager with the city’s Housing and Neighborhood Development, attend neighborhood association meetings and provide information about watch programs. Other members of the city’s police force and HAND attend the meetings, as needed.

Once a new watch group is established, Oldham gives his email address to one or two volunteer neighborhood liaisons. They can contact him about anything, from concerns about speeding cars to help answering questions for a child’s homework assignment.

The police will use a neighborhood watch as a means to check on someone who is recovering from surgery, to investigate possible drug activity or to inspect the unfamiliar car that’s been parked a few days.

Some weeks, Oldham will receive four or five emails or phone calls. Other weeks, he’ll get as few as two or as many as 30.

The neighborhood watch groups also give police a chance to meet the people they serve, and, has grown into a method of communication between the public and various city departments.

Still, Oldham makes it perfectly clear: Bloomington police do not encourage volunteers to go on roving patrols.

“Anything that makes you scared for your personal safety immediately, that becomes a 911 call,” Oldham said. “If it is something that is an annoyance, a quality of life issue, a question, that’s a neighborhood watch issue.”

Minutes of April 3, 2013 Meeting

Approximately twenty-five neighbors were in attendance at SON’s April 3, 2013, meeting at Faith Lutheran Church.  Thank you to Pastor Mitchell for allowing us to use space in the church, and thanks to those neighbors who attended. The meeting was chaired by Lisa Wrasse. Other executive committee members present were Bob Boch, Juan Carrasquel, Ellen Lyon & Brenda Ogborn.

Lisa started the meeting by announcing a vacancy on the SON executive committee, due to Seja Brumley’s  upcoming move. Lisa invited neighbors to consider joining the committee or helping SON by volunteering in other ways. Lisa circulated a sign up sheet and jar for dues and other contributions. 

Officer Scott Oldham, Bloomington Police Department, gave a thorough overview of Neighborhood Watch (NW) and crime prevention strategies, and entertained a number of questions from those in attendance. Scott indicated that the purpose of NW is to provide neighborhoods a liaison with the police department.  With NW, a neighborhood has  two designated contact people who funnel crime information or suspicious activity to the police.  Scott stressed that for “immediate” matters neighbors should call 911. NW is more for managing ongoing “quality of life” concerns such as suspicious activity & vehicles, speeding, etc .  Even seemingly minor things can be significant: Reporting unusual activity can in some cases allow police to “connect the dots” with crimes occurring throughout the city.  Concerning the several reports we’ve had about suspicious vehicles cruising in the neighborhood, Scott said these may well be unmarked police cars.  He said NW has been successful in about thirty diverse Bloomington neighborhoods. He remarked that there is very little crime in Sherwood Oaks but acknowledged that police make frequent runs to areas not far from us.  Scott offered the following tips on crime prevention:

1. Don’t open your door to solicitors.  Persistent solicitors can be asked to leave by the police because they are on private property.
2. The best crime deterrent is a dog.
3. Most burglaries occur between 2pm-6pm.
4. Installing motion lights can deter night time burglaries.
5. Keep your home and car doors locked.
6. Be cautious of keeping garage doors open.  Open garage doors allow direct access into your home and allow those driving by to see the contents of your garage.
7. If you are at home and an intruder enters, get out if you can.  Otherwise, call 911. Even if you dial 911 and drop the phone, police will track it and come to the home. This is true for cell phones as well as land lines. Although, some cell phone carriers are better at tracking than others. Scott remarked that AT&T is the best for tracking.

To set up NW we need to have two people in our neighborhood to collect and feed information to Scott. When our neighborhood representatives submit a concern, Scott will get back to them and refer them to the appropriate people as needed. Our reps will then report Scott’s response back to SON.

Following Scott’s talk Lisa asked for those in favor of establishing a SON Neighborhood Watch. Nearly all hands went up so the motion was passed.  After the meeting Ceci Schrock and Larry Raper volunteered to serve as the Sherwood Oaks I&II Neighborhood Watch representatives.  They will pursue getting this established with Scott.

Lisa gave a very brief presentation about our Neighborhood Improvement Grant application for the Linda's Way/Jackson Creek Trail Connector Path. She submitted the grant application to the city on March 22nd and will present the project to city for consideration on April 16th. If we get the grant we hope to do project in May/June and would appreciate lots of volunteers to spread mulch.  Lisa will keep in touch about the grant with SON via e-mail.

Bob Boch, SON treasurer, gave a report on the status of our funds.  SON currently has $154 and owes $47 of that to the city as our matching funds for the Small & Simple newsletter grant we received. Bob explained that we used the entire grant on the one newsletter and that any future printed newsletter will have to come out of SON funds.  [note: an additional $57 was collected at this meeting.]   

Bob also discussed the improvements to the SO sign at the entrance of Winslow Road and Allendale Drive.  Several residents spent approximately two hours last fall putting in new plants and mulch around the sign to make the entrance more attractive.  We are hoping to plant some flowers soon.  Anyone who can help keep this area in good shape, please talk to Bob or e-mail sherwoodoaksneighbors@gmail.com. Many thanks to Bob for his leadership and efforts on the newsletter and sign improvements.

There was a brief discussion regarding Brenda Ogborn and Bob Bob, both of whom have met with Crawford Apartments representatives. Both Brenda and Bob indicated that Crawford Apartments personnel were interested in and responsive to their concerns, even though not all questions could be answered at this time. Crawford Apartments are being built in the Restore parking lot, on Henderson. Crawford Apartments has included on its Advisory Committee representatives from surrounding neighborhoods. Bob is the Sherwood Oaks representative on the Crawford Apartments Advisory Committee. The complex will be completed late this summer with the first residents moving in sometime in the fall.  Bruce Ervin, a member of the Crawford House Board and a resident of Sherwood Oaks, also spoke.  Bruce explained that the complex will have twenty-five units available for one or two people (if married).  No sex offenders/violent offenders will be allowed to live there. Crawford residents must have been diagnosed with some type of disability and have had at least three periods of homelessness in the past four years.  This is not transitional housing; the residents can live there long term if there are not violations that could lead to eviction.  Bruce indicated that there are still many aspects of the process of application and rules for Crawford residents being worked out.

With spring storms on the horizon, Brenda informed the group that she contacted Duke Energy three years ago regarding the numerous power outages, especially in Sherwood Oaks II.  Four employees of Duke Energy met with Brenda regarding the problems that led to power outages and they reported that Duke has upgraded their equipment to help reduce power outages.  The Duke representatives also encouraged anyone experiencing a power outage to call their toll free outage number (1-800-343-3525) when an outage occurs. The more residents that call, the easier it is for Duke employees to locate exactly where they need to fix the outage.

At the close of the meeting Lisa thanked everyone and again mentioned the need for additional volunteers for the SON executive committee and various projects. A suggestion was made to circulate a list of volunteer roles to be filled, and Lisa agreed to send out a list via e-mail.

bunny update

The little fellow found in Sherwood Oaks Park on Good Friday is now available for adoption from Monroe County Humane Association. He was given the temporary name of Camouflage by two of his rescuers.**Please click this link to see Camouflage on petfinder.com**

Bunny found at Sherwood Oaks Park

A group of very kind strangers put their all into catching this stray pet bunny tonight at Sherwood Oaks Park. If you know where the bunny belongs please e-mail sherwoodoaksneighbors@gmail.com. Thanks!

volunteers needed!

I am currently working on our City of Bloomington Neighborhood Improvement Grant application for improvements on the trail connecting Linda's Way and Jackson Creek Park. This path through the woods provides an alternative route to walking down Elliston (which has no sidewalks). If the grant is approved, the Bloomington Parks Dept. will furnish as much mulch as we need. However, we need neighbors to commit, in advance of the grant approval, to volunteer to help spread the mulch. We have to have a certain number of volunteer hours pledged in order for our grant to be approved. If you would be willing to help with this project, we can definitely use all the help we can get. I think this will be fun and gratifying work, especially if we have lots of people. Please e-mail sherwoodoaksneighbors@gmail.com f you can help, and how many hours. Thank you.

Happy Spring Break!

Next meeting April 3, 2013

Please save the date for our next Sherwood Oaks Neighbors meeting. We will meet 7-9pm on Wednesday, April 3rd in classrooms A+B at Faith Lutheran Church (roughly across from Childs Elementary, on High Street).  Thank you to Pastor Mitchell who kindly invited us to use space in the church for our meeting. Top on our agenda for this meeting with be a presentation/question & answer session by Bloomington Police Department Officer Scott Oldham on the topic of Neighborhood Watch.  We will also discuss plans for two City of Bloomington grants in the works: 1) a 2013 Small & Simple grant to produce and mail a Sherwood Oaks Neighbors newsletter, 2) a Neighborhood Improvement grant to improve the path between Linda's Way and Jackson Creek Trail. Also, our Sherwood Oaks Neighbors executive committee  will present an overview of information learned at a March meeting with the Crawford Apartments Advisory Council. [Crawford Apartments are currently being constructed next to Habitat Restore and will house adults who struggle with homelessness.] Please see this link for more info on Crawford Apts.: http://indianaeconomicdigest.com/Main.asp?SectionID=31&SubSectionID=117&ArticleID=66476

Please e-mail additional items you'd like to see on the next agenda. Thanks!