A few different constituents have approached members of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee with concerns, specifically about an area of Fifth Street that is seeing a lot of accidents.

“I have a concern from a resident who lives on Fifth Street, as you come off of Fairmount Street Bridge and come up over to come onto Fifth Street,” said Regina Brackman, D-Ward 3 and council president. “He’s just really saying that there seems to be a lot of accidents. He seems to be getting awakened in the middle of the night by police to see if he has camera footage.”

Brackman said he has a blind driveway with a sign as well, and that he is wondering if there is something that can be done as far as a possible speed limit change. Even on the night of the meeting, Brackman said she drove by that way and there was a car right behind her in that area. Additionally, she said this constituent said there has been at least three or four times he has been asked for camera footage in the last month because of accidents there.

Interim Police Chief Scott Forster said he would look into how many accidents there have been and what the causes were.

A city resident has expressed concerns about this area of Fifth Street, saying there are several traffic accidents in the area. P-J photo by John Whittaker

Councilwoman Hannah Jaroszynski, D-Ward 5, brought up the possibility of someone establishing a Neighborhood Watch in the Linden Avenue area, as she said she has had multiple calls from a woman about it.

“She said she wants to establish some sort of Neighborhood Watch, with like the National Night Out Organization, which I know from my dad being dealt with in Falconer a little bit,” Jaroszynski said. “But it’s basically just a better relationship between public and police.”

Jaroszynski added she had asked the woman to come to the public safety meeting since she knew both she and Forster would be there, but the woman was unable to come. Forster said he had talked to the woman before and would call her again, adding that the police department does have packets of information on how to start a Neighborhood Watch if anyone is interested in starting their own.

It was noted that not too many if any exist in the city anymore due to some people passing away or other reasons.

“It kind of waned over the last several years just because of social media and other things, it’s just different,” Councilman Tony Dolce, R-Ward 2 and chair of the Public Safety Committee, said.

He added that what usually happens with Neighborhood Watches is that it starts with an issue that gets people interested and then people move or slowly lose interest. Brackman added that sometimes there is a worry about retaliation.

It was noted that in some neighborhoods where there are more rental properties people are not as invested as they tend to move.

Jaroszynski said that for this specific woman there has been an increase in foot traffic in her area as well, and Forster said he would reach out.

One other constituent concern was brought to Dolce through email about alternate parking and enforcement. The committee briefly discussed how there has been no big changes seen since the changes to alternate parking were made, and that there is no right time to make the change that works for everyone. It was added that these changes are important not just for plows but for emergency services vehicles as well.