Community Meeting

31 -August-2011
   The Bogota Police Dept. had the first, of what is hope to become, quarterly  community forums a the Bogota High school Auditorium last night. It was a small,but attentive crowd of about a few dozen resident. The forum was lead by Sgt, Craig Lynch, along with Councilman Tito Jackson and address a number of topics. It started with reaction to the Boroughs response to last weekend hurricane. The Dept. wanted to thank the residents for their cooperation, as well as members of the audience talking about how the Police ,and other emergence services handled the situation. There were suggestions from both sides about how things can improve for future events.
    Next Chief John Burke talked about the new parking rules for the Borough ,that will be at Midnight on 1-Sept-2011. They are a no Street parking from 3:00a to 5:00a on all streets (except as posted) this is different from the old law because it is a straight forward time. The old law was 3hr time frame from 11:00p to 6:00a, which was open to interpretation.  There are times from a resident to ask permission from the Dept. to park on the street. Those are - Out of town visitors, Construction at the residence, or A family emergency. The permission request must come after 7:00p and before 3:00a  Chief Burke said that the new law would allow for a more efficient cleaning of the Borough street, better access for emergency vehicle, and a better way for the Police to monitor the Borough's streets. This also allowed Chief Burke to show the Nixle system that the police use to get information to the public.
    Afterwards Det. Geoffrey Cole spoke on the types of activities that the Police dept. has investigated during the last several months. Det. Cole also talked about how some common sense thinking will help the residents stay safe. And that any thing that is out of the ordinary should be reported to the Police so they could be looked into.
    Finally Sgt Lynch, along with Anna Ferris talked about a highly successful  first year of the Emergency Services Youth Academy. Several of the top students where in attendance, and were ask to share their experiences. Cindy Perpepaj was again honoured as the top cadet.
    Sgt Lynch opened the meeting up to general question, which there were few of because question were asked and answered through out the entire Forum.  

Sgt. Craig Lynch leading the Community Forum.

Councilman Tito Jackson talking about the Borough's response to Hurricane Irene.

Chief John Burke showing how to sign-up for the Nixle  web site.

Anna Ferris with some of the Graduates of the Emergency Services Youth Academy.