Sargent Scalla from the OKC Police Department spoke first.  He said the #1 way to keep our neighborhood safe is for everyone to know our neighbors and to look out for each other.  Social events through the HOA are very important to foster this.  The second most important thing is environmental design for homes to protect against crime; specifically, keeping vegetation in front of windows to less than 24 inches and trees in our yard to less than 6 feet.  Blocked windows from this cause a big issue with crime.  Use LED lighting in the most vulnerable areas of your house, including the front porch, the outside side door that leads into your garage, and the backyard.  Motion detector lights also work well there. Alarm systems and cameras are important.  Signs that notify those are in place are good.  Dogs are a good deterrent to thieves. Document all the serial numbers of the items in your home, and don’t keep valuables in your master bedroom closet. Tell your trusted neighbors when you will be out of town so they may watch your house, and don’t post vacation pictures on social media while you are gone. Thieves use a selection process for break ins, and they look for the above items. For car break ins, the most important things are to not leave anything valuable in your car, especially at night, and to lock your car.  For personal safety, have a plan of what to do if someone breaks in while you are home.  The best thing to do is to run out the opposite door that someone is breaking into and run to a safe place while calling 911.  Shoot only as a last result. If you hear a neighbor being physically assaulted, yell at the person to stop as you are calling 911. Don’t open your door to strangers; use your glass door, and talk to them through it.  Make sure your house numbers are on the front of the house above the garage door in a contrasting color and lit at night and also sprayed on the curb.  Call 911 ANYTIME you feel your own or our neighborhood safety and security is in peril. This doesn’t have to be just for “bad guys,” but it can be if there are hazards in the street, teenagers violating curfew and/or being loud, or other issues that might cause personal or property harm.  The police are fine for people to call 911 anytime they have a concern.  Just tell them it’s not an emergency from the beginning of the call so they know, if it’s not a true emergency.  Call or email the City Action Line for code violations.  Sargent Scalla said that our neighborhood is extremely safe. We have limited street access into and out of our neighborhood, we have a lot of neighbors who walk around the neighborhood for exercise, and we watch out for each other.  A couple of things that he recommended that we do are to install street sign toppers to the street signs in our addition and to continue to have HOA social events.

The rest of the meeting was a general meeting.  The HOA is having a Work Day at the Western entrance of the neighborhood at 8am on October 12.  Please come out to help clean up the flower beds and trim some trees.  We had our landscaper trim the biggest trees, so only the smaller ones need to be done (note that we don’t pay our landscaper to do much with the flower beds because of budget restraints; he does what we pay him for). Immediately after, the Decorating Committee will be decorating the entrance for Fall, and they need donations of any outdoor Fall decor you might like to donate.  Contact Dana at whitmarshdavid@att.net. Our next event after that will be the Christmas Come and Go Open House at 1205 NW 199th from 2-4 on December 8.  Santa will be there for photos, so bring your kids/pets/self for that.  Goodies will be served, and it will be a fun way to meet your neighbors!  We will then have a HOA Meeting/Social in late January.

The Yard of the Month has been very popular and successful since we began it in May.  We have one more Yard of the Month in October and then a Yard of the Month for Holiday Displays in December. The recipient of the Yard of the Month gets to choose the winner for the next month, and they have all said it has been extremely difficult to narrow it down to one home each month.  That’s a good problem to have!  That shows that our neighbors take pride in home ownership, and the yards show it.

The Treasurer report shows a beginning balance of $5212.88 on 5/1/19, normal expenses of $3836.36 since then (including payments for landscaping, utilities, postbox, social events, sprinkler repairs, and tree trimming), dues and donations of $105, and an ending balance on 9/16/19 of $1481.52. The rest of 2019 expenses should be fairly low.  We do plan to look into buying a new neighborhood watch sign for the entrance, a sign for the north end of Lariat regarding ballfield parking, etc., a new garage sale banner, and the sign toppers the police recommended. We are also looking into having a section of the website dedicated to neighbor recommendations for vendors; something like the app Nextdoor, except all in one place and specific to our neighborhood.

The new neighborhood directories were printed and delivered a couple of weeks ago.  They are current as of that date.  If you didn’t get one or you have a correction, please email danforthfarmshoa@gmail.com.  We have about 92% of the emails for the neighborhood, which is phenomenal and helps with speedy and efficient communication. If we don’t have yours, please email the above email.  The website and our Facebook page are always being updated with upcoming events and information, so please check those out, too.