Overall
- Developed and deployed the new HSS Community Blog (http://fhahss.blogspot.com/), a convenient one-stop on-line village health, safety, and security information center. Explore the top and right side menu tabs to find a wide variety of community health and safety information, ranging from emergency preparedness, village road safety, the AED machine located in The Gathering place, and much more. By entering you email address in a box on the right side menu, you can also easily subscribe to receive any new content as it is posted.
- In the absence of a 2016 board member overseeing Community Affairs, and as part of the on-going partnership with the FHA GREEN SCENE program, I oversaw the Annual 4-in-1 Spring (May) Community Recycling Event and the Annual 3-in-1 Fall (October) Community Recycling Event the provided for village and Galloway Ridge residents. Reports on the collected weights and measures were posted on the HSS blog. In 2017, these two events will be managed by the incoming FHA Community Affairs Director.
- Authored and posted (on the HSS blog and several on the front page of the FHA website) articles on: "Fearrington-Galloway Ridge Drinking Water Quality," "Mosquito Control in the Village,” “Community Health Advisory” (on snakes), “Health Hazards: Please Don't Feed the Deer -- Commonly Mistaken Kindness,” “New Light on Deer-Borne Tick Lyme Disease,” and “What To Do and Not Do Around Downed Power Lines.”
- Partnered with Fearrington Cares, which organized a series of Automated External Defibrillator (AED)/CPR, which were held in The Gathering Place in December, February, and March.
- Worked with Fearrington Cares and Dr. James Jollis (noted cardiac surgeon based at REX Healthcare North Carolina Heart & Vascular Hospital, who has developed an innovative short By-Stander AED training course) to try to schedule some training sessions for village residents in early 2017, based on this new model.
- Participated in the fall 2016 Fearrington Cares Health Expo at the Fearrington Barn to distribute the FILE OF LIFE magnetic sleeve and information card, the FHA Voluntary Emergency Contact Registration Form, Emergency Preparedness information, and to assist the North Chatham Fire Department in their promotion of the Residential KNOX® Lock Box as an important, recommended home safety feature.
- Authored and posted (on the HSS blog and several on the front page of the FHA website) articles on: “No Bicycles on Our Path, Trails, and Sidewalks,” “Important NC Traffic Laws Applicable to Bicyclists and Motorists (Two Parts),” The NC Laws Governing Pedestrians and Vehicles” on state roads (we have 54 of those in the village), Roads and Safety Issues in the Village,” “The New Stop Sign at the Top of South Langdon,” Traffic on Benchmark,” Continuing Reports of Hazardous Traffic Incidents at the Weathersfield & 15/501 Intersection,” and “Sign Up to Receive Village Emergency Notifications.”
- Spoke with and wrote to NC state Rep. Robert Reives to request that he work with legislative colleagues to build interest in sponsoring legislation requiring auto insurance discounts for driver education refresher classes, as an investment in personal and public safety and as an incentive for residents to take a senior driver refresher course in order to receive a discount on their auto insurance.
- Worked with the then-coordinating Community Officer from the Chatham County Sheriff’s Department and with the thoughtful, generous offers of assistance from 15 village residents and Ken Duvall at C.A.R.S., to coordinate a successful resolution and removal of a private (non-resident) vehicle that had broken down and remained on the side of Millcroft Road for 14 days in January.
- Worked with our regional NCDOT road and traffic engineers to secure a re-confirmation of their decision for the location and configuration of the traffic signage at the intersection of South Langdon, Bradford Place, and Henderson Place, which is now a controlled intersection.
- Requested the FHA Board to consider the nature of communication fragmentation between the FHA, NCDOT, and some service groups, especially as related to road safety matters (and sometime road maintenance matters), which should be coordinated through the FHA, rather than be fragmented across a range of different service groups acting on their own.
- Reactivated the location for our modern traffic monitor on the Beechmast loop to be included in our monitor deployment rotation cycle.
- Conducted a three-month village traffic survey and speed study and published a report based on an analysis of aggregated raw data supplied remotely by the newer of our two FHA monitors at locations on five of our prime state secondary roads (our so-called “arterials” — Weathersfield, Village Way, East Camden, Millcroft, and Creekwood). This report was referenced several times in the FHA Newsletter and was posted on our HSS blog, where it can still be found as a featured posting.
- Based on the analysis covered in that traffic study report, met several times with our designated Community Service Sheriff's Deputies to discuss our options for calming truly excessive speeds (the “outlier” range > 40-45 mph) on our 5 monitored “arterials." This involved the placement of the department’s decoy vehicle (which is cycled to communities across portions of the county)—a consciousness raising method—at two problematic locations and several visits by officers to monitor speeds. Annemarie Riether (the next HSS Director) and I will be meeting with them again in December.
- Prepared and sent a report to NCDOT traffic engineers requesting the embellishment of the then-rather inconspicuous and unsafe Weathersfield pedestrian crosswalk connecting West Camden and Speyside Close (the only crosswalk connecting Fearrington Village with Galloway Ridge). In late July, following the repaving of Weathersfield between 15/501 and the four-way stop with East Camden, this crosswalk received more obvious crosswalk striping.
