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POLICE INITIATE NEW PROGRAM FOR SENIORS <br /> by Dave Vanaurldec, Police Chief Circle Pines - Lexington Police Department <br /> Law enforcement agencies throughout the nation have recognized something that the Circle Pines - <br /> Lexington Police Department has know for some time - Senior Citizens are a valuable community <br /> resource. <br /> Mr. Walt Neumann, a retire, former city council member from Centerville, has donated a half day per <br /> week at the Circle Pines - Lexington Police Department for the past several years. He performs a number <br /> of important functions within the agency - all as a volunteer. <br /> We're kicking off a new program targeted for our senior citizen population. The program is called <br /> TRIAD. Triad is a three -way partnership between the sheriff, local police chiefs and our senior citizens. <br /> We've known for years that many of our senior citizens are victims of crime or extremely fearful of <br /> becoming crime victims. Consumer fraud is one area in which our seniors are targeted and often seen <br /> as easy prey. Many senior citizens live alone and because of the fear of crime, seldom leave their home <br /> or apartment. In many cases they don't eat properly and their quality of life suffers. <br /> The TRIAD program is designed to remove the fear and reintegrate our seniors back into the community. <br /> An organizational committee will meet on July 8th for the purpose of further exploring this worthwhile <br /> program. Once the group is formed, they will essentially become self supporting, The group may plan <br /> an outing at a local shopping mall where they will travel as a group. This type of exercise will have a <br /> positive impact on their health. They will also meet on a regular basis with local police personnel to learn <br /> how they can reduce their chances of falling victim to crime. Instruction will be provided on consumer <br /> fraud, persona! protection, home security and similar. Perhaps they will all stop at a local grocery store <br /> and pick up their groceries for the week at the end of an outing. The possibilities are endless. <br /> Chief VanBurkleo went on to explain another important part of the program. Many of our senior citizens <br /> are retired, but that doesn't mean that they no longer are productive members of the community. We <br /> have retired teachers, police officers, housewives and similar within our communities, all of whom have <br /> life long skills that in many cases are not being used. Many seniors have a desire to contribute to their <br /> communities - Mr. Neumann is a fine example of this. I would love to have seniors helping me with <br /> vacation checks, school crossings and similar. Again, the possibilities are endless. <br /> Seniors who are interested in additional information on the TRIAD Program, are asked to contact Walt <br /> Neumann at the police department or Cindy Eiofson. Phone 784 -2501. <br /> Thank Yoq� <br /> We would like to give a BIG Thanks to Randy Hagerty for all his time and effort he put forth organizing <br /> and partaking in the Centerville City -Wide Garage Sale Days. Once again it was a big success. Thank <br /> you to all the residents who also made it happen. <br /> If you have any ideas for next year's event or would like to see something else please call City Hall and <br /> leave a message for Randy. Phone 429 -3232. <br /> Watermain Improvement Project <br /> We appreciate your patience during construction of the Watermain on Main Street, Progress and <br /> Westview. <br /> Senior Housing <br />