Traffic and Safety Committee: November News

Guest lists—As we approach the holiday season, the
Securitas personnel who regularly staff our main gate have requested that we remind everyone to ensure that guest lists are current. Apparently, during the summer months many folks regularly modify their lists to allow for a fresh range of folks coming in to visit. As the weather cools, the lists are not updated and occasional summer guests remain on the list to the exclusion of regulars. Unfortunately, this leads to a good deal of frustration, some loss of composure, and delays in processing guests into the community.
A Few Thoughtful Words—Every month we have ten or more vehicles suffer severe tire damage while tailgating through the Cabrillo and Selva gates. Investigations invariably determine that the drivers of these vehicles were either service people or guests invited to our community and directed to these gates by GPS. The driver failed to read the signs and became frustrated and tried to tailgate another vehicle past the gate before the spikes popped up. Apparently, this is a tactic that is successful in some other communities. However, our system functions exactly as it should and does not allow for tailgating.
Giving guests or service providers a well-meaning word of caution and direction to the proper gate will save the indi- vidual the unnecessary expense of repairing their vehicles.
Crime in Community—On October 9, Lt. Kirsten Monteleone, Chief of Police Services for Dana Point, spoke to members of our community in the Clubhouse. During the Resident Roundtable forum, she explained the responsibili- ties of the twenty-four deputy personnel assigned under her command. I walked away with a better picture of the crime problems in Niguel Shores and Dana Point. Lt. Monteleone reported that thefts from unlocked vehicles is easily the num- ber one problem in both the city as well as our community. The message was simple and clear: Lock your doors and vehicles.
Coyotes!—At least one coyote has been seen this past month, but it is likely that individual is a member of a pack of several others. We are all aware that the animals are look- ing for easy pickings such as food being left outside and unse- cured. Other easy pickings would be small animals left outside while their humans remain inside. As our General Manager has mentioned in her current report in this issue, another source of nourishment and attraction for a hungry coyote is dog poop. According to experts, hungry coyotes are attracted to and will explore dog scat looking for undigested morsels of food.
Hopefully, by monitoring our pets, their food, and pick- ing up their waste we will make the community less attractive to predators and have healthier and safer neighborhoods.
—God Bless . . . Tim Murphy