West Kittanning Residents Take a Stand Against Local Crime
The West Kittanning Borough Council holds their monthly meeting Monday June 1 at the West Kittanning Municipal Building.
By: Sarah Steighner
Residents took the opportunity to voice their concerns regarding crime in their community during the West Kittanning Borough Council meeting Monday evening.
Half-a-dozen residents talked about instances of crime that they had personally witnessed recently. Along with the reports of people running and screaming in the streets at late hours and ringing doorbells, most complaints seemed to have all happened on the evening of Sunday, May 24.
Numerous reports of West Kittanning residents hearing or seeing people lurking outside of their houses were reported.
Janice Reesman of Cleveland Street reported having heard someone outside of her house trying to break in.
The next day, Reesman realized that someone had instead broken into her car, emptying the glove compartment only to steal her phone charger.
Other residents reported hearing a loud explosion of some kind late that night.
Members of Borough Council heard out each complaint, and then recommended residents call the police immediately after such a situation.
In light of the recent vandalism and damage, the Borough announced that a rejuvenated Crime Watch meeting for the neighborhood will be held at 7PM June 11 at the West Kittanning Municipal Building (located at 229 Arthur St.).
Resident Mickey Langham, who is closely involved with the areas Crime Watch, was in attendance and reported that they were happy to have about 25 people in attendance at their last meeting.
She encouraged any local residents to attend the meeting and to become involved with the Crime Watch program. She offered her advice to residents facing the threat of local crime.
“Call 911. Keep your cars locked and if you have outside lights leave them on. Lights seem to deter people from coming over,” Langham said.
Langham stated that the West Kittanning Crime Watch was first started again about 12 years ago around the time her own house had been robbed. As of late, she recognized the increase in local crime.
In fact, in April, about six houses were vandalized with spray paint (one of which being Langham’s house). It was after this event, that Langham and other crime watch participants decided to become more proactive about instances of crime.
“That’s when we decided that through the summertime till maybe the first of November, we’re going to try and have meetings once a month; just to come in and talk, and let people know what’s going on in West Kittanning, because it’s a nice little community,” Langham said.
On top of the spray-painting vandalism, Langham explained that, with the end of school and beginning of summer, drugs and general nuisances in the area are also increasing.
In addition to the crime discussion, Borough Council members also extensively discussed public works’ issues, specifically clogged drainage pipes throughout the small municipality.
Due to not being properly maintained in years past, certain drains are either filled with sludge or possibly caved in at points thus causing areas to not be able to drain properly.
Council decided to tackle the issue by starting to fix the pipes sections at a time in locations where they are the worst, such as North Avenue.
Also during last night’s meeting Linda Olinger was appointed West Kittanning Borough’s primary representative for the Armstrong County Tax Collection Committee after a unanimous vote, while Carly Cowan - also known as the Borough secretary - was appointed as the alternate.
Local News | Sarah Steighner June 2, 2015
By Just sayin, June 3, 2015 @ 6:08 AM
Read older news Ford City comment (click “Ford City” on menu to right and go to bottom of page to click “older”) “Proactive Residents Sought for Crime Watch” from May 27,2015. I didn’t want to write it again. Please read.