It's YOUR Boat Landing... A Security Report for 2008 to Date Posted on 1 October 2008 at 13:50:22
by Rick Stanton
Did
you know that Madere’s Landing is MY your When we EACH start viewing Madere's
Landing as "My Landing " then something wonderful happens... we
start caring for and protecting the most valuable asset we have in Cooper
Estates, second only to our homes! That results in a cleaner, safer and
more desirable place to take our family, friends and relatives. We pick up that
piece of trash someone else left behind, we don't look the other way when when
others create an unsafe environment or any situation that would cause caring
parents to have to leave the landing with their children. The automatic gate and fence have
been in operation for almost 2 1/2 years now. This has all but eliminated the
rampant vandalism that once existed. I believe it has also created a much safer
place by greatly decreasing the percentage of vehicles and people who are not
CECC Members or accompanied by a CECC Member. SECURITY REPORT
A
year ago in the Summer of 2007, on
more than one occasion, we had a man who was very large in stature & very
intimidating, who upon returning to the landing after a day of boating and
excessive drinking, used extremely foul language and behaved in a very
disorderly fashion. He did this not only in the presence of ladies who he did
not know, but directed it towards them. It took a few days to determine who the
individual was and it turned out that he did not even live in Cooper Estates.
He had paid a legitimate resident to purchase a membership and give him the
access card which we deactivated immediately. and when he was returning to
landing and saw , he went to the public ramp across the creek to take his boat
out. The Police were called and we placed a trespass notice on him.
So
far in 2008, we have had only 2 major concerns and both have all been
resolved...
1. At the beginning of the year, before
the new sod was installed, we had an instance where someone entered the landing
at 1AM and did spin outs tearing up the grass in the parking area. Using
pictures from the camera at the gate (which automatically records vehicles
& pedestrians that enter or leave the landing), we were able to identify
the individual (who who was surprisingly was a grown man in his 30's) and
confront him. His gate card was deactivated and I can assure you he is very
unlikely to make the same mistake again.
2. Last month, we had an event with a
individual who lives in the townhouses on Cottingham Drive and he did not have
a membership with CECC. He was launching his rather large boat at the public
landing across the creek and would come to our dock and tie his boat up. He
would then take his bike out of the boat and ride home. He not only docked his
boat where he shouldn't have, but he tied it up right in the middle of the
floating dock on the channel side which prevented anyone from using the dock at
all! He did not leave his boat for an hour or two, he left the it there
overnight on Labor Day Weekend! The Police were called to place him on a
trespass notice and I moved his boat and left notices telling him to remove his
boat and that he was on a trespass notice. Guess What? He was back in a week
and luckily a member called to report the situation, I went down and confronted
the man, verified that he did not have a membership or even knew a member and
told him to immediately remove his boat or we would call the Police. He
complied and we have not seen him since.
We do not
want to ever get to a state where we have to worry or watch for the "Boat
Landing Nazis"... that's not going to happen if I have any say... But,
it's YOUR landing, if you witness events similar to the ones above, at a
minimum please make a phone call to one of the committee members... We have a wonderful, beautiful and a
safe landing but we all have to be involved to keep it that way!