Well last Thursday the people of area’s 1&2 were treated to the first Area Command meeting of 2014. One thing that is clear that this is one of the regularly scheduled public venues that gets a little bit better each and every time. One component recently added to these meetings are the police department education meetings. The first one I remember is last year they had the staff from dispatch come out and educate the community on what dispatch does, why dispatch operates the way it does & how you can help the dispatcher answer your call as quickly as possible.
This year the special presentation is on our Investigative Unit how it operates, who makes up the staff, what their prospective duties are and some frequently asked questions that everyone found interesting and helpful. Even Area Command Leader Lt Karol gave everyone useful tips to help minimize your vulnerability to identity theft. We were presented with information from the following people:
Mike Story (City Administrator) – Went over the Mayors first public Q&A event with city dept heads, various activities that took place at the end of 2013. Mike Story also went over The Rialto Institute of Progress an 8-week program that will be held from March 6th to April 24th. Sessions will be held at the Rialto Civic Center in the Council Chambers from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. After completion, the community members will have an increased understanding of Rialto’s organizational structure, of the operations of our City Departments, and how they impact the quality of life in the City of Rialto.
Shawn O’Connell (Councilman) – Councilman O’Connell addressed his accident and thanked everyone for their support and prayers. Councilman also spoke about the new City Attorney and congratulated everyone in the city for their efforts to help make Rialto a better place to live.
Detective Stella & Detective Farmer (Rialto Police) – These two gentlemen gave us a look into the Investigations Unit and helped the people in attendance better understand how and why the Detectives do what they do. Lt. Andy Karol gave us a mini education on steps you can take to better protect yourself from identity theft.
Amy Crow (Waste Management) – Amy went over the senior & disabled person discount for trash services. She also highlighted the park cleanup schedule and other services the city offers like shred fest.
Linda (Cert) – Linda one of the training volunteers came up to introduce the CERT program. CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Training. The idea behind CERT and the importance of the program is in the event of a natural disaster EMS services will be primarily diverted to Schools & Hospitals leaving the communities on their own for up to 72 hours. CERT teaches you basic life saving skills and ways to gain shelter and safety as a Neighborhood unit.
Cpl. Cameron Nelson (Rialto Police) – Cpl. Nelson is the community liason officer for Rialto Police and came up to highlight some up coming programs. First was Golf With A Cop which gives kids ages 10-17 the opportunity to learn golf from a PGA player and other top notch golf instructors. An added benefit is if kids can hold a specific GPA they can play for free at Colton Golf Course all year long. Second was Fuel for Success a effort to get at risk kids to find the importance of staying in school and striving for excellence. The 2014 program will be held at Eisenhower High and will follow the look and feel of Rialto Police highly successful National Night Out program. The final presentation was on the Pride Platoon program that takes troubled, at risk or youth without direction and give them a program that is used to put them on the right track and give them needed tools for success in life. This program has been awarded multiple programs and cited as helping reduce our youth crime in the city of rialto.
Lt. Andy Karol (Rialto Police) – Lt Karol gave us a break down of some of the events that happened over 2013. He also showed us crime data that shows even though crime in California has increased crime in Rialto has decreased by 20%. He also introduced the Next Door Virtual Neighborhood Watch program. Next Door was created by venture capitalists to help communities connect in the biggest way we interact today via technology. Next Door is a FREE program and helps those communities where we don’t know our neighbors to connect. To sign up for Next door or learn more about it visit https://nextdoor.com/
Lt Kathy Thompson (Rialto Police) – Lt Thompson came up to introduce the public to the Police Community Program where residents are introduced to the inner workings of the police department and given a mini education into the job of a police department. As a former attendee of this and other similar classes with cities like Redlands, San Bernardino and the County of San Bernardino this program is top notch and gives you a awesome perspective on what our police do and how they do it.
The Area Command meetings are a vital tool in empowering the Rialto community to take a proactive role in helping make Rialto a great place to live, work & play. The information given at these meetings goes well beyond the presentations its extended to the wealth of information in the manner of the many flyers and printed materials available as well as the ability to talk 1-1 with people that help you with any given situation, problem or question.
If you missed this meeting your in luck there is another one coming up on Monday February 3rd at Calvary Chapel Rialto on the corner of Merrill and Cedar at 7pm. This meeting is geared towards the lower half of the city areas 3 & 4 (everything south of foothill) but anyone is welcome to come. Here are some flyers for your reference:
Join us this Saturday January 25, 2014 for one of the many stops of The Beautiful Mess Tour. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. All ages & free admission! so bring everyone!!! We’d love for you to come hang out. Performances by Du2ce, TraXX, and Nation of Salvation. Hope to see you there. God bless!!!
The very successful Area Command meetings are back with a ever so slight tweak. Instead of having four meetings they have combined two areas and made two meetings. When Area Commanders were asked about this change it was done this way to kick off the program and brings the areas together as they introduce a new Virtual Neighborhood Watch Program and other items better given to large groups. This combining of groups should benefit the community because people benefit from hearing other community members concerns.
Some things to expect at the first meeting of 2014 are:
Introduction of the Next Door virtual neighborhood watch program.
Access to city department heads like City Administrator Mike Story.
Receive up-to-date crime stats for the area in question.
Network with other concerned residents and find solutions to ongoing and prior problems.
Browse through the large amount of flyers and resources available via our city, police & fire departments.
This is an ongoing successful program run by dedicated professionals that care about the city and want to see positive forward movement in the city of Rialto.
For more information please refer to the flyer and the prospective area commander or go to www.rialtopd.com
Welcome everyone to 2014 lets start it off with a massive council meeting! Tonight the city council will address among other things the cities first quarter budget, items with the closure of the Airport and weather to replace the City Attorney Jimmy Gutierrez or keep him. The city attorney issue was supposed to be dealt with in 2013 but with allegiances forming on one side or another and the tragic accident of Councilman Shawn O’Connell this issue was pushed into January.
Reading Councilman O’Connell’s twitter account it doesn’t appear that their will be an easy choice.
“Still recovering but will be attending tonight’s City Council meeting. Hopefully the city attorney position will be decided tonight.”
With so many important decisions being made today many local community groups and organizations are looking to drive home the importance of the community getting involved and learning more about what is going on in their city government.
If you can’t attend you can follow along with us as we tweet out the hot topics via twitter just follow www.tiatter.com/rialtosnow we tweet it under the hashtag #RialtoCityCouncil
Today the residents of the city of Rialto were treated to a friendly game of Broomball. It was a Battle of the Badges that will go down in history. Rialto Fire Department was keeping the police department at bay staying one point ahead with aggressive offensive play and good ice. After the second period was over the heat of the 80 degree day finally made the ice the great equalizer. Portions of the ice became super slick and both teams players found the ice difficult to maneuver on.
Rialto Police re-grouped and began using a new strategy of keeping a player back on defense to help stop any Fire Department fast breaks. In the end Rialto Police found the energy and stamina to over come the Fire Department by a score of 7-6. Both sides were equally represented in the stands with fans of both agencies showing up to route on their team. The stands filled up so much that additional bleachers needed to be brought in to offer everyone a seat.
Mike Story acted as master of ceremonies welcoming everyone and letting the crowd know that they could skate after the game for half price. Towards the end of the game Mayor Robertson showed up and was excited to see both public safety agencies giving our community such a great show. The residents were happy to see so many changes in the city and looked forward to more in 2014. One resident Debbie said she loved the addition of the ice rink and community events it helps bring positive people into the city and make it a good place to live.
The only casualty in this battle of the badges match were the brooms. Ton of brooms were broken damaged or even destroyed. Rialto Fire brought out a push broom but were warned by the referees that a push broom was not acceptable. Oh did we forget to highlight our refs for this game, none other than Fire Chief Fratus & Police Chief Farrar. I have to say both refs had fun and looked like they enjoyed laying down a little law on their employees within the game.
Don’t Miss the next Battle of the Badges in the annual Blood Drive, last year Rialto PD won.
So who likes a friendly yet competitive game between the Fire Department and Police Department? Well tomorrow from noon to two PM these two public safety agencies will go head to head in a little game of broomball. Don’t forget the holiday ice skating rink is only here through January 5th.
Well we tried. We reached out to every bar and restaurant in the City of Rialto and nobody responded so if your looking to stay close to home and you live here in Rialto this sounds like a great bet. If your into traveling to a neighboring city visit www.inlandempireexplorer.com for some other great ideas.
Also Rialto Police Department has put out a flyer on the Tipsy Tow program put on by AAA. Simply call 1-800-400-4AAA and get a free Tow to your LOCAL Home.
rialtonow 