Finneytown Housing Block Watch - October 2009 Report
By Jim Golan

What is Housing Block Watch? It is simply a network of Finneytown residents looking
for signs of housing distress, and directing this information to Springfield Township for
corrective action. Block Watchers add eyes and ears in a timely manner.

The first issue of the complete data base (379 lines) and its Hot List distillation (41 lines)
was forwarded to Chris Gilbert, Springfield Township, on October 3. Seven of the nine
Hot List properties were already underway in the Property Maintenance process.

We continue to seek more Watchers. Some of our Watchers are doing “double duty”
on a temporary basis. Call Jim Golan to discuss zone assignments (522-8075). Once
the initial scan has been completed, the monthly check-up takes an hour by auto.

Finneytown Housing Block Watch
By Jim Golan

The Finneytown Civic Association launched this new initiative at the General Meeting
on June 21, 2009. Look for the Waycross video on this most informative meeting, which
featured an excellent view of Ohio financial straits by State Senator Bill Seitz.

What is Housing Block Watch? It is simply a network of Finneytown residents looking
for signs of housing distress, and directing this information via e-mail to Springfield
Township for corrective action.

How is distress defined? It is those visual signs which would cause its neighbor to
lose resale value. The visual signs include vacancy, overgrown grass and plants, mailbox
unattended, peeling paint, roof problems and suspicious activity.

Why launch this initiative when Springfield Township already has a Police Department
and Property Maintenance Code enforcement? Springfield Township is a far-flung township
with stretched human resources. Block Watchers add eyes and ears in a timely manner.

Block Watchers agree to monitor certain streets at least monthly. The watching can be
walking or "windshield" (by auto). The streets monitored could be nearby or reachable by
auto. The data is then entered into a spreadsheet, and forwarded to Chris Auffrey for
analysis before forwarding to Chris Gilbert at Springfield Township.

A Register of Watchers is made available broadly with two objectives. To let prospective
Watchers know which streets are not yet spoken for. To let the public know Finneytown
residents will not sit by as housing falls into distress.

What is needed now? Watchers! Three residents volunteered at the June 21 meeting,
and signed up for perhaps 10% of the streets. We need to cover the remaining 90%.
Prospective Watchers should contact Jim Golan, 522-8075, jgolan1@cinci.rr.com.