(3/2015) At the January Carroll Valley Borough Council meeting, Chief of Police Richard L. Hileman gave his 2014 annual Police Report. He reported the Department responded to 2,516 calls for service in 2014 which represents a 3.1% increase over 2013. Calls for service are incidents requiring a police response and do not include vehicle stops or other routine duties. The 2,516 calls for service resulted in 204 Uniform Crime Reports or UCRs. An UCR is a crime as defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and categorized into Part 1 and Part 2 Offenses. Part 1 are homicide, forcible rape, robbery, assault, burglary, theft, and arson. Part 2 are everything else except traffic offenses like stop signs or speeding. Part 1 offenses decreased about 21% and Part 2 offenses decreased about 5%.

Ignoring seasonal ski thefts, crime decreased 11% overall. How safe are we? As explained by Chief Hileman, the state-wide rural crime rate for 2013 was 18 Part 1 and 39 part 2 per 1,000 residents. Carroll Valley’s 2014 Part 1 is 15 crimes per 1,000 or 16% less and Part 2 is 24 crimes per 1,000 or 39% less. In 2014, we had 31% less crime overall than similar rural areas in the state did in 2013. As far as Traffic and Ordinance Citations, the Police Department issued 700 traffic, non-traffic and ordinance citations including 293 for speeding, 446 for other traffic, 3 for ordinances and 15 criminal violations. To view the video of the Chief Hileman’s presentation, enter following address in your browser: https://vimeo.com/117337115

At the last Council meeting, council member Ken Lundberg was elected president of council while Dan Patton was reelected as vice president. Prior to the council election process, Sarah Skoczen was selected from a list of four candidates to fill the vacant council member seat left by John Van Volkenburgh’s resignation. Congratulations go to Sarah. John resigned from council because he plans to leave the borough in the near future for Texas to accept a new position within his company. It was a pleasure to read the citation on the Certificate of Appreciation for his outstanding leadership, dedication and service to the residents of Carroll Valley while he served as President of Council. Unfortunately, John could not attend the council meeting because of work. The certificate was delivered to his residence the following day.

If you missed it, you really missed a special evening. The Daddy – Daughter Sweetheart Dance organized by the July 4th (J4) committee to raise funds for the fireworks was a total success. Over 250 people were in attendance. Heartfelt thanks go to the volunteers and the two primary event organizers: Gayle Marthers and Jeni Jarrell. Gayle and Jeni were helped by a number of volunteers who welcomed the guests, cooked the food and served the delicious desserts. Thank you all. If you are interested in viewing the pictures, go to www.ronspictures.net and click the Sweetheart Dance – 2015 picture gallery.

I do have some sad news. The Carroll Valley Citizens Association (CVCA) is planning to close its doors and dissolve this year. For those who are not aware of the significance of CVCA to the history of Carroll Valley, let me just say that the Borough’s creation on September 30th, 1974 was a direct result of the sustained action by CVCA. Over 1,000 CVCA members, which represented about one-fourth of the home owners in the defunct Charnita, Inc. development, petitioned the Pennsylvania government to become a borough. It is my understanding that a Celebration and Farewell party will be held sometime later in 2015. An update on the new building project: the architect is preparing the design specifications and the grant has been completed and submitted to Harrisburg.

The Borough will be holding the following meetings in March: Planning Commission (Mar 2nd); Public Safety Committee (Mar 9th); Borough Council (Mar 10th); Water Authority (Mar 23rd) and Parks and Recreation Committee (Mar 25th). If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me by email at MayorRonHarris@comcast.net or by cell at 301-606-2021.