Trail Of Lights Volunteers Needed

The City of Austin needs volunteers to help host the 40th annual Trail of Lights Festival in Zilker Park the nights of December 11-23, 2005. Volunteers add holiday spirit to the Trail of Lights by greeting visitors and answering basic questions, as well as monitoring displays and other important trail duties.

This is a great group project! Neighbors in Castlewood-Oak Valley can be a part of the largest community block party in the city. It is also a time to welcome visitors from all over the state to our city's holiday celebration. Here is volunteer information:

A minimum of 10 and a maximum of 80 volunteers per organization can serve as trail monitors and hosts for an evening. Volunteers are hosts for the evening and their organization's name will be displayed at the Trail of Lights from 5:45 to 10:15 p.m. Organizations will provide one liaison to work with the Austin Parks and Recreation Department to assist with communications between Parks & Rec and their organization.

For more information or to volunteer, contact:
Victor L. Davis, Volunteer Coordinator
Victor.Davis@ci.austin.tx.us
Phone: 512-974-7859

There has been a request to repost the COVNA Email List guidelines. These have been and remain general on purpose because I believe that, with a bit of fine tuning now and then, the email group will continue to operate smoothly to the benefit of our neighborhood without a bunch of specific rules.

“This forum can be used to alert people or express concerns about neighborhood, area, or city-wide issues. Subscribers will also be able to share experiences, recipes, pictures, etc. Posting excessively will be discouraged and this will not be a forum for discussing political viewpoints or supporting candidates. Questions? Call me at 280-4080.”

This month’s installment will cover what to do if you’ve had your credit cards stolen or you have become a victim of identity theft. Before we go there, a way to ease the pain of a lost pocketbook or wallet is to know what important documents you’ve lost when it’s gone. Use a copy machine or create a list of the cards and documents you carry, recording the bank, card number, expiration date, and, for convenience, the contact numbers of the institutions for credit and debit cards, to make reporting the loss easier.

If you lose credit or debit cards, contact the issuing institutions immediately (using those numbers you conveniently copied). They will issue new cards for those accounts. If you suspect you are a victim of identity theft, the Federal Trade Commission suggests taking four steps as soon as possible.

1. Contact any of the three consumer reporting companies–Equifax: 1-800-525-6285, Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742), or TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289 to place a fraud alert on your credit report. The company you call is required to contact the other two, which will place an alert on their versions of your report, too. Review your credit reports.

2. Close accounts you know, or believe, have been tampered with or opened fraudulently. Call someone in the security or fraud department of each company. Follow up in writing, and include copies (NOT originals) of supporting documents.

3. File a report with your local police or the police in the community where the identity theft took place and get a copy of the police report. It can help you deal with creditors who need proof of the crime.

4. File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. By sharing your identity theft complaint with the FTC, you will provide important information that can help law enforcement officials across the nation track down identity thieves and stop them. You can file a complaint online at www.consumer.gov/idtheft or call the FTC’s Identity Theft Hotline, toll-free: 1-877-ID-THEFT (438-4338).

For much more detail about responding to identity theft, visit www.usdoj.gov/criminal/fraud/idtheft.html
and www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/idtheftmini.htm

Starting this month, crime statistics will be posted periodically.
Officer Rodriguez, our area representative at the APD Southwest Command, has emphasized that we have to be watchful of our property.

Here are crime statistics for January through August 2005. These are gross numbers from the SW Command area and many come from commercial areas and high density apartment complexes.

As for Castlewood-Oak Valley, during the same period, the crime statistics were as follows:

Rapes Robbery Aggravated Assault Burglary Theft Motor Vehicle Theft Arson 26 51 108 703 3,296 197 10

Aslt By Contact Fam/Dating Vio Assault By Contact Assault W/Injury-Fam/Date Viol Assault With Injury Auto Theft Burglary Non Residence Burglary Of Residence Burglary Of Veh Criminal Mischief Family Disturbance Poss Marijuana Theft 1 1 3 1 1 1 6 4 6 10 2 3

To lessen your chance of losing your valuables consider the following. Too many home burglaries happen when doors are unlocked and/or the garage door is open. This includes outbuildings and storage sheds. The thieves just walk in. Many people are leaving attractive objects in the seats of their automobiles, such as purses, cell phones, shopping bags, lap top computers, etc. This invites trouble.