Village Preps

[CharlesHarris]

Where I am in West Virginia, US, we use Neighborhood Watch and CERT groups to organize by streets and blocks for welfare checks on shut-ins and elderly, as well as for safety and security purposes. The main entrance is a public road for the first mile into the mailboxes and common park area, but gates can be closed and a guardhouse is there to control access to the outlying areas if needed. The only times that was ever done was immediately post 9/11 and again when arm armed fugitive was on the loose in the general area, who was apprehended by Sheriffs based on intel called in by Neighborhood Watch. The gate house served originally as an information office for the real estate developer back in the 1970s when they were selling building lots, but currently is used only by the postman to organize mail for set out in the common area mail boxes outside.

We have two Sheriff's deputies, an Emergency Room physician from the local hospital and two Emergency Medical Technicians with the local fire department who live in the neighborhood. Volunteers are equipped with 2-way portable radios which are monitored by the private armed security service we have under contract. There is always one roving patrol unit 24/7/365. Neighborhood Watch block captains monitor CB, FRS/GMRS radio and the 2 meter ham repeater nearby, and can tlak directly by radio to Sheriff's department in the event of a failure in then public service telephone network.

There are 375 lots of size ranging from 1 to 5 acres and 300 homes in the development, which including the wooded common areas totals two square miles.