I. Easter Egg Hunt

It’s that time of year again-  Peter Cottontail will be hopping down the bunny trail. With any luck the weather will cooperate and we can hold this next Saturday.

Day: Saturday, March 23rd

Time: The egg hunt starts promptly at 9 am so plan on arriving by 8:50.

Where: Reardon Park (meet at the basketball court)

Egg Drop-off: Please drop off 12 filled eggs/child between Monday, March, 18th and Friday, March 22nd (up till midnight if you need it). Please drop the eggs off at 3 Brownlea Road in the white bucket near the front door (Josh has been instructed to keep away from the chocolate hidden in the eggs).

The ONA board

Good morning,

Thank you to the neighbors that were able to attend the meeting last night. The head count was around 45, a great turnout for a Tuesday night.

I. Summary of the Safety Meeting

* Key point that cannot be stressed enough. If you “See Something, Say Something”. Call the police business line at 508.872.1212 with any suspicious activity. This doesn’t have to just involved robberies, it can be anything suspicious (ie large groups starting to gather at the park, at the beach or the end of Delmar near the path). Again, if you see something, say something.

* Case in point. A robbery had occurred at another residence in Framingham. A neighbor saw this robbery occur but instead of calling police, she followed the person to Walgreens. She confronted the person, told him what she saw, then headed home. She then called police but by the time they arrived the robber was gone. Moral of the story, call the police right away. Do not wait and do not chase the person down, only to let them get away.

* There are no suspects yet for the two robberies that have occurred in the neighborhood, however, they do have some evidence they are working with (shoe print).

* Keep a look out for people walking with clipboards or knocking on doors and not having a credible story. A neighbor recently had an encounter with a man that knocked on her door asking where Walgreens is. This may have been a person looking to see what houses were occupied and when someone answered, he made up a story.

*  The main items that are stolen during robberies are:

* Jewerly
* computers
* ipods
* game systems

Take a picture of your items and even write a description. This will give local authorities information that could lead to the recovery of your items. Stolen items are usually pawned and pawn shops are required to hold items for 30 days. Unfortunately this doesn’t always happen, but in many cases they do hold the items.

*  Postal workers are a great resource for the neighborhood. The police meet with them on a semi annual basis to go over crime data and to see if they have any information.

*  Neighborhood watches, crime watch signs, etc have not worked well in the past so it is not an option right now. The best option is to know your neighbors, know your neighborhood and to follow the instructions of see something, say something.

* A few websites that provide great information are:
Www.crimemapping.com
Www.ncpc.org
Www.crimepreventiontips.com
We will try to provide the power point presentation at a later date.

II. Easter Egg Hunt

Easter falls on March 31st this year so our Easter Egg hunt will be held on Saturday, March 23rd at 9 am. Please mark your calendars and hope that the snow is gone by then.

Please email us with any questions, comments or concerns.

Thank you,

The ONA Board

Good morning,

Fall is here and with it brings many changes, including the impending loss of daylight, which for some reason also includes the lack of seeing our next door neighbors for the next few months. The ONA Oaktoberfest is a great way to connect with friends and meet some new neighbors (we’ve had a lot of turnover recently). The details for the Oaktoberfest and Neighborhood Caroling are at the end of this email.

I. ONA Website, Facebook Page and Twitter

We apologize for the lack of updates recently on the website. The busy summer schedule took over for all of us and with that, our website, facebook page and twitter account all fell victim to under utilization. All those venues are being updated now and we hope you check in on a regular basis to see what is happening in the ‘hood. Please visit our website at www.theoaksneighborhood.com/. You can use the website to connect to our twitter account and facebook page.

II. Community Safety

It can probably be stated that we live in a neighborhood that is a hidden gem of Framingham. Where else can you find a neighborhood that has a great neighborhood park, access to a lake, a beach, walking trails, a rail trail and major retail/highways within 1 mile? We all have to work together to keep our neighborhood a gem and that includes reporting any suspicious or odd activity happening at the park, at the lake or even at individual houses (ie car break ins, etc). You can contact any of the ONA board members if you are worried about reporting activity. Please be sure to keep cars locked at night, watch out for neighbors (especially those of frail health) and practice good personal safety.

III. Using the ONA email list

As we approach the upcoming elections it’s probably a good time to remind everyone that we do not use this email list for political purposes. We try to use this for anything that applies to ONA business (ie upcoming events, helping out a neighbor in need, community classifieds, those looking to pool resources to have a service performed, etc). If you have a question please contact the ONA board before sending an email.

IV. ONA Treasurer

We are still looking for someone to take over the treasurer duties for the ONA. If you are interested please contact Josh at jmulread@gmail.com (please include ONA treasurer in the subject line).

V. Upcoming Events (Oaktoberfest details; Neighborhood Caroling)

Oaktoberfest

Please mark your calendar for Saturday, October 20th from 2-5 pm @ Reardon Park.

The Rain date is Sunday, October 21st from 2pm- 5pm.

To make this day fun and eventful, we’ll need your help.  Please RSVP by Monday, October 8th or sooner.  We will hold this event no matter what (unless mother nature plays a cruel trick like last October). The level of what we have at the event will be based on the number of RSVP’s. If we have enough RSVP’s then we will have the bounce house, cotton candy, etc. If the number of RSVP’s is low, then we will pare it down and have the BBQ portion and some games. We really want to have a kick butt party so please, please, please RSVP ASAP.

Please e-mail Eliza at elizatwilliamson@gmail.com with the number attending and what food item you will be bringing and if you will be available to volunteer. We’ll keep a running list.

Here’s what we need some help with:

·         A 6500KW generator to power the bouncy house and cotton candy machine.

·         3 -4 propane grills

·         Volunteers to do some cooking about 8 to 10 people to do half-hour blocks of cooking

·         Volunteers to monitor the bouncy house

.          Volunteers for set up and clean up

·         Appetizers, Drinks, Side Dishes, Desserts

·         Games the children can play

.         A face painter

If possible, a $20 donation from each family is requested to help off-set the cost of the slide and food. (Or $10 per couple, $5 per single) Payment can be made ahead of time to any of the four of us, or at the BBQ.

Neighborhood Caroling

We brought this back to life last year and I think we can all agree that a little practice would have gone a long way We are going to do carol again this year and try to get at least one practice session in before going out. Please contact Josh at jmulread@gmail.com (please list neighborhood caroling in subject line) to register for this event. The goal is to have music selected in November and a practice in early December.

Thanks for taking time to get up to date on your neighborhood. As always, we welcome your feedback and any and all volunteers.

Eliza, Amy, Heather and Josh