Suspicious behavior, loitering in the park, vandalism/graffiti, dumping, and alcohol/drug use at Jan Park

I am very sorry to report friends and neighbors that with the warm weather comes problems in the park. As many of you have seen, we had a very sad experience of having graffiti sprawled all over our rock park signs and the new message board at the Slate/Jan entrance recently. With a lot of work and care by the Carmichael Recreation and Park District folks, much of it has been cleaned up, but I know it was an upsetting shock for many of us.

I also wanted to let everyone know that a recent request to the Carmichael Recreation and Park District was made and performed to remove a park table and bench set from the far end near Ranger Way due to excessive use of the table as a "hang out" space for young adults who were habitually dumping trash from cars, using alcohol and drugs, communicating about future drug deals, and entering the park after hours. Several calls were made to the Sheriff's Dept regarding this activity (one of the individuals lives in the neighborhood), and we hope that the removal of the table will reduce the congregating for less than pleasant purposes :) As always, please call the non-emergency Sheriff's Dept number to report activity of this type, and let us know here so we can report repeated activity to the Carmichael Park District to request a ranger.

I also wanted to copy here a recent post from one of our neighbors from Nextdoor.com:

https://lincolnbarretthills.nextdoor.com/neighborhood_feed/

6/24/2014:
Came out to find a white woman early 30s and a Hispanic man in 30s as we'll, with totes, crates, mounds of trash and what appears to be household items in boxes and packages. Most of there stuff piled on sidewalk, as the lady tried to stuff several things into a very jammed trunk, to which she couldn't get the lid closed as it spilled over, with trash sitting on curb. While she feverishly worked on jamming this stuff, the gentlemen suspiciously walked down the sidewalk, with head looking nervously in every direction, and out of the park towards Manzanita and neighborhood on far side of jan park. He came back shortly later carrying two brown bags with what looked to be empty milk cartoons and a white rod. He asked if I had a problem and I said "yes, actually I do!" I told him and her I was tired of people pulling into neighborhood and leaving piles of trash. I said I've never seen them in our neighborhood and their behavior was very suspicious that time of the day. She said she would find a trash can. The whole thing was bazaar, and it truly looked like they had either grabbed stuff out of garages or had been dumpster diving. I drove down the block and parked and 10 minutes later they passed me. They did take their trash with them but beware about leaving garage doors open. Lots of questionable activity when lots of us our rushing out the door to work and easily distracted and in a hurry.



We need your help making sure we keep the park safe by being a part of the Jan Park Watch. Please report here, via email to Olivia or Carmen, or on Nextdoor any suspicious behavior or signs of vandalism, camping, loitering, drug/alcohol use in the park and be sure to contact the Sheriff's Dept. on the non-emergency number 874-5115 or 911 for crimes in progress. If we all are active, present, and responsive, we know that we can keep our neighborhood clean, safe, and beautiful for all of us to enjoy. Thanks so much to everyone for caring and taking the time to be great neighbors!