Residents of the Halbert Heights community in Brookhaven arebanding together to establish a neighborhood watch program.

The organizational meeting for the watch will be held onTuesday, March 19, at 6:30 p.m. in the Lincoln County BaptistAssociation building. Stacy Ravenscraft, the public affairs managerfor Georgia-Pacific in Monticello, is coordinating the event.

“On the street that I live on, Diane Drive, we’ve had a lot ofproblems,” Ravenscraft said. “We are really concerned about the waythings have been going, so we decided to get everyone together. Wejust want to do something proactive – most of us have smallchildren, and we want to make sure they’re safe.”

Neighborhood residents who attend the Tuesday meeting willexchange phone numbers to establish a network of contacts to whichto report crimes and suspicious activity in the neighborhood.

Brookhaven Police Chief Pap Henderson will also be on hand tohear the concerns of the community’s residents. Henderson said thatthere has been no spike in the level of crime in the HalbertHeights community to his knowledge, but he will nevertheless appearat the community meeting to answer any questions residents mayhave.

Lincoln County Baptist Association Director Talmadge Smith alsoreported no crime at his office.

“We’ve not had any crime problems,” Smith said. “No break-ins,vandalism or anything missing so far.”

Despite the lack of crime at the Baptist offices, Smith doesagree that establishing a neighborhood watch would benefit thecommunity.

“It would really take a lot of doing to keep it up, but it wouldreally secure the community,” Smith said. “It’s a good move,everybody watching out for everybody else.”

Even though there has been no official marked increase in crimein the Halbert Heights community, Ravenscraft said the area’sregular level of lawbreaking was enough to spur two weeks ofdiscussion about the watch program into action. She named a list ofbreak-ins, vandalism, burglary and suspicious persons loiteringaround the neighborhood as reasons for concern.

“There’s been small, suspicious activities and break-ins thatlead us to this decision,” Ravenscraft said. “It’s not a big deal,but it’s not normal for our neighborhood. There hasn’t been anyviolent crimes, and we hope there isn’t.”