Page 22 - The Castle Pnes Connection OCT 2008

Page 22
Survey Says... by Lane Roberts
One of the primary goals of the Castle Pines North (CPN) Master Association is to provide communication to the 3,300 residents within the community. This goal is accomplished through three main communications toolsincluding: community-widee-mailalerts,theCPN website(www.cpnhoa.org)andCPN’sbi-monthlynewspa- per, The Connection.
Recently, the CPN Master Association conducted an informalresearchsurveytodeterminewhichcommuni- cation tools are the most effective. More than 500 resi- dents responded to the survey, answering 10 questions about communication methods used in CPN.
As of press time, the results of the survey showed that 51.4 percent of residents prefer to receive information about the community in e-mails alerts. Ninety-two per- cent of those surveyed said CPN e-mail alerts include “valueable” information. How often do CPN residents prefer to receive community e-mails? The results were a tie at 38 percent for“once a week”and 38 percent for “anytime.”
The CPN website is read on average once a month by 42 percent of those surveyed. The survey also showed the CPN website is easy to use (56.7 percent), has cur- rent information (47.2 percent), and is a useful tool in which to receive information (59 percent.)
Is The Connection a vaulable communication tool? According to 79.3 percent of those surveyed, the news- paper is of value. Surprisingly, more than 52 percent would prefer to receive the newspaper on a monthly basis. Since its inception, The Connection has been a bi- monthly publication.
Which sections of the paper are the most popular?
www.cpnhoa.org
Seventy-fivepercentalwaysreadydevelopmentupdates and 59.6 percent always read the CPN event bulletin board. Other popular categories included the Metro District news, neighborhood HOA news, City Council news and safety information.
Three categories that were “sometimes” read included Letters to the Editor and Business Spotlights. In addi- tion, 33.2 percent never read the School Scoop section. As a result of the survey, these three sections have been eliminated from the newspaper.
How do CPN residents rank the importance of com- munciation tools? Here are the results:
• Very important - E-mail Alerts - 77.9%
• Very important - The Connection - 43.8% • Important - CPN website - 36.9%
Here are a few of the hundreds of comments received:
“Wehaveagreatassociation.Youdowellinkeepingusinformed andaskingforouropinionsandinput.Youactuallyimplement thehomeowners’ideas.Iknowofafewcorporationswhoshould dothesamewiththereworkforce,butdon’t,andnowtheyarea failing business.”
“Emailalertsneedtobemorerelevant,lessfrequent,andnotbe repetitive...”
“Ifeelthatthemainproblemwith“TheConnection”isthatthe informationisn’ttimelyenough.Theinformationisvaluable,but canbeputonawebsitemuchquickerandmuchmorecheaply.”
“Iamalwaysamazedofhowmuchworkisbeingdonetokeepus informed. Thank you.”
The survey will remain on the CPN web site for a few more weeks. To take the survey, go to www.cpnhoa.org and click on “Tell Us What You Think.”
Calling All Cars... by Terri Wiebold
Dating back to Barney Fife and
the early days of Dragnet, “calling
all cars” was a police officer’s
distress call for help and
assistance. While the city of Castle Pines North Safety Task Force is not in distress, it could use the help and assistance of a few more community volunteers.
The city’s safety task force is charged with the respon- sibility of working with city council to address a variety of safety-related issues within the CPN community. It is comprised of dedicated and committed volunteers from CPN with varied backgrounds and interests.
The following is a list of just some areas of interest for the Safety Task Force:
• Neighborhood Watch Program
• Living safely with wildlife
• Wildfire mitigation
• Emergency management and preparedness
issues
• New Fire Station location
• School and Child Safety Issues
• Traffic/pedestrian safety and street safety/
maintenance issues
• Safety issues with new developments
• Senior/handicap/special needs issues –
Project Lifesaver, home safety, special needs
Registry (DCSO)
• Monitoring the Sex Offender Registry -
working with schools
• Sledding Hill Safety issues
• Community Safety Volunteer (CSV ) program with
DCSO
• Criminal activity, vandalism/graffiti, and tracking
crime statistics
Anyone interested in serving on the task force may contact the chairperson, Carol Langley-Finnegan, at safety@cpnhoa.org. The task force meets the second Wednesday of each month from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Community Center, located at 7404 Yorkshire Drive.
According to Langley-Finnegan, you don’t get any- where by standing on the sidelines waiting for someone else to take action. “Whether it’s building a better government, or building a better future, we all have an important role to play,” she said. “We are so grateful for our volunteers’ time and expertise.”
Report Traffic Problems Information provided by the DCSO
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) has a Traffic Safety Hotline 303-660-7539 where citizens can leave a recorded message on specific traffic con- cerns. Citizens utilizing the traffic hotline will not only help the traffic division effectively deal with traffic complaints in a timely manner, it will also allow them to analyze the statistics to target high complaint areas which can then be worked on a regular basis.
However, in order to keep this system of traffic report- ing streamlined and efficient there are a few things that citizens can do to help the process. When calling the hotline citizens should: leave a detailed descrip- tion of the traffic problem; provide information about the exact location where the traffic problem occurred; include information about the time of day the traffic problem occurred; leave a name and a contact phone number - this is important.
Traffic officers are assigned traffic complaints that come in on the hotline. The officer begins the prob- lem-solving process by calling the citizen who com- plained to confirm the problem and also to inform the citizen that enforcement at the location will occur on two separate occasions. The officer notes the time of the enforcements and if any citations were issued.
The phone line also has an option for residents to call regarding aggressive drivers. For more information about the DCSO, visit www.dcsheriff.net.