On February 29th, a group of about 45 of Concord's Neighborhood Contacts (NCs) met at Concord Carlisle High School for an update and brainstorming session. NCs are approximately 140 Concord Neighborhood Network (CNN) volunteers, one living in each neighborhood throughout town.

Reverse 911
Police Chief Len Wetherbee reported on several efforts to continue the work begun before January 1. He started with an update on the town's eventual purchase of a Reverse 911 system (see here for an explanation of this system). The town's businesses have raised a significant portion of the funds needed for this system. They have been contacted by a second vendor which might make the system less expensive, though but more funding is still needed.

Patriot's Day Crowds
He spoke about upcoming potential emergency situations. The Police Department is asking that citizens stay alert and in touch during the Patriot's Day celebrations this year during which the Towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln and Arlington are expecting a record number of visitors. There will be large reenactments beginning at The Bridge and Meriam's Corner. If attendance is large, the police department will use the NC e-mail system to send messages to all neighborhoods about traffic conditions or other problems.

High School Radio Station
Police Department Communications Officer Lt. Paul Macone reported on the reorganized Concord-Carlisle High School Radio Station, WIQH (see here for a related story). The idea to use a local radio station for emergency information dissemination actually came originally from one of the NCs. Since the high school station is the only one available, CNN spearheaded its renewal, which led to enormous interest from many other groups throughout town. This is just one example of the benefit of the NC system: a wealth of shared ideas and experience from those involved.

Town-Wide Ham Radio Communication System
Communicating within neighborhoods and with the police station in the event of a power outage and phone system failure has been under discussion. A committee investigated the use of sport radios by NCs. These radios will work within a neighborhood, but only have a .5 mile radius. Stronger signal radios have a 1-mile radius, but still prevent many areas from communicating with police or hearing what is going on across town considering Concord is four by six miles across.

As a result, a ham radio network is being established which would allow most people to be within walking distance of a licensed ham radio operator. Thus, the NC could walk to this person's home to get information, then distribute that info to the neighborhood. Right now there are about 80 licensed ham operators in Concord and they are evenly distributed throughout town. This communications system would be benefited by placing a local ham repeater in Concord, the frequencies for which are very difficult to come by. However, the Minute Man Repeater Association has agreed to move one of theirs here, and an agreement is being worked out for them to place their repeater on the communications tower on Anursnac Hill.

The average household could then use a police scanner which receives ham frequencies to tune into the broadcasts taking place through this repeater. The advantage of this system is that the listener could hear what is being said all over town. There are also plans to hold ham licensing classes and examinations at the police station in the coming months, allowing more residents to become involved as ham operators.

How Could Our Neighborhoods Become Stronger?
Finally, CNN member Debbie Bier asked for suggestions on how we could work to improve neighborliness in Concord. Some NCs gave helpful examples of how their neighborhoods have been cooperating and creating goodwill. Some suggestions included:

• Have the Town of Concord declare a Block Party Weekend and encourage neighborhoods to have block parties
• Have NCs develop more formal and informal ways of communicating with their neighbors
• Have a neighborhood gathering either with or without a CNN facilitator to talk about how to foster neighborliness
• Get contacts for neighborhoods which do not yet have coverage
• If you think any area covered by a current NC is too big, find someone to whom you can delegate a street or two.
• Develop a neighborhood e-mail list to stay in contact and disseminate news
• Have a cooperative tag sale
• Give neighborhood parties when a house is sold, saying goodbye to the old neighbor and hello to the new