Happy New Year wishes from RB Neighborhood Watch, Emergency Preparedness go out to:

Gaye Kuyper, manger of the RB Community Services Center, a site partner of ours at the library, and a great help to us in chasing down City information, telephone numbers and policies.

Community Relations Officer Paul Lennon, our advisor. Neighborhood Watch, as well as the residents of Rancho Bernardo, holds him in the highest esteem, and we all know that we can call upon him when necessary and will get his concerted attention. We hope he stays in Rancho Bernardo forever!

Rancho Bernardo citizens for your interest in the safety and security of our community. Your willingness to share with Neighborhood Watch and Emergency Preparedness your confidential information for our database which will allow us to help you in times of need - whenever YOU need help. It could be a fire, a flood, an earthquake, closed highways, a bad storm. Also, your interest in reporting suspicious activities has been a big help.

To the Neighborhood Watch Coordinators and Block Captains - all 450 of you. I wish my editor would give me enough room to write all your names here, but you know who you are, and I thank you for being the solid foundation for all of our activities.

To the Neighborhood Watch and Emergency Preparedness Board of Advisors. Without the help of the District Coordinators and their assistants, and our technical advisors, we would have no communication with the Block Captains in RB. My excellent Board of Advisors consists of District A (Westwood) Coordinator Tim Dodge; District C (Oaks North) Coordinators Bob Showalter (NHW) and Frank Terschan (EPP); District D (Swim & Tennis) Coordinators Gary Carlson (NHW) and Ralph Parris (EPP); District E (Seven Oaks) Emergency Preparedness Coordinator Ralph Stewart; District F (Bernardo Heights) Coordinator Anna Marzouk; District G (High Country West and Camino Bernardo) Coordinators Mike Gray and Leine Williams. We cannot forget the importance of what we call our Board of Advisors ‘computer gang.’ Very little could be done without them and their abilities. They program and edit the database, make the maps, enter the data you give us from the Information Sheets, do the crime stats from Case Management databases at the Northeastern substation, follow through on the "beat book" details which are published in hard copy and on www.rbernardo.com/ They are always ready for a new challenge. Thanks to Fritz Wolff, Roger Wolfe, Hal St. Clair and Tim Dodge.

The importance of the Emergency Preparedness Program (EPP) and its relationship with Neighborhood Watch is one of the most important partnerships that Rancho Bernardo can have. I would like to thank Director Jim Harmon and his special Emergency Preparedness team for their hard work and dedication to the very important local and County-wide exercises. There are many more people involved in Emergency Preparedness, and, like the Block Captains, I do not have room to mention them now. You know who you are, and thanks for your important contribution.