
At the time Beth was on the board of the Virginia Highland
Civic Association (VHCA) and approached the board about forming FBAC under the
umbrella of the association. For a variety of reasons, the board decided not to
participate, so Beth and Yvette along with a few other volunteers decided to
move forward on their own. Initially they signed up about 100 households all
located north of Virginia Avenue – enough to pay for four to five five hours
shifts a week. They set up a checking account to deposit member fees and pay
officers, and patrols began.
Over the years Beth had a few wonderful volunteers who
wanted to contribute, including Elizabeth Watts, who stuffed envelopes, affixed
stamps, and generally made life a bit easier for Beth. Keep in mind that in
those early days nothing was electronic or automated. Beth sent out renewal
notices by mail and people left their membership checks under her front
doormat. From the beginning Chris Clark provided strong leadership of the
officers hired by FBAC, and served as a strong partner to Beth in building the
program.
Beth remembered
that, “The police used to have pagers (before cell phones). We had codes
that the members would use whenever we had to page our officers. There
would be a code like 1 was car break in, 2 was house break in, 3 was robbery,
etc., and then you would include your street which also had street codes.
For example Virginia could have been 01, Maryland could have been 02, and N.
Highland could have been 03. Then you put in your house number. When you
paged the officers you could put in 203123.
Which would have meant house break-in (code 2)
on N. Highland (street 03) at 123 N. Highland. Then they knew which house to go to.” Hard
to believe today.
At some point during the early years another group called
Neighbors Eliminating Crime (NEC) was formed south of Virginia Avenue and covering
Virginia Circle and Adair between N. Highland and Ponce Place. After a short
time it was agreed that NEC and FBAC would merge creating the new boundaries of
the FBAC patrol area.
Periodically over the years there has been discussion about
merging FBAC into VHCA or receiving some funding from VHCA. As recently as 2012
a request was made to VHCA for a grant of $3,600. At the time this represented
about 5% of the FBAC annual budget. See Virginia Highland Patch article here.
However, the decision has continued to be to keep the two organizations
separate.
In 2011 Brain Gross (also a VHCA board member) began
volunteering with FBAC and made great strides in marketing the program to the
neighborhood. As a result, for the first time coverage of the patrol was
expanded to cover all of Virginia Highland/beat 601. During this same period
John Wolfinger, then public safety chair for VHCA and the founder of the
Virginia Highland Neighborhood Watch program, also began volunteering with
FBAC.
After over 20 years of volunteer service, Beth Marks was
finally allowed to step down when Nan Safay volunteered to take over
bookkeeping duties. Nan, John, and Brian continued to run the program until
Brian moved to Mexico City last year. Today the program is coordinated by four
volunteers – John Wolfinger, Nan Safay, Jim England, and me, with Sgt. Chris
Clark continuing to monitor safety trends and coordinate patrols.
The program has continued to operate on a shoestring, with
patrol officers using their personal vehicles and paying for their own gas,
Chris picking up the tab for a cell phone, and FBAC limiting overhead expenses to
less than 1%. Though membership has ebbed and flowed over the years, there was
only a brief period of less than a year when membership declined to a point
where patrols were suspended. The resultant increase in crime quickly restored
membership levels and the patrol has continued to operate ever since.
In June 2015 the Virginia Highland Security Patrol will
celebrate their 25th anniversary. Few neighborhood groups can boast
such longevity. This is also the first year that our membership ranks have
exceeded the 300 mark. So next time you see Beth or Chris on the street, walk
up and say thank-you. We have them both to thank for one of the strongest
neighborhood patrols in Atlanta.
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