Mayor Heather Fargo last night announced city officials have agreed to sign a lease that will allow a Police Resource Center to open in North Natomas.
The resource center — a project of the North Natomas Crime & Safety Leadership Team — will be in the Town Center shopping center (think Safeway) owned by Lewis Planned Communities. Plans are to locate the center in the storefront formerly occupied by Hot Dog Music, next door to Hollywood Video.
Lewis Planned Communities donated the store space for free, but the space needed to be insured by whomever signed the lease.
“The insurance component has been a big hurdle for the leadership team to overcome,” says Angelique Ashby, Creekside Neighborhood Association prez and member of the safety team.
According to Ashby, the team reached out to Fargo and asked for her help with the insurance issue. At last night’s Creekside meeting, Fargo announced talks with City Manager Ray Kerridge resulted in an agreement the city would sign the resource center lease.
The center will include resources for the community such as computers where area residents can file an online police reports or pick up neighborhood watch information. Sacramento police officer Kurt McCray, who helps coordinate area neighborhood watch efforts, is expected to be at the center one day a week.
The city’s Neighborhood Services division is also slated to have a presence at the center. Efforts are underway to get code enforcement and a youth services component at the center.
Team reps say the police resource center is not meant to replace plans for a police substation in the North Natomas neighborhood. The city currently has long-term plans to build a combination fire and police station on the west side.
Volunteers will be needed to help staff the new police resource center which is expected to open some time in August. Look for it!
I attended last night and felt we got her perspective on what happens when a development like North Natomas grows so quickly and how services have a hard time keeping up. It took years for So. Natomas to get a library and I was surprised No. Natomas got one so fast. Same with the parks. Yeah, the developers are some shady folks, and the city council doesn’t always care about us, but…I’m glad we’re making progress anyway.
? Services have had a hard time keeping up because they built the community too fast! It was a 20 year plan condensed into 6 years! Too much low income housing! Too much high density housing!
Don’t take their lame excuses anymore. They blew it. This “resource center” will have little to no impact on the issues Natomas is experiencing.
I can’t wait until we have a new mayor. Every time the current one speaks I want to move away
Yawn. Another one of Mayor Heather Fargo’s ineffective bandaids. She deserves no praise — since she’s been mayor, the quality of life has gone down in all of Sacramento. WHEN is the REAL police/fire station going to be built in North Natomas????