Community Success Stories

Spearville

Please take a moment to click view the video above, which summarizes Spearville's Community Success!

Spearville has become a more diverse community over the past few years. No longer is it a community of “everyone knows their neighbor”. The close‐knit town of the past has evolved into a variety of cultures. Due to this fact and a change in our law enforcement, our Neighborhood Watch program was neglected. Recently, our area experienced several burglaries. Our local law enforcement was getting reports of suspicious activity, but not until several days later as most people didn’t feel comfortable calling 911 or our Ford County Communications department. Spearville PRIDE decided it was time to resurrect the Neighborhood Watch program that was started several years ago. We contacted the

Spearville Police Chief, Steve Strain, in December 2011, about working up a new program. We brainstormed on ideas to bring the community together for an informational meeting and how we can divide the city into area sections with captains assigned in each area. After several meetings with Steve Strain, we set the date of February 24th, 2012, for a 6pm gathering. We invited Linda Smith, Ford County Communication Coordinator, Ford County Sherriff Dean Bush, Ford County EMS/Fire personnel and the Spearville School District. We advertised in the Spearville News, flyers were distributed in the local Dodge City Daily Globe, flyers were distributed in various locations in town and we publicized on the city information sign located on Main Street. We also asked the Lions Club to serve a meal in conjunction with PRIDE.

In the past, we had “Helping Hand” posters in the windows of various homes whose occupants were available most days so the youth of our community would know what houses they could go to if they felt threatened. We decided to run a contest in the elementary school to come up with a new design.

We designed a flyer and had the school distribute them in grades K‐5th. A second grade youth was the winner of a $20 gift certificate to our local ice cream fountain with a very colorful house design. The design will be laminated and soon displayed in windows so area youth will know that it is a “safe house”.

Thursday, February 24th, the program began with the meal donated by the Lions Club. We had approximately 10 Lions Club members cooking the hot dogs, hamburgers and fish patties. PRIDE assisted with the serving and cleanup. Steve Strain and Linda Smith discussed the emergency system, how to report suspicious activity and what to watch for. Steve gave an informative Power Point presentation on burglaries and safety and important numbers to call to report a crime. Ford County

EMS personnel discussed the need for more volunteers for the Spearville Ambulance service. This project required a lot of volunteer time from approximately 30 people spending anywhere from 4 to 30 hours. 

Our Neighborhood Watch has been revitalized through this project. Our diversified town is now more of a united “community”. We addressed a safety need and informed our citizens of the county services available and how it all operates to keep them safe. Through this, we are able to deter break‐ins and know how to report and who to report suspicious activity.

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