Vehicle crashes were down again for the month.  We thank everyone for driving defensively and with care.  Our officers took part in the statewide campaign, dangerous and impaired drivers, for selective enforcement during the month of March and April.  This is another Criminal Justice Grant for officers to work extra to aid in making our highways and roads safe and to further reduce vehicle crashes.  During May officers throughout the state will be taking part in an enforcement effort to get better compliance to use safety restraints.  In our surveys we are at over 90% compliance.  Thank you to everyone who wear their safety restraint.  We ask and remind everyone to always wear safety restraints properly. “It is truly a law you can live with”.

During April, our officers conducted 34 criminal investigations and reports.  There are some previous cases that are still active investigations.  Identity theft and fraud cases still come in.  The con artists keep coming up with new and more creative ways to attempt, or even worse, get money out of their victims.  Be guarded and know who you are dealing with.  Be extremely cautions when doing online business.  Official and proper business will never ask for social security numbers in written correspondence.  Remain cautions and careful.  Know your neighbors and please report any suspicious activities.  Remembering it is “together we can make a better community”.  Thank you to everyone for your support and cooperation.  We have received several complaints on town ordinance violations and letters have been sent out to violators.  We ask for your assistance in correcting these issues.  Remember that town clean up is May 4th & 5th, with dumpsters available at Hermance park from 7 am – 3 pm both days.

The Posse had mounted training also this month in preparation for the upcoming season and will be doing their annual certifications at the end of April.

April 17th the police department trained with the Bristol Fire Department on Med Flight, there process and proper way to set up a landing zone.

April 20 – 21 the officers will be doing emergency vehicle operation training; both classroom and practical.  April 21st members of the Reserves, Posse, and Full Time officers will be assisting the Wakarusa Police Department with their annual Maple Syrup Festival.

April 28th our officers had planned to assist CAPS in their annual fundraiser collecting donations to go to the efforts of helping in preventing child abuse.  This was cancelled due to inclement weather.

May training will be firearms.  Officers will be shooting the required annual PPC course.  This is the overall proficiency course.

Respectfully,

Michael L. Swallow,

Marshal

Bristol Police Department

Activity summary for

April 2012

Calls for Service: 832

Traffic Enforcement-

• Traffic citations– 24
• Traffic warnings– 106
• Prop. damage accidents–4

Junk & Abandoned Vehicles-

• Impounded– 6
• Tagged– 1
• Fixed or Removed– 1

Criminal Enforcement-

• Cases Taken– 34
• Cases Closed By Arrest– 9

Hours worked-

• Full time officers: 1022.5
• Reserve Officers: 285
• Trainees: 56
• S.E. Patrol: 15
• Civilians: 160

On the Lighter Side

-By Marshal Swallow

As I hear about the planning for the upcoming annual Homecoming Festival, I am reminded of the Tug of War event that was held for a few years.  Teams were made up from community organizations and the Bristol Fire and Police Departments made a tradition of competing against one another. We were pretty evenly matched.

One year in a best out of three competition, we were tied at one each.  The police department decided to pull out all stops and bring in one of our newest members.  She was a big girl, built for the long haul, and muscular to boot. Yes, Belle and I were going to take on the fire department team. As I brought her to the front of the line, much discussion and convincing proceeded along with proving that “Belle” was an official member of the police department. After doing so, the challenge was on.  Well, with me to guide her, we were off and pulling with all of our might. The crowd drew in to watch this pair off and cheer for their favorite team.  The fire department would pull, Belle would pull, both putting forth a lot of effort.  Belle was winning only slightly.  The pulling started going back and forth, again and again with much greater intensity when it took on a bit of a dangerous course, drawing too close to the spectators.  Both teams decided that year would have to end in a draw between the fire and police departments with both teams getting to the mud once each. Belle, our 1,700 pound part Purturon Posse horse, was rewarded with an apple.

The Bristol Newspaper reserves the right to edit comments and make final publication decisions.  Comments stated herein do not represent the opinion of the newspaper or its staff.

-Energy

In response to Congressman Fred Upton and his speech in Congress ; to truly lead the way in ENERGY we must Guarantee that all fuels and recharging stations be available at all filling stations by making Compressed Natural Gas (C.N.G.) available as it is in Canada , By making it legal to make and sell Hydrogen on Site , and mandating that electric recharging stations be available , then we are truly increasing our NATIONAL ENERGY SUPPLY . Natural Gas can be compressed from any household natural gas supply to fuel , cars , trucks , school buses , lawnmowers , tractors , even diesel models can be modified , and the parts and kits can be purchased online !

David A Shepard , Bristol

Carol Willis is a freelance writer and editor. She specializes in written communications for businesses and nonprofits and other editorial projects. Carol also is the development director at Church Community Services.Sauntering into Summer

Hunger: It’s Not a Game

Today I have a personal story. It’s hard to write, but I am, because I want you to know how important next Saturday’s annual postal workers food drive is.

Over 20 years ago my family lived a couple of years on the financial edge. My husband lost his job, we lost our house, and we relocated to start over. My grocery shopping habits changed completely. I adjusted meal planning to what was on sale. On sale and needed it? On the list. On sale and don’t need it right then? Not on the list. Not on sale? Forget about it.

Stocking up on sale items was not an option. Making decisions based on what sounded good was not an option.

I searched all the stores’ ads for the best deals. Then I carried my list in my purse so I could stop at Safeway or King Soopers when I was in the vicinity anyway and thus would not use additional gas.

I shopped with a calculator. I knew at any given time how much money we had left, and as I carefully compared prices and made my selections, when the calculator tally fell too close to that balance, I revisited what on my list we could do without.

We had to choose the most urgent bills to pay because we didn’t have the money to cover them all. One day we came within an hour of having our electricity shut off. I clearly remember the week when we were behind on our mortgage and the drive train on the car went out.

Our church had a food pantry. It provided us with things like cereal, pasta sauce, tomato soup, macaroni and cheese, and onions. We never knew what would be there, but each time it was an answer to prayer and we gave thanks.

We worked hard and eventually God brought us through to a wider place. I still feel grateful when I’m able to pay my bills, buy a gift or go out to eat.

Many of our neighbors in Elkhart County are living through stories right now just like this one. They’re not in a wider place yet. Working or not, they make hard choices every day about how to make it to the end of the month. Our local food pantries meet very real needs.

Next Saturday, May 12, please put nonperishable food by your mailbox for your mail carrier. Be as generous as you can. The food you give will go to food pantries in your own zip code. It will be someone’s answer to prayer, and they will thank you.

(Full disclosure: I work for Church Community Services, an Elkhart County organization with a food pantry.)

Greetings  Bristol!

I’m sorry I missed you in April, but I’m back for May! This month I will be addressing the future of the role of a pharmacist on your healthcare team. This is a big topic of interest to me lately, especially with the recent merger of two large insurance companies, Express and Medco.   Since the 1960s, pharmacy has been largely a commodity-based profession. That means we dispensed the product, set the price, and sold it as any other vendor would their wares. The Doctor of Pharmacy degree was largely unheard of and many physicians didn’t want the pharmacist to interfere in treatment of their patients, so there was virtually no requirement for counseling. There were significantly fewer mass-produced medications on the market and the pharmacist was still known to manufacture (“compound”) many of them himself.   Fast forward to the new millennium and the Health Care Reform changes being made. Many newly minted physicians have already been trained with pharmacists on hospital rounds and are used to us being part of the team. I find many of them to be grateful for our knowledge of the medications and to be able to refer their patients’ questions about their drug regimens to us. There is a movement within the American Pharmacist Association to develop the Primary Care Pharmacist by 2017. This is the vision of a new direction for the community-or retail-based pharmacist like myself. We can no longer bank on price competition and reimbursement from insurance companies to put ourselves ahead of the pack and stay in business to help our patients.   Therefore, my desire is to collaborate more with other health care providers in the area to be able to offer services you many have never before seen in a pharmacy. Medication therapy management, long term care counseling for the chronically ill, home visits, disease management classes, travel vaccination counseling, and Internet Q&A with a presence on Facebook and/or Twitter are all concepts I’m imagining to bring Bristol current in this vision for the new wave of pharmacy services. This won’t happen overnight and it will require significant changes over time, but if you bear with us, I really think you will be pleased. Please ask questions about any of these ideas, I’m happy to share what I am learning with anyone who is interested.

Now let’s keep the mood light with a joke for this month:

While working as a radiology technician in a hospital emergency room, I took some X-rays of a trauma patient and took the results to the senior radiologist, who studied the multiple fractures of the femurs and pelvis. ‘What on earth happened to this patient?’ he asked in astonishment.
‘He fell out of a tree,’ according to the report. The radiologist wanted to know what the patient was doing up a tree.
‘I’m not sure, but his paperwork states he works for Mark’s Expert Tree Pruning Service.’ Gazing intently at the X-rays, the radiologist blinked and said, ‘Cross out ‘expert.’

Katrina, Pharmacist, Mor for Less/Bristol Pharmacy 848-0660

-Planting Season Arrives

Finally it’s planting season. Our local farmers are starting the spring planting, and homeowners are starting to plant flowers and vegetables. This spring we have seen unusual temperatures and have had some freeze damage to our local fruit crops. It could really benefit us to plant some vegetables and fruits. As Don Sekora says, ” this is the best time of year to live here!” The fruit and vegetables from our area is plentiful and delicious. You can grow lots of vegetables in small areas and there isn’t much better than having a meal grown on your own property.

Our average last frost is May 10th. After the average last frost date it is time to plant our tomatoes, peppers, and sweet corn. There are many varieties of vegetables available to plant. You don’t need to plant 50 plants to produce a nice crop of vegetables. All tomatoes have that great tomato flavor when grown locally but I think the heirloom varieties have the best flavor. The heirloom varieties have not been genetically altered and will have the true tomato flavor. There are many vegetables that fit in the heirloom variety. I sell heirloom tomatoes and romaine lettuce. The flavor is amazing and they grow just as easy as any vegetable. Try some heirloom vegetables in your garden.

Home gardens have become very popular over the last several years and for many reasons. The price of food at the store, transportation cost, and the most important reason, food safety. Too many times we hear about food recalls and we just don’t know about all the chemicals used to produce the food we are buying. You have total control of what is applied to the food you grow and that should be very important to all of us. Safer and better food. That is two great reasons to grown your own garden this summer. Start planting!!