Islanders attend National Night Out community-building event

Mercer Island resident David Gorney surveyed the scene and smiled.

After taking a tour of the Mercer Island Police Department’s modular buildings and chatting extensively with an officer, Gorney said he was fascinated while learning about some city operations on Aug. 5 at the annual National Night Out (NNO) event.

Situated at the city hall parking lot near the police offices, the community-building and crime-prevention event featured resident interactions with police department and Eastside Fire & Rescue (EF&R) employees, food trucks, touch-a-truck, activities and more.

“Initially what brought me out was the little kid inside of me wanted to see fire trucks and police cars and the cool stuff,” Gorney said. “Once I got here, I realized that there’s a lot more to what’s going on here than met the eye.”

He soon began speaking with city employees and became aware of the police marine patrol unit’s sophisticated dive operations, the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), ham radio operators and the Map Your Neighborhood disaster preparedness program.

As the information flowed his way, Gorney asked himself how he could contribute to city operations as a volunteer.

While Gorney joined others on the tour, which was led by patrol officer Marina Udodik, he became grateful that he attended the NNO event.

“I did not understand the depth of what the operation is here, and what they do to serve the public, and help protect the public, and help make things run smoother,” said Gorney, who was also pleased to receive a free ice cream that evening.

Gorney said he’s now inspired to participate in some volunteer training and gave a city employee his email address to notify him when the instruction occurs.

IMPORTANCE OF NNO

Before leading her tour, patrol officer Udodik discussed the importance of the city holding its NNO event. Instead of just seeing residents when emergency calls roll in, she said that officers can interact with Islanders as fellow community members in a fun NNO environment.

Udodik said they’re continuously communicating with seniors, students and others about how to avoid becoming victims of crimes when it comes to motor vehicle prowls, porch package thefts, credit card fraud thefts and more.

With prowls, people shouldn’t leave anything in their vehicles in plain sight; and with porch thefts, people should make sure to know when packages are arriving and getting them inside as soon as possible. Udodik added that a great community-building practice is for residents to reach out to neighbors and ask them to grab packages when the recipient is away from home.

Incidents where people are trying to steal seniors’ information have been on the rise, said Udodik, who added that seniors shouldn’t answer the phone if they don’t recognize the incoming number and they shouldn’t return emails if they’re not familiar with the sender.

“Usually the people that are your family or friends, they’ll either call you back and leave you a message or you have their phone number saved in your phone. Emails, same thing,” she said.

Police Services Commander Jeff Magnan said that the Island is low on persons’ crimes, like assaults, compared to other jurisdictions.

While the Island marine patrol unit wasn’t faced with any boating-under-the-influence incidents at the always-busy Seafair weekend at the beginning of August, the Coast Guard and Seattle Harbor Patrol dealt with some of those instances, Magnan said. The local unit assisted with a couple of boat fires during Seafair weekend, one of which occurred in Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park in Renton. Everyone was safe in the Renton fire and a boat occupant was transported to the hospital.

Regarding her tour of the police portable buildings, Udodik wants residents to know that although space is tight, the officers’ passion and dedication to their jobs are the same as ever.

“I don’t want (residents) to ever worry about that part, only that, ‘Hey, this is our city, this is our place, and so our place needs to have whatever they think it should have for a station or a city building,’” she said.

Magnan said the department looks forward to hosting the event each year. In addition to welcoming people to the city hall lot, city teams visit neighborhood NNO parties to discuss emergency management.

“The great thing about this event is it’s so multifaceted. You have emergency management that talks about how citizens can make themselves better. We have representatives from the school district. We have representatives from NORCOM, our dispatch center, that are here. We have a lot of community help here,” Magnan said.

LEARNING FROM FIREFIGHTERS

Over at the EF&R truck, Nidhi Chappell and her sons, Davin and Aaron, visited with firefighter Jace Hinesly from Mercer Island Station 91. The boys said they learned about an absorbent that soaks up highway spills, the jaws of life that can lift cars, first aid kits and defibrillators.

Hinesly said they were having a good time interacting with community members, showing them emergency tools, providing public education and outreach and getting kids into the driver’s seat of the fire truck.

EF&R Lt. Ken Macgibbon, who also works out of Station 91, discussed what families should do in case of an emergency: “Key parts would be to have a safe meeting spot for your family; have a fire plan for evacuating your house; and make sure that children of any age, as soon as they’re appropriate enough to, to be able to dial 911 and let us know and our dispatchers know of the emergency so that we can get to the families and assist them as quickly as possible.”

MIPD IN THE COMMUNITY

During her tour, patrol officer Udodik led the group into main rooms and past offices and desks — stopping briefly to discuss what officers, detectives and other employees do each day like taking reports, investigating cases, getting dispatched to emergencies and much more.

When asked about a basket of teddy bears that the group strolled by, Udodik said they were made by seniors at Covenant Living at the Shores to give to firefighters or officers who can present them to children or adults for comfort during a tough call.

Recently, a girl lost her stuffed animal and wrote out a report about the incident and asked if the police could find her furry friend.

“We were not able to find the actual animal, where it went, but we were able to give her one of the new little bears,” said Udodik, adding that the crochet group enjoyed hearing about where one of its creations now resides. “Really sweet story.”

Mercer Island resident Drew Young sits in the driver’s seat of an Eastside Fire & Rescue truck on Aug. 5 at the city’s National Night Out event at the city hall parking lot. Drew’s dad, Ryan, said his son loves anything and everything about trucks. Ryan added that they support community events and those people who keep the community safe. Andy Nystrom/ staff photo

Eastside Fire & Rescue’s Jace Hinesly discusses his job with Mercer Island residents Nidhi Chappell and her sons, Davin and Aaron. Andy Nystrom/staff photo