A Brief History of the Lakewood Neighborhood Association(with special thanks to Co-President Mary Johnston for authoring the below!)
The Lakewood Neighborhood Association was established in the late summer of 2004. It began after an incident on Beechcrest Street when nine youths armed with knives and baseball bats proceeded toward a house with the apparent intent of hurting someone who lived there. The quick thinking of some residents to call the police, who thankfully arrived almost immediately, resulted in the youths being apprehended before anyone was hurt, but this incident made us realize that we needed to do more to keep our neighborhood safe.
Within several weeks, Mary Johnston, Larry Brown and Pamela Wilkinson planned a neighborhood meeting to discuss the need for a neighborhood group in Lakewood. Almost immediately, we had enlisted the monthly assistance of the Warwick Community Police to give us regular reports of criminal activity in our area as well as advice on how to curb it.
Through the suggestions of Council members Bruce Place and Bob Cushman, we were soon visited by some Norwood residents who decided to join our group. Elections were held and Mary Johnston and Paula Breslin became co-presidents while Diane Chapman and Larry Brown were elected secretary and treasurer. Larry also assumed the responsibility of designing a Web Page with many helpful links.
Since our inception in 2004, a connection between Lakewood’s residents has evolved and our meeting has become a forum to hear guest speakers discuss such subjects as zoning issues, identity theft, and airport expansion. We have also hosted Mayoral and City Council debates, and initiated a park clean up at North Country Club in 2006 and a food drive in 2007.
We continue to seek ways to improve the safety and quality of life in our neighborhood and as always, welcome new members to help us accomplish this goal.
And here are some pictures of our past meetings/neighborhood events:
The results of our first food drive:
And pictures of our neighborhood cleanup crews, in action!
