LONEHILL GARDEN COMPETITION
Residents and local business from Lonehill, Beverley and Pineslopes are invited to enter your gardens into this competition.
Categories
1. Residential Garden
2. Cluster/Town House Garden
3. Complex Entrance & Garden
4. Business or Complex Garden
5. Vegetable &/or Herb Garden
Entry forms: Available at the sponsors - the Lonehill Residents Association, Just Letting and Fourways Garden Pavilion or send an email and an entry form will be sent to you. (see information below)
Entry fee: R 120
Closing date: 30 September
Entry forms and fees must be handed in at the Fourways Garden Pavilion. A portion of the fees will go towards a charity nominated by Gardens of the Golden City.
Judging: 1 - 10 October 2010 Prize-giving: 27 October 2010
Fourways Garden Pavilion Just Letting Lonehill Residents Association
Cnr William Nicol & Mulbarton 51 Calderwood Rd 81 Studio Office Park
Leaping Frog Lonehill 5 Concourse Crescent
Fourways Lonehill
(011) 465 4541 (011) 467 5923 (011) 465 9196
fourwaysgp(at)iburst.co.za admin(at)justlettingsa.co.za info(at)lra.org.za
LONEHILL DOMESTIC FORUM
All Domestic Workers (home and garden) from Lonehill, Beverley and Pineslopes are invited to attend the LRA's Domestic Meetings.
NEXT MEETINGS: Thursday, 23 September 2010
Thursday 21 October 2010
TIME: 11 am to 12:30 pm
VENUE: Lonehill Fire Station
The focus of the forum is the improvement of safety and security in the area in co-operation with Fidelity Security, the LRA's security provider. Please contact the LRA Office for more information.
GAUTENG'S PREPAID TOLL SOLUTION TO BECOME THE NATIONAL STANDARD
Gauteng’s prepaid toll solution to become the national standard when Gautengers are tolled for using the province’s busiest freeways in early 2011. The system will work somewhat like a prepaid cellphone contract.
South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) senior project manager Alex van Niekerk says car owners will be asked to set up accounts, either by phoning in or going to a website, and to then load money into these accounts before entering the tolling system, or to link payment to their credit cards.
Once this is done, commuters must go to an outlet to get an electronic tag or trans- ponder, to be displayed on their front windscreens. Commuters will not be charged for this tag, says Van Niekerk. “There will be a one-tag standard,” he adds. “You will be able to go through any toll gate in South Africa – not only in Gauteng – with this tag.” The tag means the toll transaction is a quick, electronic one, with no physical toll gates where money is collected. Motorists simply pass underneath a gantry housing the equipment, which reads the tag while also taking a photo of the licence plates as soon as their vehicles break a laser beam.
This so-called open-road tolling system also classifies the vehicle in terms of size, charging the appropriate amount. Gantries are placed along and at entry points on the freeways, such as on- and off-ramps. The entire phase one of the Gauteng freeway system under toll – 185 km of road – will be looked after by ten satellite centres, which will act as the first line of incident management, dispatching medical assistance if needed. The roads will be monitored by closed-circuit television cameras. “Sanral already has tow trucks on standby in case of vehicle breakdowns,” explains Van Niekerk.
“Methods have been devised to track down commuters who attempt to avoid paying toll fees”, van Niekerk said. Should a vehicle not have a tag, system operators will type in the licence plate number from the photo which has been taken, thereby tracking down the owner. Van Niekerk says violations will include not carrying a tag, driving a vehicle that cannot be identified, and having insufficient funds. When this happens, a motorist will receive an invoice, and then an infringement notice (which is equivalent to a fine), followed by a courtesy letter, an enforcement order and, finally, the issue of a warrant.
Should a visitor outside Gauteng enter the system, signage will warn the motorist to go to the nearest satellite centre to register, or to phone a toll-free number. It may also be possible to buy a day pass at a retail outlet before entering the system.
Read more about toll fees, funds, contact numbers etc. in the Environment Report
NEWS & EVENTS
South Africa’s foremost expert on residential crime, PROF RUDOLPH ZINN author of Home Invasion opened this year’s AGM with an address on the state of crime in our country.
Rudolph Zinn, a former detective, undertook a research project on house robbers, interviewing convicted house robbers serving their sentences. He presented some really interesting statistics along with many recommendations which surprise, surprise...we are already doing! Hence our very low incidents of crime in our area.
There were lots of questions but we had to get on with the AGM itself, so another tme will be set up to further unpack his research results, specifically linkin them to our own scenario.
The AGM itself consisted of the Chairman's and CEO's reports, followed by the statutory functions which all went extremely smoothly. The reports will be made available on this web site under the Annual General Meeting tab.
THE CAMERAS ARE COMING!!!
"What are these poles and solar panels for?" we hear you ask. This is the start of the Lonehill CCTV Security Project. Having been in planning stages for at least a year, making sure that we had the latest and best equipment for the task, the project is finally coming to fruit, albeit somewhat delayed by all the rain that we've been having!
The system is completely wireless and uses our own dedicated highly secure network. Each camera links back to a specific base station (the thingy at the very top of the pole), an the picture is viewed and captured in our state of the art control room. Each unit is protected by other cameras for security, and is powered by the solar units -giving us the surety that the service will always be available.
There is still much more to do, but at least we've started.
WE NEED YOUR OPINION ON OUR POLL
At the bottom of the green menu on the left of this screen is a tag for Poll Of The Month. This is where your opinion is requested and the results are extremely valuable to us all. We make and take decisions based on polls such as this. Please click on it and choose your answer- that's all that is needed!
The current poll is on the proposed installation of traffic lights on Lonehill Boulevard.
Please go to the poll page and cast your vote
LOCAL RESIDENTS CLEAN UP MAIN ROAD
Now this is what real community involvement is all about! Fantastic thank you's to these guys for coming to the party. Local residents Taso and Travis Holman, both Directors of a company called UDS Civils & Steel have stepped up to the plate in grand style.
They brought along a team of labourers and a Bobcat front end loader, and proceeded to remove the many tons of sand and gravel that built into a nasty problem along Main Rd outside Lonehill, between the Boulevard and Witkoppen Rd.
We had contacted Gautrans and the JRA on numerous occasions to urgently clean up the sand deposited on the road through severe flooding and blocked drainage pipes, but had little success.
And then, Voila, the good samaritans arrived! Well done guys, and thank you, from all the residents of Lonehill.
WELCOME TO 2010 IN BEAUTIFUL LONEHILL
Hey, it's 2010 already!!!
Everyone's back or on the way back from glorious hols - all nice and relaxed and well-fed. Mmmm ja, a touch overweight as well perhaps?
Within the next week this web site should be nicely updated with many new articles for you to read and comment upon, and if there's something that you'd like us to include, please shout....well, email or call, and we'll do our best to make sure that it happens.
THE LRA IS LOOKING FOR A SALES PERSON......NOW. If you're willing and capable, or know of someone who is, call our office and speak to Rob Gillespie ASAP. Yes, there is a salary and commission.
The LRA is also looking for a new Financial Board member to take the place of Roger McKee who is semigrating to the north coast of KZN. Thanks Roger for the stirling support and advice that you have provided over the last few years, and we will miss you.
2010 STARTS ON A HIGH NOTE FOR LRA AND DOUGLASDALE POLICE PRECINCT
2010, World Cup Football Year, is upon us and it is with some considerable pleasure that we can report that the 2009 Christmas period saw almost no crime in the LRA areas at all. The few incidents that there were minor in nature and arrests of perpetrators continued thereby eliminating most of the crime in and around the Lonehill environs. The LRA Fidelity team has settled into their functions very well and the technology and tactics as well as training, are proving to be effective but there is no place for complacency.
The LRA donated a VW Golf to the SAPS Douglasdale and this vehicle together with 7 other new Golfs donated by other organizations and other vehicles as well as helicopter deployment from the new SAPS helipad at SAPS Douglasdale, has resulted in a huge reduction in crime in the Douglasdale precinct with no armed robberies at any of the precincts shopping centres from mid December to the present. The opening of a new public car park which is landscaped and floodlit for the public is also a huge improvement to the SAPS facilities. Zero tolerance towards petty crime and various arrests have all added to the crime reduction in the precinct. Additional staff and vehicles will be added shortly to the Douglasdale SAPS compliment plus the news that the moratorium that has been in place for the recruitment of additional SAPS Reservists has been lifted and there is a training course commencing mid January 2010. If anyone is willing to serve in such capacity, please contact the LRA offices.
Another major development for the LRA has been the recent growth and penetration into the business and shopping centres in our area. LRA is proud to announce that it has taken over the security at the Lonehill Shopping Centre, the Pineslopes Shopping Centre and Fourways Value Mart. This has meant an increase in deployment of security manpower into our area and co ordination between residential and business security taken to a level not previously seen before. The LRA is in advanced discussions with further centres and businesses to grow this opportunity to expand the security net our residents enjoy. The growth in residential areas has not been neglected and steady numbers of new clients have joined the LRA this last year and focus hereon will be maintained.
Despite these successes, we wish to remind all our residents to remain highly vigilant, avoid complacency, and report all suspicious activity immediately to the LRA Control Room on 011 467 2868. May we take this opportunity to once again wish you a prosperous and successful and safe 2010 and welcome the thousands of foreign visitors for the World Cup.
NEW SECURITY RATES
NEW REDUCED & AFFORDABLE SECURITY RATES FOR OUR RESIDENTS
During October 2009 we embarked on a campaign to reduce security costs for our residents who subscribe to, or want to subscribe to the LRA / Fidelity security initiative - yes, the one that really, really works well, but was possibly a touch too expensive for some.
We eventually came up with a set of costs that are BRILLIANT and CHEAP....BUT, we would have to get a whole lot of new subscribers to sign up, so that we could afford to at least break even. Many people and many complexes made promises to do so, but very few have actually signed up.
We need you to ask those around you to sign up now, otherwise we will have to revert to the old costs, which we really don't want to do. The existing subscribers would have had their costs reduced now in January if the promises had been kept, but now they have to wait another month.
Please, Please, Please, sign up now so that everyone can benefit from the new rates. It's in your own interest - money back into your pocket - more flowers, toys, food, wine or beers.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT NOW!!!
You can also further reduce your costs by using the special Lonehill insurance scheme - just click on the CIC INSURANCE logo on the right - you may be pleasantly surprised at what we have arranged.
HAMPERS FOR OUR SECURITY GUARDS
Lonehill has a tradition of giving each of the Fidelity Security guards a hamper at the end of the year to show our appreciation for their hard work and dedication. Our residents have once again been most generous in contributing towards the Hamperfund and we could therefore purchase a hamper for each of the almost 350 guards. The hampers were distributed this week and were received with great joy and appreciation.
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR FIDELITY SECURITY GUARDS
KEEPING US SAFE THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON.
LONEHILL CAROLS BY CANDLELIGHT
The annual Carols by Candlelight in the Lonehill Park saw local resident Ralf Schmitt conduct the Mzansi Youth Choir during a special production. Accompanied by a number of professional musicians they prepared a Christmas program with a uniquely South African touch.
The Lonehill Residents Association is most grateful for the donations received from Pick'nPay Lonehill, ENGEN Lonehill and Fidelity Security Services. Community events such as the Carols by Candlelight are made possible with the support from both local business and our residents.
WISHING ALL OUR RESIDENTS A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!
- SAPS Reservist unit in Sector 3
The official Community Policing Forum for our area has been established. We fall into Sector 3 of the Douglasdale Precinct. The sector also includes Magaliessig and Little Fourways. Read more about it under our news items and in the Security section.
ART IN THE PARK
Our first Art-in-the-Park exhibition for 2009 was held on Sunday 24th May under glorious sunny skies albeit with a slightly cooler temperature. The event was well attended by many residents and visitors, and the artwork on display was of extremely high standard.
DADS & LADS CAMP-OUT
16.05.2009 - 00:00 Well, the Dads & Lads Camp-out was an absolute hit with the kids (and the Dads had a great time as well - you know...nice and relaxing away from Mom!). Although, having said that, quite a few of the Dads were phoning home to request the home delivery service for a number of forgotten items, so the Moms got to see exactly where we were.
Getting to the site was very exciting for all. We did an 'amazing race' type of clue trail with four clues and tasks. First one was to...[more]
DRAMATIC DROP IN CRIME IN GREATER LONEHILL AREA
The Lonehill Residents Association (LRA) is pleased to announce that there has been a dramatic drop in the incidents of crime in and around Lonehill, Beverley and Lonehill East areas over the past few weeks. Most areas have in fact experienced no reported crime at all, with only a few exceptions. For example, over the last 10 days, there were only two incidents...one an attempt at entry into a complex over its boundary wall where the guards spotted the intruder and fired a shot at him causing...[more]
