Key dates

• 3 November: Parkhurst halloween, Verity Park

• 7 November: 4th Avenue candle light Thursdays

• 9 November: Community Based Planning Process for the Integrated Development Plan (Parkhurst recreation centre, 8:30am-noon)

• 14 November: 4th Avenue candle light Thursdays

• 17 November: 94.7 cycle challenge

• 19 November: PRABOA AGM, MOTH Hall, corner 16th street and 2nd avenue (6:30pm)

3 November: Halloween, Verity Park

Please contact Mike Rosholt (events@parkhurstvillage.com) if you would like your house included on the halloween list.

Call for volunteers

PRABOA could use your help! Please get in touch and let us know what you are interested in or raise your hand at the AGM on Tuesday 19 November 2019. We could really use help with building plan approvals for the area. We need assistance with the car guard solution for homeless people. We can help put you in touch with Incredible Edible Parkhurst if you are interested. We could really use help with our website, communication and marketing particularly with the SafeParks/Parksec safety project. Do you want to help set up the next Village Fair? Please let us know! Please get in touch with Cheryl Labuschagne (chair@parkhurstvillage.com) to volunteer.

• Please load the Cortac Control telephone number as a  Favourite or Speed dial.
  Please do not talk on your phone while standing on the pavement along 4th ave in Parkhurst.
• Regularly test your alarm and panic buttons with the Cortac Control Room, as well as upgrade and review your home security and electric fencing.
• We have a huge amount of false alarms (On average every 5 minutes  in Parkhurst over the last few months). Every alarm alert is responded to and the time taken and resources used means they cannot effectively patrol.
• With summer coming up, please properly trim your garden plants and tree branches that can lead to false electric fencing and beam alarms during storms.
• We also find that in addition to parking cars that are prone to being stolen in the streets, people also leave valuable or visible items in cars parked in the streets, leading to unnecessary break-ins that could have been avoided.
• Install a Digipad or key lock-box at home to enable Cortac to access your property in an emergency or security event (do not allow a security company to use a master key solution to gain access to your property, this can and does lead to security breaches).
• When you are driving or walking in our suburb, please be on the lookout for  any suspicious activity that seems unusual or out of place. Always remember: If you looked twice then call it in!

Cameras

Residents would have noticed new camera poles being installed throughout Parkhurst. These poles were installed by Vumacam (a Vumatel subsidiary). SafeParks have had lengthy negotiations with Vumacam and recently agreed the activation of  the first phase of camera poles by Vumacam, we hope that these will soon go live and then contribute to managing security in our suburb through this additional safety initiative.    

Car guard initiative

Parkhurst now has 39 car guards vetted by the SAPS, with photo IDs and Ukheshe accounts. The results thus far have been really positive, with numbers of crimes having declined significantly. Please support these registered car guards, rather than giving money to other unvetted car guards hanging around. We need some help in respect of addiction and other social problems. Are there any volunteers out there that could help? We also need help with scheduling / coordinating the car guards. Further details, including the scheme rules and application form are available here:

https://parkhurstvillage.com/projects/car-guard-initiative/. For more information, please contact Ryan Hawthorne: technical@parkhurstvillage.com.

Year-end donations for our Cortac patrolling guards:

We again this year want to  ask for contributions to a Christmas gift collection for all our loyal and dedicated Cortac guards. Thank you for those who so generously donated last year, the guards appreciated it so much. 

They provide such an outstanding and professional service to keep us all safe. We will appreciate if you are willing and able to contribute to this initiative so that we can hand them a deserving donation. Please bear in mind there are almost 30 guards on duty, as there are three shifts rotating over time. We thank you for any contribution you are willing to make:

 Please use the reference: Cortac guards
 Account name:  Parkhurst Residents and Business Owner’s Association (PRABOA)
Bank: Standard Bank
Branch: Jan Smuts Avenue
Branch code: 004205
Account number: 422263346

Deadline for contributions: Monday 2 December 2019

Parkhurst Recreation Centre timetable

Parkhurst Clinic – 0117881526/7
Parkhurst Library – 0117884510
Joburg Connect – 0860562874
Verity Park Swimming Pool – 0110251992
PRABOA – chair@parkhurstvillage.com

A Re Sebetseng – Bring It Back Home

Useful contacts for repairs (please sign up for Cllr Tim Truluck’s newsletter for more information):

• Small Potholes & Reinstatements (where another entity has dug it up and left it) – log with hotline@jra.org.za
• Blocked Kerb Inlet (stormwater drain) – log with hotline@jra.org.za
• Sidewalk a mess – you can try logging it with JRA as above, but they probably won’t fix it as they have limited budget and are really focussing on roads. If you can sort out this yourself, it would be a great help. Please try and keep it walkable with tar or brick paving.
• Weeds growing in kerbs? The city allocates very little money for what they call skoffeling – so please could you clean out the weeds yourself?
• Missing covers – this is a continual problem as they are always being stolen by metal thieves. Log them with hotline@jra.org.za and see what happens.
• Water leaks/leaking hydrants – log with customer@jwater.co.za
• Sewer blockages – log with customer@jwater.co.za
• Water meter damaged or blocked – please carefully dig around or remove earth clogging it up. If it is leaking or damaged – log with customer@jwater.co.za
• Street sign missing? Log with hotline@jra.org.za When they have stock they should replace it.
• Street markings faded? Log with hotline@jra.org.za. When they have stock of paint they should be able to repaint it.
• If there is trash dumped by yourself, please pick it up and put it into your trash bin, or take it to a Pikitup Garden Site like the one at Pirates. If someone has dumped the trash – have a look through it to see who dumped it and contact them to tell them to remove it. If that doesn’t work, then call 011-375-5555 option 4, to request Pikitup to collect it.
• Does the street tree need trimming? Are there dead branches? Log with 011-375-5555 option 0. Then send your councillor an email every 2 weeks with name. cell, address, ref #, date logged, problem – it usually takes a few months to sort out due to budget issues.
• Has your tree got shothole borer? Look for little holes, discoloured stains, sawdust collecting on the trunk, gum coming out from the trunk and branches, dead branches, discoloured leaves. Report it to trees@jhbcityparks.com. You can try and water it and feed it fertiliser to keep it strong. But certain trees like oaks, planes, box alders, Chinese maples, liquid ambers will probably die. Follow instructions in the point above to request for dead trees to be removed.
• Street Light out – log online with citypower.mobi. Include the exact address and pole number.
• No street number, or the number is on the wrong street (for corner houses) – please put up a number. This is especially important for emergency vehicles and for when cut-off teams from COJ go out.

Built environment, heritage and town planning
FAQ’s

PRABOA has lodged four objections to property developments in the past four months. Three of them were town planning objections, and the fourth was a building plan objection. A big thank you to Gabriela Seco and Catherine Grainger for working so hard on this.

Please submit your plans to PRABOA. Plans can be marked for the attention of Catherine Grainger and Gabriela Seco. Please note that the drop off and collection address for plan submissions will change. Please drop all plans off:

FAO Catherine Grainger and Gabriela Seco
Workshop 17,
10th Floor,
The Firestation,
16 Baker Street,
Rosebank

Please check the PRABOA website for details of all submission requirements and for upcoming Architecture Committee meeting dates. For all town planning and architecture related issues, please email architecture@parkhurstvillage.com

The plans review sub-committee has introduced a processing fee for building plan submissions of R1000. Submission documents must be accompanied by a printed proof of payment in order to be accepted for review by PRABOA. Please use your ERF number as the payment reference. Payments are to be made to PRABOA: 

Account name: Parkhurst Residents and Business Owner’s Association

Bank: Standard Bank
Branch: Jan Smuts Avenue
Branch code: 004205
Account number: 422263346
Account type: Cheque

PRABOA have engaged Eduard van der Linde as a Town Planning advisor to the Committee to assist with town planning and zoning issues in Parkhurst. Further information regarding the PRABOA submission process can be found here: 

https://parkhurstvillage.com/parkhurst/town-planning/ 

Catherine Grainger and Gabriela Seco head up the PRABOA Architecture portfolio. They will be handling all building plan submissions and heritage issues. They can be contacted at architecture@parkhurstvillage.com 

Verity Park

As always, a plea to park users: By not cleaning up after your dog, you are making the park an unpleasant place for others. Please be considerate and stay with your dog, cleaning up any deposit along the way..

If you would like to contribute to the fund that pays for the cleaning of the park, and the bags, please use the following information:

Verity Park User Group
Nedbank Greenside
Account number 1003267173
Branch code  198765

Internet

If you don’t manage to get sufficient support from your ISP please send an email to aerial@vumatel.co.za. You can also contact Ryan Hawthorne (technical@parkhurstvillage.com). We are currently looking for solutions for member management and community interaction for PRABOA / SafeParks / Parksec. Please get in touch with Ryan if you have any ideas on this.  

AGM 2018

You can find the YouTube video of the 2018 AGM and all of the PRABOA committee member reports here: https://parkhurstvillage.com/agm-2018

Leaving Parkhurst?

PRABOA is a Public Benefit Organisation and has to stick to SARS rules. Among these are NO REFUNDS. So we cannot reverse debits if you have already left!  

Please let us know as well as Cortac.  A simple email to admin@parkhurstvillage.com is all that is needed. Please send it in the first half of your last month. Then I will usually cancel you by return of email. If the cancellation comes after the debit order run has been loaded (often about 22 of each month) you cannot be refunded.

Cutting down on expenses?

If you want to save money by discontinuing SafeParks while continuing Cortac alarm monitoring, think carefully. The rate you pay Cortac is a reduced rate for SafeParks contributors. If you do not contribute to SafeParks, Cortac would charge around R900 per month, which is more than the combined rate of R799, which is why they don’t offer it. Cutting either of these might affect your insurance cover.