Chief Elena Danishevskaya

Dear Friends,

We are writing you this letter as an entire department to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.  This greeting card is a result of our First Annual Holiday Greeting Card Contest where 98 students from Patterson and Holly Elementary Schools participated, and our staff chose the winner.

This year, the winner is Trevor Henke from Patterson Elementary School's fifth grade class.  Trevor and a friend of his choosing will receive a trip to McDonalds, (compliments of Chief).  We hope you enjoy the card, and we thought we would also give you some updates from the police department and include some crime tips to keep you safe during this holiday season.

Chief Elena Danishevskaya and ...

 
As your Chief of Police, I have established clear goals for our police department.  My number one goal and priority is to keep you and my staff safe and informed about what is going on in the village.  I want to ensure you know what we are doing to keep you safe and give you an opportunity to become involved!!!   

As your Police Department, we want to communicate with you in the best manner to ensure that you receive information from us which is related to emergency situations (timely information can save lives), traffic (blocked streets), events in the village, press releases, community outreach, and information which can impact the safety of you and your family.  There are several ways we are doing this.  

First, is via our website at www.hollypolice.com .   Dispatcher Freda Irish has done a wonderful job in ensuring that up-to-date information is posted there.  Second is via the Chief’s facebook (send a friend request to Elena Danishevskaya) page.  Third is through www.nixle.com.  Nixle allows you to sign up for any important safety, emergency alert/press release information which comes out from the Police Department and so that you can be up-to-date of the activities that the department is engaged in.  You may receive the information as a text message, an email or both.  We are also looking for volunteers who will help us in our reach out to the community.  This will not involve a lot of time, but we encourage anyone with a few free hours per month to contact us. Contact our Dispatch Coordinator Dawn Bott by phone or via email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Also, about four times per year, I will be posting a letter such as this one on our website.  If you would like to receive it directly from us, please send Dawn Bott an email.   

The village should be really proud of the police officers and dispatchers that we have.  They are professional, empathetic, and efficient.  We strive to ensure that our customer service is the best in Oakland County!  On a personal note, I am a hands-on Chief, so often you will see me out and about.  Many times you will see me off duty as well.  I encourage you that when you see me around the village (on duty, or off duty with my little man – my 2 year old bull dog named Six-pack) please stop and say hi.  I really enjoy speaking with our residents and business owners and learning first-hand about your concerns.       

During this holiday season, we want to ensure that you are safe and secure.  Here are some tips to keep you safer from our Investigator Julie Bemus:


-    When storing items purchased at stores in your vehicle, place them out of sight. The best place is a locked trunk. Also, do not store your purse, cellular phone or any other items of value in plain view. This can make your vehicle the target of a break-in! And most importantly of all, LOCK YOUR DOORS!

-    Carry only what you need and avoid carrying large amounts of cash.

-    Criminals may look to steal items in bags from the "fancy stores" so store expensive items in nondescript bags if possible.

-    Park in well-lit areas and be aware of your surroundings. Always have your keys ready before you walk out of a store to your vehicle.

-    Store wallets, cash, credit cards in a front pants pocket or interior coat pocket to avoid becoming the victim of a pick-pocket.

-    Keep your purse with you at all times, and don't leave it in a shopping cart, even for a moment.

-    After the holidays, don't display new purchases by placing the boxes for expensive items at the roadside for garbage pickup. Instead, break down the boxes and place them in a garbage bag for   removal.

A year ago, after being appointed to the Investigator’s position, Investigator Bemus initiated a series of monthly investigator meetings with area investigators.  As a direct result of those meetings and sharing information, several significant cases have been solved.  One of those was a Breaking and Entering ring which went from the village of Holly to Genesee and Lapeer Counties.  Two subjects are currently serving up to 45 years for their crimes.  

This summer, the village was hit hard with thieves who stole property from vehicles.  In almost all cases, those vehicles were left unlocked.  The police department responded aggressively with special details aimed at catching these thieves in action.  In many cases, citizens like you play a huge role in helping us solve crimes.  In one case, a citizen who was aware of the larcenies, called us when he observed a subject attempting to open vehicle doors in a lot.  The suspect was subsequently arrested and charged.  In another case, a parent found items which her son had that did not belong to him and called us to report it.  Many items were found and linked to larcenies in Holly and the surrounding areas.  We applaud and thank the witness and parent who called us about these crimes.

We have an outstanding Dispatch Center.  The dispatcher who coordinates all activities in the Dispatch Center is Dispatcher Bott.  We believe that our Dispatch Center is the best in the County.  We believe this because we have outstanding staff who enjoy talking with our residents and helping solve concerns. We are here for you in times of emergency, and at any other time you need us.  Some of our services include house checks for our residents who will be out of town, welfare checks on handicapped, disabled, or elderly, free lockouts, crime prevention information, free child seat inspections, salvage inspections ($100 fee), firearms registration, garage sale permits, and Operation Medicine Cabinet, a community program for the disposal of unwanted prescription medications.

Our Communication Center has four full-time and three part-time dispatchers. All of them have extensive training which exceeds the Recommended Standards for Public Safety Telecommunications in Michigan. The majority our training funding is provided by the state of Michigan through the Emergency Telephone Service Committee.

Just this month, Holly Dispatch Center underwent a site review by the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services or CAAS.  CAAS is an independent commission that established a comprehensive series of standards for the ambulance service industry.  CAAS accreditation signifies that our service has met the "gold standard" determined by the ambulance industry to be essential in a modern emergency medical services provider. These standards often exceed those established by state or local regulation. We are extremely proud of our dispatch center, as this month we expect to receive CAAS Accreditation.  Upon receiving the CAAS Accreditation it means that our Dispatch Center has exceeded the national standards. The Holly PD Dispatch Center will be the 1st Fire Department Dispatch in Michigan to receive this accreditation.   

We want to thank you for your support over the years as we ask for your feedback on ways we can improve our services and our outreach to the community.  We continually look for ways to build relationships within the village and enhance our services to you.  

Sincerely,
Chief Elena Danishevskaya
Holly Police Department

George Kullis

Holly taxpayers need to look at all we own – yes, I said all we own. Our tax dollars have been used to purchase all the buildings our local governments use – the village office building, the township office building, the library, the police and fire departments, the Department of Public Works buildings and several other properties owned by these entities.

We the taxpayers also pay to maintain them, and while we the taxpayers own them, they’re not on the tax rolls bringing in revenue. And while they do provide an important service to our community, the question should be raised, are these specific buildings serving us economically, and are we using all the properties that we own? Typically, we buy a bigger home as our family grows and then downsize when the kids leave the nest. The goal of our local governments seems to be to keep the status quo regardless of the expense.

The time has come for taxpayers to get involved in local, state and national governments. We are all responsible for our own finances and if we choose to ignore them, we could lose everything we own. So why do so many people choose to ignore local government and its finances? When they are mismanaged, we all have to pay to cover the mistakes – as in the recent increase in water bills. Government will create another tax or surcharge, or increase fees to cover the deficit, and we all must pay it as it is our responsibility.

There was an initiative started some time ago by past members of the Holly Village Council in which they began looking at an alternative for the village office building. A feasibility study was done and presented to the Village Council. It was received with mixed emotions with the current Village President deeming it to be unrealistic, and declaring that it was not likely that anyone would be willing to invest that kind of money in Holly – after all, he said, it’s not like we’re Bloomfield Hills or Birmingham.  This statement was made at the very same time two young entrepreneurs were doing just that – investing in Holly by creating the BlackThorn Pub. Since then, we have seen an investment explosion in downtown Holly.

Another concern noted by the Village President was that he feared that the village government wouldn’t have any place to put all their "staff and stuff,” in the interim of selling the village office and finding new office space. Meanwhile, potentially suitable taxpayer-owned buildings sit empty.

Pressure remained on the Village President and other members of council to continue looking into this topic. Eventually, the president created an ad-hoc committee to do just that.

Over the past several months, this committee has looked at several alternative locations for the purpose of relocating the village offices. One of those locations is the former Sherman Middle School on N. Holly Road. This facility offers the taxpayers of the Holly area an opportunity to consolidate services in one building, and to put several buildings back on the tax rolls. Additionally, operating costs could be reduced for all parties involved.

Economic development in the downtown area is crucial to our community. The village and township buildings are prime real estate and would serve as a catalyst to more development in the downtown area.

We the voters are responsible for whom we elect and the job they do, so shouldn’t we monitor what they do? If we can cut expenses, increase revenue for the Holly Area Schools, and then ask different entities to come to the table and look at possibly consolidating or downsizing as so many in the private sector are doing, then isn’t that the responsible thing to do? Shouldn’t it be met with an open mind by our elected officials?

Sincerely,
George Kullis
Village of Holly

Olha Dunbar

HOLLY, Michigan - Like most volunteers, Phil Long, and Don and Barb Standridge are reticent to speak about themselves as volunteers as they would rather talk about the focus of their passion for service – Christmas in Action.

Long, 46, has lived most of his life in Holly, and, over the years,  has volunteered in many service projects.  “I think if you help other people, your own problems look pretty small,” he said. Long pointed out that the focus of Christmas in Action is to help low income elderly and disabled people live in their own homes as long as possible. “They have leaky roofs, or plumbing that doesn’t work, or a bathroom that they can’t use, how do you live like that?”

Realizing the impact of his actions on the recipient, Long said,  is the true reward in working for CIA. “People need to stop and think, ‘I can do that – I can help someone today.’”

Kent Barnes, Superintendent fo...

Please know some local community teenagers are trying a new experience: ingesting/inhaling/smoking incense. Yes, incense! To say this practice is idiotic is being kind. One local individual's recent experience nearly cost a life.

More information will be forthcoming soon regarding this new activity from local law enforcement and the Holly Community Coalition. Please make your teenagers aware of the inherent dangers in ingesting/inhaling/smoking incense alone or with a combination of other ingredients.

Let's make this holiday season a pleasant one, not a season in which someone has to be hospitalized, or worse, for a senseless action such as described above.
Thanks so much!

Kent Barnes

Superintendent, Holly Area Schools