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It only took one small event for Luke Bohlen to know that he’d had enough.

At his home on Heeler Avenue, he had seen several episodes of suspicious activity, and he had been a victim of vandalism. Esther Jacobson, who lived only a few houses down from Bohlen on Heeler Avenue, had also seen suspicious activity in her neighborhood, and had been a victim of a burglary six years earlier. The two neighbors knew of each other, and would wa ve to their neighbors when they saw them. But when Jacobson introduced herself to Bohlen and told him her concerns, he was ready to take action in his neighborhood.

“Esther coming to me showed me that someone else saw what was going on and wanted it reported,” Bohlen said. “That was the ‘that’s it’ moment for me. I was just like, ‘Wow. There is a theme and there are some issues here.’”

Bohlen and Jacobson agreed that they wanted to do something about crime in their neighborhood and they wanted to start to get to know their neighbors, so last spring they started the Heeler and Grandview Neighborhood Watch Program — the only neighborhood watch in Tomah — and with support from the city, they have started to see progress.

The neighborhood — which consists of a block of Heeler and Grandview Avenues, north of Veterans Avenue — encompasses over 80 households, including apartments. When Bohlen and Jacobson decided to look into putting together a neighborhood watch program, they went to the internet to find out how to get started. They also contacted Tomah Police Chief Wes Revels, and their alderman Ron Olsen.

“He has been very supportive of this,” Jacobson said of Revels. “(Revels) and the mayor (Ed Thompson) have been at our meetings. We have been supported not to be intimidated by calling the police.”

With the support of the city and police department, Bohlen and Jacobson started going door to door, recruiting members of their neighborhood. They handed out a flyer called, “Get to Know Your Neighbor.” Bohlen said that he was worried about the reception the idea of a neighborhood watch program might receive, but when the first meeting was held at the Bible Evangelical Free Church on April 5, he was pleasantly surprised.

“I was worried about the response,” Bohlen said. “The first meeting was just to get to know your neighbors, and the turnout was great. It can be tough to get involved in a movement that is good if you see or suspect wrong things going on around you. It is tough to invest and put your name out there. But the response was good. A lot of people said, ‘We have been waiting for this. I’ll be there.’”

The group has continued to hold monthly meetings and put out a monthly newsletter on the Heeler and Grandview Neighborhood Watch. Last week, several neighborhood watch street signs were put up in the neighborhood.

“One of our neighbors contributed the money for the signs,” Bohlen said. “We are making progress, and becoming a more friendly and happy group.”

The group has liaisons to address specific areas of the neighborhood watch program, including information, communication, social and buddy check liaisons. Bohlen said that a community room in the new Police Building may be able to be used for future meetings after it opens this fall.

Bohlen is a father of one, and a teaches World Cultures, Spanish and a drug and alcohol awareness class at Tomah Middle School. For him, making his neighborhood a better place to raise a family is a top priority.

“I am concerned about how kids in the neighborhood are growing up,” Bohlen said. “A lot of this is about what type of childhood memories I want my kids to have.”

Another goal of the neighborhood watch program is to try and improve the social environment of the neighborhood, and so far it has been working, Bohlen said. The group has held ice cream socials, will have a booth at the National Night Out at Winnebago Park in August, and planned a neighborhood block party for sometime in late August.

Mayor Ed Thompson has attended several Heeler and Grandview Neighbor Watch meetings, and he has been impressed with the attendance and the results of the city’s only watch program. It is something that he would like to see continue.

“It has already had a tremendous effect on their neighborhood, and they just seem to have developed a strong bond,” Thompson said. “I think it is a great idea, and I hope it catches on. It brings people close together, and for security reasons, it couldn’t be better.”

Into its third month of existence, Bohlen and Jacobson are excited about the neighborhood watch. Bohlen said that it has already made the neighborhood a safer and more lively place, and getting to know his neighbors has been advantageous in more ways than one.

“We have got some excellent neighbors, and we are becoming more friendly,” Bohlen said. “Once you get to know someone, it is easier to notice if something is wrong or out of place. We are committed to changes that will take us back to the time where people would go out at night and go for a walk and chat with their neighbor.”