Security Update (10 Oct 2008)

Dear All,

There's been some positive progress since my last email circular to all. It's now coming together and we can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. We had another meeting last night with the DJROA committee and am happy to report the following:

Firstly, Mr Yew Cheng Hoe has returned as Chairman of DJROA after much cajoling by the committee and the residents. Ms Tai (Secretary) and Mr Bernard (Treasurer) too have withdrawn their resignation and are back on the committee.

In addition, both Mr Lim Ann Liang and myself have been co opted into DJROA's EXCO committee. So we will now be your voice on issues related to our neighborhood. We hope to be able to help make this neighborhood a better and safer place for all of us to live in.

Mr Yew have come up with a new proposal, i.e. to use another security firm called Sri Lara Joint Security Services S/B a.k.a. Homeguards. Their credentials includes managing security services for housing projects in TTDI, Bukit Bandaraya, Kelana Jaya, Taman Mayang and Dataran Prima. Mr Yew is proposing to use one firm for the whole of DJ, if possible. The economies of scale will bring the cost down.

The advantage of this Homeguards is that they will undertake to collect the payments for the security services directly from all of you the residents. They will have a "marketing team" to go around to promote and sign up the residents into the scheme. They will provide security guards 24/7 stationed at the key entry/exit points as per our earlier proposal. With this scheme, it in a way solves the problem of DJROA having to manage a huge amount of money collected from the residents for the security services which has been the stumbling block all along.

DJROA have also agreed to open a separate bank account for our zone which is what we've been pushing for all the while. We will manage the funds collected from all of you for our section of the neighborhood's security use. What that means is that you will be required to make 2 payments, one to the security firm for the guards services and the second payment to DJROA for the infrastructure cost (DJROA membership, boomgates, guardhouse, etc) which will be managed by us, the zone's sub committee to DJROA. Exactly how much to be paid we will need to work it out and will get back to you. It is in all our interest to keep cost low.

Next steps is we are meeting up with Homeguards this Saturday at 4.00pm for further discussion on the services that they can offer to us. We will negotiate the best possible deal. We will get them to give us a final proposal which I will share with all of you. We will also work out the estimated infrastructure cost and will let you know how much to pay to DJROA. We hope to have at least the security guards running around by November. Boomgates and guard houses will follow.

So it looks like there will be a happy ending soon. I'm very happy that DJROA is playing an active role in helping to solve the security issues of our neighborhood and for the whole of DJ. Kudus to them.

Looks like some major hurdles have been resolved. Please continue to have patience. We are all hoping to get this moving ASAP. I look forward to positive support from all of you soon.

Thank you.