A new Neighborhood Block Watch group will be starting up in the upper Wishkah Valley “in the very near future,” said Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office Chief Criminal Deputy Steve Shumate.

“Kay Busz and Rose Anderson from the upper Wishkah Valley have been working hard on getting the group started,” said Shumate. “We had our first organizational public meeting and it was very well attended. I expect this group to go online by next month.”

That makes a total of 10 Neighborhood Block Watch groups in the county, said Shumate. He will be giving Grays Harbor Emergency Management Deputy Director Chuck Wallace block watch brochures and sign-up sheets for the 10 groups, where people who live in those areas can volunteer their time to take on crime in their own neighborhoods.

Wallace will have those sign-up sheets and brochures at the emergency preparedness expo at the Rotary Log Pavilion in Aberdeen Saturday, Oct. 7, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is free, family-oriented and will feature information from West Coast Search Dogs, Community Emergency Response Team, the National Weather Service, Grays Harbor County Public Health, the American Red Cross, State Emergency Management and more.

The event will have interactive booths, child ID fingerprinting, disaster cooking demonstrations and emergency response vehicles on display.