By Whitney Cox | [email protected]

Across the nation on Aug. 7, communities gathered to become familiar with each other in order to help make neighborhoods safer. In West Jordan, the community between 4000 West and 4800 West and as far south as 9000 South met at Teton Estates Park. Local restaurants provided food, and the community was able to enjoy a barbeque while getting to know each other and their city officials, such as Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams. 

In the same spirit of neighborhood safety and comradery, Dirk Burton, the Neighborhood Watch coordinator of this same area organizes a monthly “snack-n-stroll” as part of the Neighborhood Watch Program. It started as a neighborhood project and has been consistently taking place every summer for the past four years. 

On the second Saturday of every summer month, the community meets at Teton Estates Park. It is called a snack-n-stroll because most people are able to stroll directly to the park where snacks are provided. 

“It is an opportunity to get neighbors together to meet each other,” said Burton, also a West Jordan City Councilman. “Adults get to introduce themselves to each other, get to meet each other, find out where they live and find out who they are and what they do for work.” 

The idea behind a neighborhood watch is to help keep your neighbors safe, which is a difficult thing to do if you have never met them. 

“It’s just a way to know your neighbors, so if there’s something strange happening in the neighborhood, or normal, we can tell them apart,” said Burton. 

The second purpose of the snack-n-stroll is to increase safety through better understanding. 

“I review items to help increase security in our neighborhood and safety from things such as closing garage doors, turning on lights at night and how to avoid scams with telemarketers. If there is somebody we recognize from snack-n-stroll in the neighborhood, we know it’s OK for them to be there.”