Armed with flashlights and clipboards, Ames residents sought out “anything that might make someone feel unsafe” Monday, Oct. 15, in Campustown.

Conditions were nearly perfect at 7 p.m. as those Ames residents gathered at Fire Station No. 2 on Welch Avenue to canvas the area through a safety walk.

The participants broke off in eight groups to cover Sheldon Avenue to Beach Avenue, and Storm to Lincoln Way (typically in sections of three or four blocks) in an attempt to identify potential threats, such as burnt-out streetlamps, faded crosswalks, buildings with hard-to-see addresses, overgrown trees and tripping hazards.

“The whole point of the walk is an effort to improve safety and strengthen the Campustown neighborhood,” said Naimah Saadiq, community resource officer for the Ames Police Department.

The Campustown safety walk, which has been an annual event for at least eight years and typically has 20 to 25 people turn out, made a bigger effort to reach out to residents and businesses of the area, which encounter the problems being addressed at the safety walk on a daily basis.

“I love Ames; I’ve lived here for four years,” said Marquise Jones, senior in political science, who pointed out the lack of lighting on Welch Avenue. “[I’m] just trying to make it safe.”

The walk was done this week as opposed to later in the fall, when the trees would have lost their leaves and left everything bare, because the residents would be incapable of recognizing areas with an obstructed view.

The event was hosted by the city of Ames, with officials present from several different departments, including the Ames Police, city manger’s office, electric services, public works, city assessors and fire departments. The officials were split up to represent their departments in different groups so they could take the community feedback back to their respective offices.

The student aspect of the safety walk was coordinated by Government of the Study Body member Sawyer Baker, senior in political science and city council liaison, whose job entailed getting the word out to students to increase participation.

“Students should care about their safety, and the city sometimes needs direction on how students perceive their safety. It’s a nice way for students to work with people in the community,” Baker said. “The city does take it very seriously.”

Brian Phillips, management analyst in the city manager’s office, coordinated the city department for the event.

“It is a good opportunity for residents, business owners, and students to interact and improve the safety of the community. The event also really helps us as City staff, since it would be difficult to identify so many of these safety concerns without public involvement,” Phillips said. “This event helps identify a large number of lamps that are burned out all at once in an area that has high pedestrian traffic.”

GSB’s University Affairs committee also had a campus safety walk Tuesday, Oct. 9th, which is an annual event as well. The campus safety walk split into three groups to cover the business to Central Campus, engineering to Central Campus and Union Drive to Central Campus areas, said GSB Sen. Michael Plantenberg, member of the University Affairs committee and sophomore in aerospace engineering.

Officials were in consensus that there is a direct relation between resident input and potential changes in the Campustown area. Students wishing to be involved with the Campustown safety walk will have the ability to do so next fall.