INDIANOLA — As residents filled the Indianola Clubhouse Tuesday night, talking and calling to fellow neighbors, everyone seemed to know each other. Dogs greeted each other in a friendly manner, everyone was asking about family members, gardens and friends. The only problem is, they don’t know everyone who uses their beach.

For the most part, Indianola residents live in a happy, friendly place, full of cheerful neighbors. The topics for the town safety meeting, however, revolved around noise, traffic and public misuse of the private Indianola Beach.

“I lived in Indianola 20 years ago,” said keynote speaker Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer, noting that even then, the area was full of community feeling. “Places with a sense of community seem to be the safest places.”

Residents, however, organized the Tuesday evening meeting with Boyer and a few other law enforcement officials, including Suquamish Police Chief Mike Lasnier, to air their concerns.

“This meeting was really informative,” said Kate Tucker, one of about 30 Indianola residents in attendance. “The residents have real concerns about the beach and dangerous debris.”

One of the bigger issues was fireworks, especially since Fourth of July is coming up.

Many residents were upset because a lot of people start setting fireworks off well before and after Independence Day. Instead of just one night of fireworks, its a whole month, they agreed.

“I think we’re being proactive,” said Indianola resident Bob Thurston. “We were able to address the fireworks concerns.”

Along with fireworks concerns was the issue that the private beach is becoming increasingly abused, with visitors not picking up their trash.

“The beach has been allowed, over the years, to be used as a public beach,” said Boyer. “The dock is public, and the stairs down to the beach are as well. This is a tricky situation. As a community, you shouldn’t tolerate these problems. You will get resistance if you work to get rid of these problems. But it will be better.”

Also on the list of concerns were public intoxication, traffic and speeding. Though the meeting covered all of these issues, and the residents brought up many points, no decisions were made how to deal with the concerns.

“The crime rate in the last six years is down,” Lasnier said. “Thank God issues are fireworks and litter, and not something more serious.”

“Chief Lasnier said we are a lucky community,” Thurston said. “We have a low crime rate, and we are lucky. We just need these problems to be taken care of as well.”