By Bill Forry

Watch out, phone tree; your days are numbered.

E-mail, once just a blip on the screen, has finally become the favored tool of civic activists in all corners of Dot. And a new pilot program set to launch this month will put its crime-fighting powers to the test.

Residents in Columbia-Savin Hill will be the first to try out out the "E-lert" system, an e-mailed summary that will go out regularly to keep residents abreast of the latest incidents. The pilot program will limit its scope to four "preventable" crimes - auto theft, vandalism, and auto and house breaks. The program will run for six months, at which point it will be evaluated for its effectiveness- and if it works- it's likely to be expanded.

Savin Hill's Bill Walczak came up with the idea last year and teamed up with Area C-11 Captain Tom Lee, the Reporter, and UMass Boston's Emerging Leader Program to scope it out locally. Walczak, who runs the Codman Square Health Center, says the experiment is aimed at helping residents stayed informed in as close to "real-time" as possible.

"As an example, a few years ago, a number of houses in Savin Hill were broken into, and it wasn't clear until a few weeks after the break-ins that in fact an individual was hitting houses in a few streets, and that each break was done by jimmying a screen on a first floor of a house during a hot spell in which people did not close and lock their first floor windows," Walczak explains. "Had people known that this was happening, maybe they would have locked their windows and prevented several break ins."

The incidents will be tabulated based on daily police logs which are already provided to the Reporter by Captain Lee, whose officers will also use the system to send out crime-prevention tips and other C-11 related news. And, in the event of a crime emergency, Captain Lee will be able to send out a special e-mail notice to the list.

People who live in Area C-11 and would like to try out the E-lert system should send their name, street address and e-mail address to E-Lert@hspnetwork.org.

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District Four councilman Charles Yancey will be pleased to hear that his erstwhile challenger, Ego Ezedi, has elected to take a new post with Boston University. Ezedi, who has been working for the Democratic National Committee since losing to Yancey in a heated city council race last November, has been named director of external affairs at BU's Medical Center.

The Milton Ave. resident will "develop and coordinate Boston University's community resources agenda and the medical center's outreach activities with external constituencies," according to a statement from the university.

"I am committed to representing Boston University to the many neighborhoods and communities interested in and affected by it. I pledge to work hard to maintain Boston University's commitment to its neighbors and to enhance further dialogue between the institution and its neighbors," Ezedi said in a press release on Wednesday.

Ezedi, who made his political chops working as a community liaison for Eighth district Rep. Mike Capuano, remains an associate minister at Morning Star Baptist Church and is active on the boards of Sportsmen's Tennis Club, the Roxbury YMCA and was recently named as the president of the board for Codman Square Health Center.