Southeast Action Forum meeting 4/4

The Southeast Action Forum meeting of April 4th, 2007 minutes:

The meeting was called to order at 7:05pm. Sandra presided over the meeting, in place of Richard Nichols (president) who was unable to make it due to illness.

7 members and 3 new members were in attendance.

First item: Myhometownhelper.com update. Myhometownhelper.com is funded by Hamburger Helper/General Mills as a way to give back to the community through grants for public works to enrich and assist communities across the country. The Roanoke City Police Department has asked for a grant of $4,000 to provide materials to clean up graffiti; including a pressure washer, paint, and brushes. Many members and neighborhood people have already volunteered to remove the problem of graffiti in conjunction with the project. Myhometownhelper.com chooses which communities receive the requested grant by judging local support, and we are proud to say that as of today (4/5) over 30 people have left comments supporting the project.

2nd item: Police action update.
Officer Rodgers of the Roanoke City Police gave the members an update on recent police actions in the neighborhoods represented by the Forum. 3 houses in Southeast Roanoke were raided for drug-related reasons in the past few weeks. There was talk of a 4th house, but information was not available at that time.

A new policing effort will be commencing in the very near future - with patrols running down 9th st., and 2 blocks on either side of it. The Roanoke City Police are making a concerted effort as a show of force for those who think that because they are not directly on a main road - they have free reign over the area.

Speaker: Joy Sylvester-Johnson - Executive Director of The Rescue Mission of Roanoke
Mrs. Sylvester-Johnson spoke about upcoming events at the Rescue Mission, and the pending purchase of some (not all) of the Foursquare Church's property. She asked the Forum if they would support the Rescue Mission in it's asking the city to rezone part of the property for commercial projects. Those in attendance found the idea amenable and will be writing a letter of support to the City Zoning Board shortly.

3rd Item: Neighborhood information
Officer Rodgers of the Roanoke City Police informed us that he has been in contact with the Postmaster General for Roanoke exploring the possibility of a small "leased-space" Post Office here in Southeast. There is a good chance we will have more news on this in the near future.
He also reminded us about the Roanoke City Police's Rape Prevention Seminars upcoming downtown at the Police Department Headquarters, and members of the Forum will be investigating bringing some of the classes to the substation in the near future.

Open Session:
A member of the community brought forth some new information for the Roanoke Police on a convicted sexual offender living nearby. The police took note of the information, and will be investigating further.

Discussion and preliminary voting on action for Neighborhood Month, when all of Roanoke's neighborhoods will be celebrating. Options for the Forum for Neighborhood Month were discussed, debated, and tentatively agreed upon.

Other, lighter topics were tossed around and discussed.

The Meeting was called at 9:00pm. The next general meeting will be May 2nd, 2007.

Then the desserts showed up. You'll have to come down yourself to find out what kind.