A regular meeting of the members of the Roselawn Community Council was held on January 9, 2003, at 7:30 p.m., at Our Mothers of Sorrows.

President Paul Probst called the meeting to order. Several new attendees introduced themselves, including a representative from City Council member David Crowley's office and Morag Adlon from the City of Cincinnati's Department of Community Development.

Upon a motion by Maureen Royle and a second, the minutes of the December 2002 meeting of the members were approved with a minor change in punctuation for clarification.

Capt. Mueller reported 84 runs during the month of November, discussed training being provided to firefighters and announced that the Safe Summer Nights program, in which smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are installed by firefighters, would occur again in the spring.

Spec. Charles Dukes recognized the efforts in 2002 of a number of RCC members in preventing crime in Roselawn, including Dan Joyner, Reggie Boggs, Roy Jones, Ed Moser and Cindy Shafer. Among the items he reported were that we had no bank robberies in 2002; we had a lot of attention by the media to robberies of our Russian immigrant residents, and a number of efforts have been made to assist our Russian residents in avoiding becoming victims; and weapons are being confiscated at a record pace. He provided crime statistics and answered questions from residents about particular criminal or suspicious activities occurring in the neighborhood.

Paul Probst and Cindy Shafer announced a number of events that might be of interest to Roselawn residents.

Cindy Shafer discussed a new fund included in the City's biennial budget that will provide grants to communities for projects designed to make neighborhoods more safe and clean. Although the guidelines and application forms have not yet been prepared, she suggested that Roselawn start thinking at this time about possible projects.

Business: Roy Jones talked about the need for Roselawn residents to support Roselawn businesses and asked those present why they do not support our businesses more than we do. Those present brought up, among other matters, the inferiority of the Kroger store, the unappealing appearance of many Roselawn businesses, the lack of advertising, inconvenient hours and insufficient lighting in the business district. Roy Jones and Ed Moser also talked about good news in the business district, including the improvements in the Valley Shopping Center, the fact that the library is getting ready to sign a new lease and the anticipated arrival of a Save-A-Lot grocery store. The owners have also purchased the Sunoco located on Reading Road in Reading.

Education: Leonard Kirschner announced that the LSDMC for Roselawn Condon School would be meeting the following week on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. and that mentors are needed.

Law & Safety: Reggie Boggs discussed the upcoming Law & Safety Committee meeting, the need for more members, and the desire to form more block watches. Chik Fung expressed interest in a block watch in the Castleton Place area, and Maureen Royle and Ruby Metts indicated they would work with Reggie to start a block watch in the Bluefield Place area.

Litter: Gary Moffett announced a January 22 meeting of the Litter Committee and the date for the 2003 Great American Cleanup.

Membership: Ruby Metts asked each person present to sign up and bring a new member.

Newsletter: Sonya Kirkland announced that a newsletter would be sent to print soon and asked for last minute submissions.

Website: Steve Kirschner stated that the website is under construction, with the help of a designer.

Youth: Dan Joyner discussed the change in the youth of Roselawn that has been noted by our staff members. The Youth Committee is going to try to pull together people representing various elements of Roselawn and from various organizations working with Roselawn to determine how to deal with the changing youth population.

There being no further business to come before the members, upon a motion made and seconded, the meeting was adjourned.

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Cynthia A. Shafer, Secretary