We continued with a report from Ofc. Juan Rios who let us know that we are having problems in the area with burgleries both in houses and vehicles. The police are aware of the situation, so there will be an absence of marked police cars because unmarked cars are cruising the area in hopes of catching someone in the act. Most of the house breakins occur during the day, but the vehicle crimes are at night. Again, we are making it easy by not locking doors and rolling up windows. Taking these precautions can deter a breakin. The total burgleries for January is 32. They did arrest a man, caught in the act, that might be responsible for at least 50-100 burgleries of vehicles. That could clear up half the cases. Shirley Stealey took this opportunity to talk about Crime Watch. Commissioner Beam Furr took his turn and showed the map of the neighborhood we marked with smiley faces to show where Crime Watch participants are located. We want to fill that map with smiley faces. He reminded us about CrimeView on line where you can check on crimes in your area. Another suggestion was a bike ride through the neighborhood. It would be an all day excursion checking for problems in the area, but at the end of the day, we would have a report to give to code and police, so some of those problems can be taken care of....especially sidewalks. We learned that soon people will not be allowed to park on the swale in front of your house unless you give them permission. There will be a $25 fine if no permission is given.

Moving on, Code Officer Mary Adderly is filling in tonight. To answer a question asked earlier, she let us know that you can go on line to learn about code violations. She also let us know that our code officer quit, but our area is being covered by Jim McGee and others. He wanted her to remind us not to put anything out before pickup time. That is one of the major violations for this area. For those unemployed, Broward County has a program to assist those that need help. To contact your Code Officer, it's best to email them. A question was asked why we have such a turn over of code officers. Beam said the budget has a lot to do with it. A discussion followed about illegal dumping.

Old/new business Shirley mentioned the Angel Food Network where you can order food at a very good price. We'll try to get it going at the Baptist church.

Treasurer Cheryl Roker reported that we started January with a total of $ 1,324.47. Seven people paid membership dues which came to $84 giving us a total of $1,409.47.

Our special speaker is Alice DeEmilio from public works. Alice was a great help to us in our tree planting projects. Without her, they probably wouldn't have been as successful. She let us know that there is a tree sale every month at David Park for a very reasonable price. She gave us much information on gardening such as composting and recommending certain products to use as well as giving us a handout which tells what vegetables to plant, when to plant and harvest. She answered questions from the audience.

Chris then conducted the raffle and the meeting was adjourned.