Minutes of July 25^th WGNA Meeting

The July 25^th meeting of the West Garland Neighborhood Association was held in the First Christian Church, Garland.  The meeting was called to order by President Ricardo Rocha at 7 PM.  He led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.  The motion was made and accepted to approve the previous minutes.  The secretary being absent, the current minutes were being taken by Dorothy McAllister.  The treasurer’s report was presented later as the treasurer was not yet present.  Dianna Diaz announced the treasury was at $475.81.  She further resigned as Treasurer to pursue her college degree.  Member Robert Vera, who had volunteered before for the job, offered his services again and was quickly nominated to fill the position and voice voted into office.  Dianna and Robert will work this Saturday with Ellen Fong to get signatures of authorization to handle the account.

The guest speakers were three policemen of the Garland Police Department (Officer Mallison, Officer Garcia and Officer Doctor) to update the members on the current status of crime in the area..  It was noted that home burglaries were down but there was a marked increase in business burglaries and strong-armed robberies, mostly in areas around Forest Lane and Walnut Lane.  Individual members highlighted their area problems and the officers and Councilwoman Dodson answered their concerns and concluded there were no quick fixes.  She also mentioned that Officer Mallison was Police Officer of the Year in Garland.

Old Business: Ken Agee mentioned the need to get more information out in bilingual form.  We have many nationalist in the neighborhood and just offering crime watch hints and code news in one other language (Spanish) would increase effectiveness.  Fran Brown mentioned the success with this in crime awareness.   Robert Vera mentioned it would be nice to have translators for a speaker or two.

The last meeting mentioned the possibility of another cleanup session before school started, however it was felt there wasn’t time to hold an indoctrination session before school starts so it was tabled for a later date.

New Business:  Ricardo Rocha suggested handing out New Neighbor packets to people who move into a neighborhood so they can find city services and solutions to problems they may encounter.  Suggestion was that there already was a packet available from the city that covers the same ground.  Several people volunteered to call and see what was available.

The National Night Out was the last piece of new business.  The date is Tuesday, October 1^st.  A site is needed for the WGNA NNO.  Suggestion was made to try to get the park we had last year.  The First Christian Church where we hold out meetings was another site with the possibility of having the firemen next door there as well to keep things moving.  Hollenbaugh Center was also mentioned but several felt the parking would be a problem as it was limited.  A signup sheet was passed around for volunteers and work continues to firm up a site and see what kind of permits would be needed for each.

Fran Brown mentioned she was part of the Garland Citizen Police Academy Handicap Patrol and had a session on what kind of signs could be taken down as illegal and turned in to earn 50 cents a piece to provide income to WGNA.  She also mentioned that the Handicap Patrol issued tickets to folks parking in handicap spaces ($500 a ticket) so don’t do it.   Ricardo said he would check the sign collection out as a possible steady source of income.

The motion to adjourn was made and seconded and Ricardo adjourned the meeting at 8:14 PM.

Submitted by Dorothy McAllister

Acting for Secretary Lesley Henry