On Jan. 22, the Ruby Hill Association held their monthly meeting at Garden Park Church, 1755 S. Zuni Street. In spite of the cold weather, over twenty residents were in attendance. Jan Marie Belle, the association president, administered the meeting. The meeting started at 6:45 PM.

The first speakers were Anna Valdez and Amelinda M. Whitley from Denver Permit and Inspection Services. This is the department that follows up on zoning code complaints, such as snow removal, weeds, trash and other items that may have an ordinance or zoning law. They spoke on how the department works and how to file a complaint or problem. They can be called directly or the 311 number can be used to alert them on an issue. It was interesting to find out that they are complaint oriented. That is, they receive enough complaints to keep them more than busy; they do not have time to go out into the neighborhoods to find violations. Therefore, if you have an issue, be sure to call or they will more than likely not be aware of the problem.

The next speakers were Officer Tucker and his partner from the Denver Police Department. We were informed to expect heavier traffic around Ruby Hill because of The Ruby Hill Rail Yard event. The Mexico Street entrance has been re-opened temporally for the rail yard. However, patrols have been increased to discourage cruising. In addition to Ruby Hill, he informed us that mobile cameras would become available for high graffiti areas. This technology is another tool to alert the police and possibly apprehend the graffiti offenders.

Valerie Kerns, Councilman Chris Nevitt's aide was in attendance. She told us that council is working on some new graffiti deterrents and a broken window program is going to be started in the Athmar Park area. Also, we were reminded about the Evans Street Light Rail station planning project on Jan. 24 at 6:00 PM, John Collins Church, 2320 S. Bannock St.

Mark Ferrandino, the State Representative for house District 2, was there to introduce himself and gave us information on how he could be contacted if needed.

Steve Johnson, the association VP was the final speaker. He had about ten e-mails he passed around from various organizations like Parks and Rec., Xcel Energy on street lights, and others I can't remember. After that we had refreshments and the meeting ended around eight o'clock.