There were about 30 at the April Broad Ripple Village Association (BRVA) meeting that was held at the Indianapolis Art Center (IAC). As a reminder, the May meeting will be held in the large shelter house at Broad Ripple Park. Meetings are on the 3rd Tuesday of the month.

Vice President Chad Fallis called the meeting to order. He announced that president Ellen Morley Matthews was out of town and that executive director Brad Hopper was home with his new baby, Avery.

The first agenda item was the IPD report by Ben Hunter. Chief Benton's assistant Valerie Cunningham filled in for Ben, because he also has a new baby, Emily. Valerie distributed the north district police statistics. She then answered several questions on topics of vandalism and car break-ins. "It is important to report anything suspicious," explained Valerie. "Even small crimes, like something stolen from a car, need to be reported. We have criminologists that compile all of these statistics and use them to find trends. These statistics are used to determine how many officers are assigned to the districts."

The non-emergency phone number for IPD is 327-3811. The dispatcher that answers this line also answers the 911 line, but the 911 calls get priority. Valerie said if the crime is a minor one it can be reported directly to the north district by calling 327-6100.

Next on the agenda was Jack Clark from the Marion County Health Department. Jack is in the Indiana Vector Control Association, which I learned means mosquitoes and rats. He explained that there are several factors in the Broad Ripple area that contribute to rats. There is a very high density of bars and restaurants, each with a dumpster. There is the "food" thrown to the ducks on the canal. "A lot of what is fed to the ducks is not duck food," explained Jack. "What the ducks don't eat becomes dinner for the rats. Rats will eat anything."

Jack shows a excerpt of a video from a rat laboratory study. It showed how persistent rats are when it comes to food. If you want to talk about rats, call Jack at 221-7588.

Next on the agenda was Sarah Graub from Keep Indianapolis Beautiful, Inc. (KIBI). Sarah discussed the recent clean-up programs sponsored by KIBI. "The Great American Clean-up was a couple of weeks ago," said Sarah. "We supplied bags, gloves, dumpsters, and refreshments." Groups can call Sarah at 264-7555 x106 between April and October to schedule a clean-up.

Sarah also described Operation My Town. OMT is a litter control program where a block signs up with KIBI, receives the supplies needed for an initial clean-up, and then receives a cleanliness score at the end of the program. If a block maintains a good score, houses on that block will receive flats of flowers the following spring.

"We need lots of volunteers to make our beautification programs run," said Sarah. "You can go to kibi.org to see our volunteer newsletter and calendar of events."

Last on the agenda was Mark Demerly and Linda Shikany with a presentation of the new cultural district website - discoverbroadripplevillage.com. There will be ten television advertisements during May to promote the districts.

Chad said that there were no pending zoning issues. He mentioned that Gary Thrapp's petition to develop the steel tower was denied. Chad adjourned the meeting at 8:30. The next meeting is at Broad Ripple Park, May 17 at 7pm.