There were about 55 in attendance at the November Ravenswood meeting held at the Glendale Christian Church at 1788 Haynes Avenue [BB29 on map]. There was a large table of snacks including a tray of chicken strips donated by the recently opened Chick-fil-A north of Glendale Town Center.

Chief Malone of the Indianapolis Fire Department was at the meeting with a box of smoke detectors available for attendees. Chief Malone spoke about the open burning laws. He was asked about a rumor to close station 21. Chief Malone said that is no talk about closing it or any of the 44 stations.

Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Hanson spoke of the terrible heroin problem in the area. There have been several drug-related deaths and recently 2 people were discovered in the church parking lot that had overdosed. Sgt. Hanson said that the recent increase in overdoses is a result of new cheaper and stronger drugs available.

There were several very frustrated residents with questions about how to proceed to get known drug dealers out of their neighborhoods. There was a long discussion on the difficulties with the legal system in bringing these criminals to justice. The advice was to continue to call 911 every time drug activity is suspected. The response was that when the dealers were confronted and told the police would be called, they just laughed and continued the illegal activity.

The next meeting for Ravenswood is expected to be in March.