The West Roxbury Civic and Improvement Association (WRCIA) met on Monday at the District E-5 Police Station in West Roxbury and discussed its new role as one of the two regularly-meeting neighborhood associations in the neighborhood.

The WRCIA, along with the Bellevue Hill Improvement Association (BHIA) are what is left of the once vibrant West Roxbury neighborhood association scene. Before, there was the Highland Civic Neighborhood Association, the Charles River/Spring Street Neighborhood Association, and more.

The West Roxbury Neighborhood Council also meets regularly, but many, if not most, of the meetings are geared towards zoning issues within the neighborhood.

WRCIA Vice President Martin Keogh said the group was originally chartered to cover the southern portion of West Roxbury, and it will continue to be focused on that area. But the WRCIA has inroads to many city and state officials, and so Keogh said the association has now opened its membership and audience up to the entirety of West Roxbury.

“We are the lower Washington Street area, but because there are not too many neighborhood groups in West Roxbury, we expanded out perimeter to include any relevant issues in West Roxbury if they have issues they need to bring up,” said Keogh. “And if someone has a group that’s more specific to their neighborhood, that’s fine, but we want to continue to be here for people to come in, express their opinions and bring their issues here.”

Keogh said many neighborhood groups pop up around single controversial issues, noting the Greater Belgrade Neighborhood Association, which died away as soon as Roxbury Prep Charter School stated it no longer wanted to go in at 361 Belgrade Ave.

“You’ve got to have a meeting,” he said. “I don’t know many other groups who meet in West Roxbury.”

The group meets every second Monday (or Tuesday, as the second Monday in October is Indigenous People’s Day/Columbus Day) at 7 p.m., usually at the St. Stephen’s United Methodist Church at 5160 Washington St. The Oct. 13 meeting will be at the E-5 Police Station in West Roxbury.

In other news, the group discussed ongoing issues on Centre Street in West Roxbury. Keogh and several other residents said the light timing along Centre has become completely out of sync and needs to be reprogramed, and so Keogh said he is inviting a representative from the Boston Transportation Department (BTD) to come to the October Meeting, though no representative has yet been confirmed.

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Also at the meeting, State Rep Bill MacGregor dropped by to share updates from the Massachusetts State House.

Speaking of traffic, MacGregor said the current expected date of completion for the Belgrade Avenue/West Roxbury Parkway Bridge is set for some time in December. Currently, the biggest impact is to the Needham MBTA Commuter Rail Line, which will be out of service until Sept. 20 during this phase of construction. To keep up with the replacement project, go to https://gvimes.link/wrpkwybrdge

MacGregor also touted his recent funding rounds he helped to pass through the Statehouse that were earmarked for West Roxbury. He made a point of stating that it was a collaborative effort with State Rep. Rob Consalvo and outgoing State Sen. Michael Rush.

“We got $300,000 for the Ethos Senior Program at the Elks, which is amazing – we usually get around $250,000,” he said. “It’s important to keep that going. I know we don’t have a senior center and we need one, but this has been great.”

MacGregor said they obtained $50,000 for the Rose’s Bounty Food Pantry on Stratford Street in West Roxbury to help secure food for residents, as well as $75,000 for pedestrian safety improvements on Washington Street, mostly in Roslindale but extending to the West Roxbury side as well (the WRCIA was founded to improve road safety on Washington Street).

The Redland Road Family Shelter was also discussed. The shelter was a hot-button issue when it first came up two years ago. The state tried to quietly get it approved to deal with the influx of homeless families the state was dealing with at the time, but the demand has apparently cooled down since then and the proposed maximum of 40 families has not come close to being reached.

MacGregor said, in response to a question from members of the WRCIA, that about seven or eight families have been occupying the shelter since he last checked in with the facility in July. He said he has a meeting coming up in October and will update the group after that.