Pubdate: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 Source: Johnson City Press (TN) Copyright: 2002 Johnson City Press and Associated Press Contact: http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1983 Author: Lesia Paine-Brooks, Press Staff Writer PROGRAM WOULD HELP COMBAT DRUGS A sign posted on the gymnasium wall inside Carver Recreation Center reads: "Anyone causing disturbances will positively be barred from further entrance." This statement perhaps best summed up the opinions held by approximately 40 local citizens concerned about the crimes being committed every day in their neighborhoods. A forum held in the center located at 322 W. Watauga Ave. Monday morning proposed a possible solution for ridding troubled communities surrounding Carver Park and Wilson Avenue. Drug abuse and the violent crimes which accompany it have threatened the safety of residents living in these areas of the city to the point that some now hesitate to call the police to report a crime for fear of repercussions from drug-dealing neighbors. But a new strategy, "Operation Weed and Seed," could reclaim such neighborhoods blighted by crime. This federal program was developed by the U.S. Department of Justice to "weed out" crime and take back neighborhoods by planting seeds for growth in communities withering from the heat of drug trafficking and violent crime that radiates throughout their streets. The program is accompanied by a price tag of $225,000, paid in full annually by federal grant dollars to communities lucky enough to receive the government's go ahead. Once the grant application is approved, at least half of the funding ($112,500) must be used to form a police precinct to step up law enforcement in the targeted crime-ridden neighborhoods during the program's first year in existence. Every year after that, an additional $50,000 can be requested by these communities for seed money to grow special initiatives programs to improve living conditions in the neighborhoods specified. "The money could be used to purchase such luxuries as street lighting, gardening supplies, playground equipment, good, solid doors and deadbolts, as well as maintenance and renovation of housing," RussDedrick, first assistant to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District, serving 2.5 million people in 41 Tennessee counties, said. Deadline to submit applications for grant money to fund "Operation Weed and Seed" is Oct. 31. Much of local law enforcement's most recent efforts have been concentrated on Wilson Avenue, where residents say drug deals can be witnessed even in broad daylight. "Operation Weed and Seed" is a community-based strategy designed to create and promote partnerships toward improving local neighborhoods and the quality of life experienced by its residents, Dedrick said. Developed by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs near the end of Jimmy Carter's administration, executing "Operation Weed and Seed" locally would involve using a community policing strategy. The Johnson City Bureau of Police would begin by identifying specific areas of criminal activity in a given area and patrolling them "24 hours a day, seven days a week" to cleanse the targeted neighborhoods of the criminal element, Dedrick said. Johnson City Bureau of Police Captain Trent Harris said the local police force is committed to implementing a plan for a full-time patrol of the specified neighborhoods and setting up a precinct much like the one now in full swing in Bristol. Benny Berry, referred to by Dedrick as "the sheriff of Anderson Street," is currently assigned to the Bristol neighborhood, coordinating its "Operation Weed and Seed," which was officially launched in October 2001. "The residents there actually stood up and cheered when Benny Berry walked in, because they finally felt that their neighborhood was going to be safe," Dedrick said. The enthusiasm to form a program in Johnson City is apparently just as strong, with residents who attended the meeting Monday anxious to hold another forum to discuss moving ahead with the project and organizing a steering committee to begin the grant application process. In addition to fighting crime, Operation Weed and Seed would replace destructive addictions with constructive additions, like the new community center currently being built in Bristol. "In Chattanooga we have two "Operation Weed and Seed" programs now in place, and another one in Cleveland. These were neighborhoods which had been destroyed by drug abusers and gangs," Dedrick said. Run-down, dilapidated schools in all three of these areas were once drug havens. Today they are safe havens, providing the people in the neighborhoods they serve with medical and dental care, computer training and adult education classes. Plans for a child care center and a credit union are also on the horizon. For more information, contact Pat Gass, director of special projects for East Tennessee State University's Center for Community Outreach, which is helping to coordinate the program, at 232-5166 or visit the "Operation Weed and Seed" Web site at www.ojp.usdoj.gov/eows. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager