TRENTON WINS $175K TO COMBAT DRUGS, IMPROVE CITY

TRENTON - They didn't give up, and their persistence paid off.

U.S. Attorney Terry Harris of Memphis announced Friday that the city would
soon get $175,000 toward crime fighting and prevention efforts. The U.S.
Department of Justice has awarded Trenton the money for its Weed & Seed
Program. Cities must be recognized as Weed & Seed sites before they're
funded. Trenton had to apply twice for recognition and twice for funding
over the last four years.

About 30 people attended the announcement at City Hal175l.

"It weeds out the bad and seeds in the good," District Attorney General
Garry Brown said in explaining the program to the group. The goal is
prevention, "with law enforcement helping people on the front end instead
of punishing them on the back end."

The police department will use half the money to double its drug-fighting
efforts, Police Chief Will Sanders said. The other half will help fund
computer, after-school tutoring and other community programs at the Weed &
Seed Safe Haven.

Trenton's program has the city's east side as its target area. The
Community Resource Center, off Tenn. 77, will serve as the Safe Haven,
where the various community programs will be held.

Martha Bobbitt lives in the target area and is on the city's Weed & Seed
steering committee. She was among those in attendance Friday.

"I'm just proud we got it," Bobbitt said of the funding. "I just hope we
can do something with it to help clean this city up. They've already
straightened up quite a bit."

For instance, an increased police presence in her neighborhood has put a
stop to the gathering of a loud group that used to hang out and do drugs at
the intersection of Lexington and Fourth streets near her house, Bobbitt said.

The next step will involve hiring a Weed & Seed coordinator and setting up
a community service program through City Court. Trenton was the only city
in the state to get first-time funding for the 2003-2004 fiscal year, said
Leigh Anne Jordon, law enforcement coordinator for the U.S. Attorney's
office in Memphis.

The city of nearly 5,000 will get the money each year for five years and
then must reapply for funding.

Program money is tight and harder to get today than 10 years ago, Harris
said. So, Trenton's getting it was "quite an accomplishment," he added.

The only programs being funded now are those the Weed & Seed Executive
Office believes will spend the money wisely and those that are "well
designed" and have "great community effort," Harris said.

Mayor Tommy Litton presented Sanders and Marilyn Wade Vaughn with
certificates recognizing their "hard work, dedication and perseverance" in
getting the funding. Vaughn is the TPD's terminal agency coordinator, or
link between police and the FBI and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

What to know

a.. Trenton receives $175,000 for its Weed & Seed program.

a.. Half the money goes to police, the other half to the community.

a.. Weed & Seed is a program funded through the U.S. Department of Justice,
which strives to weed out crime and other negatives in a targeted area of a
city and to seed in positive programs to help the community.

a.. Communities must get Weed & Seed recognition before they apply for
funding. Trenton was recognized in 2002.

a.. The next step of the city's Weed & Seed Steering Committee will be to
hire a coordinator and set up a community service program through City Court.

a.. Weed & Seed also involves efforts to clean up the community, such as by
removing abandoned cars from yards and tearing down abandoned houses.