MARCHERS AIMING AT DRUGS AREAS ON FRIDAY

PALATKA - Ronice Fells Said Friday Is The Perfect Day To Help Drug
Addicts.

Fells, the secretary for the Weed and Seed Ex-offender Re-Entry
program, will march Friday with a group including Palatka police,
city officials and children from Weed and Seed's after-school program.

The march, sponsored by the re-entry program, is part of America's
Red Ribbon Week Oct 23-31. The week was founded to honor a federal
drug enforcement agent, Enrique Camarena, murdered by drug
traffickers in Mexico.

Fells said marchers will leave from the Weed and Seed building at
1211 Madison St. at 3 p.m. and walk to Bronson Street, where she said
much of Palatka's drug abuse happens. They will move to 11th and
Seventh Streets and Main

Street before returning to Weed and Seed around 5 p.m. Refreshments
will be provided there by the Rev. Dietrich Champagnie, who works for
the Anti-Drug Coalition.

"Being a recovering addict, I know that Friday is a busy day," Fells
said. "It's the day people really get high because they just got
paid. If we wait until Saturday, many of them will just be on the
ground looking for more."

Fells said children in the program are making posters they will carry
in the march and that she has gotten commitments from two churches to
send members.

"We're crying out to the suffering addict," she said.

Palatka Police Chief Gary Getchell said he will march along with
members of his department.

Getchell said past experience indicates that marchers are unlikely to
witness a drug transaction on the route.

"They usually see us coming," Getchell said of those involved in drug
activity. "When they see a group of people marching down the street,
they run. There's always that possibility, but drug dealers usually
don't sell during daylight hours."

Getchell said while he does not expect problems during the march, the
primary responsibility of police will be to protect the public.

"My concern would be public safety," Getchell said. "If a situation
that looks like it might be violent occurs, such as someone yelling
at people, we'd ask those people to retreat."

Palatka Mayor Karl Flagg said the march is an opportunity to continue
the progress the Weed and Seed program has made.

"It is an opportunity to raise the level of awareness of citizens as
to what the dynamics of neighborhoods are," Flagg said. "Awareness
equals education, then we move into actually saying 'What do we do as
a community?'"

Flagg said a community partnership to revitalize blighted areas is
improving the city, but there is work remaining.

"Citizens deserve to feel they are in a city or neighborhood that has
a passion for excellence and compassion for one another," Flagg said.
"There is no magic wand that causes changes to occur overnight. The
decline didn't happen overnight. But the Weed and Seed program is an
engine and a catalyst for change and the results are evident."

Weed and Seed Director Kandra Albury said the march is part of an
effort by the program to improve the lives of the city's "next generation."

"It sends the message that drugs are not going to be tolerated,"
Albury said. "There are people in this community committed to just
saying no and educating children on the dangerous effects of drugs."