B.V. CEASES FUNDING FOR D.A.R.E. PROGRAM

The elimination of a drug prevention program in Buena Vista Township will
prove costly to taxpayers in the future, a citizen group says.

Members of Residents for a Better Buena Vista are urging the Board of
Trustees to provide funds to restore Drug Awareness Resistance Education,
or DARE.

"It easier to educate (the children) now rather than wait until they get in
the (prison) system," group member Finley J. Fuller III told the board
during a meeting Monday.

Buena Vista School District officials refuse to give money to offset the
cost of providing a police officer, Township Manager William F. Allen said.
"It was an important program, but we cannot afford it," Allen said.

School Superintendent Vivian Keys Brown said she did not include money for
the program in the district's $15 million budget because of a
misunderstanding between her and Allen.

Brown said she will check to see if funds become available to restore the
program later this year, but said she previously was under the impression
the township was going to lay off part-time officers.

The result of that, she believed, was that full-time officers would have no
time for the program.

"We like the program," Brown said.

Allen said district officials told him they could not afford the
expenditure.

For years a Buena Vista police officer has spent 25 hours a week addressing
drug use and explaining crime prevention to fifth-graders. In return, the
school district gave the township $13,000 annually.

Fuller, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for a trustee seat this year, said
board members should provide funding to show they want to govern in a
"positive" manner.