'SAFE ZONES' GET TENTATIVE APPROVAL

LINCOLN - Four town areas popular with youth will be named "Safe
Zones" if residents of those areas OK the idea.

The Town Council voted 4-1 Monday night to tentatively approve naming
Prince Thomas Park, Ballard Hill Community Center, the Washington
Street playground, and the Little League fields behind Hannaford as Safe Zones.

The next step, Town Manager Glenn Aho said, is for police Chief Hank
Dusenbery to contact residents who live within 1,000 feet of those
areas to hold a community meeting to allow them to voice their
opinions on the plan.

If most residents seem to approve the idea, the council will vote on
it again, Aho said.

According to a proposal put forward by police Officer Richard York,
anything within 1,000 feet of the four areas can be designated safe
or drug-free zones under a state law that went into effect Sept. 17.
The new law expands the protection already offered schools to include
parks and other areas children frequent.

Under the law, misdemeanor offenses which result in no more than one
year's imprisonment, such as passing around a marijuana cigarette,
become felonies punishable with maximum sentences of as much as five
years imprisonment.

Council Chairman Jeffrey Gifford offered the sole objection to the
idea and voted against it. Councilors Rod Carr and Samuel Clay were absent.

Gifford said he felt the maximum sentence of five years was too great
for what he deemed a trivial offense such as marijuana use.

"We're making a big issue out of the guy who smokes pot," Gifford said.

Throwing a 1,000-foot net around those four areas, plus town schools
which are already Safe Zones under the same law, would cover most of
the town's population, Gifford said.

Aho said he supported the idea because parents should get a maximum
reassurance from town authorities that their children will be free of
drugs or people who use them in the four areas.

No community meeting date has been set.

If enacted by the council, York's proposal would be the town's first
use of the new law.