SOME QUESTION SITE FOR PROBATION PROGRAM

The McKenna National Guard Armory at the corner of Felton Avenue and Anthony
Road will house a pilot probation program for low-level offenders, likely
starting this summer.

The move is meant to keep "primarily property and drug offenders" out of
jail, but give them more supervision and treatment options than the standard
probated sentence, said Brian Owens, executive assistant to Georgia
Department of Corrections Commissioner James Donald. For nine months,
participants would report to the armory seven days a week, get drug
counseling, job training and other rehabilitation as needed, Owens said.

But the building is near a government housing project - Felton Homes. Macon
Housing Authority Director John Hiscox said "we've struggled for years to
get drugs out of the way" at Felton. It's also near various revitalization
projects - streets where old homes have been torn down and new ones built
for first-time homeowners.

And it's near Ingram-Pye Elementary School.

Hiscox described the area as "fragile."

He compared placing a probation program in an area with a history of drug
problems to putting a liquor store near an elementary school.

"We think it's a mistake," Hiscox said. "This is a residential neighborhood
. in which there's quite a bit of redevelopment going on."

Hiscox is not alone. Some residents would prefer to see the program locate
elsewhere. Hiscox suggests one of Macon's many empty strip-mall store
fronts. The Rev. Larry Eason, who pastors Greater Little Rock Baptist Church
just up the road, said he'd like to see the armory turned into a community
center. In fact, the Housing Authority expressed interest in the property
some years back with just that in mind, Hiscox said.

"We want all those things in that center versus having a situation where we
have to be concerned about the kind of people that may actually be using
that area," Eason said.

Owens counters that argument with this: One in 15 Georgia adults is under
some form of "correctional supervision" - in jail, on probation or on
parole. The state has 125,000 felony probationers, Owens said.

"The offenders are living already amongst us," he said.

Renovations to open the probation office are under way, even as local
officials explore whether they can block the state's plans. The city of
Macon deeded the building to the state years ago so it could be used as an
armory, longtime City Councilman Jim Lee said. When the armory closed, the
building was transferred to the Georgia Department of Corrections, but there
is some question whether the building should have been deeded back to the
city when the armory closed.

"We're looking into that now to see if we have the right of first refusal,"
said City Councilwoman Brenda Youmas, who said she asked the city attorney's
office to run a title check on the property.

Mayor Jack Ellis had a resolution drawn up earlier this month that would
have authorized him to accept the building back from the state on the city's
behalf, but he pulled it from the council's agenda before it could be
discussed.

"I agree with what the state is doing there," Ellis said.

Youmas said it remains to be seen whether, if the city has the right of
first refusal, the mayor can waive that right without council input.

Meanwhile Hiscox, Eason and others are concerned that the state began
construction without notifying anyone in the neighborhood what was coming.
Owens acknowledged he doesn't know of any public notification efforts on the
project.

"Entirely too many ... facilities like this get placed in disadvantaged
neighborhoods because people believe that people who live in those
neighborhoods (won't say anything)," Hiscox said.

But Ruby Bussey lives just across the street and says she doesn't have a
problem with the planned facility.

"You know they've got to get education somewhere," she said. "We've got to
be friendly with each other. ... I didn't get this far by myself."