BRISTOL TOWNSHIP WILL 'WEED AND SEED'

Four Neighborhoods Will Join The Federal Effort To Root Out Drug Crime
And Rehabilitate Communities.

Four Bristol Township neighborhoods perceived by many as "the drug
capital of Bucks County" will take part in a federal program aimed at
eliminating crime and rehabilitating the area, U.S. Attorney Patrick
Meehan announced yesterday.

The neighborhoods - Venice-Ashby, Bloomsdale-Fleetwing, Green Lawn
Park and Pacific Avenue - have only 4 percent of the township's
population but account for 65 percent of its drug crime and 21 percent
of its robberies.

The "Weed and Seed" program is a two-part approach the U.S. Department
of Justice established in 1991. It seeks to involve government
agencies, social-service organizations, businesses, and residents in a
closely coordinated effort to fight crime and rehabilitate
neighborhoods.

Federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies work with residents
to weed out criminals in the area while other agencies and
organizations seed the neighborhood with social services and economic
revitalization. Seventeen percent of the neighborhoods' 2,400
residents live in poverty.

Darlene Holloman, chairman of the local committee of residents, local
businesspeople and government officials that applied for the Weed and
Seed designation, said she became involved in efforts to revitalize
her Green Lawn Park neighborhood three years ago. She said limousines
from New York would often drive through the area, apparently in search
of drugs.

"We want more than getting the drugs out," Holloman said. "We want to
get jobs in. We want to beautify the neighborhood; that uplifts
everything."

The committee's application for the program said the "perception in
the neighborhood, the township, and throughout Bucks County is that
the neighborhood is the drug capital of Bucks County."

On the "weeding" side, the committee plans to improve the community's
relations with police by setting up a liaison between a designated
resident and Police Chief James P. McAndrew and establishing a Police
Athletic League, a drug hotline, and a Town Watch program in Green
Lawn Park.

The "seeding" includes educational programs for children, job
training, and job fairs for adults, and efforts to encourage property
owners and residents to clean up and beautify buildings and lots.

Meehan, U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, said
the designation makes the area eligible for grants of up to $175,000
this year and up to $225,000 in each of the next four years. It also
gives the area an edge in obtaining certain other federal grants.

"We look forward to making a difference for the people of this Bristol
Township community," said Meehan, who oversees Weed and Seed sites in
North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, Coatesville, Allentown and Reading.

The designation was announced at a ceremony in the Venice Ashby
Community Center, during which several speakers praised U.S. Rep. Jim
Greenwood (R., Bucks) for his efforts to secure the Weed and Seed
designation.

Greenwood said that when he visited the neighborhood 10 years ago,
young mothers told him that they did not want to raise their children
in such an unsafe environment.

He said he arranged for more policing in the area, which resulted in
"a lot of arrests." But Greenwood said he hoped the Weed and Seed
program would result not just in arrests but in real improvements in
the community.

Joan LaRocca, a spokeswoman for Weed and Seed in Washington, said the
designation was pending a verification visit in May and the
resolution of an issue between the U.S. Attorney's Office and the
local committee. But she said approval was unlikely to be delayed.