AGREEMENT REACHED TO OFFER DARE

A new agreement was reached between the city of Marietta and the Washington
County Sheriff's Office to keep a drug education program in Marietta's city
schools this school year.

Initially the city had offered to transport mental patients for the
sheriff's office in exchange for the sheriff's DARE officer conducting
sessions in Marietta city schools. But City Council members expressed
concern about the city's already short-staffed police department taking the
time to handle transports for the sheriff's office.

Instead, it's been agreed that in exchange for the county's help in
providing a DARE officer, the city will simply turn over the $6,304 it had
available for its own DARE program to the sheriff's office. The sheriff's
office will continue handling its own mental transports.

The announcement of the new agreement came during Mayor Michael Mullen's
biweekly press conference Thursday.

City officials and the sheriff's office elected to begin the DARE program
in Marietta city schools sometime last week, before an agreement was
official. Deputy Craig Brockmeier will continue working with Marietta
fifth-graders this spring.

The agreements with the sheriff's office were needed after the city's DARE
officer stepped down earlier this year and there was not enough time to
train a new officer.

DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, is a police officer-led series of
classroom lessons that teaches children from kindergarten through 12th
grade how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug- and
violence-free lives.

Councilwoman Judy Wray's issue with the previous proposal had to do with
the attachment of the DARE program with the transportation of mental
patients. Wray said she was pleased with the mayor's effort to resolve this
issue and is happy with the outcome.

"I think it's just much more logical," Wray said.

One of council's staunchest DARE supporters, Sam Gwinn, chair of the police
and fire committee, was the lone council member to vote in favor of the
previous proposal.

Even still, Gwinn said he's happy a new agreement was met.

"It really didn't matter too much to me (which proposal we used) as long as
the program continued," Gwinn said.

As for the future of the DARE program, Mullen said the city and the
sheriff's office will likely continue working together.

"We need to have all forces working together on this problem," Mullen said.

Mullen also said the city will pursue extending the program to middle
school and high school.