NEW D.A.R.E. PACT TO KEEP PROGRAM OPEN

MARIETTA - Marietta and Washington County officials have decided the
D.A.R.E. program is too important to risk losing this year.

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

The new agreement comes without the previous give-and-take between the two
entities that had the city's police force doing mental patient
transportations in exchange for the use of the sheriff's D.A.R.E. officer.

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

City officials and the sheriff's office supported the program enough that
the D.A.R.E. program began in Marietta City Schools sometime last week,
before an agreement was ever official.

The impetus for a new agreement stems from concerns raised by city council
about the transportations.

The new agreement will send Deputy Craig Brockmeier to Marietta
fifth-graders this spring in exchange for the $6,304 in unused state funds
that were sent to the city for its D.A.R.E. officer.

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

The sheriff's office then volunteered to send the city their D.A.R.E.
officer for this school year if the city's police department helped with
the transportation of mental patients.

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.

The program had most recently been in question for this school year after a
March 4 council meeting.

At that meeting six council members voted against moving the transportation
agreement forward despite their support for the drug resistance program.

Most of the concerns centered around using an already understaffed Marietta
Police Department for transportations for the sheriff's office.

Councilwoman Judy Wray's issue with the previous proposal had to do with
the attachment of the D.A.R.E. 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.

One of council's staunchest D.A.R.E. 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 to much to me (which proposal we used) as long as the program
continued," Gwinn said.