SEVERAL SCHOOL D.A.R.E. PROGRAMS ELIMINATED IN BRADFORD COUNTY

TOWANDA -- The D.A.R.E. program provided by the Bradford County Sheriff's
Department has been eliminated, due to a cut in the 2004 Bradford County
budget.

The sheriff's department had been providing the program to fifth- and
sixth-graders in the Northeast Bradford, Canton and Troy school districts,
Sheriff Steven Evans said.

The D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program is a very effective
program that not only teaches students the dangers of drug and alcohol, but
also teaches them ways to resist using those substances, Evans said.

The sheriff's department had provided two law enforcement officers to teach
the D.A.R.E. program locally.

The D.A.R.E. program will be eliminated immediately because funding for the
program was cut in the final 2004 Bradford County budget, Evans said.

The proposed 2004 Bradford County budget had originally eliminated funding
for the sheriff's department to participate in the Bradford County Drug
Task Force and the Bradford County D.U.I. Task Force, which are police
teams that target drug crimes and intoxicated motorists.

Because the sheriff was upset that the police teams were not being funded,
the budget was amended to shift $8,000 in funding from the D.A.R.E. program
to the drug and D.U.I. task forces, county officials said.

The Bradford County commissioners adopted the final 2004 county budget on
Wednesday.

Evans said he is satisfied that there is now enough funding for the drug
and D.U.I. task forces. However, he said he had wanted to see funding
continued for both the D.A.R.E. program and the police teams.

"We have a major methamphetamine epidemic in the county, and it seems
ridiculous to me that at the time of the epidemic we (are) being forced to
drop an effective anti-drug program (the D.A.R.E. program)," Evans said.
"But if we are being forced to modify our programs, our priority needs to
be in apprehending methamphetamine manufacturers."

County funds spent on the D.A.R.E. program and on the drug and D.U.I. task
forces are completely reimbursed by grants from the federal and state
governments, Evans said.

But Bradford County Fiscal Director Joan Sanderson said that there are
other ways to continue the D.A.R.E. programs in the Northeast Bradford,
Canton and Troy school districts besides using personnel from the sheriff's
department.

For example, officers from municipal police departments could be trained to
teach the D.A.R.E. program, and their police departments would be
reimbursed by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency for
providing the D.A.R.E. program, she said.

"It's just a matter of getting them trained," Sanderson said.

In fact, there are already a number of other police officers in the county
who are already trained to teach the D.A.R.E. program, she said.

Sanderson said the decision to discontinue the D.A.R.E. program was not
just a question of a lack of available funding.

The decision also stemmed from the fact that the sheriff's department has a
backlog of work to do, and therefore it needs to spend its time on other
tasks, she said.

In particular, the sheriff's department has a huge backlog of warrants that
need to be served on people who have not paid court fines and other
court-related costs, or who did not show up for their family court and
domestic violence hearings, county officials said.

And, Sanderson said, one of the employees used by the Bradford County
Sheriff's Department to teach the D.A.R.E. program is Pete Quattrini, who
was recently promoted to deputy warden at the Bradford County Correctional
Facility.

"He has larger responsibilities to take care of," Sanderson said. "When a
municipal police officer can be trained to (be a D.A.R.E. instructor), that
would be a much more viable alternative."

The elimination of the D.A.R.E. program run by the county sheriff's
department will not affect the D.A.R.E. programs in the Athens and Sayre
school districts, which are taught by officers from the Sayre and Athens
Borough police departments.