ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM HOPES TO EXPAND TO WEST HOUMA

HOUMA -- Terrebonne Parish officials hope to expand a crime-prevention
program to west Houma, but they'll need federal approval first. The Parish
Council passed a resolution last week that gives Parish President Bobby
Bergeron the go-ahead to ask the U.S. Justice Department for permission to
expand the Weed and Seed Program, which now operates in the Mechanicville
neighborhood of east Houma.

If approved, the program would be expanded into an area from Goode Street
to St. Charles Street and from McKinley Street to Morrison Avenue. "Weed
and Seed is a comprehensive strategy for making these communities safer
places to live," said Houma Police Chief Pat Boudreaux. The first stage --
"weeding" -- aims to run off violent criminals and drug traffickers from
the area. The second phase -- the "seeding" -- includes job training, job
opportunities and neighborhood-restoration initiatives as well as
substance-abuse prevention programs. In 2001, the program was brought to
Mechanicville. Councilman Wayne Thibodeaux, who first learned about the
program while working as a public-housing official in 1993, said the parish
planned to bring the program to his district for years but decided to see
how the program would work in Mechanicville first.

"We wanted to bring this program to the west side of Houma because the
problems that existed in the east side of Houma exist in this part of
town," Thibodeaux said.

Thibodeaux commended Councilman Alvin Tillman for his work with the program
in Mechanicville and said the program has been successful in east Houma.

"These neighborhoods tend to decline quickly if you don't do something,"
Thibodeaux said. "This program weeds out the stuff that erodes the quality
of life and seeds things that help the communities." Boudreaux said a
variety of programs have been brought to the Mechanicville area, including
education programs that have helped nursing aides graduate and get jobs,
tutoring programs for young students, summer camps and Neighborhood Watch
associations. Boudreaux said the expansion, and accompanying grant money,
still has to win approval from the Justice Department.

"It's competitive," Boudreaux said. "There are plenty of applicants and
only so much money. You have to have a strategy in place. You have to set
goals and objectives."