WEED AND SEED PROGRAM HAS HAD MIXED RESULTS

Weed and Seed in Southeast Missouri was a series of much-ballyhooed firsts.

In 1995, Sikeston became the first rural city to become a part of the
program. Three years later, that city joined Cape Girardeau, Caruthersville,
Poplar Bluff and Charleston to become the first regional incarnation of the
federal program.

But with the accomplishment of many program objectives and the apparent
failure of others to get off the ground, most observers have stopped
applauding the firsts and started wondering: What now?

Weed and Seed was launched nationally in 1991 by the U.S. Department of
Justice. It had the same purpose then as it does today: identify troubled
neighborhoods and make them better through the joint effort of law
enforcement and social programs.

Law enforcement is the weeding side. That side makes major drug offenses
committed in designated neighborhood into federal crimes. In federal court,
the sentences are longer, and dealers are less likely to make a quick return
to the streets. Weeding money pays for police overtime and drug buys in
targeted neighborhoods.

The seeding side is basically regional director Lisa Lane, her secretary and
five site coordinators in each of the five cities. That side takes half of
the money. Some of the money goes to existing programs, such as the Boys and
Girls Club and the Family Resource Center in Cape Girardeau. But much of it
also goes to efforts the paid staff is expected to coordinate themselves.

After five years of the regional Weed and Seed program, it has become clear
that the weeding side works very well. Police and prosecutors have done an
excellent job of putting away many dangerous felons -- and they should be
commended for doing their job so well.

Weed and Seed efforts brought down a multigenerational crime family that had
terrorized Sikeston's west side. It cleaned up some of the open-air drug
deals in south Cape Girardeau.

But despite the well-documented success of those weeding efforts, there is a
lack of tangible evidence of accomplishments on the seeding side.

Federal funding was intended to be phased out after a five-year period. It
was assumed that local groups would take over the costs after the program's
anticipated initial success in combating urban decay. But that local
financial support is nonexistent, and local administrators are seeking to
expand the boundaries of their Weed and Seed neighborhoods so they can
qualify for federal money. The area they've targeted in Cape Girardeau is in
no way the drug haven Cape Girardeau's south side once was.

After five years of regional work and $2.77 million in federal funding,
Southeast Missouri's Weed and Seed program can be called only half a success
story. The streets may have fewer drug dealers, but they're still empty.
There are no new jobs, no neighborhood restoration projects and no
residential development as a result of the program.

Weed and Seed of Southeast Missouri needs to use its own philosophy on
itself. Weed out those who use the program mainly to pay their own salaries.
Seed in people who believe in it enough to create meaningful programs -- if
local groups think the program is worthy of their financial support.