CITY TAXPAYERS PICK UP TAB FOR STREETSWEEPER

MANCHESTER - While city leaders keep up their fight to restore federal
funding for a street-level drug fighting program, the new city budget
passed Tuesday will have taxpayers pick up the entire cost of an
identical operation - including paying overtime for state troopers and
state drug agents. An eleventh-hour budget several aldermen presented
Tuesday gave police $632,000 more than the $1.8 million hike the mayor
proposed - including $291,890 for a special anti-drugs and guns
initiative. Manchester police asked for $291,890 to fund Operation
Streetsweeper this year, but were told the money wasn't available
after Congress slashed funds for all federally earmarked programs.

Police Chief John A. Jaskolka and Deputy Police Chief Glenn S.
Leidemer said they were unaware the aldermen's budget set aside money
for an identical initiative to make up for the lost federal funds
until they got confirmation from city officials yesterday.

Leidemer said he had several discussions with the mayor's office and
some alderman on how to make up the loss of Streetsweeper money.

But he said neither he nor the chief received advance notice that the
aldermen's budget contained funds to continue the program under
another name. The budget takes effect in the fiscal year beginning
July 1.

The new budget will pay for 10 additional police officers - which
would increase the force to 225 - and requires the department to have
220 sworn officers on board before it can begin spending money for the
anti-drugs and guns initiative, Jaskolka said.

Operation Streetsweeper is a multi-agency initiative primarily geared
to fighting street-level drug trafficking that had been funded through
grants by the U.S. Attorney's Office. It involves city officers
partnering with state police narcotics investigators and agents with
the Attorney General's Drug Task Force. Most of the money is used to
pay overtime, drug-buy costs, arrest "round ups" and overtime for
state laboratory staff to do drug testing.

Jaskolka and Leidemer said they informed city officials beforehand
that the undercover narcotics operation would not work without help
from outside agencies since the city force lacks officers to do it
alone. The new city budget includes paying $139,220 in overtime to
state troopers and drug investigators and state laboratory staff.

It also will pay $68,640 in overtime to Manchester undercover agents
and another $15,000 to the force's special reaction team.

Meanwhile, Mayor Frank Guinta and city law enforcement leaders plan to
meet with U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu, R-N.H., today to discuss
strategies to restore federal Streetsweeper funding.

Sununu and U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., have pledged their support
for the program, the mayor's office said. "Congress is being
irresponsible by cutting out programs like Streetsweeper," Guinta's
aide Sean Thomas said. "Now we're going to have to spend city tax
dollars to do these important services." If Congress restores
Streetsweeper funds, Jaskolka said he would shift the $291,890 to
other projects.

They include funding an anti-gang initiative with the FBI, a U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration Mobile Enforcement Team and staffing
"trouble cars" - formerly called "gang cars" - to patrol streets.
Asked if future federal funding for Streetsweeper could be threatened
now that the city is picking up the entire cost of the undercover
narcotics initiative, Jaskolka said, "That's always a concern." U.S
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter's spokesman said her office is investigating
the loss of Streetsweeper funding and hopes worthy earmarked programs
like Streetsweeper will be re-inserted in the next budget. U.S. Rep.
Paul Hodes was unavailable for comment yesterday.