DRUG FUNDS OK'D FOR POLICE USE

Money seized from drug suspects will be used to buy bulletproof vests and
computers for Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority police.

The port authority's airport committee yesterday approved spending $3,000
for the vests and $3,500 for computers and accessories for use by the
police, who patrol Toledo Express Airport and occasionally aid other police
agencies on drug cases. An additional $5,000 from the port's Equitable
Sharing Trust Fund, into which the port authority's share of drug-asset
seizures is banked, will be used for police training.

The expenses were approved by the Department of Justice, in accordance with
a port authority policy implemented after the FBI turned up two
"inappropriate" uses for drug-fund money in 1998.

The spending proposals now must be approved by the port authority's board of
directors, which meets Thursday. Other items recommended yesterday by the
airport committee include the third of three $200,000 payments into a fund
for buying land along I-475/U.S. 23 in Maumee for interchange construction
at U.S. 20A, which is proposed to become a main route to the airport.