POLICE CHIEF: NO DARE NEXT YEAR

Budget Cuts Cause Macomb Anti-Drug Program To End

MACOMB - An anti-drug program in city schools has become a casualty of
budget cuts affecting the Macomb Police Department.

Last December, the city lost the police officer for its Drug Abuse
Resistance Education program, who left to accept a job at Western Illinois
University. The officer, however, agreed to finish the school year by
working part time for the city until the program's completion this spring.

The city already has lost one officer, and because of budget cuts, the next
officer who leaves the department will not be replaced.

Police Chief Bill Hedeen said there will be no DARE program in Macomb
schools next year.

Hedeen also said he has found a federal grant that would pay for an officer
who devotes 75 percent of his or her time to working inside the school and
running programs such as DARE.

The grant would pay 100 percent of the officer's salary for three years.
The city would be responsible for the fourth year. For the city to obtain
the grant, the council would have to apply for it by June 12. Aldermen took
no action on the grant Monday night.

In other action, representatives of several local health and
quality-of-life groups asked the council Monday to pass an ordinance that
would prohibit the sale, use and possession of tobacco products in the city
by minors.

It is now illegal to sell tobacco products to people younger than 18,
authorities said. Aldermen voted 7-0 to allow City Attorney Linda O'Brien
to draft an ordinance.

Macomb police officers would be the first point of contact with young
smokers, according to the proposed ordinance. An officer probably would
give a warning to a minor caught smoking. A minor caught smoking again
would be referred to the McDonough County Teen Court.

Offenders wouldn't go through the teen court system but would further be
referred to a tobacco education program. The ordinance was proposed to
aldermen by the Community Quality of Life Committee, the board of the
McDonough County Health Department and the McDonough County Tobacco-Free
Coalition.