WHEATON DEBATES FATE OF DARE PROGRAM

The Wheaton City Council's collective brain will be on drugs the next
two weeks as it decides which message it wants to send out to the
community about local police.

Is the priority saying nope to dope? Or is the priority asking bad
boys what you gonna do when the Wheaton police come for you?

The decision looms after an onslaught of public opinion Monday night
in favor of keeping the Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE,
program in local schools.

The city budget proposes slashing the program to accommodate a
realignment in the police department. The move would provide more
manpower for enforcement activity.

The bulk of speakers in favor of keeping the DARE program were
students, some not even tall enough to reach the podium's microphone.
Others included Lindy Greenlee, the Wheaton Warrenville Unit District
200 teachers union representative.

Greenlee said she was not speaking on behalf of the union, but as a
citizen who had heard concerns from several teachers. She said the
DARE program creates positive police role models that have a profound
impact on children.

"I do not believe this is the time to shortchange our kids in order to
save a few bucks," Greenlee said.

But Police Chief Mark Field said the department is in critical need of
more front-line authority figures for patrol and enforcement duties.
It also needs more manpower to investigate cases, such as identity
theft, that are becoming ever more complex.

"I'd like to be able to do it all, but the reality is there just is
not sufficient resources to do it," Field said. "This is the best
decision we can make at this point in time."

Mayor Jim Carr was supportive of that thought, but Councilman Tom
Mouhelis and Councilwoman Liz Corry both said cutting DARE would be a
mistake. Councilmen Howard Levine and Phil Suess asked for a planning
session on the issue before the full budget is approved in two weeks.

At that session, City Manager Don Rose is poised to tell the council
they can't have both the DARE program and a stronger police
department. Rose estimates keeping both programs would add at least
$200,000 in added personnel costs to the police department budget.

That would put the city into an even deeper financial hole than the
current budget calls for. As it stands, the city's general fund,
responsible for the bulk of daily operations, will have an estimated
$1.1 million shortfall in the coming budget year.