Wednesday, September 29, 1999
Covington vying for Weed and Seed cash
BY JANE PRENDERGAST
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON — Covington hopes to be close behind the city of Cincinnati in snagging big dollars from the federal government to fight crime and boost deteriorating neighborhoods.
Cincinnati was designated a federal Weed and Seed city this summer after submitting a book-size application on plans for cleaning up its Evanston neighborhood. Increased patrols will start after the money arrives, and more plans are in the works for community education programs. The city expects its first $225,000 any day now.
In Covington, the East Side is the target. Though officials say crime is down in that part of the city this year, the neighborhood has a long history of drugs, gangs and violence.
“These problems didn't get started overnight,” said Lt. Col. Bill Dorsey, a Covington assistant chief. “We're not going to solve them overnight. We need a long-term solution.”
About 200 sites around the United States are designated Weed and Seed areas. Grants are generally in the low six figures annually. They used to be larger, but as more communities got interested in the money, demand spread, said Bob Samuels, assistant director of the Executive Office for Weed and Seed in Washington, D.C., the division of the U.S. Department of Justice that administers the program.
In Cincinnati, $50,000 of the money goes for policing (the weeding part of the equation), the rest for neighborhood education, housing and other programs. The city can reapply for money for four more years.
Covington commissioners on Tuesday night hired Terry Mann, former vocational school principal, to write the grant request.
A committee of residents, business representatives and city officials has held its first planning meeting.
In May, federal authorities settled a case against Mr. Mann. The charges were filed against him in 1997, after a state report into the 1990-94 tenure of former Covington Schools Superintendent James Biggs revealed that Mr. Mann had been serving as principal at the school without the proper state-certification for most of his years at Chapman Academic Vocational School. Mr. Mann began serving as Chapman's top administrator in 1980.
Tuesday, commissioners passed a resolution calling for Mr. Mann to be paid up to 400 hours at $15 per hour. City Manager Greg Jarvis said the grant application is due Nov. 1.
Mr. Jarvis did not know exactly how much money the city would seek, but he said “It could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars if we're successful”
In Cincinnati, increased patrols will start soon. Organizers are planning an Oct. 30 crime prevention fair they hope will help show residents they're serious about being involved in the community.
“I'm sure we're going to show the federal government that Evanston means business,” said Sgt. Tom Tanner, a District 2 supervisor involved in Weed and Seed. “This is not a grant, it's a strategy. This is a way of life, the way things are going to be done in Evanston.”
The steps Covington already has taken on the East Side — things like clean-up efforts and neighborhood picnics — mirror those that the Tallahasse, Fla., police department did before becoming a Weed and Seed-designated city in 1996. Those things are key because they help convince residents the city is serious about helping them, said Greg Frost, executive assistant to the Tallahassee chief.
“Just throwing a whole bunch of money at it — that doesn't buy success,” he said. “You've got to get that nucleus in the community. Then you've got to be consistent.”
It took Tallahassee about 18 months, he said, of planning and organizing events before it secured the federal designation. The city, population 130,000, now gets a little over $200,000 a year.
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