Ferguson Road Initiative has busy August meeting

by PegNews wire

WHITE ROCK HILLS — The Two-Points Weed and Seed Steering committee of the Ferguson Road Initiative held a meeting on August 9 at the White Rock Church of Christ.

Susan Walker opened the meeting and thanked all attendees for taking time from their busy schedules to attend. She explained that President Bill Coleman was out of town and as vice president it had become her duty to preside over and moderate the meeting. She reviewed the general purposes of the meeting, roles, rules and the decision making process, if needed. She then asked those in attendance to introduce themselves and state what organizations they represented. Ms. Walker explained the reason for our earlier meeting time and directed the group to our calendar on the wall chart regarding the times and dates of our next meetings and events.

Ms. Walker called on Vikki Martin for the Executive Director’s report. Ms. Martin discussed FRI plans to sustain services in the Graduated area and long range plans sustaining the 2-Points community when funds are expired. She indicated that the board had made a decision to hire a grant writer/fund raiser consultant in order to take the next step in raising funds to maintain existing programs and start new ones. She reported that FRI had received $30,000 in two recent grants to continue after-school and other educational enhancement programs at Bayles.

Bayles Fest

Ms. Martin also discussed plans for 2007 Bayles Fest, presently scheduled for October 13th from 10am to 2pm. Bayles Fest has grown so big, that this year we are planning to bring in a big tent to provide space for all those interested in attending and participating. This year’s Bayles Fest will be a transitional year and the plan is for next year to find a more central location to adequately serve more students and their families from other partner schools. However, it should be noted that a strategy is in place that will involve students and families from S.S. Conner, Truett, Sanger, Gaston, Bryan Adams and Lang Schools for this year.

FRI needs 2 Points volunteers for the Bayles Fest event. Please go to www.baylesfest.org for more information and how you can sign up to volunteer.

Gang initiative

She also indicated that the U.S. Attorney, Richard Roper has announced at their NNO celebration in the CANA neighborhood that FRI would be receiving $60k for a new gang and youth violence initiative and new efforts to build and strengthen their partnership with Bryan Adams High School.

Library and rec center

Ms. Martin then jumped ahead on the agenda and briefed attendees on the status of negotiations with the City of Dallas on the location of the recently approved Recreation and Library Center for the Ferguson corridor. At the present time, the community was still pushing for location of a combined complex at the corner of Ferguson and Highland, the City was pushing for a split location with the Recreational center at Highland and the Library at Lakeland and Ferguson. She indicated that a compromise site was being discussed, but that no formal information was available at this time. She indicated that a meeting was scheduled for the week of the 13th, and that hopefully some decision will be made in time for the next scheduled Steering Committee meeting for the Graduated Site on September 10th at this same location. She encouraged members of the 2-Points SC to attend.

Law enforcement

Lt. Paul Thai of the Dallas Police Department reported that he and Sgt. Steve Armon had recently been assigned to the Weed & Seed operations. He felt it was a good alignment because of the similar goals of ICP and Weed & Seed and that ICP could bring more resources to the table. Sgt. Armon briefed the group on SCRAM (Safe Communities for Residents and Managers) which operated out of the N.E. Patrol Division. Sr. Cpl. Bervin Smith oversaw this operation. He indicated that they wanted to further focus this group and create a sub-group made up of only 2-Points multi-family complexes. This sub-group would concentrate on issues affecting the 2-Points community. He indicated that a number of Safe Case operations and prostitution stings were underway in the area and that newly received Weed & Seed resources would be used to provide overtime to address some of these issues. Sgt. Armon also appealed for volunteers to build and asked the attending groups to support growth of the VIP (volunteers in patrol), CHIPS (citizens helping in parking solutions) and to undergo CERT (community emergency readiness team) training. He also discussed N.E.’s new website (http://www.northeastcrimewatch.org) and outlined how and what citizens could get through this new site. FRI Weed & Seed strategy would be concentrating on drug and burglary offenses during the next few weeks. There has been a 35% increase in the number of area burglaries

Discussion also covered utilization of the Safe Team at several locations in the Ferguson/Buckner/Peavy corridor. Officers were walking targeted complexes and using zero tolerance on all offenses and code issues. Failure of an apartment complex to come into ordinance compliance following an intervention might result in more serious charges filed against the complex downtown. Sgt. Armon urged all attendees to urge their communities to utilize the 311 system to report code violations by both phone and online at www.dallascityhall.com. If you have questions for Sgt. Armon he provided his direct phone number 214-670-4762 or the ICP unit number of 214-670-7768. Discussion also included talk about seeking a City of Dallas Community Prosecutor for our area.

Vikki Martin noted that it is very important that if an additional sub-meeting is called for the 2 Points area apts. that ALL apartments in the FRI target area should be included in the meeting, not just 2 Points. Many crimes on Buckner and Ferguson are related and this would make sense that all apts. begin communicating with each other.

Budget

Weed and Seed coordinator Kerry Goodwin reported that FRI had just “finally” received an okay for its budget for 2007 and expected to have funds downloaded from Washington within a few days. He passed out a budget summary, as approved by USDOJ-CCDO, and indicated where changes had been made. Local match resources for patrol squad cars were disallowed. These match monies were replaced by an increase in the number of dollars allocated to DEFY volunteers mentors.

New programs

Also covered was the opening of the new Skate Park located in Lakeland Hills Park. This was a major accomplishment and the first of many hoped improvements for our community, particularly directed to children’s recreational facilities. He also briefed the SC on our Special Emphasis activities related to addressing concerns about ex-offenders in our neighborhoods. He introduced Ms. Broadnax with Dallas County Adult Probation who was joining us as we worked to find solutions to reduce recidivism in our area. It is estimated that there are between 900-1200 adults on mandatory supervision in zip code 75228.

Kerry also reported on the 2-Points National Night Out Block Party. He stated that about 200+ residents of the associated crime watch and neighborhood associations attending. Everyone had a good time and over 300+ hot dogs were prepared and consumed and over 150 snow cones. It was brutally hot. He particularly thanked Mark Couser with New Hope Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Inner City Network for providing space and support for this exciting event.

Kerry also passed out the Strategic Plan outcomes report which he was about to upload to Washington reporting on last year’s performance. He highlighted a number of areas, particularly as related to efforts and results in stopping drug trafficking through the FRI corridor. He particularly thanked all those who had been making 911 calls on expected drug houses and DPD and other law enforcement contingents for the arrests and seizures of drugs and drug related property, guns and money.

Kerry and Marcie Himes further reported on meeting with Cherie McMillan, S.S. Conner principal, and Dr. Williams their PTA president. A list of concerns and needs were developed coinciding with last year’s Needs Assessment sent out to parents.

Margie Himes reported on completion of Phase 1 of the 2007 DEFY camp. FRI paid for 68 children to attend this year’s camp at Ft. Worth’s Joint Reserve, Naval Air Station. Eighteen kids were from the FRI and FRI2 neighborhoods. She reported that now that East Dallas Weed & Seed was no longer recognized, it would probably be a good idea to bring Phase 2 back into our neighborhood. There was some discussion on the nature of DEFY (Phase One and Two) for those not familiar with the program.

Ms. Martin reported that the owner of the new Town Home development, Villas @ Ash Creek had invited our SC to hold their next meeting in their new townhome model. Location is Villas at Ash Creek (Lakeland @ Ferguson), 8826 Tudor Place (the completed townhome closest to the gate. Tudor Place is the new street on the south side of Ferguson Road just west of the intersection of Ferguson and Lakeland, across from the Post Office.) He would provide refreshments. It was unanimously voted on to accept his offer.

Source: FRI