Oil
City has been tapped for participation in a state initiative that
blends safety issues with revitalization priorities in certain
neighborhoods.
And while the selection is just one step in the
pursuit of a much more expansive community action project, it will reap
significant rewards in the planning stage alone, said city police Chief
Bob Wenner who is directing the effort.
"We have so many good
things going with our neighborhood groups on the South Side, the North
Side and Siverly and this will put all that on steroids," said Wenner.
The
city learned last week that it is one of eight communities in
Pennsylvania to receive a $5,000 planning grant to outline how crime,
housing deterioration, drug abuse and more can be stopped in specific
neighborhoods. Once that study is done and submitted next spring, the
city gets in the running for a much larger prize one of two
communities in the state will be chosen for a five-year, $40,000 a year
project aimed at converting the planning verbiage into action.
Weed and Seed
The
program is known as the Pennsylvania Weed and Seed Initiative the
'weed' for weeding out crime by stepping up law enforcement and
prosecution efforts and the 'seed' for seeding neighborhoods with
prevention, treatment and revitalization services. It is a federal
program run on the state level by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime
and Delinquency.
A key element of the program is the emphasis on
creating a comprehensive and unrelenting response to crime and
neighborhood deterioration, two elements that have often combined to
confound Oil City's aspirations to prosper.
It's a challenge Wenner is eager to accept.
"What
our study will do is determine for each neighborhood what the problems
are and what we want to do about it," Wenner said. "We want to lift up
those neighborhoods and give the people who live there and want change
the ability to do that."
Three areas within the city are pegged
for the scrutiny all of Siverly,all of the East End and a large
portion of the North Side neighborhood.
"The goal was to get a large enough area to make a difference but not too large that you can't control it," Wenner said.
Collaborative effort
While
the police chief is at the forefront of the planning phase, he has a
lot of help. Representatives from dozens of local groups ranging from
neighborhood associations to social service agencies, probation
officers, housing inspectors, job service agencies, law enforcement
personnel and more are compiling data, analyzing issues and offering
solutions, Wenner said.
The linkage of those organizations is of
prime importance because "so many times our services are broken up and
that is not effective," he said. Those same groups, from the county
district attorney's office to the employment office and school
district, will continue to be involved in the planning stage.
Because
Oil City has "strong, solid" neighborhood associations in Siverly,
Wenner said the South Side and the North Side, the city is ahead of the
curve.
"You have to have neighborhood help and we have that
involvement in the city. There are improvements being made and this
program will expand that," he said.
As to teamwork, Wenner has had a big dose of that close up.
His wife, Karen, new industry manager for the Oil Region Alliance of
Business, Industry and Tourism, sifted through information collected
from various area agencies, distilled it into a text and compiled it
into a form suitable for the grant application. The state program
snapped it up, said the police chief.
"She has a lot of expertise
in grant-writing and business proposals," Wenner said. "She gets the
credit for putting it together."
While Wenner is optimistic the
city will eventually pull in the extended and funded program, the
current exercise in planning is invaluable.
"The very process of
planning is important because it gives us a plan and identifies the
needs for those neighborhoods," he said. "It will give us the insight
we need to begin fixing them."