"South Side Watch group gets pep talk "

We have got eyes watching you," East End resident Jacqueline Greek read Wednesday night from a self-penned poem to Oil City drug dealers. She spoke at the South Side Neighborhood Watches first meeting. "The more eyes we have in our neighborhood, the stronger we will be.... We are not victims of crime anymore. We will fight for our rights and take back our neighborhood." More than 50 people attended the meeting.

Drug dealers and perpetrators of other crimes, Oil City's South Side has eyes watching you.

More than 50 residents and community leaders turned out Wednesday night to send that message during the city's first South Side Neighborhood Watch meeting on Wilson Avenue.

The meeting was put together after two East End residents fell victim in as many months to a mugging and a separate assault. Organizers of Wednesday's gathering said that was the last straw.

They have had enough.

For now, the neighborhood watch's goals are focused on reducing neighborhood crime and ridding the South Side of illegal drug activity. People have said they want to feel safe walking streets again and generally want to feel comfortable on their home turf.

But drug activity has grown deep roots, and residents are able to quickly rattle off lists of crimes that they have witnessed. Some also believe that parents aren't taking active roles in the lives of their children.

Members of a mirror group, the North Side Association, city police Chief Robert Wenner, a member of Take Pride in Oil City, Mayor Ed Sharp and Councilwoman Sonja Hawkins gave the South Side group spirited encouragement and the promise of guidance and support as they set out to reclaim the streets.

"The North Side Association is a model group," Wenner said. Don't reinvent the wheel; just change the name."

"I think we're one day closer to taking our city back," Sharp told the gathering, commending the children, senior citizens and everyone in between who attended the first meeting. He said the crime and drug cleansing job is going to take the help of many hands. "The city's police department doesn't have a bottomless budget. What we need are people like you who want to help take your community.

"We're going to make our community better and brighter and tell those people "We don't want you here," Sharp continued.

Some South Side residents said earlier this week that average citizens have spent years living in fear of reporting neighborhood crimes to the city police department. Councilwoman Sonja Hawkins said when she learned that, she was overcome with the realization that drug dealers are "winning."

"Three years ago, I suggested doing a neighborhood watch to someone," Hawkins said. "They said, "We would love to, but we're too afraid.' I realized then that the drug dealers are winning. (North Side Association president) Venice Lewis said to me at that moment, "We've got to win this." And this is how we're going to win it - neighborhood by neighborhood."

A neighborhood watch, she said, has to focus on its goals, but it should become much more than a group simply executing a battle plan.

"This is a chance to bond, create friendships and build a sense of community," she said. "It's also about getting to know each other and having some fun along the way."

Leo Mansfield, a member of the North Side group, said strengthening communication within his neighborhood and among residents and city leaders has made all the difference during his group's yearlong existence.

"You are where we were a year ago," Mansfield said. "You can't dwell in the negative. It doesn't work. Something you can do is if you see one of your neighbors who isn't able to afford fixing up his house, help him out and make a project of it."

Lewis also vowed support.

"You don't need a devil's advocate," he said. "You need positive, positive, positive." To move ahead, we're going to give you all the support we can.

"Set one or two goals. For us, it's beautifying our city. For Oil City, it took 20, 30 years for the citizens and the government to let it decline. We have to take the city and put it back together for the modern times.

"You have to set goals to accomplish over two or three years and stay steadfast on those goals," Lewis said.

Wenner delivered a candid pep talk to the residents, spelling out what he expects of honest citizens and what they can expect of him and his department.

"I can't do this by myself and you can't do it by yourself. There is no short-term fix to a long-term problem. What it takes is what I refer to as chemotherapy. You've got to hit it, hit it, hit it," Wenner said of the city's lingering drug problem.

His department relies on information from the community that includes everything from license plate numbers of suspected drug buyers and sellers to other signs of suspected drug activity.

"You're not going to see everything we do, but what I need is everything you get. ...I will ask you the questions and tell you very little, Wenner said, citing some success stories of the department's cooperative and repeated hammering away at stubborn activity. "They are afraid of you. They are absolutely afraid of you." They need to know that regardless of what officers are on duty, you are always on. Just your presence is enough.

"What do you have to lose compared to what you have to gain?"

One woman, a local landlord, questioned what she and others can do to more effectively screen and flush drug-dealing tenants from their properties while a former drug addict told the group how engrossing drugs can be.

"I was slowly killing myself," she said.

"And you didn't care about anyone, did you?" Wenner asked.

"No, I didn't," she replied.

Michael Haney, the East End mugging victim from last month, told the group some of the most effective and short-term action items might a few simple acts.

"I'm going to keep my porch light on all night long," he said, having suggested earlier in the week that all residents should follow his lead. "Always keep looking out your door. And to the police chief: When your officers see a of 15, 16, 17 and 18 year olds hanging out on a street corner, tell the kids to hit the bricks and use their imagination to go and find something to do. We need to put the fear of authority back into the kids," Haney said.

More than 25 people signed up Wednesday night to be part of the neighborhood watch's subcommittee. Organizer Judy Snow said the group's leadership will come from that committee and some goals also will form.

The neighborhood watch's next regular meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, July 26 at the Free Methodist Church on Wilson Ave.

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Email: Southside Neighborhood Association