(As reported in the Derrick)

  Venango enlisted to help with OCs crime reduction efforts
  District attorney Marie Veon pitches the Weed and Seed program to commissioners.

Venango County district attorney Marie Veon and Oil City police chief Bob Wenner have enlisted the county in an effort to reduce crime and revitalize some Oil City neighborhoods.
Veon presented information on the Weed and Seed program at Tuesday’s meeting of the Venango County commissioners.
The Pennsylvania Weed and Seed Initiative, a federal program operated on the state level by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, is aimed at weeding out crime and seeding neighborhoods with prevention, intervention and treatment and revitalization services.
Oil City is one of eight communities in the state to receive a $5,000 planning grant for the program and is in the running for selection as one of two communities that will receive $40,000 a year for five years to implement the program.
If the program is funded, the county will be asked to provide the human services that will be leveraged for the revitalization efforts, Veon said. She also asked for one of the three commissioners and someone from the county human services agencies to sit on the Weed and Seed planning team.
The target area for the Weed and Seed grant includes Siverly and the East End in Oil City, areas that present "severe challenges" to quality of life, but already have grass-roots community organizations that are committed to improving the neighborhoods, she said.
Sixty-eight percent of the felony and high-level misdemeanor crimes in Oil City emanate from the targeted areas, Veon said. She added, however, that the problem is not Oil City's alone, because the illicit drug trade responsible for sales of cocaine, heroin and other drugs throughout the county has made the Oil City neighborhoods its home.
Veon said drug use and addiction is a problem throughout the county. When a large company attending a local job fair last summer conducted drug screenings of job applicants for several well-paying positions, more than 50 percent of the initial applicants failed the screenings, she said.
The targeted neighborhoods also feature high levels of unemployment , poverty and low-income families and condemned or abandoned homes in need of immediate attention, she said.
The Weed and Seed Initiative requires the integration and collaboration of law enforcement, community policing, prevention, intervention and treatment and neighborhood revitalization strategies, Veon said.
She listed numerous agencies already committed to the project including the North Side, South Side and Siverly neighborhood associations, Youth Alternatives, Take Pride Community Group, Oil City Area School District, CareerLink, Families First network, Family Services and T. Christopher Hill, pastor of the Free Methodist Church of Oil City.
Wenner gave the commissioners a copy of a survey that will go out to residents of the targeted neighborhoods to discover "what they believe is needed to be safe."
Wenner said the goal of the program is to "enable the people to succeed and take away the roadblocks."
Timothy Brooks, chairman of the commissioners, said the county will definitely support the effort.
Contracts
In other matters, the commissioners approved the purchase of a parcel of land near Route 62 in Frenchcreek Township for a runway extension project at Venango Regional Airport. The county will pay $7,000 for the 3.164-acre parcel owned by Richard, Thomas and William Moffitt.
County solicitor Rich Winkler said the price is based on an appraisal of the fair market value of the property.
The commissioners also approved a $6,200 budget transfer and contract amendment with CZB consulting services of Alexandria, Va., the firm conducting the study of the county's housing market. The additional funds are for a more detailed study of the housing stock in Cornplanter and Rouseville.
Speaking from the audience, county resident Rod Bedow praised the county's operation of Two Mile Run County Park and offered to contribute $1,000 toward the purchase of a new pickup truck for the park and urged other individuals and businesses to join the effort.
"I'm willing to start that myself with that number," he said.
He also said he had heard a rumor that the county might be considering the purchase of the Human Services Complex building (the former West Unit) from the Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry and Tourism.
He said he also heard that the heating system in the building is unreliable and that the building is either too hot or too cold.
"I would certainly hope there would be an appraisal done, and that should not be based on the present lease and what economic income it may take in over the next 20 years," he said.
"If the commissioners would decide to sit down at the table (to talk) about purchasing that building, I would hope we would put our thinking caps on," he said.
The commissioners told Bedow the rumor is "just a rumor."
Bedow and others filed a lawsuit last year against the county contesting its lease of the building. The suit was later dismissed.