FARRELL Police seek to share funding, team up

The money could help fund a youth or community police academy.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
FARRELL, Pa. -- Police hope some of the money from a proposed state program that would aid distressed communities will find its way to Farrell.
Chief Riley Smoot of the Southwest Mercer County Regional Police said the Sharon/Farrell Weed & amp; Seed program plans to apply for about $250,000 for a five-year funding period.
Weed & amp; Seed is a federal program that puts more police in target areas to prevent, control and reduce crime and improve the quality of life for residents.
High priority
The state's 15 designated Weed & amp; Seed districts are expected to be a high priority in a funding bill, referred to as the Elm Street Program, now before the state Legislature, he said.
The bill involves a $5 million program to fund residential reinvestment grants.
Some of that money could be channeled into a police-community program, Smoot said.
Partnership plans
The police have been working on forming a partnership with Weed & amp; Seed and the Farrell Area School District, said James DeCapua, chairman of the Southwest Mercer County Regional Police Commission.
It would be a public safety program that also could involve community service groups, Smoot said. It also could provide funding for a police officer to be on school premises daily, he added.
The state grant that funds the police-officer-in-the-school program expires at the end of this school year, and Weed & amp; Seed has expressed a willingness to pick up that cost, should it get funded through the state legislation, Smoot said.
Funding also could be provided for a youth or community police academy involving ERASE, which stands for Endorsed Resistance of All Substance Abuse Everywhere; the F.H. Buhl Club; and the Farrell School District, he said.
Exercise program
Farrell is launching a schoolwide exercise initiative that will create a fitness training program and equipped exercise facility that eventually will be open to the public.
Police officers will be able to use that facility at a minimal fee and also could serve as trainers for people coming in to use the equipment, Smoot said.
DeCapua said the police commission would send Weed & amp; Seed a letter supporting its efforts to secure the funding.
The program could be the base of a new level of communication between police and the community's youths, he added.