But little has changed, Lt. Scott Reeve said Thursday, July 8, at the Community Center during a meeting on the progress of the program.
“We haven’t reached our goal. You can still drive down Eighth Avenue and buy crack,” Reeve said.
He and program officials are now asking community members for suggestions.
Doug Adkins, city director of Neighborhood Revitalization and former prosecutor, said officials may have to take drastic measures, such as making Eighth Avenue a one-way street or seizing property to eliminate drug dealing on the street.
But Adkins suggested those steps likely would be a last resort.
“We’re never going to make progress until we solve the underlying problem. We’ve done what we can on Eighth Avenue,” Adkins said.
“If we can’t get control of the community, we’re going to come back to you and ask if we can take drastic steps. We’re getting close.”
Katrina Wilson of the Freedom Community Development Corp. said efforts to reclaim the neighborhood have been stepped up due to the recent homicide of TaShawn Smiley, a former intervention program participant.
Every Tuesday, a community outreach group stands in front of US Market store conducting a prayer service and referring youth to local social service groups to offer them an alternative to the streets.
“We do not want to see our young men killed,” Wilson said. “We’re never going to eliminate drug dealing completely, but we want to make residents feel safe, we want to have viable businesses.”
Onetime drug dealer says jobs are key to cleanup up streets
A former drug dealer who attended a drug intervention meeting Thursday, July 8, said the answer to cleaning up Eighth Avenue is simple: jobs.
Anthony Burton, 22, who has been in prison in Ohio and Tennessee, told Drug Market Intervention Program officials jobs and opportunities are key to getting drug dealers off the street — not prison, seizing property and barricading the street.
“If you want to see a change offer something that’s positive,” said Burton, who is now a student at Miami University Middletown.
Burton spoke Thursday at a meeting held at the Community Center, 800 Lafayette Ave. where Middletown police, city officials and community leaders discussed the progress of the intervention program.
The program began last year by offering four juveniles caught selling drugs a chance to turn their lives around.
But after TaShawn Smiley, a former program participant, was killed recently, officials say they want to step up efforts to crack down on the “open-air drug market” on the street.
Officials said drug sweeps over the years have done nothing to curtail people from standing on the corner selling drugs.
Options discussed Thursday include making Eighth Avenue a one-way street and seizing property.
But Burton said the best solution is offering the men, especially those with a criminal record, jobs or opportunities to improve themselves.
Middletown police Lt. Scott Reeve, Doug Adkins, director of Neighborhood Revitalization, and community leaders such as Katrina Wilson, said officials don’t have the resources to promise area youth jobs.
“We’re not going to promise you a job because we can’t,” Wilson said. “But we can give you the resources that can give you better opportunities and help you make better choices.”
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