Pubdate: Fri, 10 Jan 2003
Source: Hartford Courant (CT)
Copyright: 2003 The Hartford Courant
Contact:  http://www.ctnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/183

HONOR YOUR PLEDGE, GOVERNOR

It's a safe bet that Willimantic leaders never dreamed they would be 
competing in a "My Town Has A Bigger Drug Problem Than Your Town" 
sweepstakes to get their fair share of help. Yet that is their plight, for 
which they can thank Gov. John G. Rowland.

After a Courant series was published in October chronicling a 30-year 
heroin scourge in Willimantic, Mr. Rowland, running for re-election at the 
time, was Johnny on the spot. He took advantage of a previously scheduled 
visit from John P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy, to 
travel with him to the Quiet Corner. Amid a flurry of flashbulbs, the 
governor pledged, in addition to other support, $100,000 to boost drug 
enforcement in this section of Windham that has unusually virulent drug 
problems for its size. Mr. Rowland has yet to make good on his promise.

What's worse, the measly $15,000 the city normally receives for enforcement 
was eliminated because of the state budget deficit. Instead of $6.4 million 
to be divided among towns, the state grants were reduced to $2 million 
total and divvied up among so-called entitlement cities. Willimantic was 
left out.

To compound that insult, budget cuts also prompted the closing of the state 
Department of Social Services branch in Willimantic that offers referral 
services to addicts.

State Rep. Walter Pawelkiewicz, who represents Windham, had asked for a 
reasonable change in the formula the state uses to allocate anti- drug 
grants that would make this small community with big-city drug problems 
eligible for more funds to combat its heroin problem. Instead of basing the 
grants on population, the number of drug arrests should be factored in. 
That would give Windham about $100,000 instead of the paltry $15,000 that 
it didn't even get this year. Plus, it ought to have the extra $100,000 
that the governor offered.

Mr. Rowland had better find a way to make good on his word. Otherwise he 
looks less like a leader and more like an opportunist.
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MAP posted-by: Beth