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Residents ask for help in fighting drug activity

McCauley

BUCKHANNON — A Buckhannon resident concerned about possible illegal drug activity in North Buckhannon appealed to Buckhannon City Council recently for help.

Faye Huddleston said, “I think you are all aware that we have a severe drug problem here, but we need to get something going and do something about this instead of just saying, ‘yeah, we have the drug problem.’

“Cleveland Avenue and Thurman Avenue are so bad, I wouldn’t even let her walk down the street by herself,” she said pointing to a teenager that attended the meeting along with several other North Buckhannon residents. “It’s hell over there.”

She suggested going back to a Neighborhood Watch program, something she saw being used successfully in Baltimore, Maryland.

“I feel we aren’t doing anything,” she said. “We need a plan. We need a presence over there. We need police over there. When you see an ongoing influx of people in a house — every day, 50 people or more, all the bicycles, all the backpacks, it doesn’t leave much to the imagination.”

Mayor David McCauley said the City of Buckhannon Police Department had partnered to establish a multi-county drug task force.

“These undercover operations… often times, there will be all of a sudden 25 or 30 people indicted relative to the drug issues,” he said.

The mayor also referenced the controversial “drug house” ordinance the City of Buckhannon adopted.

“If there is a problematic, repetitive property, the police have the opportunity to go to our Municipal Court and to put the landlord on notice about tenants,” he said. “We want to be attentive to these problems. I don’t want to publicly divulge strategy that could be occurring as we speak relative to our police operations.”

McCauley invited Huddleston to come back to the Sept. 19 city council meeting because Buckhannon Police Department Chief Matt Gregory typically gives his report at the second council meeting of the month.

“Maybe in advance of that, we can sit down with Chief Gregory and make more specific these issues you are experiencing over there,” he said. “We have stepped up patrols; we are part of a drug task force; we have written a couple of letters to owners of problematic, repetitive properties.”

Councilman Robbie Skinner asked when Huddleston noticed the problems escalated.

Huddleston said she moved back to the neighborhood six years ago and noticed problems beginning after that.

Councilman Mary Albaugh said she had been contacted by a resident of North Buckhannon with similar concerns.

On Tuesday, Gregory said he and his department are open to meeting with anybody who has concerns or information to share.

“We are cognizant of the drug issues that unfortunately plague our community,” he said. “We do have a number of avenues to where this information can be and is reported to us to include direct contacts with the police department and anonymous reporting through online site. We do have methods where we manage this information and address it accordingly.”

Anonymous tips are welcome through www.buckhannonpolice.com.

“If there is anyone with information, we do encourage to contact the city police via one of these methods,” Gregory said. “The more information that we get, the better we serve the community with our operations particularly focused on the drug issues.

“In my experience, when you make an arrest, when you solve a case, it’s usually because someone has told you something.”

As for a Neighborhood Watch, Gregory said there’s nothing currently in place although the Volunteers in Police Program does fill a role.

“I would love to see more folks take a vested interest in there community,” he said.

For a Neighborhood Watch program, Gregory said his department would be open to working with the community on that.

“I think it’s a great idea,” he said. “What fuels the success of those programs is the commitment of the folks who live in the neighborhood. It’s not run by the police department. It’s run by the members of the community. When folks desire to commit to a formalized program, we are more than happy to partner with them and to help make that particular program as successful as possible.”

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