Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
Byron Wolfsong wants to establish a community-wide group to reduce the impact of methamphetamines on Sweet Home. He would like to stamp the drug and its related crime out of the community.
Page Merrill, executive director of Salem’s No Meth – Not in My Neighborhood, visited a small group of interested members of the public on Sept. 20. Eight local residents attended the meeting.
“I just wanted to get a handful of people,” Wolfsong said. “And from here we could grow.”
Merrill stressed the importance of establishing Neighborhood Watch groups and engaging the leaders of the community.
“All the mechanisms are in place that we need,” Wolfsong said. The community has people who want to volunteer. There is an awareness of the meth problem in the community. Sweet Home has a law enforcement agency that is willing to help, and Sweet Home has concerned citizens who want to make a change.
It’s just a matter of getting citizens together with officials from School District 55; city of Sweet Home; and services, like Sweet Home Sanitation, together and being visible, he said.
Wolfsong is the city’s code enforcement officer and his supervisor authorized him to organize the meeting as part of his work; although, he said, his interest is personal as well.
After hearing about how No-Meth works hand-in-hand with law enforcement and Neighborhood Watch in Salem with results, Wolfsong said that the next step is calling people who attended last week’s meeting and organizing another, inviting a wider group to a meeting in October.
After that, he would like to see a large group of citizens attend a City Council meeting.
“I want the council members to know there is a problem and a willingness from the citizens to get involved,” he said. He would like to see the council take some type of action.
Wolfsong would like to see public officials, including the city’s Youth Advisory Committee, attend the next meeting.
Neighborhood Watch groups or other interested parties that would like to get involved should contact Wolfsong at 367-4554.