BUENA PARK : Federal Funds Save Anti-Gang Program

In a last-minute turnabout, the Buena Park Police Department’s gang prevention program was given a portion of the city’s federal grant money. The City Council’s move Monday night helps keep the program in local schools.

City staff had recommended that the program not be funded, but the Citizens Advisory Committee, which reviewed funding requests, asked that $52,500 be allocated for the program.

Council members agreed.

Kurt Vanderwest, chairman of the Citizens Advisory Committee, said that the program is needed to help the city combat its graffiti and gang problems.

To pay for the gang prevention program, grant money for alley improvements along Beach Boulevard was reduced to $164,300.

The Positive Avenues for Youth program was among 19 public and private nonprofit groups and programs requesting a portion of the city’s 1993-94 Community Development Block Grant money.

Thomas E. Lynch, director of development services, said that this year, the city has been allocated $830,000 in federal funding. In addition, it has $9,489 in unspent funds from last year.

The city received requests totaling nearly $1.4 million.

Other programs that received funding include the Boys & Girls Club of Buena Park, which received nearly $13,000; the city’s housing rehabilitation program, $220,000; code enforcement salaries and administration, $41,000; Homewood Teen Center, $11,853, and Buena Park Coordinating Council, $14,035.

Cindy Chaffee, principal of Glen Dysinger Sr. School, urged funding for Positive Avenues for Youth, telling the council that the program is a positive way to fight youth gangs. The council also received letters in support of the program from 78 students and local school districts.

The program is taught in the fifth grade at city schools. Students learn about the consequences of gang and graffiti involvement, as well as their responsibility to be good citizens.

Last year, the program was funded partly by Community Development Block Grant money, with additional funds from a state Office of Criminal Justice Planning grant. The latter source, however, will no longer be available to the city, said Barbara Baiz, a gang prevention adviser who teaches the program.

Baiz called the program “absolutely essential for the ‘90s,” adding that it would “ultimately reap long-term benefits in the community.”