WEED AND SEED BOARD HOPING FOR TURNAROUND

Southeast Missouri Weed and Seed still doesn't have access to its nearly $700,000 annual budget, despite having a new executive director in place for nearly a week. Members of the regional Weed and Seed board anticipate the release of the grant money sometime next week, after a visit by representatives of the national crime fighting initiative's Washington, D.C. office Monday and Tuesday."We're being told by phone they'll be available," said James Hillin, of Cape Girardeau"s Hillin and Clark accounting firm, which tracks SEMO Weed and Seed's spending. "They are probably waiting for the auditors to come here next week."The board, which unites five Southeast Missouri cities in an effort to combat crime and create grassroots social changes, lost its funding from the U.S. Department of Justice in early September. The Weed and Seed national office cited appointment of a U.S. Justice Department employee as interim director, and various program reporting errors, as its reasons to withold money.

The board's new executive director, Lisa Lane, has been on the job officially since Oct. 18, and questions regarding management of the regional program were answered in a 30-point letter by former interim director Ron Scaggs at the end of September. So far, members of SEMO Weed and Seed are pleased with their new director.

At their regional board meeting on Thursday in Charleston, Lane gave a typed report about her first week's activities."This is the first weekly report I have seen in two years," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Larry Ferrell.

SEMO Weed and Seed got its first funding in December 1998, at which time Calvin Bird served as executive director. Bird resigned from the board last Spring. The board had been seeking a new director since then.

Lane spent most of her first week going over records to familiarize herself with operations. She also met with the SEMO Drug Task Force's director and member's of SEMO Weed and Seed's Poplar Bluff steering committee."It's not as bad off as everyone said it was," Lane said.

Many had advised her not to take the job, Lane said, saying SEMO Weed and Seed was working itself into a legal quagmire. "The key right now is to get more uniformity," Lane said. "Things are pretty rugged in that area right now."The first topic that the board asked her to look at is seeding coordinator's contracts. Some uncertainty was expressed at the board meeting about whether all the seeding coordinators, who work as liasons between local steering committees and their communities, were employees or independent contractors. "You should review and revise the personnel qualifications for the program as a first priority," Cape Girardeau Police Chief Rick Hetzel told Lane during the board meeting.

The question arose while discussing an unemployment compensation claim against SEMO Weed and Seed filed by Debra Hamilton, seeding coordinator for Cape Girardeau.

Ferrell, who had recently looked at Hamilton's contract, said it was poorly worded and unclear. The salaries for seeding coordinators seemed to vary quite a bit, said Diane Sayre, Caruthersville mayor. This is because the cities were originally told to handle salaries and contracts themselves, Ferrell said."We really need to gather the other contracts to take a look at them," Ferrell said.