James Moreland

Classes in karate, dance, modeling and acting for children and computer classes for adults are some programs begun recently with money from a $1 million grant to East Chattanooga as part of the federal Weed and Seed program.

The effort is designed to weed out crime and seed new social programs in crime-ridden neighborhoods.

A Weed and Seed meeting — the first since $175,000 of the grant money was sent out in January — is set for 6 p.m. today at the Carver Center. The plan is to update residents on what’s happening in the 11 East Chattanooga neighborhoods under the Weed and Seed banner.

“We want to share information on particular communities,” said James Moreland, chairman of the East Chattanooga Weed and Seed steering committee. “Somebody in Lincoln Park may not know what’s going on in Bushtown. This will give first-hand knowledge about what’s happening.”

Plans are to host informational meetings about Weed and Seed every three months, according to Mr. Moreland and the Rev. Ron Cook, pastor of Rock Island Baptist Church and director of the Eastside Task Force, a grassroots group created in 2005 to rid neighborhoods of crime.

Anne Jones Pierre, who works in East Chattanooga, said keeping residents informed will help generate more support for the community.

“People will support a program if there is evidence that you are working toward your goal,” she said.

The East Chattanooga community is the third area in the city to receive a Weed and Seed grant. The Westside and M.L. King neighborhoods were the first two.

Homicides in the East Chattanooga neighborhoods, which cover about 15,000 residents, increased by 50 percent from 2004 to 2006, according to a news release from the Chattanooga Housing Authority. Auto thefts increased 27 percent, and drug arrests increased 25 percent, according to the authority.

Eastside Task Force members have established a Weed and Seed office at 801 Holtzclaw Ave. That location and the Avondale and Glenwood recreational centers now are listed as “safe havens,” Mr. Moreland said. They are places where adult staff members are located, giving young people a chance to work on computers without worrying about being involved in fights, he said.

Since East Chattanooga received the Weed and Seed designation in August 2007, more police officers have been assigned to the East Chattanooga community, and they are doing raids of suspected drug locations, officials said.

The task force goals include reducing drug sales, violent crimes and truancy, Mr. Cook said. However, members still are in the process of working with law enforcement to establish measurements on where those crime statistics stand, he said.

“We’re trying to establish what the real baselines are,” he said.

Mr. Cook said the task force members also are interested in improving high school graduation rates and the health of residents.

The next East Chattanooga Weed and Seed payment of $225,000 is scheduled for January 2009, officials said. The entire $1 million is scheduled to be handed out over five years.

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