CANYON OKS ANNEXATION, ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM FUNDS

Adding to the city and cutting funding for an anti-drug program in schools each got the endorsement of the Canyon City Commission on Monday.

The commission authorized city staff to prepare plans for annexing a section of land north of Hunsley Road, a move that amounts to a race with Amarillo to gain authority over the territory between the two cities.

Assistant City Manager Courtney Sharp said the annexation would protect the city from unregulated development encroaching from the north.

"Call us big, bad government, but we've got to protect our future - Canyon's future and growth - and this is one way to do it," Sharp said.

The city has begun preliminary plans for potential annexations around the city.  But the specific area the commission endorsed Monday is the area enclosed by Farm-to-Market 2590 on the west, Country Club Road on the east, Hunsley Road on the south, and a line 710 of a mile north of Hunsley.

Staff advised the commission to focus on that area now because no residences are there.

Amarillo's jurisdiction already stretches to Rockwell Road, said Chuck Hester, city attorney.

"Unless we move north, they're going to keep moving south," he said.  "One day we're going to wake up and they're going to be right at Stadium Road."

In other business, the commission endorsed Police Chief Bobby Griffin's recommendation to stop funding the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in Canyon schools.  The program uses a trained police officer to teach students in elementary and middle/intermediate schools about the dangers of drug abuse.

Federal funding started the program in Canyon schools in 1989, and Canyon and Canyon Independent School District have funded it since 1993.

In 2004-05, Canyon would contribute $30,696 to the program, and CISD would contribute $18,808.

Griffin recommended cutting the funding because the program is costly and hasn't been proven to have long-term effectiveness, he said.

He cited a 2003 study by the U.S.  General Accounting Office that found children in the DARE program were as likely to go on to use illicit drugs as children not in the program.

The high costs of the program lie in the expense of training the officers.  It's had a relatively high turnover rate, averaging about one officer per every two years, Griffin said.

Griffin said he notified the school district of his recommendation.

He said the district has other options for drug education programs, including one put out by Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

A program such as that would be less expensive to operate because it wouldn't come with the high standards of training a police officer, Griffin said.