Durham Community Receives Grant to Combat Crime

The community will receive $250,000 that will make Carver Hill School a haven. It will hire a truant officer, pay off-duty police to patrol the area and will help fund a citizen's patrol to work the section of town.

The idea is to make a better neighborhood and a better Northeast-Central Durham for the children.

The crime-ridden section of the Bull City could use some outside help. Police who patrol the area and people who live there say the grant money will help.

"It can give the community a little more hope that there is support from outside of the community," Durham Police Capt. Steve Chalmers said. "This is the momentum that is needed to keep the Northeast-Central Partners Against Crime active and moving on to make some more accomplishments similar to the ones they have already made."

"I will not be left behind, no way, no way," neighborhood activist William Thomas said. "Our community has to be a part of Durham and the Durham movement, and it is headed in the right direction."

The Mayor said that citizens wrote the grant request, and they say that makes it more worthwhile for the people of the neighborhood.

One other area they are working on is housing. The community is hoping to get more federal grants to condemn and demolish buildings some buildings to help spruce up the neighborhood.