In The News

from The Telegraph
July 14, 2008

            

The Telegraph/MARGIE M. BARNES Bruce Bertolino, site coordinator for the Weed and Seed program in Alton, gets a piece of cake Tuesday during his goodbye party at the Humboldt Senior Apartments in Alton. His job was terminated at the end of June because of financial cutbacks.

Weed and Seed
coordinator says
goodbye

By LINDA N. WELLER
The Telegraph

ALTON - Grateful residents in a Weed and Seed neighborhood gathered to thank and say goodbye to the strategy's site coordinator Tuesday, eight days after the position expired for lack of funds.

"He's wonderful," said Julie Delaney, child care director at the Alton YWCA, about Bruce Bertolino, 44, who was site coordinator for more than four years. "He supported our programs. We were able to do a lot of family programming, such as summer and after-school sessions with Weed and Seed money and grants from other sources, because of the strategy."

Delaney and Kristen Orban, YWCA program and marketing director, attended a farewell reception for Bertolino at Humboldt Senior Apartments, Sixth Street and Central Avenue. Delaney said she was unsure what programs would continue.

"Weed and Seed was instrumental in the grants (requests) I've written; he has always supported everything we've done at the Y," said Orban, also a member of the Weed and Seed Strategy Steering Committee. "He's wonderful; he has been a mentor."

Some attendees said they want Bertolino to run for mayor next spring.

"He has frankness, truthfulness and character, all the qualities it takes to make an individual program a success and a gathering of people sincerely interested in bettering their community, which will be an asset to a mayor," said Jim Meisenheimer, a "watchdog" resident of Central Avenue.

Police Chief Chris Sullivan and Corporation Counselor Jim Schrempf told Bertolino about the termination June 26, four days before his appointment ended.

Bertolino said Tuesday he had believed the job would last until July 31 or Aug. 15 - or even through Aug. 30, if a local organization had provided a grant. He said previously that he might remain as site coordinator until October.

Bertolino had applied for two grants to pay his salary but did not get either of them. ConocoPhillips donated $1,000, and the steering committee raised nearly $4,000 during a trivia night in April. Bertolino said he used some of the money for office supplies and Web site maintenance after covering event costs.

The Alton Police Department funded the coordinator's position and its benefits for more than a year after the five-year U.S. Department of Justice grant expired that provided Alton with $1,075,000. Bertolino, the second Alton site coordinator, took the job in December 2003.

The basic idea behind Weed and Seed is to enlist citizens, businesses, law enforcement and government to collectively "weed" out negative influences in targeted areas and "plant" positive "seeds."

With Alton facing tight finances in fiscal year 2008-2009, though, officials cut the coordinator's position from the Police Department budget, effective April 1. A maintenance worker at the Alton Law Enforcement Center retired early and two officers' positions remain unfilled, Sullivan said.

"The city made a $13,000 commitment on a $10,000 pledge," Sullivan said about April through June.

News that Bertolino's position ended June 30 came both as a surprise and a relief, he said, as the uncertainty was weighing on him and members of the Steering Committee. When word got out, he said he received cards, e-mails and even flowers in his support.

"It has been a huge blessing in my life, personally and professionally, to have spent these near five years as the site coordinator," Bertolino said in a written statement. "The support of the community has been truly overwhelming, and I only hope I served you as well as you have appreciated me.

"I believe in Alton and have proudly called it my home for 19 years. I am proud to have helped make lives better in some small way and have made many friends who I will miss seeing regularly. You have my sincere best wishes to you and those you love for a hopeful future filled with opportunity and blessings."

He said he wants residents to keep the program going through collaboration and by following Weed and Seed's seven strategies for community change: provide information, enhance skills, provide support, enhance access, reduce barriers, change consequences through incentives and disincentives, change physical design of the environment, and change policies and regulations.

"If you share power with people, they like it," he said.

He said it's the people he will miss. He also said in order to keep the strategy viable, participants should increase and enhance internal and external communications; collaborate and continue to refine and further enhance community-policing activities, driven by resident input.

He said he had been so busy trying to keep the program going and raising money that he had not looked for another job. He has a background in social services work.

Bertolino, who is single and childless, is optimistic that he will find work eventually.

"Things always seem to work out," he said. "My bread usually lands jelly-side-up. I feel excited never knowing what is going to happen. My life is a happy accident."

He said he is willing to relocate from Alton for a job. As site coordinator, it gave him a taste of politics, and supporters at the reception said he should run for mayor. He said he has no plans to run for public office.

In the meantime, officials are seeking someone to volunteer for the position or to perform its duties while working either for a local company or the city, Sullivan said. Police Lt. Mike McNamara is serving as interim site coordinator.

McNamara for years has been involved in Weed and Seed's offshoot, the multi-department Nuisance Abatement Task Force that addresses problem properties with code violations and suspected drug use.

Weed and Seed neighborhood watch and problem-solving meetings will continue, as will its Art in the Park program, Community Learning Center, Alton Youth Development Strategy Partnership/Drug Free Communities Collaboration and others.

Besides the city, some of the partners are Lewis and Clark Community College, Saint Anthony's Hospital and Alton School District.

Alton Weed & Seed Strategy
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