Pittsfield Drug and Alcohol Meeting Minutes
6:30 pm at the Pittsfield Youth Workshop
September 13th, 2010

In attendance: Zach Powers, Officer John Webber, Sarah Sadowski, Chief Wharem, Denise Morin

Meeting called to order at 6:30 pm.

I. Funding
a. PDAC did not receive a DFC grant this year. Franklin, Raymond, Newport and Winchester were successful in their DFC efforts. Some towns like Raymond were on their third try and Franklin brought a tremendous amount of support via the Mayor’s Task Force.
b. A $49,500 grant proposal has been submitted to NH Charitable.
c. Denise will book Sarah for the next Select Board meeting (Tuesday) to discuss the funding situation with the Select Board- approximately two months of support.

II. Screening of Youth PSAs!!!

III. The Rx box is ready to go
a. The Chief gave a brief explanation of how the box will work. The window is ready to be installed next week and soon the door will be unlocked when the station is open so that community members can drop off prescriptions.
b. Press release went out to Suncook Valley Sun. Channel 24 and the Town Website will also promote the box. Sarah will send Clayton content for the PDAC website.
c. PDAC requested that the PD consider sending an officer out to the elderly housing areas to help get the word out about the box.

IV. Review of Jamie Batson’s Report
a. The coalition reviewed the report and remains unclear about the specific action items. Sarah will get in touch with Jamie and ask her to attend another meeting. A plan of action and identification of potential funding sources would be especially useful.

V. Final CRCPC Grant Activities
a. Denise has decorated the town bulletin board- thank you Denise!
b. The will be a Safety Health and Wellness Day for town employees on 9/29, 10-2pm which will include seminars on topics such as stress and having fun at work. There will be an explanation of benefits, including how employees can obtain ATOD counseling
c. The Shoulder Tap activity was discussed at length. The Chief raised serious concerns, e.g. what would happen if someone grabbed a youth on the shoulder. Zach also pointed to the difficulty of the youth conducting the activity in a small hometown. He said that when PYW had conducted the survey but with using cigarettes, the youth took a van to towns outside of the immediate area.
d. The group discussed the content of the upcoming newsletter- will use addresses in the Suncook Valley Directory. Also considering an insert in the Sun, Sarah will obtain a quote for distribution just to Pittsfield.

VI. NNO Reflection
a. The Chief had an opportunity to discuss National Night Out with a few of the officers and the general feeling was that it wasn’t particularly effective as a prevention approach. Rather, a quarterly kind of function may keep the message more central.
b. The PD will be working with the schools to see how they can better collaborate. Officer Webber will be taking on a role more akin to a school resource officer.

VII. Coffee and Canines
a. Inspired by feedback from the community forum, the Chief will be hosting the first community coffee night at Jitters on Thursday September 23rd. This will be an opportunity for community members to alert the police in an informal way, to areas of concern in town. The focus will be constructive ways to deal with issues in town such as substance abuse prevention.
b. The Chief also updated the group on progress being made with the K9 dog including the possibility of sharing costs with a town such as Barnstead.

The next PDAC meeting will be Monday, September 27th at 6:30 pm at the Pittsfield Youth Workshop.

Respectfully submitted,
Sarah Sadowski