COMMUNITY, CITY HELP SAVE DARE PROGRAM

Pierre fifth graders will receive DARE courses in 2006.

The Pierre City Commission approved funding $2,000 of the $10,000 program
using money left over from the 2005 budget during its regular Tuesday
evening meeting.

A fund-raising effort was started when it was announced that program was
going to end due to overtime cuts in the 2006 budget. The hours devoted to
the class by Pierre Police Officer Lisa McFarling, who is its instructor,

is mostly overtime because McFarling needs to continue her regular patrol
duties during the same time as the course is taught.

One of the first individuals drafted into the fund-raising was Todd
Douglas, Pierre School Board member and First National Bank official. In a
meeting with commissioner Larry Weiss, concerned parents and a school
principal, Douglas said that he was sure that he could obtain donations of
80 percent of the cost provided that the city would show its good
intentions by providing the remaining funds needed.

"This is a stopgap measure for one year," Douglas told the commission.

Douglas said that he'd learned of programs other than DARE that taught drug
abuse resistance education and that could be funded through federal grants.

Douglas divided the contributors for the DARE program into two levels: the
gold level giving $1,000 or more and the silver level giving less than $1,000.

Those in the gold level include: Karl Adam and the Dakota State Bank,
BankWest, American State Bank, First National Bank, Fischer, Rounds and
Associates and the Pierre new car dealers: Beck Motors, Wegner Auto and
Capital Motors.

In the silver level are Petersen Motors, Friman Oil and Gas, St. Mary's
Healthcare Center, St. Mary's Foundation, Farm Credit Services, Robert
Riter, St. Joseph's School Parent Organization and anonymous donors.