DRUG BUYERS FOILED

NEW ALBANY, Ind.  ( AP ) -- An effort to combat drug trafficking near a public housing project here by making nearby streets one-way has succeeded only in snarling traffic, some residents say.

Supporters of the move that switched four streets surrounding the New Albany Housing Authority to one-way said the change would prevent drug buyers from circling the housing project in search of sellers.

But some Vance Court neighborhood residents say drug trafficking continues unabated in the area, while auto traffic is a mess.

"This is an inconvenience for me and a whole lot of other people," Rhoda Temple Morton said last week during a meeting of the New Albany Board of Public Works and Safety.

The board approved the changes last summer.

Morton, who lives on Ealy Street near Vance Court, said she and her neighbors weren't asked about the changes.  Recently, she said, it took out-of-town visitors half an hour to find a neighbor's house because of the one-way streets.

Although her sentiments are echoed by other area residents, officials say the one-way streets are succeeding in reducing drug sales.

"The changes weren't designed to inconvenience residents, they were designed to inconvenience drug dealers," said Mark Henderson, director of resident initiatives for the New Albany Housing Authority.

Indiana State Police Sgt.  Myron Wilkerson, who oversees the agency's anti-drug efforts in several southern Indiana counties, supports the changes.

He said traffic patterns before the change basically made it "like a drive-through window" for drug buyers and sellers.

It "probably is an inconvenience for some people.  But we must weigh what we want to do," he added.

Paul Grace Sr., who lives on Ealy Street near Vance Court, said Saturday he's aware of drug problems in the neighborhood.  But he's not sure the one-way streets are helping because they simply resulted in a detour of a couple blocks for drug sellers or buyers.

He says he still sees young troublemakers in the area each night.

"They ought to find some other way of dealing with the problem," Grace said.

Mike Helm, New Albany's assistant police chief, said most officers think the changes in traffic flow are helping enough to make the inconvenience for residents worthwhile.

But Helm expressed concern that the housing authority last week ended--without warning--overtime payments to officers on foot patrols in the projects.  He said foot patrols are effective and worries that ending them will increase crimes, including drug sales.

Debbie Heazlitt, the housing authority's executive director, said the foot-patrol payments -- about $28 an hour--ended because about $200,000 in grant money had been exhausted.

She said she doesn't know when the housing authority will start paying for the patrols again.