Group Given Grant to Fight Drug Abuse

The East Ventura Community Council has been awarded a grant from the county to evaluate the use of alcohol and drugs among youth on the east end and how to solve the problem.

The initial grant could be as much as $5,000 and could eventually grow to $50,000, said Russ Murawski, 73, acting president of the community council.

“We know that there are problems [on the east end] with alcohol and drugs and driving under the influence. That’s a given,” Murawski said. The grant, which is funded by the county Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, will assist residents in dealing with those problems.

The East Ventura Community Council celebrated its two-month anniversary Saturday. Murawski, a former dental product salesman and eight-year resident of Ventura, started the council as a way to make the city’s east end safer.

Among the group’s goals is the establishment of a storefront police department in a shopping center at Kimball and Telegraph roads. A similar office in a mall on Bristol Road has done “wonderful things for the area,” Murawski said.

The former San Leandro resident, who lost his sight in 1982 due to a genetic defect passed along from his mother, moved to Ventura in 1988 after a short visit here. “I fell in love with the weather and have been here ever since,” he said. He serves on the city’s Senior Coordinating Council and Citizens Transportation Council as well as the Area Agency on Aging.

The next step in the grant process, Murawski said, is to decide how the money will be spent. The council discussed the issue at a pancake breakfast fund-raiser Saturday.