Sheriff, Schools to Hold Public Forum

DAYTON - The Dayton Schools and the Columbia County Sheriff's office will hold a joint public forum next week to provide information about school safety and law enforcement, and to invite public input on those issues. The forum will be held De- cember 17 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium at Dayton High School.

Columbia County Sheriff Rocky Miller said the forum is part of his effort to encour- age public input on how the Sheriff's office is doing and what improvements are needed.

" I ' ve been walk- ing Main Street and talking to business owners," he said. "And I'll be holding two more forums, in Starbuck and at the Last Resort on the Tu- cannon."

Dayton

School Superintendent

Doug Johnson said he has a list of topics to discuss with interested citizens at the Dayton Forum. These include: - Review the schools' cur- rent safety policies and its procedures for emergency lockdown and evacuation. - Provide an update on re- cent incidents, including a bomb threat and a swastika burned into the school lawn. - Discuss how the facilities improvement project that will be before voters in

April will help improve student safety and security.

Johnson said he feels the schools have developed a very good working relation- ship with the Sheriff's Office, and that has helped in the investigation of recent school incidents. "We both have the same concerns about security student safety," he said.

A Dayton High School student was recently arrested and charged with leaving the threatening note at the high school entrance on November 25. He was also charged in a separate assault incident. The swastika burn- ing incident, which occurred on November 6 is still under investigation, Miller said.

Miller plans to hold two additional public meetings: - At city hall in Starbuck on

December 18 at 6:30 p.m. - In the meeting room at

KOA Last Resort on Janu- ary 13 at 6:30 p.m.

Miller said he is also planning to create a citizens' ad- visory committee, which will help establish priorities for the work the Sheriff's Office does. He will invite interested forum participants to add their names to a list of potential committee members.