Saugus holds community outing for residents concerned about crime

SAUGUS – More than 20 Saugus residents turned out at Cliftondale Square Friday night to help tackle what some called an ongoing drug problem in the area.”There’s too much going on in the town with the kids and the drugs,” said selectman candidate Julie Ann Mitchell. “I know it’s not just Saugus, it’s everywhere, but this is our town and we need to stand up for it.”The outing was started by Mike Downing, who is also running for selectman. After helping put together a similar community watch event at Veterans Elementary School over the summer, Downing said it was time to take on other troublesome parts of town.”I thought of what we did at the Veterans School and I figured if we could do it there we can do it here,” said Downing. “If they move somewhere else we’ll move too. Plus it’s about awareness. It’s letting people know that the people of Saugus are sick and tired of having friends’ kids and friends die.”Police Chief Domenic DiMella and Assistant Chief Leonard Campanello were also on hand.DiMella said he was approached by several business owners in the area about ongoing disturbances and kids loitering in front of stores.”I’ve increased patrols and we actually made an arrest a couple of days ago,” said DiMella. “We’re doing our job and we’re cleaning it up, but what’s happening tonight, if the community wants to come out lawfully and support the police and make a statement ? we fully support them.”The arrest DiMella referred to occurred on Monday afternoon, when Jared Bowman of Malden was pulled over at the corner of Central Street and School Street and arrested for possession of a class D drug and possession to distribute a class D drug.But DiMella said the problems around Cliftondale Square are more than drugs.”It’s a number of issues,” said DiMella. “The arrest we made he happened to have drugs on him. It’s a place they’ve been congregating and disrupting the businesses. It seems to be along this whole strip. It’s going to be our job to let the local business owners conduct business and make sure people obey the law.”Towfiqur Rahman owns Saugustown Foodmart on Lincoln Avenue and said while he depends on kids for his business, they do create problems at his store.”Saugus is a nice area,” said Rahman. “I’ve been doing business for three years here. Only one problem I face sometimes is a lot of kids hanging out.”Susan Kreis helps run the Saugus Neighborhood Watch program and said Friday night’s gathering is a good first step.”You need to get the momentum going somewhere and get everybody empowered to look out for each other,” said Kreis. “The police can’t be everywhere, so they rely on the citizens to be the eyes and ears. Not to take matters into their own hands, but to be able to fill in the gaps for the police.”Kreis, who has two teenage children, said she wants to make sure her kids are safe when they’re in town.”My kid could be the next one,” said Kreis. “You never know. Anything I can do to strengthen my town, so I know when my kids are at their friend’s house, or across town, I know they’re going to be safe and there’s going to be eyes watching them wherever they go around town.”For Campanello, when citizens make their presence known, it can have a huge effect on crime, especially if efforts like Friday night can be sustained.”When a community organizes, it sends a statement to people that want to engage in illegal activities that both the police and the community are watching,” said Campanello. “We certainly hope that this type of commitment from community leaders continues into the new year.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him on Twitter @MattTempesta.