Mayor adds community police Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt, standing with two Community Service Interns, announces the Working to Improve Neighborhoods (WIN) initiative during a news conference at Navarino Park Tuesday (photo by H. Marc Larson). Community walkers, new phone line added in neighborhood initiatives By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle The number of community police officers in Green Bay will increase by six over the next few months, with three being added now and three more next year. Mayor Jim Schmitt announced the additions as part of a group of neighborhood-oriented additions to the city during a news conference at Navarino Park on Tuesday. Using the slogan "Working to Improve Neighborhoods," Schmitt also announced the hiring of the first Community Service Interns, designed to be go-betweens between neighborhood residents and the city; an improved Nuisance Action Team to go after blighted properties, and a new community service telephone number at City Hall, 448-3000. The city had cut community policing positions from the budget last November, but the police department has kept enough below its budget to allow the officers to be hired for the rest of this year, Schmitt said. The other three officers will be included in next year's budget at a cost of about $200,000, he said. The mayor said the move was made now because funds were available, not because of any outside concerns. "I said we'd be back when the money was available," he said. The six Community Service Interns will work in the near-downtown area. Their jobs are federally funded by Community Development Block Grants. The CSIs are third-semester law enforcement students at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. Schmitt said they would work with police, planners, parks and inspection departments "to provide neighborhood services in a friendly and customer-service orientated manner." He said they would walk through neighborhoods to identify and solve problems, working with city departments and neighborhood associations. Alejandra Mejia, wearing the bright yellow shirt with the city logo on it issued to CSI members, said she had seen an application at NWTC and got interested in the program. "It's a job I want to do, it's in the community, and I hope I can do a good job," she said. The Nuisance Action Team will focus on blighted properties. It is made up of an attorney, inspector, community police officer and neighborhood housing representative. "You don't want to be on this list," the mayor said. "If you're on that list, we're gonna see you through the court system."