By GIL BAILEY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

City officials point with pride to the 365 Project, in which city departments, including police, pay special attention to an 800-home section of the city for 365 days. The project began Aug. 5, 1997, with a focus on a roughly eight-block area east of Interstate 5 in the southern portion of the city.

The neighborhood identified its major problems as messy yards, speeding cars, drugs and alcohol, and loitering youths. All city departments then went to work on the problems in cooperation with residents.

"We have reduced response time (of officers answering calls), but even more importantly we are getting to know the people," says crime prevention officer Jim Jones. "We now talk to each other."

Retired truck driver Bob Benedict has lived in the area for 12 years. "It has worked," he says. "Prowls and burglary are down. Some kids are still speeding, but that is down."

And, Benedict says, "People are getting acquainted, watch each others' houses. . . . Yards are getting cleaned up."

Another fan of the program is Julie Lockleer, who helped develop it when she chaired the city's National Night Out Program in which residents turn on their lights and meet to discuss crime-fighting programs.

"It is going great guns," Lockleer says. "For example, the city engineering department got involved regarding street lights and parking.

"We'll be picking a new area of the city to work on," adds Lockleer, now a new member of the City Council.

Mountlake Terrace has won a statewide crime prevention award for its 365 Project, says Cmdr. Scott Smith of the Mountlake Terrace Police Department.

Smith took time out from working on a homicide -- the city's first in 2-1/2 years -- to talk about crime in city.

"Our violent crime rate is down," he says. "And problems with youth gangs are minimal."

Smith says the Neutral Zone project -- in which programs are provided for troubled youths on weekend nights -- has helped.

The programs run from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights and draw 175 to 200 kids to the Terrace Park Elementary School gym. Basketball, pool, games and hot food are available. A clothing bank and counseling are available, Smith said.