Diane Holder of Garden City knows about perseverance. Perseverance is what won her a certificate and $30 for taking second place in the The Sue Ellen Hudson Award for Inspirational Writing contest during the annual Southeastern Writers Association conference at St. Simon's Island recently.

"Perseverance has been instilled in me since the first conference I went to," Mrs. Holder said. That was three years ago, but the concept has stayed fresh in her mind ever since.

"You can't give up," Mrs. Holder said. "So many people give up in writing and in getting things published. Magazines and book publishers get hundreds of submissions every day, so it's hard. You just have to keep trying."

Perseverance in Mrs. Holder's case means working on the story until it gets where she wants it to go. This was the first time she's entered the contest, so talent, not perseverance was the main ingredient this time! The week-long conference culminated in a banquet at which winners in each of several categories of writing were announced.

Mrs. Holder's short inspirational story, "Indian Spirit" not only won second place in the contest, it got high marks from a professional writer who evaluated the manuscript. Debra Brown, the evaluator, is also vice-president of the Southeastern Writers Association.

"She told me she loved my story, and she and I talked for hours," Mrs. Holder said. Ms. Brown suggested some minor changes and encouraged Mrs. Holder to submit the story for publication.

The story is about a painting by Mrs. Holder's brother-in-law, Billy Bonamie, who some readers may remember lived in Garden City for many years. Not long before his death, Mr. Bonamie created a painting that turned out to have some unusual aspects, including the image of a wolf in the snow, and a cloud formation in the painting's sky that looks like a dove. The spiritual inferences and comfort Mrs. Holder and her family drew from the painting inspired her to share the story.

She worked on the manuscript for about a month, though the idea for it simmered in the background of her life since her brother-in-law's death six years ago.

"Until the time was right, it wasn't time to write it," she said. "You have to have inspiration to write. One day, I just said I need to write this story. Then that first sentence came to me and I was off."

She said her brother-in-law was half French, half Cuyahoga Indian. The mystical, almost mysterious flavor of both the painting and Mrs. Holder's story are grounded in American Indian culture and religion. Mrs. Holder even includes an Indian prayer in her story that melds so well with the narrative that Ms. Brown gave it high marks for educating without lecturing the reader.

Mrs. Holder says a writer's source of inspiration is no mystery. "God has to inspire you to do this and He works through you to express what He wants revealed to others."

The same holds true for painters like Mr. Bonamie. "With this painting, there's no way that could have happened if God hadn't inspired him to paint something that would leave us with a part of him."

With the encouragement offered by both the classes she took during the conference and her evaluation by Ms. Brown, Mrs. Holder won't be sitting on her laurels. Taking Ms. Brown's suggestions and a fresh look at the manuscript herself, Mrs. Holder said, "I made some notes already. I'm going to go in there and work it and see how it turns out," she said.

Mrs. Holder plans to submit "Indian Spirit" to "Guideposts"magazine.

Taking second place in the contest gave Mrs. Holder encouragement to continue trying to get her work published, but, she says philosophically, "If I don't ever do anything better, at least I accomplished something. It's encouraging."

The Southeastern Writers Conference is one of the country's major writers' conferences, with agents, editors, and authors in attendance as teachers, evaluators and mentors. Hundreds of writers come from all over the US to learn from the pros and share experiences with their peers.

Mrs. Holder said she met several local writers, and hopes to form a local writing group. Anyone interested in participating in such a group may call Diane Holder at 964-6573.

Earlier this year, a public meeting was held in Bloomingdale so citizens could learn more about the police department survey that the Lambries Pierce Tomes Group of Columbia, S.C., was going to do. Residents were able to ask questions regarding the survey and also air concerns and complaints about the police department.

At that time, the Spirit interviewed Councilman Ferman Tyler, a member of the 3-member Public Safety Committee. He said, "We wanted to go ahead and put the questions to rest one way or another. We've received a lot of inquiries about the police department, their actions and the way they work. The Council as a whole deemed it prudent that we get an independent study."

And, he said, "If the independent group says the complaints are not valid, then that's it, we'll move on."

In short, the group said exactly that.

"Both the Chatham County District Attorney's Office and the Bloomingdale Municipal Judge indicated that the cases made by Bloomingdale's police officers were well prepared," the report reads. "We also did not find any credible evidence of a pattern of abusive behavior by Bloomingdale police officers, as claimed by some members of the community."

The report held no real surprises for Bloomingdale Councilman Karl Johnson, a member of the Public Safety Committee, which oversees the police department. Nor did the results surprise Bloomingdale Police Captain Roy Pike.

"The report reinforced our belief that we are a good department," Capt. Pike said. "We are aggressive in traffic enforcement. It's always been our policy, that's not a new policy for us. That's the way we've always done it because we feel that aggressive traffic enforcement lowers crime rates."

He said that the group was asked what the department's overall score would be if the group graded it, and Bloomingdale's score would be a 90.

Councilman Johnson said he was on the past police committee and makes no apologies for the police department's strict traffic enforcement. He wants strict enforcement to continue, especially on Highway 80, where so many vehicles pass through town every day.

"On I-16, we're probably going to be a little less strict," he said.

In addition, he believes that aggressive traffic enforcement is crucial to maintaining a low crime rate. "Every police department in the country gets in trouble because of high speed chases," he said. "You can't tie (police officers') hands. What do we do, say go and head and go through here at any speed you want? I can't in good conscience do that."

Capt. Pike said, "Every member of the community that filed a complaint that I'm personally knowledgeable of has either been arrested by the Bloomingdale police or has had close family members arrested by the Bloomingdale Police Department."

One of the citizens who has complained most vociferously, Capt. Pike said, has a son who was arrested after fleeing from Bloomingdale police "while he was under house arrest."

Both Councilman Johnson and Captain Pike believe the report isn't exactly what some residents were hoping to hear about the police department.

"It exonerated the police department. We do the job that the citizens of Bloomingdale want us to do. We enforce the laws that are passed by the citizens of Bloomingdale and the citizens of Georgia. We don't pass any laws, we just enforce them. We are under oath to enforce them."

Failure to enforce those laws, Capt. Pike said, puts the department--and the city--in jeopardy from lawsuits. "We have a moral and a legal obligation to enforce the laws to the best of our ability."

Councilman Johnson was pleased that the study group "found very little to complain about. Some things are organizational, some things are perceptual," Councilman Johnson said.

One thing that is neither is the report's assessment of Bloomingdale's crime rate as "virtually nonexistent."

Councilman Johnson believes traffic enforcement is a major factor in maintaining the city's minuscule crime rate, and the report seems to agree.

"Crime rate is generally accepted as an effectiveness measure for law enforcement organizations. Crime in Bloomingdale is virtually nonexistent," the report says, adding that the Uniform Crime Report Part I crime rate "is slightly more than one crime for every 1,000 residents."

The report says that research indicates other cities in the southeast suffer an average of 72 crimes per thousand residents, and even those with a low crime rate experience 25 crimes per thousand citizens.

"Our research indicates that in cities where a higher number of traffic citations are issued, the crime rate is lower," the report says. Bloomingdale, it says, has a citation rate six times higher than the average city in the Lambries Pierce Tomes Group's database.

Savannah's crime rate is roughly three times the national average, but manages not to spill over into Bloomingdale, and that may be a matter of perception regarding Bloomingdale cops, too--criminals' perception. With the exception of criminals who intend to be caught and jailed, lawbreakers tend to shun areas with strict law enforcement.

"Once the bad guys realize that you've got a safe haven, then they'll go to that safe haven," Capt. Pike said.

The report says the department has a problem with the way the public perceives its behavior. Perceptions are by definition highly subjective, and the group recommended a citizens' advisory council to provide feedback to the city's administrative branch on police department performance. The group also recommends a community oriented policing program and citizen surveys to gauge "how satisfied citizens are with the City's law enforcement services."

As it did in Garden City, the Lambries Pierce Tomes Group believes the police department should not administer municipal court. Garden City has not followed that recommendation so far.

"A lot of the things they discussed and brought out were some of the things we'd thought of ourselves," Councilman Johnson said. Separating the court and police department has been discussed before, he said. Separating the two entities would eliminate any misconceptions by the public that the police are there to take money.

He said he thought Chief Anderson is doing a good job. He said he believes in issuing warning tickets for minor traffic infractions both as a way of keeping a record and of letting motorists know that the department is serious. Should the motorist then be stopped again days later for the same broken taillight or other minor infraction, the officer will know it's time for a citation.

Written warnings can cause perception problems, too, Councilman Johnson said. Some citizens come to city hall to fuss over a ticket that turns out to be nothing more than a written warning. The complaint and not the misconception becomes the perception.

The report suggests an officer be tasked for community oriented policing, but Councilman Johnson isn't sure that is practical in Bloomingdale, which is largely residential, with few commercial entities.

Another problem within the department according to the report, is low morale caused by officers' belief that the council does not support them. The group theorizes that morale will improve once the city decides on a specific law enforcement philosophy. "...some officers may elect to leave the department. New officers whose law enforcement philosophy matches that of City Council could be hired," the report said.

This is much the same assessment as the group made in Garden City last year, with no further suggestions for improving morale. Morale among Garden City officers is currently as low, if not lower, than it was during last year's study.

"As a whole, the report said we need to reorganize," Councilman Johnson said. "We didn't have a structure within each grade to get raises in pay for the officers. That was one of their suggestions, but it's something we've been working at for a couple of years. We're going to make some changes. The changes won't happen fast--we're a small town."