UTICA - A campaign issue in 2007 for many of the local candidates was helping our youth.

Now those candidates who were elected into office are setting in motion their plans to stop the brain drain and keep kids off the streets. Those two issues are nothing new to this area.

Policy makers on the local and state level are constantly trying to figure out how to keep young people in the area, and steer them away from a life of crime.

On the local, city level, Utica Mayor David Roefaro says he has already begun talks with leaders of area colleges. He says he wants to create an "Access Center" in Downtown Utica.

It would be a place young people could go to take classes, network with each other, and learn how to take advantage of the resources around them.

County-wide, County Executive Anthony Picente is revamping the County Youth Bureau. He says he wants to go beyond just recreational activities, and get to the heart of the problem, .including what makes kids want to join gangs and commit criminal acts.

Both agree - there is a lot of work to be done.

"We could get them involved in the schooling," Roefaro said. "Put them on the right track get them on the right thinking the right way is to go out and make a decent honest dollar."

"If we are truly going to invest in the department and seek other funds and work toward the betterment of our youth, we really have to look at all of the issues," Picente said.

It's possible we could see the city and the county come together in the future to build more youth programs.

Roefaro and Picente say they do take young people and the issues they face seriously, and hope to show that during their terms.