DRUGS BIG BUSINESS IN TINY TOWN OF AMES

Residents Seek Ways To Drive Out Traffickers

AMES -- A full moon shines down on the mayor here as he pulls from his
driveway onto a narrow, rural road to head for work at 4:30 a.m.

Within a block of his house, Mayor John White encounters a traffic jam.
Young unemployed men -- who residents say have pockets full of money that
never get reported for tax purposes -- are congregating under the moonlight
on Cormier Street. White says they are hawking illegal drugs to a steady
stream of passing vehicles.

The road leads to nothing except grassy fields and a dozen darkened houses.
With most residents of this predominantly minority town in Liberty County
probably asleep, one wouldn't expect anything to impede the mayor's
progress at such an hour.

"But at least two or three cars are usually parked right in the middle of
the road to make their deals. I have to blow my horn to get through," said
White, 50, who works at Lubrizol Corp. as a maintenance planner. "It's sad.
Nobody should be up that early in a small town like this.

"I know of no other mayor's house in this county that's on a main dope
drag. Drug sales should never be this wide open. There should be some
respectability."

More than 50 residents of Ames -- a tiny town, population 1,000, whose only
thriving business is a lone convenience store -- crammed into the city hall
last week. They were complaining that law enforcement has failed to make a
dent in steadily increasing drug traffic in Ames, especially on Cormier and
Church Streets.

"Citizens of Ames think we have more than our share of drug troubles. We're
very fed up," said Ames City Secretary Carrie Lawson. "People can't get
down their streets for the drug trafficking, and residents complain about
strangers going through their yards all times of night.

"If deputies do come down here, the dealers just throw the drugs in the
bushes. Then nobody can prove who had it."

With no police department, the city relies on the county Sheriff's
Department for law enforcement.

Convinced that not enough is being done, a number of residents asked
Liberty County officials who attended the meeting for help coming up with a
plan to vigorously attack the problem. The officials included District
Attorney Mike Little, who also heads the county's drug task force; Liberty
County Judge Lloyd Kirkham; state Rep. Zeb Zbranek, D-Winnie; Liberty
County Court-at-Law Judge Chap Cain, and Constable Tim Allison.

Liberty County Sheriff O.J. Stewart, who was attending a law enforcement
class in Huntsville at the time of the meeting, said he had not been
invited to the meeting in Ames.

As to complaints that his deputies rarely patrol Ames, he disagreed. "We
have worked that area and particularly targeted Cormier Street in the past.
In fact, we've made some drug arrests there in the last two months. But we
have limited resources when trying to give equal service to the whole
county."

He said he didn't have specific details on thes number of drug-related
arrests in Ames.

He said the county is divided into four zones with only one deputy a shift
to cover each zone -- which means each one is responsible for patrolling a
300-square-mile area.

Residents acknowledge a few drug dealers have been sent to prison, but they
say there haven't been nearly enough of them.

"The dealers usually see a deputy coming and just start running between the
houses. Then the area looks all clean," said Lawson.

Hazel Young, 61, points to a path suspected drug dealers have worn through
the grass in her front yard on Cormier.

Residents think a more constant police presence would make a difference,
but the mayor said he believes white deputies are hesitant to patrol a
minority city such as Ames at night.

"I see deputies just pass by on the main highway. They don't come down our
streets," said Wilda Carrier, 73, owner of Wickliff's Gas and Grocery on
U.S. 90 that bisects Ames. "But I can sit here and see things going on a
few blocks from the highway on Cormier. I can't say for sure they're
selling drugs. But there are young boys with pockets full of money and no
jobs approaching cars."

She added, "These drugs are coming from somewhere. Black people can't
afford to land plane-loads of drugs in the fields around here like some
people say is happening. Cars are coming from all over the place to get it
- -- whites, blacks, Mexicans and Chinese."

Fearing to walk through her neighborhood after dark because of this, she
keeps a large Rottweiler on hand for protection. "He broke his chain and
forced a man on top of his truck just for shaking hands with me," she added.

Some possible solutions suggested at the meeting included: finding ways to
upgrade patrols, taking down license plate numbers of cars that don't
belong to residents in the neighborhood, encouraging residents to report
names of suspected dealers, and enforcing traffic and juvenile curfew laws
better.

The mayor, who says he aims to wipe out drugs in Ames, is also working on a
grant to demolish dilapidated buildings that can be used for crack houses.

At the same time, the sheriff is exploring several options, including one
tried in another small Texas city that used community marches to show
residents would no longer tolerate drug trafficking.

"We want to win the community back," said District Attorney Little, who
plans to meet with residents again in one month. "It's gratifying to see a
community come together and say they're not going to take it any more. I'm
confident that something will be done."

Copyright 1998 Houston Chronicle