MARCHING TO HIS OWN DRUM

LEMON SPRINGS - Jimmy Fraley has spent nearly two years making noise
about drugs and crime.

Fraley, who helped found the grassroots anti-crime group Citizens
Against Drugs (CAD) in February 2004, has made public clashes with
community and law enforcement leaders a part of his confrontational
style. In part because his efforts have been aimed at cleaning up
drug-related crime across the county, Fraley has been named the
Citizen of the Year for 2005 by The Herald's editorial board.

"I feel like I've brought a lot of awareness to people," Fraley said.
"It's been nothing but a fight since Day One. I feel like it should
have never been a fight." Fraley's efforts began in 2004 when, in
response to rising crime around Lemon Springs, he teamed up with
others in the area and called a community meeting at Greenwood
Elementary School. Hundreds showed up, angry their rural community
was literally infested with drugs, property crimes and prostitution.
The group quickly coalesced into CAD and Fraley was elected
president. More meetings throughout the county ensued, with guest
speakers of varying stripes explaining to interested citizens how
they could protect themselves and each other from the crime that CAD
leaders so loudly bemoaned. Many rallied to Fraley's cause, but the
group's relationship with law enforcement itself - and government in
general - quickly deteriorated. In what was probably Fraley and CAD's
most visible spat with local leadership, Fraley butted heads in the
spring with then-Sanford Mayor Winston Hester and the city's
administrative leadership. Fraley - who stressed from the start that
he was interested in helping solve the crime problem in all parts of
Lee County, not just Lemon Springs - had asked the Sanford City
Council if he could appear before them to discuss crime. He said he
was told during a meeting with Hester and other city leaders to
provide the city leadership with a map of known drug houses, so
something could be done about it.

Weeks later, Fraley did just that. He returned to City Hall with a
map of the Sanford city limits, mounted on cardboard and marked with
red thumbtacks indicating supposed locations where drugs could be bought.

Hester and Police Chief Ronnie Yarborough said they couldn't do
anything about the map, however, because the tacks only indicated
neighborhoods and not specific addresses.

In fact, city leaders pointed out that one thumbtack would represent
nearly an entire city block on Fraley's map.

At the time, Yarborough also pointed to the numerous busts by the
City/County Drug Unit as evidence that both the Sanford Police
Department and the Lee County Sheriff's Office were working to combat
drugs in the area. Shortly thereafter, Fraley was essentially banned
from appearing before the council. One reason for the reduced amount
of crime Fraley said he's seen is a yearlong drug investigation by
the Sanford-Lee County Drug Unit which culminated with seven arrests
in April 2005. The bust, which was conducted with the help of federal
agents, included undercover operations in which agents bought more
than 160 grams of cocaine worth $32,060. The suspects were all given
lengthy sentences.

It's hard to say, however, if CAD's demands had anything to do with
the law enforcement operation in the area. While CAD got off the
ground in early 2004, the law enforcement investigation began about
the same time. Scott Yow, Fraley's pastor at Beaver Creek Baptist
Church and a member of CAD, said Fraley's approach at times may have
been wrongheaded, but his intentions have always been right.

"Jimmy is a remarkable fellow.

Sometimes, he has that abrasive approach and they take him wrong.

But I've never seen anyone with more heart to make a difference in
the community than Jimmy, particularly with drugs and crime," Yow
said. "At times, there may been approaches (by Fraley) of the bull in
the China shop." For his part, Fraley has said his goal was never to
smear law enforcement and in fact has praised local officials for
making moves that he felt were correct, including numerous drug busts
and the creation of a two-officer "target team" by the sheriff's office.

But Fraley doesn't understand why he's encountered what he sees as
"resistance" - a failure from leaders of some local agencies to work
productively with CAD.

"I don't like the resistance we've gotten from law enforcement," he
said, explaining that officers of the law "bring a lot of good things
to this county. But I can say that if I was the sheriff of this
county, I'd be honored to have a group of people like us offering
everything we can to help." At times, Fraley has pursued his goals
with CAD to his own detriment.

Other than alienating some local leaders, the time he's put into the
group has taken him for long stretches away from his business,
Fraley's Cycle Repair Shop. "There was a time when I wasn't working
at all," he said. Does Fraley plan to stop working for social change?

The answer is a clear 'no,' evidenced by the stack of voter
registration forms piled on the desk at his shop on Nicholson Road.

"The way you change this stuff is at the polls," Fraley said. "When
election time comes around, I'll be out working." Many of the people
Fraley has run up against - Chief Deputy Kevin Bryant of the Lee
County Sheriff's Office and Yarborough - declined to comment for this story.

Hester was taken aback when informed about Fraley's distinction. "He
was named what?" Hester asked, before declining to say anything else.
For Yow, who in the course of his work says he's seen sides of Fraley
"that others haven't," the quality that makes Fraley remarkable is
his passion and his love for the community.

"Jimmy is a man of deep faith and conviction," Yow said. "He loves
this community and he loves his county.

That's one reason I stood so closely by him." Fraley admits that he
hasn't been perfect, but stressed that he only wants to see the best
things happen to Lee County.

"I ain't no angel, I've been on the other side of the fence," he
said. "But the future of this county is up to the people.

Are we going to let it go, or are we going to change it?"