FRUSTRATION OVER TROUBLES GROWS ALONG ENOCH STREET

James Cameron has been complaining about the people next door for three years.

Last week, he began to see some action.

Cameron lives at 116 Enoch St. Next door are four apartments in two
cinder-block buildings, sitting in a dirt yard littered with trash. Cameron
says that for the three years he has lived on Enoch Street, the apartments
have been a gathering spot for drug dealers and drunks. Enoch Street is off
Murchison Road, less than a mile from Fayetteville State University.

"They urinate outside, day or night," Cameron said. "I've been told some of
them have sexual intercourse out there. It's just noise and vulgarity. Ride
through here about 9 or 10 o'clock at night and you'll always see 20 to 30
people over there cursing and raising hell. There's no sense talking to
them; they don't care."

Residents and police refer to the two apartment buildings at 118 and 120
Enoch St. as "the hole."

Problems like the ones on Enoch Street are not uncommon in poor
neighborhoods filled with cheap rental properties, although residents say
that the apartments are one of the worst examples. Police and city
officials say getting the properties cleaned up can take a long time.

Cameron, who is 69 and retired from the Army, is a soft-spoken man. He
lives on Enoch Street with his wife.

Cameron and others in the neighborhood have called the police repeatedly.
They have gathered for Community Watch meetings, complained to building
inspectors and told their City Council representative that they want the
property cleaned up.

But the problems persist.

Gathering Spot

There are two apartments in each of the buildings on Enoch Street, although
one of the units is vacant. Cameron's home is within feet of one of the
apartment buildings.

Moses Best, chairman of the Murchison Road Combined Community Watch, said
the apartments are one of the worst areas in a neighborhood full of
low-cost rental homes.

"Good God, it's an eyesore," Best said. He said it is particularly
upsetting that so many drug dealers gather at the apartments, which are
just a short distance from three churches.

The Rev. Thomas Leak is pastor of Smith Temple Church of God in Christ. A
small field is all that separates Smith Temple from the apartments. He said
trash from the property often ends up in the church lot. Some people are
reluctant to come in the neighborhood, he said, because of the reputation
of the apartments.

"It is quite a nuisance in the community," Leak said. "There is heavy
traffic, from morning till night, and I don't think it's from drinking Pepsis."

The apartments have been the source of complaints about drug dealing, noise
and other nuisances for years, said Fay-etteville police Capt. Tom
Bergamine. Police have conducted undercover operations and tried other
means of controlling the problem. But police say people arrested there end
up back at the apartments as soon as they get out of jail.

It's not so much the tenants who cause the problems as it is people
gathering outside the apartments, Cameron and police say.

Political Connection

Best, Cameron and some other residents have complained that politics has
kept the city from taking a tough stance with the apartments' owners,
Walter and L'Tanya Haire.

Walter Haire, a former city building inspector, is the brother of City
Councilman D.J.Haire. Enoch Street is in D.J. Haire's district.

"It's politics, man," Best said. "(D.J. Haire) always listens to people
complain, but he never does anything."

But city officials and police say that there has been no political pressure
to go easy on Walter Haire. The process of cleaning up a property is just a
slow one.

Walter Haire did not respond to messages left for him seeking comment on
the apartments.

D.J. Haire, who owns a home repair business and manages University
Apartment Rentals on Filter Plant Drive, says he has done nothing to
interfere with the process. He has made cleaning up neighborhoods a
platform plank in his campaigns. He said Wednesday that he has fought hard
for residents in his district. Family and friends are treated the same as
any other constituent, he said.

"I deem it fair for the city of Fayetteville to do whatever is necessary to
get these properties and owners taken care of," he said. "It makes no
difference to me. I scream loudly. You have got to take care of property
and be responsible."

D.J. Haire attends Community Watch meetings where residents talk about
problem properties.

When asked about the situation at his brother's apartments after a Feb. 5
meeting attended by residents of the Murchison Road area, Haire said that
every time he has heard residents complain about his brother's Enoch Street
property, he has notified the city and his brother.

"I cannot speak for my brother," he said. "I'm not the property owner and I
don't manage any properties. The city's got to do what they've got to do."

Walter Haire contacted the Police Department's nuisance abatement
investigator on Feb. 6, the day after D.J. Haire was asked about the
problem by a reporter at the Community Watch meeting.

Public Nuisance

Police say they have kept close watch over the problems on Enoch Street. By
December, lawmen had documented enough evidence to declare the apartments a
public nuisance. By that time, officers had been called to the properties
more than 150 times in less than three years.

The state's nuisance abatement law allows police to sue commercial and
residential property owners whose buildings have been the source of
repeated complaints about noise, drugs and violence. If the owners don't
stop the illegal activities, the department can pursue a civil lawsuit and
seize the property.

According to Sgt. Jessie DeVane, the nuisance abatement investigator, when
repeated complaints are filed, he researches the address to see how many
calls for service have come in. If there are an excessive number for
disturbances or violence, a point system is used to determine whether the
property is a nuisance. If an area scores too many points, DeVane will go
to court to have the property declared a civil nuisance.

If landlords don't cooperate, taking care of the problem through the court
system can take between six months and a year, DeVane said.

Typically, DeVane said, businesses, especially nightclubs, are the source
of nuisance complaints. Residential complaints are much less common.

DeVane said he always tries to work with property owners to settle the
problems out of court.

"My goal is to get the property owner to work with the Police Department to
clean the property up so it's a nice and better place for the whole
neighborhood," DeVane said.

Police Letter

On Dec. 13, DeVane sent a letter to Walter and L'Tanya Haire. The letter
advised the Haires that the property was subject to civil action because it
was being used for illegal activity. The memo reads in part:

"The Fayetteville Police Department has responded to numerous calls at this
location. The calls for service are reported unlawful activities on or
spilling over from the property. These calls include repeated acts that
create and constitute a breach of the peace (i.e. narcotic activities,
suspicious vehicles, domestics disturbances and suspicious
persons/activities)."

According to police records, lawmen responded to 108 calls at 118 Enoch St.
between June 27, 1999, and Jan. 29, 2002. The records indicate the calls
were for such things as drug dealing, stabbing, shooting, suspicious
people, suspicious vehicles, noise and service of criminal papers. At 120
Enoch, police had 44 calls for similar complaints during the same period,
according to police records.

At the Feb. 5 Community Watch meeting held at the Smith Recreation Center
on Slater Avenue, DeVane told about three dozen Murchison Road area
residents that the city had begun taking action to get the Enoch Street
property cleaned up.

At that meeting, DeVane said that the Haires had not responded to his
letter and that he had no choice but to take them to court.

The next morning, DeVane said, Walter Haire called him offering to work
with police.

DeVane said Walter Haire told him that he had tried contacting him several
times, but that DeVane had never returned his calls.

DeVane said he never received any messages from Walter Haire.

Bergamine said Walter Haire agreed to get a trespassing agreement for 118-A
Enoch St., which is vacant. Anyone caught on the front stoop or immediate
area of that apartment can be charged with trespassing. Haire also agreed
to issue eviction notices for the residents in 120-B Enoch St. Bergamine
said there have been numerous complaints about that unit.

DeVane said Walter Haire assured police that he would take care of the
litter and piles of debris scattered about the property.

But five days later, a half dozen men were hanging around the property and
lighters, beer cans and liquor bottles lay scattered about the ground. Two
rusting mailboxes rested in a side yard. Behind the apartments, a
broken-down boat lay in the grass along with a rusted grocery cart.

Cameron said he has stuck around for three years because he refuses to be
driven out of his home. He was both excited and cautious when he learned
action may finally be taken to clean the place up.

"It's the best news I've heard in a long time," he said. "I'm not going to
give up."