Pubdate: Sat, 13 Aug 2005
Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
Copyright: 2005 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.journalnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504
Author: James Romoser
Note: The Journal does not publish letters from writers outside its daily
home delivery circulation area.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

NEIGHBORHOOD NEAR JONESVILLE DECRIES OBVIOUS DRUG DEALING

Angry Residents Say That Selling Of Crack Cocaine In The Area Is Worse Than
Ever

JONESVILLE Residents of a neighborhood on the outskirts of town are
angry over what they say is a growing drug problem in the area.

Mathis Street - a small, horseshoe-shaped road off Cedarbrook Road in
western Jonesville - has become a home base for drug dealers selling
crack cocaine, police and residents say. Though drugs have been a
periodic problem in the neighborhood for several years, residents say
they have never seen it this bad. "The only thing you have to do is
just stand here for five minutes and you'll see it," said Lillie
Grinton, a former resident of Mathis Street who moved to another
street several years ago.

Grinton said that rising crime was one of the reasons that she moved.
Once, she said, someone tried to break into her house.

"This used to be a nice neighborhood," Grinton added. "It's gotten a
lot worse. That's the reason everybody's moving off the street.
Elderly people used to live here."

A group of longtime residents brought their concerns to a meeting of
the Jonesville town council Monday. In response, the Jonesville police
department has started to patrol the neighborhood more frequently,
Police Chief Tim Gwyn said.

Ron Niland, the interim town manager, has also called a community
meeting for 4 p.m. Sunday so that residents and town officials can
discuss solutions to the problem. The meeting will be at Higher
Ground, the youth center in Jordan's Shopping Center on North Bridge
Street.

Police and residents say that the drug dealers operate out of
run-down, abandoned houses on Mathis Street. Even in the middle of the
afternoon yesterday, a group of men, whom residents identified as drug
dealers, were seen loitering outside an abandoned building, drinking
beer. The men said they like to hang out at the house, but said they
had never heard of any drug dealing.

Since March, Jonesville police have made 11 arrests on drug charges.
Two of those were in the Mathis Street area. On July 30, Leshawn
Raheem Keoner, 21, of 108 Osborne St., and Douglas Jerome Manns, 26,
of 5345 Mineral Spring Drive, were arrested for selling cocaine on
Mathis Street. Those arrests have not stopped the problem in the
neighborhood for several years, residents say they have never seen it
this bad. "It's very terrible," said Terri Williams, who lives on
Cedarbrook Road, a few hundred feet from Mathis Street. "I have two
small kids, and I don't want my kids to grow up thinking that's
normal." Williams said that the drug dealers have become more
aggressive recently, selling drugs during the daytime and expanding to
nearby streets.

Gwyn said he needs the community's help to catch drug dealers, who
"absolutely" live in the area. "Everybody knows everybody," he said.
"They may not live on that particular street, but they are local
people." Mayor Lindberg Swaim said he plans to attend the community
meeting Sunday. "We can solve the problem," he said. "It'll take the
cooperation of the citizens and the town police department and
probably the sheriff and others."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin