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Island's 'tri-community' unites to make their neighborhoods safer

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Since Amber Melton's boyfriend, Jonathan Brown, was shot twice on the balcony of a friend's apartment in Hilton Head Gardens, she has nightmares the gunman will return.

She fears for her boyfriend's safety since he will have to point out the man in a courtroom if he is caught. She's afraid the gunman or his friends will harm her and the child she's carrying.

Apart from Hilton Head Island's splendid resorts exists a different side of life.

At three north-island apartment complexes -- two of which are government-subsidized -- people hurl insults at the police and lookouts have codes to alert drug dealers Five-O is coming. Young children are whisked into their homes at dark. Buildings haven't been painted in years, basketball hoops are missing and vegetation is overgrown. Outside lighting is separated by large, dark gaps.

Despite these problems, there are those at Hilton Head Gardens, Sandalwood Terrace and The Oaks -- known as the tri-community -- who are eager for change. After years of decline in the area, residents, managers, community organizers and police want to help improve the neighborhoods along Southwood Park Drive.

"If you treat those neighborhoods like slums, that's exactly what you're going to get, and it's not fair to the folks who live there," Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said.

But even with plans for better lighting and landscaping, more patrols by deputies and, eventually, security cameras, one question remains: Can the course be reversed?

SHAKING THINGS UP

Don Carroll, maintenance supervisor at Hilton Head Gardens, watched as seven Beaufort County sheriff's deputies rolled into the apartment complex on Thursday afternoon.

A crime hadn't occurred, but the officers have been told to spend much of their downtime in the tri-community. They want to shake things up.

The deputies said they often are greeted with profanity from a highly vocal few, but they recognize their presence is supported by a silent majority who just want a better place to raise their families.

"What causes the trouble is not the people who live here," Carroll said. "It's the people who come to hang out here."

That view is shared by many.

Law enforcement officials have plans to make targeted arrests of those causing trouble.

One significant result of the increased police presence is a freer flow of information between deputies and apartment managers. Deputies now provide managers with crime reports involving residents and will report back if the person is convicted so the managers can begin eviction procedures.

From her office in Sandalwood Terrace, manager Patricia Purnell watches deputies drive through each day.

"They're working feverishly to make crime go down," she said.

PIVOTAL MOMENT

In the first nine months of 2008, deputies responded to the tri-community 702 times.

Those calls included a homicide, two dozen fights, 15 reports of gunshots, two robberies, 10 burglaries and 61 disturbances. Other calls included drug arrests, property crime investigations, noise complaints, reports of suspicious people in the area and accusations of child abuse or neglect.

The neighborhoods routinely make headlines in the crime section of the daily newspaper.

But earlier this year, the brutal death of an island teenager did something more than make the news.

Harry Fripp III, 19, was stabbed more than a dozen times on April 9 in a daylight attack that played out in full view of children and other residents. The crime remains unsolved because witnesses are reluctant to come forward.

The homicide came at a time when many perceived that violence across the island was increasing based on a series of fights at area bars and other high-profile incidents, such as the disappearance of residents John and Elizabeth Calvert from their Harbour Town yacht.

The death of Fripp, who, according to his coach, "slipped through the cracks" at Hilton Head Island High School and didn't graduate, brought tri-community residents together for a memorial and for action.

It also brought to many residents the realization that they have to take back their neighborhoods, and the understanding that they won't be able to do it alone.

FIGHTING BACK

About a month ago, Tanner had a lengthy discussion with the local NAACP about strategies to improve the tri-community area.

He walked all three properties with the managers and offered recommendations.

His chief concern was the lack of visibility.

Lights were either too dim or broken.

Trees were overgrown and vines wove in and out of chain-link fences, providing a natural cover for drug deals.

There were also quality of life issues.

At Sandalwood Terrace, Dumpsters are placed haphazardly throughout the parking lots.

Hilton Head Gardens is built around a fenced-off lagoon of stagnant water and flung beer cans. Trees and shrubs have been allowed to grow unchecked.

Playground and community gathering spots are either lacking or badly damaged.

"We have to dress up the neighborhoods," Tanner said. "If the residents don't see anything happen, they're not going to change anything. They'll take more pride in their community and neighborhood and have more involvement with their neighbors and management because they'll see the management step up and do something positive."

All three managers agreed to follow the recommendations, and work has begun.

Palmetto Electric is replacing lights and has offered to help trim trees.

Community fundraisers are being planned.

Capt. Toby McSwain, who oversees the sheriff's southern operations, is trying to find companies to donate mulch and other landscaping for the playgrounds.

He is also working on a proposal to add security cameras to all three complexes similar to ones at Chaplin Community Park.

The individual neighborhoods would have to pick up the tab for the cameras, although grant money might be a possibility, Tanner said.

The cameras would be monitored in real-time at the Sheriff's Office and in substations in The Oaks and a new substation in Hilton Head Gardens. The feeds would also be recorded.

"The biggest thing that needs to happen is to bring in cameras so these neighborhoods are under surveillance," said Elijudah B. Yisrael, president of the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton NAACP. "I think that will knock out a lot of the problems we've been having."

WORKING TOGETHER

Don Carroll and his wife, Debbie, the manager at Hilton Head Gardens, were hired in February to help turn the property around.

They have had success doing that at a housing complex in St. George, S.C.

Debbie Carroll has successfully lobbied for a fountain in the algae-filled lagoon, new asphalt, better landscaping and, hopefully, by next year, a fresh coat of paint on the buildings.

A local church has sponsored a new Boy Scouts troop. Residents want to see a Girl Scouts troop follow closely behind, Carroll said.

On Saturdays, members of the NAACP, native island groups and the Neighborhood Outreach Connection have pitched in beside residents to build picnic tables, pick up trash and clear the lagoon.

"It's a pretty property, but it could be a beautiful property," said Debbie Carroll. "This is not a 'gimme-gimme' thing. We're going to empower people to do better."

There's still much work to be done to get the neighborhoods involved, said resident Melton, who helps out with the manual labor even though she's pregnant.

While the work is helping improve the area, some things don't change.

"Whenever we do a cleanup, it's always the same people helping and the same people not helping," she said.

The tipping point will come when more people are helping than not, many residents said.

That's something criminals will notice, said Tanner.

"They'll know that (the residents) don't want them here anymore," he said. "These folks aren't scared of us. They don't fear law enforcement. They don't fear the courts. What they need to fear is the community. You're going to have as much crime as you allow."

Melton, 21, a server at Plantation Cafe, sweeps the sidewalk in front of her apartment every other day.

"I hope doing little things like this will make life here better," she said.

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