To the Editor,

Recently I and my husband, who is a disabled vet and still works for our fine Department of Defense as a civilian, moved to St Pauls. We have been but horror-struck by what seems to be nonstop crime in our neighborhood. We moved here with the idea of having a nice country, small-time atmosphere, and instead we are on watch at all times. We worry that we might go to sleep and a stray bullet will pass through our house.

We sit down on our porch at night to relax and all we can smell is marijuana. There are parties every weekend with loud, obnoxious teens drinking and driving down the road, doing donuts in their vehicles in front of our house and shouting out on their megaphones at 2 in the morning. We have to constantly worry about the irresponsible neighbor’s dogs who are allowed to run free, eating neighbors livestock, running through everyone’s yards and intimidating our animals that are fenced in. When you call Animal Control, it takes them five days to respond. It is a shame that in such a beautiful place, we have to constantly agonize about the safety of our family.

The truth is St Pauls is a trouble-ridden town that refuses to face its problems. I know this because when we first moved here back in May we had problems with a man, a convicted felon, in our neighborhood shooting off his gun to try and intimidate people. We have called law enforcement and received no help.

St Pauls needs to open its eyes and see that people need a chance to feel safe in their own home and live a normal life and have a positive input into the city. It’s been said that a community is only as strong as its weakest member. If that is true then we have a very fragile community. If the police or sheriff’s deputies would spend a little more time patrolling near my neighborhood we might be able to live a more peaceful existence out here and the criminals might actually start abiding by the law or find a new place to call home.

Jennifer Stainbrook

St. Pauls