Arnetta Askew and Hazel Askew

knew exactly what was going on at 155 Booker St. in Fayetteville.

Cars came and went at all hours

of the night, and there was plenty of racket in the early morning hours.

Arnetta and Hazel who have lived there over 40 years each were sure drug

activity was taking place, right across the street from their homes.

They would call Fayetteville

police to no avail. Arnetta remembered one party at 155 Booker with 15

to 20 "cars and folk" there. She called city police and before

the law arrived, the party had dispersed.

"They had a scanner in

there or something," Arnetta said. "It's been going on like

this a long time ... We got tired of calling."

"We began to think they

didn't care about this neighborhood and as long as they're not bothering

people in the neighborhood, nobody cares," Hazel said.

The residents at 155 Booker

"were nice" and kept to themselves, Arnetta added. Except for

the noise, that is.

"You could hear them fussing

wherever you were," Arnetta said.

The neighbors' suspicions were

proven right recently when the Drug Task Force of the Fayette County Sheriff's

Department swooped in and arrested 19 people for possession of cocaine,

including persons charged with selling cocaine from the residence. Several

of the arrests were made at another residence down the street: 200 Booker

St.

The bust was the result of

a three-month investigation that began when the county sheriff's department

received several complaints of drug activity in the neighborhood, according

to a spokesperson. The drug activity was street-level only and not of

a trafficking nature, officials said.

The location is less than a

tenth of a mile from East Fayette Elementary School. Children going to

school must pass the alleged drug-selling locations to get to school on

Booker Avenue.

For the Askew families, the

bust was a relief. They had called police so often to report drug activity

in the area that they began to wonder if their complaints were being heard.

"We'd give them (the police)

tag numbers ... until they got smart and started backing the cars in,"

Hazel Askew said. "... I was just afraid something bad was going

to happen, that someone was going to die of a drug overdose."

After the arrests, things have

calmed down and a person who was cleaning up 155 Booker Friday afternoon

said he'd like to see the location become the home of a drug treatment

facility. The sheriff's department is considering filing paperwork to

have the home condemned under drug forfeiture laws.

As for the Askews, they're

enjoying the peace and quiet.

"We're able to go to sleep

now," Arnetta Askew said.

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