DATE: Friday, August 8, 1997                TAG: 9708080645

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   66 lines

POLICE TO TURN GAS STATION INTO SUBSTATION IN HIGH-CRIME AREA

The long arm of the law will soon reach six blocks farther when police, neighbors and construction professionals team up to transform an old gas station into a satellite police station.

The shabby block building sits in an old neighborhood struggling to reclaim its streets and free its older residents from having to hide in their homes.

Residents hope that street dealers and drunks will move on with officers there 24 hours a day in a station painted bright white and trimmed in green and gold to match patrol cars. The only other police station in town is nearly a half-mile away.

``Safety'' was the one-word explanation given by Shirley Simpson, coordinator for the Community-Police Leadership Group. The group is combining with Police Chief Michael Lloyd to carry out the project.

Lloyd expects the satellite station to be completed in a few weeks. It needs a roof, a heating and cooling unit, new windows and new wiring. The group is depending on volunteer labor and donated materials.

``The only thing the city is going to have to do is put in some furniture and absorb the utilities,'' Simpson said.

Several companies have already committed labor, expertise and materials.

Mark Swimme of Swimme and Sons, a contracting and home repair business, was there Wednesday evening with a group of about 30 people to tour the building. Among the group was Councilwoman Anita Hummer, some of the city's staff and several officers and residents.

``It's not in bad shape,'' Swimme said after a thorough look at the interior and exterior.

A tall chain-link fence surrounds the dull orange building made of cinder blocks 6 inches thick. Inside, broken glass covers the floor, and the roof has rotted through in places. The paint is peeling and there are a few holes in the wall, but the structure is solid.

``It's going to take a lot of manual labor more than anything else,'' Lloyd said.

The first task for the renovators is to move out old stoves, a refrigerator, carpet, a fiberglass tub and a few other bulky appliances.

There will be a small office space and maybe even a holding cell, Lloyd said. Three officers per shift on the south side of town will use it as their base.

In return for fixing it up, the building's owner, JoAnne Dempsey, will not charge for its use. It was probably built in the 1960s, and Dempsey's father ran the gas station until a few years ago, Simpson said.

The Community Group plans to name the station in honor of Leander Respass, the city's first black policeman.

Respass had long wanted to be a policeman when one afternoon in 1962, he got a chance to prove himself, according to his widow, Beulah Respass. A fight had broken out on a street corner not far from where the new station sits on South Road Street.

Respass, a truck driver, was riding by and saw two officers struggling to break up the fight. He stopped his truck, waded through the crowd and with a little hard-knuckle persuasion, helped the officers control the fight.

``They called me a few days later and told me to tell him to report to the station,'' said Beulah Respass. Longtime Chief W.C. Owens hired him part time at first. Later he became a full-time officer. Respass died in 1984. His widow attended the building tour Wednesday night.

The building that will bear Respass' name will serve to curtail some of the trouble he faced, said Simpson.

``It will cut down on the flow of drug sales here. It will reach out,'' Simpson said. Simpson lives just two blocks away on South Martin Street. ``I think it will change the appearance of this area so that we'll be proud of this neighborhood.''

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu