A drug-infested dump got new landlords, new life
11:44 AM 4/24/04

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Jose and Rose Feyen are bringing peace to the place where Lawrence Williams lay bleeding to death only a year ago. <

Williams, a La Follette High School student who lived in the neighborhood, was found with gunshot wounds in the driveway at a shabby brown and white ranch duplex at 4709-4711 Crescent Road. <

At the time, the rental property kept police busy responding to reports of drugs, weapons, disturbances and other illegal activity, officers said. <

The Feyens, who already owned a rental duplex across the street, bought the troubled property for $118,000 last September, five months after Williams was slain. <

The new owners have cleaned the property and found new tenants. <

"We haven't had any problems at all," said Madison Neighborhood Police Officer Dave Wixom. <

It shows what a landlord can do. <

Jeremiah Bychowski, one of the Feyen's adult children who lives in the family's property across the street, remembers leaving for a 15-minute trip to a nearby Walgreen's and returning to crime-scene barricades the night Williams died. <

In buying the property as an investment, the Feyens found a big hole in the living room wall, no doors - not even in the bathroom. There was smeared grease with bugs stuck in it on the kitchen walls and graffiti in the unfinished basement. <

"It was so nasty in here," the wife said. <

But the Feyens, who live outside the Allied Drive area, cleaned the place, stained the floors and installed new appliances, doors, sinks and toilet. "We replaced everything inside the house," Jose Feyen said. <

Initially, dealers even tried selling drugs to the family while they were fixing the place. But the Feyens, who spent their savings on the property, are undeterred. <

"We'll keep it. We did too much work. It's a family thing," Jose Feyen said. "I think the neighborhood is happy to see this place change."