Resident says sheriff delayed response as camper encampment menaced Little East Fork neighbors

Jeremy Enman, a resident who signed up for public comment, told the Haywood County Board of Commissioners that people living in a camper encampment along Little East Fork have been threatening neighbors, lighting illegal burns and failing to respond to county requests for help. “I was expressing my First Amendment rights and I was threatened that I would be hauled to Wayneville,” Enman said, and he said sheriff’s staff took more than two hours to respond to an initial call.

The board and staff discussed next steps. County legal staff (Frank) said county notices of violation had been served on property owners where campers are located, but new information suggests the campers may be on the land without the owners’ permission. “If that’s the case, then they’re trespassers,” Frank said, adding that if owners authorize sheriff’s deputies to notify trespassers to leave, failure to depart would support criminal trespass charges and faster removal.

Frank also described a parallel problem on Brown Hollow where property appears to violate a conservation easement; that matter, he said, will proceed through civil enforcement by the holder of the easement and could require a lawsuit. For the Little East Fork encampment, Frank said the county has scheduled a hearing for injunctive relief on June 29 and will continue to work with property owners to confirm whether the occupants are tenants or trespassers.

Commissioners acknowledged the public’s frustration with the pace of enforcement and said they would press county staff and law enforcement for follow-up. One commissioner said they would talk with Enman after the meeting to collect contact information and pursue additional steps. The board did not take a formal vote on enforcement during the meeting.

The meeting record shows county staff are pursuing both criminal and civil paths depending on property-ownership facts; the June 29 hearing was cited as the next formal procedural milestone.