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VOLUME 21 NUMBER 1032
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NEIGHBORHOOD BLAZE consumes vacant building at 1023 Tenth Street on Tuesday. Au
gusta firefighters work to control the fire. Photo by Jimmy Carter.
City rehab czar
stepping down
®Housing and
Neighborhood
Development head
Keven Mack tenders
resignation.
By Rhonda Jones
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Yet another department head
gone.
Thistimeit’s Keven Mack, who
has been the head of Housing
and Neighborhood Development
since its 1997 inception. Prior to
that, from 1992, he was with the
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AUGUSTA STATE's Patricia Wells (left) scores big in the
contest against Armstrong State recently. Photo byJimmy Carter
Economic Development Depart
ment.
Mack assured the Focus that
he was “doing fine” when we
caught up with him at his home
onOct. 31, and reiterated earlier
statements that his Monday res
ignation was theresult ofa “mu
tual agreement” between himand
county administrator George
Kolb.
Not one county official, in
cluding Mack, would comment
on the possible severance pack
age. County attorney Jim Wall
would say only that he is cur
rently in negotiation with Mack
about the termsof hisdeparture.
Commissioner Andy Cheek
NOVEMBER 1 -7, 2001
;
proclaimed Mack one of the
nicest people he knows.
“Keven’s department has
been under a lot of scrutiny
this past year, maybe a little
longer.” He said the depart
ment just wasn’t going where
the commission and mayor
wanted it to, and blamed it on
a lack of good recordkeeping.
“When you’re dealing with a
lot of different groups that
Housing and Neighborhood
Development deals with,”
Cheek said, “the government
requires a level of account
ability.”
See MACK RESIGNS, 3A
Trial for Al-
Amin delayed
(NNPA) The murder trial for the
man once known as H. Rap Brown,
the fiery 1960 s Black Power era
leader, has been rescheduled for
January 2002.
Jamil Al-Amin, 57, now an At
lanta-based Muslim cleric, is in a
Fulton County, Ga., jail awaiting
trial for thekilling of Ricky Kinchen,
aßlack county deputy. Thetrial was
originally scheduled for September,
but Fulton County Superior Court
Judge Stephanie B. Manis said sh 2
postponed it to make sure he re
ceives as far a trial as possible.
Thepostponementisseenasaway
to allow anti-Arab and anti-Muslim
sentigients, which havesignificantly
risen since the Sept. 11 attacks on
America, to subside.
Al-Amin is charged with killing
Kinchen and wounding his partner,
Aldranon English, after the officers
tried to serve Al-Amin a warrant in
March of last year for failing to
appear in court.
Fryer remains
New Hope hoss
BEmbattled executive
director blasted for poor
record keeping, but is rein
stated as community center
director, but the survival of
the center is still in doubt.
By Rhonda Jones
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
“It’s a terrible audit,” county adminis
trator George Kolb said of the report the
county received on the state of New Hope
Community Center. “Terrible.”
The center’s poorly kept financial
records and subsequent loss of funding
from its umbrella organization, Global
Ministries, had led to the suspension of
thecenter’s executivedirector, the Rever
end Larry Fryer.
Among other things, the audit showed
that monthly statistical reports, for in
stance, wereincomplete. Accordingtothe
audit, New Hope records show that, in
December 1999, the center served 15 per
sons. But from January 2000 to the fol
lowing November, records show that no
one was served. December 2000 has no
report, and no persons were served in
January or February. In March 2001, 10
Pakistani refugees bolster Taliban
By Andrew Maykuth
Knight Ridder News Service
: NOWABAD, Afghanistan
Fresh Taliban recruits from Pakistan
are pouring into Afghanistan to shore up
the front lines against a potential attack
of opposition forces, refugees who were
fleeing Kabul said Wednesday.
Residents who were leaving the bomb-
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Veiled women supporters of Jamat-i-Islami
(Party of Islam) march with signs during an
anti-U.S. rally in Islamabad, Pakistan, last
week. Participants of the rally condemned
Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s
support of the U.S.to carry out operations in
neighboring Afghanistan. AP Photo/B.K.Bangash
| 50 CENTS
persons were served, and it’s back to zero
for the months of April and May. In June
and July, 40 and 15 persons were served,
respectively.
Quarterly reports for the same period
contain inconsistent information. For in
stance, from April to June 2000, records
indicate that 15 persons were served in the
summer camp program, though 65 stu
dents participated. From July to Septem
ber 2000 records indicate, again, that 15
persons were served, even though 65 stu
dents participated in field trips.
The audit states, “The Annual Report
for the year January 1, 2000 through
December 31, 2000 indicates 15 persons
were served at a cost of $30,000.”
And up until the 29th, Fryer, who had
been serving as the center’s executive di
rector for the past five years, had been
taking the blame for the state of those
records.
Standing on the staircase outside the
New Hope Community Center meeting
room with his attorney, Harry James,
Larry Fryer commented on the events of
the past couple of weeks, and his suspen
sion due to allegations of poor bookkeep
ing.
“I have tried to keep the records as best
as I can with the limited help that I had,”
Fryer said. “There is only two people who
See FRYER, page 3A :
shattered capital for opposition territory
said the new Taliban troops began appear
ing in Kabul last week, wearing new uni
forms, armed with AK-47 assault rifles
and speaking Pakistani dialects.
Khairullah, awhite-bearded trader who
traveled to Pakistan five days ago through
an illegal border crossing in tribal areas,
said “there were many trucks full of
Taliban” crossing the frontier.
“If the United States really
wantstodestroy the Taliban, they
should bomb the Pakistan bor
der,” said Khairullah, who like
many Afghans uses only one
name. He was wedged into the
back of a jeep that was traveling
from front-line positions to
Golbahar, a trading center be
hind the lines of the opposition
Northern Alliance.
The refugees, thousands of
whom have crossed by foot in
recent weeks through a moun
tain gap skirting the front line,
also said that mounting civilian
casualties in Kabul threaten to
anger potential supporters of the
U.S. bombing campaign.
“Most of the bombs are hitting
civilians,” said Khudadada, a fruit
and vegetable vendor whose state
ment prompted nodsof agreement
and a few angry outbursts from
the companions in his vehicle.
“The people are getting angry at
the United States for dropping
thebombs.”
Refugees’ accounts that many
Muslim extremists are arriving
in Afghanistan confirm reports
that thousands of students from
Pakistani religious schools were
headed to Afghanistan to engage
in jihad — holy war — against
the United States.
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE PAID
AUGUSTA GA
PERMIT NO 302