Newspaper Page Text
MIDWEEK
EDITION
250
Perry & Houston County's
official Legal Organ
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16,1992
Pastor, Perry man face charges of mail and bank fraud
By BRIAN LAWSON
Staff Writer
Raymond Parker, pastor of the
Living Waters Assembly in Perry
and Derrell Etheridge of Perry have
been indicted by the U.S. Attor
ney’s office on charges of bank and
mail fraud. Parker made his inital
appearance in court September 2,
and Etheridge pleaded not guilty on
September 9.
The charges are in connection
with the ownership and operation of
Sonshine Mobile Homes Inc.,
based in Warner Robins.
Parker is listed in the indictment
as the President and/or Chief Finan
cial Officer of the company and
Etheridge is listed as salesman,
Deaths
Katherine Cogar, Martinez;
Robert "Bobby" David Arcos,
Perry; Lory Erby Gunter, Perry;
Cameron A. Merritt, Perry. For
details, please see page SA.
HOME JOURNAL
HIGHLIGHTS
Co. commission holds
public hearing
Several citizens gathered at the
County Annex Tuesday night
todiscuss the proposed county
tax increase. For more details,
please see page 3A.
INDEX
PEGGYBLEDSOE IB
tOA
EDITORIALS 4A
BRIGETTE HAMILTON 4A
TIM LEWIS 1B
LEGAL NOTICES 3B
LIFESTYLE 1B
TERESSA UUN 4A
POLICE REPORT 2A
REMEMBER WHEN 4A
SPORTS 7A
COSBY WOODRUFF 7A
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Businessman, active chamber member, Arcos, dies
B§| BKfgP
-A
Bobby Arcos
PERRY, GEORGIA'S HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER SINCE 1870--FQR COVERAGE OF YOUR EVENTS, CALL 987-1823
f The Houston Home!
Journal
President or Chief Executive Offi
cer.
Parker and Ethcridegc arc alleged
to have defrauded financial institu
tions through a variety of avenues,
including credit history manipula
tion, false reporting of down pay
ments, false names on loan applica
tions, and submitting false invoices
to mobile home manufacturers and
lending institutions.
In 1989 two Sonshine employees
Vicki Pace and John Tucker plead
* guilty to federal charges of falsify
ing bank loan applications to boost
sales.
Federal investigators have re
viewed over 400 loans involving
Sonshine, all of which have some
; -
»
(HHJ photo by Cristina Monroe)
Peanut harvesting work has begun on the Whitfield Brothers Farm in south Houston County.
In the photo above, Terrance Whitfield and Willie Marshall Brown, are doing the driving on
the 1,500 acres of peanuts.
Bell says county could have
best peanut crop in years
By BRIAN LAWSON
Staff Writer
If the weather holds, Houston
County could have its best peanut
crop in years.
County Agent Duren Bell has
been touring area farms in an effort
to help farmers assess the best time
to begin digging for pcanuLs. Based
on what he has seen in the past few
days, Bell believes this year’s
harvest could be a very good one.
"The agricultural community as a
whole is very pleased so far. If the
weather continues as it is, we are
looking forward to a real good crop
this year. It’s about time. I would
say its been eight to 10 years since
we’ve had a crop this good," Bell
said.
Peanut harvesting generally runs
from around Labor Day to mid-Oc
tober. Most of the farmers Bell has
spoken to will begin harvesting
over the weekend or the beginning
of next week.
By BRIGETTE HAMILTON
Managing Editor
Feelings of disbelief and shock
swept over much of the Perry
community yesterday afternoon as
the news of the death of local busi
ness owner Bobby Arcos was an
nounced.
Emergency medical officials were
dispatched to the Arcos residence
Monday afternoon when a Family
Footwear employee called concerned
when Arcos had not shown up for
work and did not answer his home
phone. Perry fire and police depart
ments were called to assist EMTs
gain entry into the house and inves
2 SECTIONS—I 6 PAGES, PLUS SALES CIRCULARS
"I would stand on a 10-foot stack of bibles saying Tm
not guilty, I'm not a part of it.' There were others who
confessed to wrongdoing who have tried to pull me in
on it. I didn't have anything to do with it."— Raymond
Parker, pastor, Living Waters Assembly.
alleged elements of impropriety.
The practice involved customers
who had been turned down for loans
due to bad credit at other institu
tions. Sonshine reportedly urged
customers with poor credit histories
to sign their name to documents
that had been falsified in order to
qualify the individuals for the loans.
Bell credits this years late rainfall
for the outstanding crop.
"We've had a good year of rainfall.
The rain this year has been more
timely than last year. We had
plenty of rain until the beginning
of August last year, but this year
we had rain through August and
that's helped continue the crop on
out. The bulk of the the success is
to the weather," Bell said.
However, the late rainfall and the
high temperatures have produced
two potential problems for this
year’s crop.
"We've are seeing some disease
problems due to the excess mois
ture although I don't think
anybody will complain. There are
leaf spots on a number of the crops,
but I don't expect it to have a
substantive effect. The late June,
early July temperatures, combined
to increase the number of leaf
spots. If the spots had appeared
tigate. Upon entering, officials
found Arcos already deceased.
Officials believe the cause of death
wj}s medically related, a probable
heart attack.
"We've sent some samples to tox
icology and unless something else
comes back the official report is it
was a natural death attributable to
medical problems," Perry Police
Chief Frank Simons said Tuesday.
Arcos, who was 40 years old,
moved to Perry 11 years ago with
his wife, the former Nancy Mullins
who is a Perry native, and began
their family.
He was the owner/operator of
Tucker and Pace both served 24
months in prison.
At the time of their sentencing the
estimated losses were 5120,000.
Federal officials estimate the total
losses on the entire Sonshine case,
due primarily to forfeitted loans, is
likely to range in the millions of
dollars.
early on, they could have cut the
crop yield but 1 think we're okay.
"There has been a high level of
white mold and if we have half an
inch to an inch of rain in the next
10 days it could take off like wild
fire and cause some real problems.
The mold is a soil-borne disease
and it comes from the excessive
moisture in the soil. If the rain
comes, the farmers would have to
conduct an early harvest to prevent
losses. The mold rots the stems
and the pods, weakening the vine
and causing the pegs to snap. The
peanuts end up left on the ground
and they rot. I would say half of
the farms I’ve looked at have while
mold and it bears watching," Bell
said.
Farmers in the area, including
workers on the Whitfield Brother's
1,500 acres of peanuts, were opti
mistic.
Please see CROP, page 6A
Family Footwear on Courtney
Hodges Boulevard and was a real es
tate broker. He was a member of
the Perry Rotary Club and attended
Perry United Methodist Church
with his family.
His ties to the retail segment of
the local community led to Arcos'
involvement in the Perry Area
Chamber of Commerce. As a
member of the chamber's 1992
Board of Directors, he volunteered
for many projects such as the
Christmas at the Crossroads and
Perry's Dogwood Festival commit
* tees and served as chairman for the
chamber's retail committee in 1991
PERRY, GA.
”?T JT &■ , j
r r I
Parker, the pastor at the Living
Waters Assembly for six years, de
nies any wrongdoing.
"The charges are false. I'm not
guilty. I would stand on a 10 foot
stack of bibles saying Tm not
guilty, I'm not a part of it.' There
were others who confessed to
wrongdoing who have tried to pull
me in on it. I didn’t have anything
to do with it," Parker said.
In November 1989, FBI agents
began examining Sonshinc’s records
after numerous complaints by other
mobile home owners over Son
shine’s disproportionate share of the
local market.
The complaints centered on the
number of customers who had been
City council
meets today
to set tax rate
By BRIAN LAWSON
Staff Writer
Perry City Council will hold a
special meeting today at 4:30 p.m
to determine the property tax mil
lage rate for the year. The city is
facing a budget shortfall of $56,667
due to a reduction in the city's tax
digest.
City Manager Marion Hay told
council in their pre-session the city
has to set a millage rate Wednesday.
"The new state law requiring each
county to set a rollback millage rate
forces us to set our rate. With ex
emptions and some reductions in
taxes for Perry residents we arc
looking at a budget shortfall. We
have spoken to the department
heads about cutting their budgets to
accommodate the shortfall and they
are prepared to do it. If we set the
millage with the county's rate it
will be 13.97 percent. If we decide
to increase to meet our budget, the
rate would be 14.54 percent. You
have to decide which way you want
to go. If we increase to meet our
budget we will have to hold a pub
lic hearing," Hay said.
Perry City Council announced
they have received a $700,00 com
munity development block grant
from the state.
Councilman Hcrvia Ingram an
nounced the state's decision to
award the CDGB grant to Perry.
"The state has notified the city of
Perry that we arc the recipients of a
$700,000 community development
block grant. There arc a number of
people who were instrumental in
bringing this about. City Manager
Marion Hay, Janice Williams, the
city council who displayed courage
last year when it was decided to go
for the $700,000 instead of
$400,000 and so many others. The
Department of Transportation will
contribute $190,000 to the project
and the city will add another
$90,000 The money is designated
for street improvements on Elko
Road, Jennie Street and Edwards
Street. Also we will be rehabilitat
ing 31 houses involving 71 occu
pants, and one acquisition of a di
and 1992.
"Bobby was working really hard
and diligently to make all of Perry,
not just downtown, a total shop
ping area," chamber employee
Phyllis Thompson said.
Peggie Williams, executive direc
tor of the Perry chamber, described
Arcos as "a great chamber volun
teer.
"He had this ability to make ev
erybody laugh. He was always will
ing to carry his share of the load
and somebody else's if that is what
it took to get things done,"
Williams continued.
Fellow retail committee member
122 ST YEAR—VOLUME 75]
approved for loans at Sonshinc after
having been turned down at other
establishments.
An official close to the ease, es
timated Sonshinc was doing 75 per
cent of the Mobile Home business
in Warner Robins at the time they
were investigtated and finally shut
down in October 1989, after lending
institutions refused to continue
business with the company.
"The business has been closed
down for three years, 1 don't know
what they want. 1 have been
preaching 42 years and I have never
had anything against my record.
For three years they have dug and
probed, I don't know why, it is al-
Please see CHARGES, page 6A
lapidated house. The city has now
received approximately 53.5 mil
lion in grants and we have had six
of seven grant applications ap
proved," Ingram said.
Councilman Bobby Glover said,
"It's the old statement, sometimes
people are so close to the forest
they don't sec the trees. People
often criticize the city, but 1 don't
think they arc aware of how good
the people who work for the city
are."
The city was awarded the money
out of a pool of 194 applicants
seeking $75 million. The state had
532 million to award.
•In other business:
The city held its first reading of an
ordinance for the issuing of water
and sewer revenue bonds. The
Please see TODAY, page 6A
BOE says
no to tax
increase
By TERESSA ULIN
Park News Services
The Houston County Board of
Education voted 5-2 Tuesday to
wait for a mid-year adjustment from
the state in order to compensate for
a $633,(XX) shortfall in the 1992-93
fiscal budget.
“Gov. Miller told me today that
there is no doubt that we will get a
mid-year adjustment and (State
Rep.) Sonny Watson confirmed that
we would get something back from
the state,” board member Zell
Blackmon said.
“I just don’t see why we need to
raise the millagc at this point when
we can use the mid-year adjust
ment,” he said.
The shortfall came when slower
than expected growth in the 1992
county tax digest resulted in lower
revenue to the school system.
The school board had the option
of raising the millagc by at least
Please see BOE, page 6A
and merchant Pat Buice said,"lt's
just a real loss for Perry and this
community. He did a wonderful job
for the retail committee."
Besides his wife Nancy and their
two sons, Matthew David and
Adam Robert, Arcos is survived by
his mother Carmen Arcos, a sister,
Norma Padron and two brothers,
Armando Arcos and Larry Arcos, all
of Tampa, Fla.
Services will be held today, Sept.
16, at 2 p.m. in the Perry
Memorial Gardens. Rev. Jim
McLendon will officiate. Funeral
arrangements are being handled by
Watson-Hunt Funeral Home.