Lumberton Informer

Today is officially the last day of the current Mayor and Board of Alderpersons. I also heard that today is also Danny Davis' last day as Public Works Director. If the rumor is true then I can truly say that things are already getting better for the City of Lumberton. I'm sure Danny think he's crippling the City of Lumberton by resigning before the new board takes office but he's actually helping the City of Lumberton Move Forward. Since the inception of this blog, Davis "quit" his job several times because he knew at least one board member would beg him to return. It's amazing that he claimed month after month, year after year that he loved this city but words are meaningless if they're not supported by your actions. If he loved this city, there would be an employee at the Public Works Department that had the education, experience and expectation to carry on in his steed but Davis made sure that the ones ...

The meeting started out as usual. Noticeable absent was the members of the Lumberton Police Department but shortly after arriving, I received a call informing me why the police were not present at the meeting. However, there was an officer in the audience that was hired as a full-time/part-time officer at a rate of $12.50/hour. His name is Phillip Duckworth and he's replacing Officer Linda Marie McKibbin. The first item on the agenda was to allow Mr. David Hatt to address the board about brining a skydiving business to the City of Lumberton. Thankfully, he was not present because I don't trust this board to negotiate a contract that will benefit the City of Lumberton. They tabled a motion to repair the windshield of Martha Youngblood because Danny Davis said none of his workers were mowing grass at the time of the incident. There were some lackluster reports given by the Public Works Director and City Clerk. Danny Davis warned the board that we were going to fail the wa...

Due to inclement weather, I didn't not attend the board meeting last night but I'm sure they didn't accomplish much last night. However, about 40 minutes prior to the board meeting, I received an email from Vanessa Jones, the new attorney for the City of Lumberton. The letter did not have a subject line but I'm guessing it was in response to the request I submitted asking for verification of Paul Ockmond's certification as the building inspector and code enforcer. The letter I received is provided below. I take issue with the letter because it lacks specificity. One would think that a person that's paid $100/hour could write a better response; instead Jones seemingly struggled to string two sentences together in an effort to remain as vague as possible. Another issue I have with the response is the fact that the elected and appointed officials of Lumberton do not think the citizens of Lumberton have the right to know if thos...

I just mailed a letter to HUD about my suspicions about fraudulent activities taking place at Pecan Ridge Apartments, formerly Frank Lee Homes but eternally referred to as "Turn Key." As many of you know, I worked as a property manager for years and I know a little about tax credits for apartments. As a matter of fact, I went to several training sessions about LIHTC (Low Income Housing Tax Credit). One of the first things I learned as a property manager was to maintain a waiting list and to make sure you did not move tenants in the computer unless you had another tenant slated to move in. Tenants would move without notice but regional managers were adamant about leaving the tenant in the system because the property could lose money from that unit if it remained vacant too long. Generally, it would take a week to turn an apartment around for a new tenant; depending on the condition of the apartment. I recall an instance where one apartment was left in...

The qualifying deadline for the 2017 municipal election is quickly approaching. Everyone currently serving on the board are seeking re-election with the exception of Alderman Quincy Rogers who's looking to unseat Kent Crider as Mayor of Lumberton. The other day, I shared a post encouraging potential candidates to make sure they obtain signatures from the residents of their wards in order to ensure they're certified to participate in the 2017 Municipal Election. In previous years, all candidates were allowed to submit signature pages signed by registered voters. However, during the Special Election of 2016, the rules were somehow changed. When Kent Crider's seat was vacated after he was declared the winner of the Mayoral Election, there were two candidates that submitted paperwork to seek the seat as Alderman of Ward 1. Well, one candidate was disqualified because all of the signatures on their signature page were not residents of Ward 1. The Lumberton ...

I was blogging the other day and stumbled upon some important information. It seems that Lumberton Code Enforcer/Building Inspector, Paul Ockmond, is allegedly working under the previous inspector's certification and milking the city and citizens in the process. Stealing Southern Baptist Preachers??? Tell me it ain't so. Now I know why Paul Ockmond was slithering through my community, offering to pay someone to run against me. I discovered this Ponzi scheme accidentally. Imagine what I would find once I have access as an elected official? That thought has many scared and they're actually willing to pay to keep that from happening. What are they hiding? Are the ones currently serving on the board in on the scam? The bible carrying ministers seem very comfortable with the crew that's already in place; for some reason. We all know there's a plethora of individuals on Lumberton's payroll that's about as effective as set of old butter kni...

At the February board meeting, our elected officials went into executive session to discuss what they deemed "the sale of property" but they were actually discussing a trade with Lamar County. According to Crider, they needed to make a decision because it was a done deal but according to an article in the Hatteisburg American "there still remains some details to work out." Based on the article, it was hard to tell who initiated this deal that will result in the City of Lumberton losing a building that would cost $1,000,000 to build today in exchange for a vacant building and 5 acres of land. It looks like another win win for Lamar County and another bad business deal for the City of Lumberton. If you're a sports fan, you're familiar with lop-sided trades. For instance, the time the Vikings gave Dallas a dynasty for Herschel Walker. How about the time when the Baltimore Colts traded John Elway to the Denver Broncos or when the Atla...

I didn't plan on blogging today but when I logged onto the Hattiesburg American I saw an article entitled "A trade in the future for Lumberton armory?" Before I discuss the article, I would like to discuss the inflated water bills we received. Prior to the meeting, there were several stories regarding the late water bills; stories ranged from blaming the post office to blaming the customers. At the meeting, nothing was said about the late water bills and there was not mention of any adjustments regarding the due date. One of the reasons why they don't hold Merlene accountable for her lack of professionalism is because they know the water bills do not contain a post mark. We know we received the water bills late but we can't prove it because they can say they were delivered to the post office on time but we don't actually see when they were received by the post office. When Merlene tried to explain why the water bills were higher than...

I stopped doing review of the board meetings but since this one was short and ineffective, I decided to post a review. Abbott and Hardy (Crider and Buckley) had their routine rehearsed perfectly when they downplayed the value of some shelves at the old Lumberton Hospital. The board declared the shelves as surplus so an undisclosed person could purchase them for $100. At first I didn't think much about the deal but when Johnny and Kent kept trying to convince everyone the shelves had no value I realized that they probably saw the items on an Antique Trading Show and using this as an attempt to swindle the City of Lumberton once again. The department dead-heads gave their monthly monologues. Prior to the meeting, Merlene allegedly made various claims about the late inflated water bills but during the meeting she settled on the story that the bills were higher because they included a 40 day billing cycle because of the holiday season. The person over the ...

The second meeting of 2017 will take place tonight. It is rumored that the Lumberton Board of Aldermen will sell the National Guard Armory tonight. Instead of keeping the building and turning it into a community center, shelter, senior citizen center or to house the Lumberton Volunteer Fire Department, Kent Crider is pushing for the sale of the building before the 2017 election. The building was given to the City of Lumberton and instead of using it to enhance the City of Lumberton, they're rushing to sell the building. I just started my subscription to the Lsmar Times and I didn't get an opportunity to see if the notice to bidders was advertised. I know bids are sealed but with the crew we have at city hall, I don't trust the process. Unfortunately, I saw what happened when the City of Lumberton rushed to sell the Movie Star building; everyone made money from the deal except the City of Lumberton. It was my hope that the city would keep the building o...

Imagine my surprise when I heard about Paul Ockmond going to and fro like a irritating Chihuahua looking for someone to devour or bite on the ankle. Although I suspected for years that Paul and his crew were buying votes but now they're looking for someone to run against me and they're allegedly looking to buy votes to keep Kent Crider in the Mayor's seat. Apparently the Enterprising Bubbas fell short when they looked were slithering through the streets of Lumberton, looking for a candidate to split the votes in an effort to keep Alderman Quincy Rogers out of the Mayor's office so they're resorting to "buying" votes with promises of things to come and the ever allusive jobs that will come to fruition something after another four years of deception. Allegedly, of course. Just so we're clear, there will be jobs and an influx of money but it will be for the Enterprising Bubba's not you. They will give a few of th...

On January 19, 2017, Ramona Ellen Bennett, second grade teacher at Lumberton Elementary School, was arrested for the sale of a controlled substance within 1,500 feet of a school or church. The arrest happened almost two weeks ago, but the general public just found out about the arrest over the weekend. At the time of this blog post, the school administrative office was closed but I'm interested to know if she is still employed by the Lumberton School District? As you know, certain people that commit crimes in Lumberton are given a pass. Perhaps she was selling the drugs on her lunch break or after school. The City of Lumberton Board of Aldermen used that analogy to justify Danny Davis's assault against me. They said they were not liable because he was a salaried employee and the assault happened on his lunch break (at 9:30 in the morning). As soon as the office open, I will call to see if she was at least suspended after getting charged wi...

Last year, there were rumors about the state of the National Guard Armory. At one meeting, there was speculation that the building was getting sold for $10,000. Calls made to city hall regarding the matter were rather evasive; the clerks would neither confirm or deny the pending sale of the building that was gifted to the City of Lumberton. Besides the rumor mill, there was a sighting of the proposed buyer meeting with Lumberton's city attorney at Dan's in Hattiesburg. At first, I didn't know what was going on but after a little digging I started to wonder why the City of Lumberton didn't give the building to Lamar County since they wanted the building and the City of Lumberton was not able to maintain the facility. After hearing that Kent Crider was itching to sale give away the building for $10,000, I wanted to know why he was so adamant about keeping the building out of the hands of Lamar County but whenever Crider is involved there's prob...

Although I requested to have the venue of the trial changed, I went to court tonight to see Judge Anderson in action. When I entered the board room/court room, Anderson was in the middle of pronouncing a sentence but he stopped talking and stared at me while I was looking for a seat. At that moment, I realized that it wasn't necessary for me to introduce myself. I'm not a regular at court and most of my appearances in court has involved department heads in the City of Lumberton. After sitting down, it seemed like Anderson was administering some seemingly fair justice but it was soon evident that there was some bias to his action. I noticed that some of the people that stood before him were given more grace than others; especially those that were telling him how it was to see him again. I noticed that one person was getting some advice from the judge on how to make sure the incident didn't get placed on his record while several others were found guilty...

One month ago, I was assaulted by a City of Lumberton employee that was on duty and one week ago I was assaulted again by more City of Lumberton employees. I'm still trying to get over the shock that no one other than my alderman, Quincy Rogers, had the integrity to call for the suspension of Daniel "Danny" Davis. Thankfully, others were in attendance to see the miscarriage of their duties take (that's one reason why I didn't blog a review of the meeting). Moments before Kent Crider laughed at a citizen when she was asking for an explanation about the desecration of her father's grave, he yelped like a kid that had his candy taken from him at recess, when he said "you didn't do anything when he was saying all those things about us in his blog!" Bingo. In that moment, it was clear that these elderly people had the mindset of an elementary student. Crider's cry explained their votes without them saying ano...