14 February 2014, Vol.1, No.5 > PPS
& its 25 years of Deceit!
The POCAHONTAS CRIER
(Part
of The Crier Coalition of Internet News Services comprised of
The
Pocahontas Commentator, The Pocahontas Crier,
Signal
Fires of WV & Echoes from the Holl’r)
ENDING THE ‘POVERTY
PRESERVATION SOCIETY’ –
A Summary Review of 25
years of deceit!
Part
I – Special Report by Robyn Ewe Blyne, Investigative Journalist
The
information contained herein can be found in the public records of the Office
of the Circuit Clerk, the Office of the County Clerk
& old-newspapers at The Pocahontas Times.
For everyone who has ever wondered
‘WHY’ Pocahontas County has never
advanced beyond the ‘minimum-wage’ instead of receiving a ‘Living-Wage’ – simply look around & contemplate – there are
just a handful of jobs in this county, i.e., working for a convenience
store/gas-station, working in Marlinton, or working at Snowshoe or Silver Creek
in which all jobs have deliberately been held to BELOW
the ‘Living-Wage’ standards applied
elsewhere! By comparison, ‘wages’ in Charleston are about 70% of
those found elsewhere in other major cities, and ‘wages’ in Pocahontas County are about 70% of those in
Charleston! That’s why the richest 1%
owns more wealth than the combined wealth of half-the-population of the entire
world! < http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/01/20/davos-2014-oxfam-85-richest-people-half-world/4655337/
>! Is it not about the same here in
this county? What follows is a Summary
Review of how a handful in this county has benefited themselves at the expense
of everyone else!
About 25 year or so ago when the
Pocahontas Development Authority (PDA) first came into existence – under the pretext of bringing more businesses & providing
more jobs – the PDA was comprised of approximately 20 local persons,
including Phil Cain the banker, the late Walt Weiford prosecutor & PDA
president, several others in public service, and the rest local business-folks
all intent on one thing – holding onto their little
monopolies and keeping out any business that might become a competitor! Its first scheme was the transfer in excess
of $225,000.00 of public funds designated for Cranberry Glades that
mysteriously found its way into the coffers of the PDA! Fortunately, Norman Lee Alderman was a County Commissioner
at the time, and he filed a Citizen-Taxpayer lawsuit that required those funds
returned for the use of Cranberry Glades!
Then suddenly, it was announced
that Denmar State Hospital
was to close due to old-wiring, old-plumbing & asbestos! The hospital sat on 7 acres surrounded by
another 150 acres once used as the farm that supplied the hospital. The first person to know
about the hospital closing was former State Senator Walt Helmick – and
when Denmar’s closing was announced – all kinds of alleged offers sprang forth
for it to become a ‘private-prison’,
a new ‘private-hospital’, a ‘private-nursing’ home, and a ‘private-adult-educational-center’,
etc. The latter was made by Jim Lambert
on behalf of the Mennonite community since they do not use the name ‘college’ or ‘university’! A meeting was
held at the Marlinton Courthouse where Mr. Lambert indicated his group was prepared
to pay $250,000.00 for the old-hospital on the 7 acres, and was willing to
spend upwards to $750,000.00 to replace the old-wiring, the lead-pipes &
remove all asbestos – plus hire as many local folks as possible & buy all
building materials locally – and then indicated that his group was willing to
bid on the remaining farm acreage separately!
But the PDA refused this offer! [Ed
Note: A college is always a ‘positive-cash-flow’ to a county, while a ‘prison’
is always a ‘negative-cash-flow’ to a county!]
The irony of this whole fiasco was
that the PDA did not have title to Denmar at the time, nor did the County
Commission, howbeit that the commission expected title from the State in the
near future. Several
local guests at the meeting asked that since this was ‘government property’, why were there no plans to hold a ‘public-auction’ as the law required? Answer given was that the PDA was only there
to hold ‘discussions’ as to Denmar’s
possible future!
That answer proved to be a willful
& gross fabrication, since then State Senator Walt Helmick was not only the
first to know that Denmar was closing, but also the first to know that the
State wanted to turn Denmar into a new minimal security prison! Thus all discussion regarding Denmar publicly
disappeared until it was suddenly announced that the ‘Dean-Callison Group’ had agreed to buy all of Denmar, the building
& seven acres plus all farmland for $255,000.00 with a $20,000.00 deposit –
thanks to the PDA!
Coincidently enough, the
‘Dean-Callison Group’ happened to be
kin & associates of bank directors of the First National Bank headed by
Phil Cain.
Cries of ‘Foul’ arose
everywhere, including several lawsuits, and special news-reports in Lewisburg
newspapers and even several ‘court
orders’ for the ‘Dean-Callison Group’
and the First National Bank to produce a cancelled-check showing the $20,000.00
deposit plus a cancelled-check for the $235,000.00 balance – but true to form – only the $20,000.00 deposit check was
ever produced! The ‘Poverty Preservation Society’ (PPS) got
away with yet another scam – for without doing a single
item of repair, within seven months the ‘Dean-Callison
Group’ sold Denmar BACK TO THE STATE for $750,000.00! And all
this was done in broad daylight without the ‘bandidos’ even wearing any masks!
When then County Commissioner,
Norman Lee Alderman, filed another Citizen-Taxpayer lawsuit to demand an
accountability, good-ole Phil Cain & Joel Callison were the first to ‘resign’ from the PDA and jump on board
with the private-corporation (south-of-our border), the Greenbrier Valley
Economic Development Corporation (GVEDC), and their resignations were followed
by resignations from everyone else in short order – only to have the PDA
reorganize with Ralph Beckwith as president.
Then begins the sordid-tale of the West Virginia Shoe Company fiasco
following the closure of Hanover Shoe Co. in Marlinton, and Howes Leather in
Frank. The 14
acre property on which Hanover
Shoe built their building carries ‘four-chain-of-title
deeds’ requiring the land to forever be public-land owned in common by the
people of this county. Upon
request, the Town of Marlinton transferred it to
the County Commission, which in turn transferred it
to the PDA, which in turn ILLEGALLY transferred it to the private-for-profit
West Virginia Shoe Co., Inc. – without public approval which could not be done
anyway via the chains-of-title!
West Virginia Shoe meanwhile ran
up a debt in excess of $2.5 Million to the State of West Virginia and other
entities by using a deed prepared by Ralph Beckwith’s attorney at the time,
Michael Doss, who left out the chains-of-title, and let the deed from the PDA
to West Virginia Shoe show a payment of $650,000.00 from an appraisal from the
Helmick-Manchin-cartel in Clarksburg at the time estimating $690,000.00 for the
Hanover building! Thus without paying a single-penny, West Virginia Shoe
obtained the Hanover building with an appraisal of $690,000.00 on paper – only
to use that as collateral to indebt itself in excess of $2.5 Million of public-funds!
When discovered, a
Citizen-Taxpayer lawsuit was filed and within five (5) days the Hanover property was
returned to the PDA only this time Michael Doss showed the value of the
transfer, instead of cash-money, to be $650,000.00 in ‘preferred-stock’! Problem was that the original corporate charter for West Virginia Shoe was
limited to $500,000.00 for ‘preferred-stock’
& $500,000.00 for ‘common stock’! That meant that West
Virginia Shoe was floating $150,000.00 of BOGUS
PREFERRED & COMMON STOCKS on the street ILLEGALLY! So back to Charleston they had to go to pay their fees
and increase their total stocks from $1 Million to $1.5 Million! Difference between ‘preferred’ & ‘common’
is that under a bankruptcy, the ‘preferred’
has to be paid back, while the ‘common’
is lost to all investors! Ironically,
and true to form, West Virginia Shoe was able
to ‘swindle’ many local residents
into purchasing in excess of $160,000.00 of ‘common
stocks’ which were lost to all investors when West Virginia Shoe bankrupted-out!
Then followed a lawsuit by the
American Title Insurance Co. which had insured the title-transfer as being ‘legal’ based upon the filings of
Michael Doss – but the filings were not proper since the chains-of-title were
left out of the deed from the PDA to West Virginia Shoe, and from
West Virginia Shoe back to the PDA!
The result of this lawsuit was declared by Judge
James Rowe, to be ‘void ab initio’
from the time Michael Doss prepared the deed from the PDA to West Virginia Shoe! What followed thereafter was almost 15 years
of lawsuits trying to sort out the rights, status & legal relationships of
all parties involved since by now West
Virginia Shoe was well in excess of $3 Million in
debt & counting!
And this scheming even included a
supposed ‘sale’ of West Virginia Shoe
to the American Shoe Co., owned by two Afrikan-American attorneys in New York who filed a ‘paper-corporation’
in Delaware, yet never bought or sold a single-shoelace! Their scheme included finding 25 ‘investors’ to pay $100,000.00 each into
a holding company, American Shoe Co., until $2.5
Million was raised so as to apply for upwards to $20 Million in federal-grant
funds – and basically do to the federal-grant program for ‘minority-owned-businesses’ what West
Virginia Shoe had done to the several grant-funds in Charleston! Of note is the fact
that the ‘contract’ for the sale of
West Virginia Shoe to American Shoe contained a ‘clause’ that required West Virginia Shoe to bankrupt-out within 90
days of signing! Had the
Citizen-Taxpayer action not been filed when it was done, then the Hanover
building and the land it sits on might well have been lost & then some –
although the original owners always wanted their land to be used for the ‘common-good’ of the people of this
county! And now part of the building is
being used to house & care for needy & abandoned animals!
It was these kinds of scams &
schemes played out by the ‘Poverty
Preservation Society’ on the PDA and general public, then jumping ship to
the GVEDC, that caused the former PDA to finally go bankrupt – only to have the
county commission then jump in bed with the GVEDC and allow Pocahontas County
land & money to be continually stolen year after year by the GVEDC – to
such an extent, that now the GVEDC wants to ‘rape,
pillage & plunder’ Marlinton! The ‘plan’ of the
GVEDC is to grab all the funds it can from the State of West Virginia, and
elsewhere, under the pretext to rebuild Marlinton under its control, only to
LEASE BACK THE LAND ONCE OWNED BY THE BUSINESS-OWNERS TO THE VERY SAME
BUSINESS-OWNERS! And guess who is
again leading the charge? Yep, good-ole
Phil Cain & Joel Callison, the most prominent members of the GVEDC! You
gotta ask yourself, when is enough ever enough with folks like these?
[Ed Note: For the record, every
Citizen-Taxpayer civil action ever brought to the Courts in this county have
been brought forward at the expense of the person(s) bringing the civil actions
– and they have never received a single penny in return for their efforts – yet
every civil action has brought forth ‘Positive Results’ for the Citizens of
this county!]’
♦ End of
Part I.
The Pocahontas Crier
is an independent Internet News Service that has so far endorsed two candidates
for County Commission,
one a Republican & the other a Democrat – in addition to providing in depth
news reporting on important issues directly affecting the Citizens of Pocahontas County!
♦ IF YOU are registered to
vote as a Republican, you can vote
for Norman Lee Alderman in the Primary Election on 13
May 2014;
♦ IF YOU are registered to
vote as a Democrat, you can vote
for Patti Heinemann in the primary election on 13 May
2014;
♦ If you
are not registered to vote, then you must register to
vote on or before 22 April
2014;
♦ If you are
registered to vote, but with no party affiliation,
then you MUST REQUEST LOUD & CLEAR
either a
Republican or Democrat
ballot on Primary Day when you
go to the polls;
&
♦ Since Norman is unopposed, he
recommends that you
request a Democrat
ballot to vote for Patti so that this
county can again have
an Honest & Just county
commission!
Send comments & suggestions to: The Pocahontas Crier at pocahontascrier@gmail.com & if you wish to financially assist,
kindly send
all
campaign contributions to: The United Campaign for
County Commission (UCCC), c/o Citizens for Common Sense Alternatives
(CCSA), a registered Political Action Committee, 7837 Wesley Chapel Road, Green
Bank, West Virginia 24944-9063 ▼ Phone: 1.304.456.4565 or 3282 (also fax)
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