Radio personality arrested after prank

04/29/05
By Lauren Gregory, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer

Silver Creek resident Tracy Garmon recalls opening her door Wednesday evening to a polite young man dressed conservatively in khakis and a light blue button-down shirt.

But she didn’t think he was quite as polite several minutes later as she watched him pull away in a police car bound for Floyd County Jail — or as she listened to him discuss the experience on an Atlanta radio show the following morning.

After becoming the subject of a prank recorded by 99X radio personality “Fat Kid,” Garmon says she wants to warn other Floyd Countians about the man’s roving antics.

“It was embarrassing and humiliating,” Garmon said, describing a scenario in which “Fat Kid” posed as a member of a church, asking to buy people’s pornography so he could “clean up the neighborhood.”

“Fat Kid,” whom Garmon later learned is Rome resident Jeremy Powell, allegedly read Garmon and her husband a list of vulgar magazine and movie titles within earshot of the couple’s three children, ages 15, 13 and 11.

“He acted like a sick pervert,” Garmon said. “And to do it in front of kids — that was uncalled for.”

Garmon said she asked him to leave several times. When Powell refused, police reports stated, Garmon’s parents called the police and prevented him from departing until the authorities arrived.

Floyd County police, who seized a recording of the conversation, said they had already received several similar complaints that night about Powell, whom they arrested for criminal trespass, a misdemeanor.

He was released from custody the same night.

Powell, of 414 E. 17th St. in Rome, is a Darlington School graduate who appeared in January at his alma mater’s career day to talk about his job as an associate producer for 99X’s morning show. He declined to comment on the incident, deferring all questions to the show’s director, Gary “Wally” Wallace.

Wallace explained that Powell’s job involves “goofing around with people to get their reactions in different situations.”

Powell raised eyebrows in Rome last November by claiming to be an elections official collecting firearms because, he said, the Second Amendment had been revoked. He was stopped by police but was not arrested.

The exchange with Garmon on Wednesday was simply another one of these scenarios, Wallace said. “At the end of the day, he did what? It was a joke. It’s nothing more than what a Girl Scout would do coming onto your porch to sell cookies.”

Of Powell’s resistance to leave, Wallace said, “in essence, he would have had to run those rednecks down to get off the property. ... It’s so backwoods up there, it’s ridiculous.”

Wallace called the criminal trespass charge against Powell “trumped-up,” adding, “The last time I checked, standing on someone’s porch and asking them questions for a survey is not a crime.”

Floyd County District Attorney Leigh Patterson disagrees wholeheartedly. Patterson, who said the maximum sentence for a misdemeanor criminal trespass charge is a $1,000 fine plus 12 months in custody, plans to prosecute.

“We’re going forward in this case,” she said, explaining, “there’s nothing illegal about him recording a conversation with another person. The illegal act here is him refusing to leave when asked repeatedly to do so.”

How do you feel about this incident? Do you think anything was wrong with it?

Road project starts; wrong trees felled

04/29/05
By Diane Wagner, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer

Construction started on the long-awaited widening of Riverside Parkway this week — with the destruction of some stately oaks marked for preservation.

“There were some trees the contractor was supposed to take down. He took down the wrong ones,” said Bert Brantley, director of communications for the Georgia Department of Transportation. “We absolutely regret it, and we’re definitely going to look at what we can do to mitigate the situation.”

It was unclear late Thursday how many of the preserved trees were removed in error by the contractor, Marietta-based C.W. Matthews Co.

The cleared area is on the west side of the parkway just south of Veterans Memorial Highway.

The narrow link between downtown Rome and Veterans Memorial Highway is being straightened and widened to four lanes with a center median.

The $10 million project, hailed as an alternate route to relieve congestion in the city, is expected to be completed in December 2006.

David Doss, chairman of the state transportation board and a former Floyd County commissioner, said the historic oak canopy was part of the reason it took nearly 20 years to finalize the design. More than 3,000 people signed petitions in the mid-90s to save the 22 trees, and eight of the oaks wound up protected by a federal permit.

“Everything was worked out before the federal government issued the permit,” Doss said. “What’s done is done, but I can’t imagine they’re going to be too happy about it.”

Rome City Manager John Bennett said he noticed the demolition Tuesday afternoon and asked Public Works Director Kirk Milam to investigate.

“It looked to me like they had pushed down some trees that were supposed to be left in the median, and that turned out to be the case,” Bennett said.

Milam contacted GDOT engineers, who called a halt to the work until the remaining trees could be marked.

“I’m glad we stopped them when we did,” Bennett said. “But we’ve been assured that everything is in order now, and no more than necessary will be cut down.”

Before he became a Floyd County commissioner, Tom Bennett fought 12 years to protect the trees in front of an office complex he owns on the parkway. Commissioner Bennett said he always felt a divided highway would have a negative impact on the natural beauty of the area.

“I’m just disappointed in the whole thing,” he said. “What has caused the scar in that area was DOT’s insistence on the median, and I think the restoration, if it ever takes place, will be another generation.”

How do you feel about this and what do you think should be done about it?

Clock now ticking on city’s Saturday parking

Rome hasn’t enforced the parking hours until now, though its ordinance allows it.

04/18/05
By Alan Riquelmy, Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer

Luke Motes, Rome’s parking enforcement officer, checks for cars parked for more than two hours in the downtown area. Alan Riquelmy / Rome News-Tribune
Leaving your vehicle downtown on a Friday night because you caught a cab home could cost you more than you think.

One of Steven McDowell’s employees discovered that recently when she returned to her truck on a Saturday morning to find a warning. McDowell, owner of Old Havana Cigar Company, received a notice from the city in March informing him of the city’s decision to patrol downtown parking spaces on Saturday.

“It pretty much said, ‘To all downtown business owners and employees: The city of Rome will be enforcing parking on Saturdays,’” McDowell said. “And we have seen enforcement on Saturdays.”

McDowell’s employee, along with the 42 others receiving notices since Saturday enforcement began, were given warnings. The city will begin giving citations requiring offenders to pay a fine in May, said Ann Arnold, Rome’s Downtown Development director.

Parking is enforced during the week from 8 to 6 p.m. The first offense brings a warning, while the second merits a $10 fine. The fifth ticket and following citations cost $60.

Rome hadn’t enforced Saturday parking hours until now, though its ordinance allowed it to. The increased surveillance began March 19, Arnold said. A parking enforcement officer now works eight hours on two Saturdays each month, though it isn’t always the same Saturdays or a consecutive eight hours.

“We’re switching up the days and the hours,” Arnold said. “We don’t want any routine.”

City Manager John Bennett agreed, saying the city doesn’t plan to let people know what Saturdays enforcement will occur. “That’s the advantage of doing what we’re doing,” Bennett said. “The rules apply whether there’s someone there to enforce it or not.”

A brochure available in the Carnegie building cites Rome law, stating a two-hour parking limit is enforced Monday through Friday.

“I would suspect that the brochures are going to have to be redone,” said Mayor Ronnie Wallace, describing Saturday enforcement as a short-term answer to parking problems.

What it isn’t, Bennett contends, is an additional source of money. “If we wanted to collect revenue, we’d do it every Saturday,” he said. “People know we don’t enforce it on Saturday, so people park all day on Saturday. So we’re going to start enforcing it on Saturday.”

The extra day stems from downtown business owner requests. The city complied with the requests, Arnold said, citing several downtown events as the reason to let people know that parking other than Broad Street exists.

That’s just fine with Evelyn Sims, president and owner of The Clotheshorse, who said she supports The Forum, though its lack of a parking deck can hurt her business.

Parking for large Forum events can spill onto Broad Street, taking up spaces typically used by store patrons.

“I’m all for enforcing it on Saturday,” Sims said. “We need it desperately. I believe that if you have the merchandise that people want, they’ll find a way to your store, but you’ve got to make it as convenient as possible.”

Noreen Moore, general manager of Jefferson’s, said Saturday parking enforcement forces employees to park away from the front of her restaurant.

Parking in general isn’t a problem for Moore, she said, because of Jefferson’s sitting at the corner of Broad Street and Fourth Avenue.

“The problem I have is that there’s not proper signage,” Moore said. “People don’t know about it.”

McDowell, though, questions the wisdom of Saturday parking enforcement, noting some cities keep their downtown areas ticket free on the weekends.

“Rome needs to decide what direction they’re taking downtown,” McDowell said. “Are they making it open and inviting, or are they putting some laws into effect that are going to scare people away?”

How do you feel about this?

Floyd SPLOST wish list

TENTATIVE SPLOST AGREEMENT
30-month collection, $36.5 million

Cave Spring fire station, $950,000

Loan payoff for Ga. 140/53 tract and new industrial park, $3 million

Partial funding for U.S. 411 right-of-way, $3 million

Huffaker Road improvements, $4.7 million

Burnett Ferry Road sidewalks, $1 million

Engineering for Armuchee-area bridge over Oostanaula River, $850,000

Fast-tracking Turner McCall Boulevard bridge-widening, $2 million

Improvements at six city intersections, $1 million

Chulio Road/411 intersection improvement, $400,000

Old Dalton Road improvements, $4.5 million

Shannon Park improvements, $700,000

Cave Spring Community Center, $775,000

Rome-Floyd sports center, $4 million

North Floyd Park, $1.8 million

Midway Park, $1.8 million

East Main Community Center, $2.2 million

Clock Tower, City Hall, City Auditorium renovation, $1.6 million

Wastewater treatment plant upgrades, $1.9 million

E-911 phone system replacement, $325,000

---

By Lauren Gregory
Rome News-Tribune Staff Writer
LGregory@RN-T.com / 290-5267

County officials conceded $14.55 million in requested projects and the county agreed to a time frame 18 months longer than it had favored in order to reach a tentative agreement Monday on a 2 1/2-year, $36.5 million special purpose, local option sales tax.

The measure, which was officially approved by the city commission but awaits formal county approval, is expected to be presented to voters on June 21.

If OK'd, it would extend the current SPLOST - a two-year, $26.4 million collection - 30 months beyond its scheduled Sept. 30 expiration date.

The project list conceived Monday is an amended version of the city's original 42-month, $51.01 million proposal and includes:

A $950,000 Cave Spring fire station; $3 million allocated for an industrial park at Ga. 140 and Ga. 53; $3 million in partial funding for a U.S. 411 right-of-way; $2 million toward a Turner McCall Boulevard bridge widening; $700,000 in improvements to Shannon Park; and a $4 million Rome-Floyd sports center next to State Mutual Stadium on Veterans Memorial Highway that would include recreation department offices and a gymnastics complex.

Construction of a $3.5 million aquatic center for the complex was cut from the budget, but according to City Manager John Bennett the complex will be engineered so the center can be added when funding becomes available in the future.
The aquatic center and the acquisition of additional land for the industrial park were the two main bones of contention at Monday morning's meeting among representatives from Rome, Floyd County and Cave Spring.

County commissioners' concern about a lack of finalized agreements for the acquisition prompted the city to give up on $7 million for new land, asking $3 million instead of $10 million for the project - $2 million to cover debt and $1 million for infrastructure.

Ultimately, the commissioners also agreed to scrape $500,000 from the bridge-widening, omit the purchase of the old Coosa Middle School and permit a $3.3 million shortfall on funding for wastewater treatment plant upgrades.
City officials agreed to the wastewater treatment shortfall with the understanding that any overflow collected could be put toward the $5.3 million originally budgeted for the project.

County commissioners plan to call a Thursday meeting to vote formally on the new SPLOST agreement and discuss related bond resolutions, said Chairman Chuck Hufstetler.

Hufstetler expects the measure to pass but expressed his continued concerns about the city's failure to provide specifics about the sports complex and industrial park projects.

``I think it's important that voters know exactly how the details on all this land acquisition works so they know exactly what it is they're voting on,'' he said.
Many of those details will have been hashed out by the time at June 21 vote comes around, Bennett countered.