When facing large money offers for quick property sales, Lisa Kilgore says beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing. The potential buyer could be in the bingo business.
Kilgore, owner of The Ivy League Preschool in Sumiton, learned this lesson recently when an acquaintance approached her about selling her school’s property to a man supposedly wanting to use it for a racecar-engine-building business. The man had purchased the adjacent property and needed her land for frontage road access.
Although Kilgore refused to sell, work began rapidly on the building near her preschool, and she became suspicious of the buyer’s true intentions. “Everything was happening so quickly,” said Kilgore, a member of New Temple Baptist Church, Dora. “They had come in and taken the sides off the building and were already pouring concrete around it. We watched them stub-in for plumbing. I was thinking these are the fastest workers I’ve ever seen.”
A few weeks later, she and other community members learned the racecar-engine business was a cover-up for a bingo hall that would be located only a few feet away from her preschool and its 46 students.
Aware of Sumiton’s no-gaming ordinance, people associated with the bingo hall approached Mayor Petey Ellis and said they thought the property was outside the city limits.
“I told them that as far as I know, that property is in the city limits,” said Ellis, who has been mayor since 1992. “It is zoned for agriculture. If it were zoned for business, we do not have a business license that would come under that realm of bingo or gaming.”
Soon construction workers were ordered by the mayor’s office to stop any work on the building except for replacing the siding, for which they had a permit. Ellis said when his office was told construction workers had continued past the permit’s boundaries, that work was also stopped.
He said it appears as if bingo is something that the people of the community don’t want.
“As long as we are able to enforce the laws, we’ll do what’s necessary to see that it doesn’t happen,” Ellis said.
Although there was talk of the property being de-annexed from the city, Ellis said he doesn’t think that’s a possibility.
“They would have to come before the City Council and show the reason why they wanted to do that,” Ellis said. “It would require a vote from the City Council.”
Bucky Rizzo, co-chair of the newly formed Walker County Political Accountability Coalition, a nondenominational, nonpartisan organization, said three out of four council members present at the council’s July meeting gave him the same impression.
“I think Mr. (J.T.) Bolen, the owner of the property, will try to get some councilmen to change their minds and agree to change their anti-gambling rule or de-annex the property,” Rizzo said, adding that his plan is to “stay very alert of what is going on and give resistance to it in every way possible.”
Deputy Randy Fielding, gaming compliance officer for Walker County, said since part of the land lies on the county line, there is speculation that the owner is planning to build some kind of lounge or night club on the Jefferson County side of the parking lot.
“It looks like they have started clearing on both sides of the county line,” he said.
To avoid a similar situation in other areas of the state, Kilgore advises Alabamians to stay on their toes.
“Nobody can sit still and pass the buck because this bingo thing is getting closer and closer,” she said. “If people don’t stand up and watch what’s going on, it could be happening right around them.”
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