Community development group fades away
Posted on Sunday, May 25, 2008
The South Fayetteville Community Development Center started with high ideals and then, over time, just disappeared.
With the SFCDC, all roads lead to director Manuel Jones of Little Rock, and Jones puts up a roadblock.
"All of a sudden there's no one, and Manuel Jones, you can't ever get him. There were numerous titles (for him ) that came across my desk, but now he cannot be located," Yolanda Fields, community resources director for Fayetteville, said last week.
She has not heard anything from Jones or anyone connected with SFCDC since a foreclosure judgment was issued against the nonprofit corporation in March.
A judgment of $ 123, 411 was entered against the corporation which bought lots in Fayetteville and Lincoln for the future construction of affordable houses.
The city did not lose any money because it was Community Development Block grant funds from the federal Housing and Urban Development department that were used to buy the lots, David Whitaker, assistant city attorney, said.
The South Fayetteville Community Development Corp. was created in 1999 to rebuild neighborhood roots, create a positive change and play a significant role in building and maintaining Fayetteville heritage. Other goals were about child care, recreational activities and reducing vandalism.
None of that happened due to SFCDC efforts.
At one time, the accomplishments Jones listed for the organization were neighborhood clean ups and goals related to acquiring funds, such as applying for or receiving grants and loans.
Before the foreclosure, the city's last contact with anyone from SFCDC was in July 2007.
"We have not had any communication from them at all. I think, really, they don't exist anymore," Fields, who manages the block grant program for the city, said.
The former Path Walker of Fayetteville, who was once identified as president of the board on documents signed at the city, was also one of the first board members for the organization that was supposed to revitalize south Fayetteville and bring affordable housing to the neighborhood.
Asked if there was an active board, she answered that there was not.
"I don't want to go into it at all," she said last week, then directed calls to Jones.
He did not answer calls from the Northwest Arkansas Times and did not claim a certified, return receipt requested letter sent earlier in May to an address for Jones found in the court documents.
According to the Secretary of State's office, the South Fayetteville Community Development Corporation is still on file. That's not to say it's in active existence.
The latest filing with the state was in 2001. At that time, Cherry Pearson and Evelyn Four nier signed documents to amend the articles of incorporation to make SFCDC a nonprofit organization.
Attempts to reach both Pearson and Fournier were unsuccessful.
2001 was also the last year that the city of Fayetteville provided funds to the SFCDC. The money was to be used as part of the funding for the construction of four homes.
Eventually two homes were built and more lots purchased. The foreclosure action was for six mortgages on five parcels of land: three in Fayetteville and two in Lincoln.
Police Chief Greg Tabor provided statistics about criminal mischief in the south Fayetteville area of the city. Criminal mischief indicates "anything where you're damaging something," said the chief.
In 1999, when the organization began, the city recorded 115 complaints of criminal mischief. There were slight decreases the following two years, 107 in 2000 and 87 in 2001.
After that the criminal mischief charges climbed, hitting a high of 216 in 2003. Last year, 165 incidences of criminal mischief were recorded in south Fayetteville.
Ralph Nesson, one of the initial board members for SFCDC, described it recently as an ill-fated corporation.
Nesson was a link to access a Levi Strauss community development grant for Fayetteville. Nesson told John Lewis of the Bank of Fayetteville about the opportunity for the grant and met with others about developing a community development corporation.
As Nesson remembered the early years, the Levi Strauss foundation directed the Fayetteville group to a national organization that provided experienced staff. Jones was the staff member recommended by that national organization.
The SFCDC board considered other issues, but "because Jones'expertise, allegedly, was housing, that became the primary focus," Nesson said.
At first, it seemed things were going well, he said, but there came a point where Jones'employer could not keep him on and Jones asked the SFCDC to provide his salary as the executive director.
The board agreed - some, like Nesson, reluctantly.
"That was a really bad decision because, as it turned out, he was not a responsible person, he did not bring the board together, he was very divisive, pitting board members against each other. This is my impression," Nesson said.
Soon after, about 2002, Nesson left the board because of outside factors and disagreement with Jones' interaction with a local architect, Albert Skiles.
"The point at which we allowed him to become the paid executive director instead of hiring a local person, is really where things started to go south for us," Nesson said.
"It's kind of an object lesson in how not to participate on a nonprofit board and not to pay attention. All those things that could go wrong, did go wrong," he said.
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