Below are two recent
examples postings on Moe's Forum about
gangland violence,
shooting and arson
that should be of
interest to all readers.
---
How safe are
you in Portsmouth?
Lee wrote: (5:39
a.m, 18 May 08)
I get around the city a great deal and see
and hear a lot...more
than most. I have seen a great number of
fires that are garages,
empty
homes, and other things.
Why have these not been
stories in the PDT? Three up in the
Grant and Center area
alone in the last week. One on Fourth
Street... One on
Boundary
.... One on Eighth street
would probably not made the paper had not
been for the heroics of a fireman.
I mean, the list goes on...... What gives?
I forgot....sprinkles of whatever may have been on the
floorboard
of a truck
I drive are far more important matters for
all those guys!
On another note... their credible sources
seem not to be so
credible on these fires.
Seems one of their witnesses is being
questioned and held in
jail as a suspect....
Never mind he had threatened to burn down
my theater as well as the home on
McConnel that claimed the
lives of four and two more dying before they
both happened!
Another of their credible sources is in Jail
doing a ten day sentence
for a P.V.
She is one of the biggest junkie/lowlives in
the city. She was on
probation for theft
from the elderly and possession of
crack.
Her husband claims to all that he is now an
undercover federal agent.
He is nothing but a lying snitch being used
up and like his brother...when they are done, he too will
be incarcerated. I Know that he had
set fires before, one at the Mcconell house
itself. His yet other brother
is in prison now
for multiple arsons.....for the third
time....
Come on FBI...Horner....Fire Chief and Marshals... Do
your job
since you refuse to
listen or talk to me without trying to hang
my arse!
As they say ...
The Teller is the feller on so many of
these! Did you not
believe him when his sister and
brother told on him last week and gave you
the recording?
Been happening for years!...some of the same
guys doing the same thing!
Do not believe they did mine so do not ask.
Go figure!
Lee --- posted
5:39 a.m., 18 May
08
http://www.runboard.com/bmoesnewsforum.f1.t12523|offset=20
Click link above - for precious
memory to "what might have been."
"Downtown
re-vitalization" being destroyed as
THE COLUMBIA, "A DREAM COME TRUE" IS
KILLED.
She is dead,
The Beauty of Portsmouth,
The Columbia Music Hall,
gone.
Photos below show heavy demolition equipment at the rear of
the
Columbia
Music Hall on Gallia Street at 7:45 p.m. Thursday, May 01,
2008
Columbia Music Hall Coming Down
Today
Five years of loving hard labor and
three million dollars of Lee Scott and his
family's
money plus donations from
many people (including Ebby Glockner)
went into the
marvelous and
wonderful transformation of the
abandoned, crumbled old Columbia
Theatre into the
architecturally beautiful Columbia
Music Hall. This work was done
despite
repeated obstructions and hindrances
by the Portsmouth City Mayors Greg
Bauer and Jim Kalb and a corrupted
city government that takes orders from
wealthy
criminal interests.
When completed in 2007 the Columbia
Music Hall was an
instant hit with a great variety of
musicians and their audiences who came to
downtown Portsmouth on Friday
and Saturday night, enjoyed the shows and
spent money with other downtown
businesses. The Columbia restoration
actually
brought people into the downtown
area and grateful local business men responded in a
grand fix-up and cleanup of the
Esplanade-Gallia Street neighborhood. The
Columbia
is the only enterprise that has
brought any real revitalization downtown in the past three
decades
as crowds of five-hundred to
six-hundred persons were common on Friday and
Saturday
nights. Lee Scott, with his
own funds and plans brought forth in this city an
exciting,
profitable enterprise that attracted
more people to downtown than all the tens of millions of
dollars in federal grants that have
been sent to this area by the government the past 15 years
for "the betterment of
Portsmouth." The groups of gangsters that for years have been
mishandling the
millions in incoming grants battled
against the lone man. Mayor Greg
Bauer's
underlings in many city departments
slowed construction on the Columbia with "stop
work"
orders and harassment by the police
department. Bauer was recalled in June 2004 by
angry
citizens. Bauer' impotent
successor, Mayor Jim Kalb allowed more
harassment by Police Chief
Charles Horner.
who, according to Lee Scott, became
incensed with Mr. Scott when Scott
refused Horner's demand to give
false testimony in court to assist
Chief Horner.
Police Chief Horner harassed
Scott with unreasonable tickets at the work scene, and Scott's
son was a
victim of false traffic
charges by Chief Horner's
underlings.
Perhaps Scott's biggest mistake
was his refusal to pay special "Protection" fees of 200 dollars
a month to the Police Protection
Program that was organized with Chief
Charles Horner,
First Ward Councilman Mike Mearan,
Terry Ockerman, Kevin Johnson and other
business
men of the Esplanade-Gallia
Street area.
Lee Scott refused to pay the "Protection" Fee; his COLUMBIA
WAS BURNED DOWN IN A 3:00 A.M.
fire on Sunday, 11
November, 2007.
U.S. ATF
investigators determined the fire was arson, and caused by
an incendiary
device.
Scott attempted to rebuild the
damaged Columbia but City Government again was unreasonable;
Lee Scott
related that
City Auditor Trent Williams demanded
that Scott deposit $304,000.00 Cash
Money
with the Auditor before
re-building could begin, as insurance to the City that Scott
would
rebuild properly and not damage the
city with cleanup costs or other charges.
Auditor Williams
relented on this demand when Scott
pointed out that no other builder had ever been forced to
put up cash money with the
auditor for the privilege of building. But more stumbling
blocks
were placed in Lee Scott's path
and the ineffective Mayor Jim Kalb refused to help.
Lee Scott
then decided to
remove the building rather than go
through the hassle of
building
in Portsmouth again.
--Written and posted by Austin Leedom on Friday, May 02,
2008--
COLUMBIA
ARSON
http://www.columbiamusichall.com/
? Protection Payment ? to Chief Horner ?Mayor
Jim Kalb ?
.ritten by Austin Leedom, Wednesday, November
21st, 2007 at 12:25 a.m.
COLUMBIA MUSIC HALL FIRE
City, State and Federal Agencies Determine Arson
Started Fire; Investigation Continues; No Arrests Made;
Earlier Report Involved Search Warrant
By Tony Rutherford
Huntington News Network
Writer
Portsmouth, OH (HNN) – It’s
official: The fire last Sunday morning
at the
former Columbia Theatre on Gallia Street in Portsmouth, Ohio,
has been
declared arson, by multiple cooperating federal, state and city
agencies,
which included the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and
Explosives
(ATF) and National Response Team (NRT). Since the
investigation
is on-going, specific details will not be disclosed,
according
to the joint news release.
While the on site
investigation has been completed, ATF Columbus Field
Division
special Agent in Charge Christopher Sadowski, “committed
local ATF
special agents to continue working the follow investigation”
alongside
the Portsmouth Police and Fire investigators and the Ohio
Division
of the State Fire Marshal until the “individual(s) responsible
are
brought to justice.”
No one has been designated a
suspect in the torching of the 1912
historic
theatre, where, amongst other events, the first sound
motion
picture --- Al Jolson’s “The
Jazz Singer” --- premiered in the late 1920s.
According to Claudette Ferguson, a sound engineer at
the Music Hall,
Franklin
Toland, the music hall booking agent, and a reliable source Friday,
Nov. 16,
stated that the fire had been determined to be arson and an
arrest
had been made. Lee Scott, the manager, confirmed that version of
events,
Ferguson said.
However, the information proved
incorrect due to an apparent
“mis-worded”
warrant which resulted in misunderstandings by the
sources.
In actuality, a search warrant for removal of evidence from
the shell
of the Music Hall had been served, Ferguson explained.
Elaborating on the unofficial statement concerning cut
wires, a
detonation
device and the arrest statement, Ferguson, “yes, it
was told
to us last night by whom we thought was a reliable source.”
The
source who is close to the investigation , in Ferguson’s words,
explained
the error by stating “the original warrant was worded wrong[ly].”
HNN declined to print the name of the alleged arrestee
until additional
data
could be gathered. As late as 4 p.m. Friday afternoon, November 16,
Kim
Ridell, public information officer for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco
and
Firearms, told HNN via phone from Washington, D.C. that no cause
has yet
been established.
Officially, the Acting Fire
Department Chief Duncan and Police Chief
Horner
said the ATF National Response Team and the state fire
marshal’s
office has been a real asset. “The resources and assistance
by these
specialists is truly appreciated; this comprehensive
investigation
would not have been able to be conducted without
federal
and state support,” said Duncan.
Sadowski told
reporters “this investigation is just another example of
what can
be achieved when local, state and federal agencies work together.”
According to the Ohio Fire Marshal Michael Bell, the
arson designation
came
after investigators “fully analyzed evidence gathered at the scene
and the
information provided in more than 50 interviews that were
conducted.”
The joint announcement came from Fulton,
Duncan, Horner,
Scioto
County Prosecutor, Mark Kuhn, and State Fire Marshal Bell.
Pending approval of the city’s building inspector, the
structure will,
as far as
investigators are concerned, be released back to its owners
and the
insurers said Special agent in Charge of the ATF National Response
Team
(NRT) Jeffrey Fulton.
HNN will soon post clips from
“Recall,” a documentary/ video essay by former
Shawnee State University Professor Robert Forrey, which
includes images of the Music
Hall’s interior and statement of how
the
former city administration discouraged rehabilitation of the
theatre, which the
Scotts purchased from its Cincinnati owner for $1.00. The Scotts
invested
five to seven years of sweat equity in the restoration and about
$2
million dollars.
The city administration provided a
$190,000 loan to finish the Columbia. An article in the Portsmouth
Times earlier this week indicated the Scott’s were
“current” on the loan and that only about $140,000 of the
loan had been
utilized.
Although the interior has been extensively
damaged, Lee Scott hopes that the
Columbia can be reborn, even as a roofless outdoor, courtyard
type
music venue.
Previously published reports indicated
the fire started in the rear of the theatre.
“The complete room on the back lower side of the building is gone,”
Lee
Scott wrote. “That was the electrical room. The other side is still
there.”
Here’s the link to the Press Release provided
by ATF:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/
www/story/11-17-2007/0004707795&EDATE=
Copied
by Austin Leedom at 12:45 a.m, Monday, November 19th,
2007
More details may be
found on http://com5.runboard.com/bmoesnewsforum
Posted by Austin
Leedom at 2:40 a.m. Monday, November 12, 2007.
