A welfare check on Thursday night, April 17, led to the arrest of four individuals for manufacturing methamphetamine at Ballmont Apartments in Jamestown.

Charged with manufacturing methamphetamine and wanton endangerment due to the presence of a two-year-old child were Nicholas S. Fields, 33, Robin Shelton, 29, Angela Shelton, 35, and Kathy J. Canter, 59, after Jeremy England of the Jamestown Police Department was responding to a welfare check.

Upon arriving at the apartments, the smell indicative of methamphetamine manufacturing was noticeable and a search warrant was sought.

Found on the premises was a “one-step” lab along with an HCL generator lab.

The following day felony warrants were served on Angela Shelton and Kathy Canter for theft charges out of Ohio.

The four were housed at Russell County Detention Center.

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Jamestown City Council met Thursday, April 17 and had no official business on the agenda beyond approving the minutes from the previous month’s meeting, but a few reports were of interest.

Mayor Terry Lawless expressed that the loss of jobs from the closing of Fruit of the Loom was a concern for the entire county, and the meeting had mainly to do with the consequences of the impending closing.

Lawless said they would begin the budgeting process taking into account the loss of tax revenue from FOL.

“This year’s budget is going to be a tough one,” Lawless said. “But what we’re going to do, we’re going to budget the first six months just as though Fruit of the Loom were here, because we don’t know the schedule. After June 8, we don’t know how quickly they’re going to start downsizing, how long it’s going to take them to get everything moved out.”

“Within those six months the budget will probably be amended once? Twice? I don’t know. It all depends on the revenue coming in, what the city can afford to do…We’re going to do the best we can with what we’ve got to work with,” he said.

After the meeting with Lakefest Chairperson Marcelene Taylor, Mayor Lawless said that with everything going on it may not be appropriate to have Lakefest; that the timing and lack of funds necessitated putting it off until next year.

The four-day, yearly 4th of July event is a decades old tradition of celebration for the city since its inception by Welby and Mae Hoover.

“To be honest with you we can’t afford to have it, with all these people losing their jobs,” Lawless said. “We just felt that we’d put it off this year and look at it next year. Maybe do it in a smaller fashion, but we just felt like the timing this year; we’re just not going to do it.”

The city will lose approximately $200,000 in payroll taxes alone from the loss of 600 jobs over the next eight months, along with other taxes and fees.

A meeting has been scheduled with Tourism Director Janette Marson and other community leaders to discuss ways in which an event could still be held without funding from the city.

Lawless was not able to shed more light on the plans of Fruit of the Loom for the county beyond the scale down leading to the plant closing.

“Otis (Skaggs–Public Works Director), Kevin (Shearer–City Attorney) and myself met with one of them yesterday and tried, more or less, to get some sort of exit strategy or see if they had some type of strategy when they left this plant, but basically all they would say is after June 8 they’d start downsizing and they wouldn’t say anything else. So what we’ve heard on the radio or what you read in the paper is all we came away with,” Lawless said.

Lawless then addressed questions of city council members.

Council member Barry Coffer asked if there was any help from FOL regarding the expansion of water and sewer done in part to accommodate the needs of the plant.

Lawless addressed the question saying that the bond holders have said they would work with the city on trying to make a markable repayment schedule, but did not indicate any help from FOL.

Council member Jenny Chapman asked if the city owned the land that FOL was on.

City Attorney Shearer said that the city does own the title, but that instructions, when a lease agreement was made, instructed that the deed would be transferred to FOL once the bonds were paid, but that as of yet has not been done.

Shearer said he was pleased with the enthusiasm of the Cabinet for Economic Development in wanting to aggressively market the facility and help the employees.

Council member Marcelene Taylor offered to return her salary as city council member, a request that Mayor Lawless said they would have to check into the ordinance and make changes to allow that.