Columbus Cottage #6 Demolition

Yesterday we held the demolition for the 6th Columbus Cottage!

I took 150 pictures.

People I was there less than an hour.

And I took 150 pictures. 

Scandalous!

Don't worry, I won't share all 150 of them with you. I didn't on facebook either. It's just that I wanted to capture every moment and then pull out those that illustrated the essence of the event. 

Mary Jenkins on the right as the ceremony is set to begin. This has been her home for over 3 decades and it is not easy to watch it coming down. 

Before

Cathy Williams (L) President and CEO of NeighborWorks Columbus with Mayor Teresa Tomlinson (R) of the Columbus Consolidated Government

This is Mayor Tomlinson's third time on the front end loader, I think it is. We always call it a bulldozer but I have been told I am wrong. I don't pretend to know what it actually is!

Teresa  (the Mayor) actually spent more time up there taking the house down. But we promise, no Mayors were harmed in the making of this demolition. Cowboy was there with her the whole time. And no, before you ask, I do not know what Cowboy's real name is. 

See, I told you she loved this stuff. Tried to get a close up of the grin on her face. 

Climbing off to let the next person (you can see her behind Teresa). Her name is Susan and I honest to God think she brought the remainder of the house down in less than five blows. 

See Rebi get artistic focusing on the flowers in the foreground and the house in the background. This was right before Susan got behind the controls!

One hit and the porch was completely gone!

Number two pushed it almost all the way over!

Number three took care of the rest

And Cowboy finished it up

This is going to a very special house-- a first of it's kind to Columbus. But there will be more on that as construction begins!

For now, we celebrate the life of Mary Cooper Jenkins as we tear down her home to begin rebuilding her a new, safe, energy efficient home. 

The media has been a super friend on this home. 

We made the newspaper. 

We made YouTube. 

And the local TV stations even covered it.

Of course, I think my pictures are the best!

Naturally!

The logo for Cottage 6 is, in my opinion, the best yet! The shirt is lavender to signify all cancers and blue was used to represent colon cancer. 

Theft and a Violation

Yesterday was horrid.

Early Monday morning we realized we had a problem with the phone system. It would ring once but then the call would be gone. I contacted our service provider and a trouble ticket was issued.

Less than half an hour later a technician shows up. Now we all know service dudes don't show up that fast.

Come to find out he was responding to a trouble ticket started Thursday.

Excuse me? What?

Apparently someone called our telephone service provider and pretended to be an employee. This fake told the service provider that the power had been out for two hours and that we needed them to forward incoming calls to a new number. (Let me interrupt to say that the new number was an out of town cell number had anyone bothered to check.)

So for over 150 hours an unknown male had access to our incoming business calls.

All by himself.

It took several hours for us to learn why.

We deal with mortgage loan applications, credit rebuilding, real estate transactions. Any number of very personal client information. We went proactive. We had the forward reversed. We asked for a list of incoming calls. (Don't get me started on how hard it is to get that list but apparently easier than sin to add services to a line... sheeesh!)

The boss held a press conference.... News media were up in here all morning long.

You can see one of those here.

We were massively concerned for our clients and the potential for identity theft.

OH BOY!

The good news is that our clients are probably safe.

The bad news is that WE were the ones being thefted. (Yep, I am pretty sure I just made up that word!)

Come to find out the unknown fakes were forging and cashing checks out of our business operating account. Over $100,000 in checks were written and many were deposited.

Because the banks would call our number and get the fake employee who was getting all our calls. He (OF COURSE) gave permission for the forged checks to be cashed.

The violation comes in because not only did they steal from the company I have worked for for almost 11 years.

They forged my name to the checks.

I have spent the better part of two days trying to track down information, help file complaints, gather information for timelines.

And fume over the fact that the service provider allowed this to happen. They let someone not listed on the account change and add service features and re route phone calls to an out of area number and never bothered to do any of a number of things that could have prevented this.

The main one being pick up a phone and call us to see if
       1. the phones were out and
       2. if we had authorized this change

Maybe even worse is the fact that they seem to spend a lot of time ignoring us, making US jump through hoops they didn't even make the felon (my personal nick name for him) jump through.

I've had to endure endless questions: are you sure that the employee who had his name used fraudulently isn't really behind all this? ( I cannot express to you how sure I am that he did NOT have anything to do with it) But really? You are going to treat me (and us) like a criminal and you let the real criminal have carte blanch access to our phone lines for over 150 hours?

We are the bad guys? Seriously??

I so don't think so and I resent the fact that you make me jump through more hoops to fix a problem you helped a felon create than you did the felon who robbed us!

It is wrong on so many levels.

But at least us going public with it has shone a light into the community and we have realized that it has happened a lot more than has ever been made public.

Columbus Cottage Number 5

 One of my favorite days. The day we hold a key ceremony and give the keys to a brand new house to an elderly person who had been living in substandard housing. I love my job and I love the company I have been fortunate enough to work with for almost 11 years. NeighborWorks Columbus truly believes in it's mission in providing access to fit and affordable housing.

 April 18 at 10, we held the most recent key ceremony. For recipient number 5. I love this picture. It shows the new house, the flag, our mascot HOMEE and Cynthia-- the chair of the Columbus Cottage committee.

 Mayor Teresa Tomlinson making a few announcements before the big event! I freely admit that I just adore our Mayor and take way too many pictures of her at these events.... but you won't really need me to tell you that.

Several of us hid in the kitchen so we could see Mr. Jones and the Mayor come through the door. Yes, it took us until house 5 to realize we would get better pictures from inside the house than taking pictures of the recipient going into the house. 

See, I told you I took lots of pictures of her. But everyone else was getting a tour and they were right there! Left to Right. Rev. Alfred Biggs of the Philadelphia Baptist Church in Lumpkin, Georgia; Mayor Teresa Tomlinson of Columbus, GA and City Councilor (and former Major League Baseball Player) Glen Davis

If you want more information or want to help with home Number 6, visit NeighborWorks Columbus's website or call 706 324 HOME (4663).