Sunday Edition March 3, 2019 BARTOW COUNTY’S ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER $1.50 GDOT offi cials say RCDC Cloverleaf lane closures could be completed by 2029 planned for BY JAMES SWIFT Mohamed Arafa. “It is intended to ease conges- [email protected] tion in the area, support economic development in both counties and provide access to I-75, and March 8-11 Considering the size and scope of the pro- also relieve some of the truck traffi c congestion BY JAMES SWIFT posed Rome-Cartersville Development Corridor in the area.” [email protected] (RCDC) project, it’s only fi tting that Tuesday eve- Onlookers carefully examined a series of large ning’s public information session hosted by the poster boards, outlining the proposed pathway of Pending a deluge of rainfall Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) the roughly 6.2-mile project. doesn’t put a damper on the plan, drew a large crowd. As currently planned, the divided four-lane would C.W. Matthews Contracting Co. is In fact, more than 100 people attended the start near the current intersection point of highways set to demolish one of the bridges open house meeting at Faith United Methodist 41 and 411, fairly close to Shaw Industries’ Plant 15. along Joe Frank Harris Parkway Church in Cartersville to learn more about the From there, the new roadway would cross Joe Frank spanning over Tennessee Street long-discussed plan to build a new connector di- Harris Parkway, creating a new partial cloverleaf in- this weekend. JAMES SWIFT/THE DAILY TRIBUNE NEWS rectly linking Highway 411 to Interstate 75. terchange in the process, and via a series of bridges Doing so will require the clo- More than 100 people attended a GDOT open house presen- “This project, we believe, is really important begin to cut across Mac Johnson Road. sure of a portion of Highway 411 tation on the Rome-Cartersville Development Corridor at Faith for both residents of Bartow and Floyd counties,” in between the Highway 41 south- United Methodist Church in Cartersville Tuesday. said GDOT District 6 Communications Offi cer SEE RCDC, PAGE 2A bound off-ramp and 411-to-41 northbound on-ramp from March 8 until March 11. “The goal for this weekend is to Cartersville demolish the second of the two ex- isting bridges so that they can then man allegedly go onsite and build the new bridge SMALLER SPACE, BIG INVESTMENT to take its place,” said Bartow County Transportation Planner defrauded Tom Sills. “One of the two bridges over Tennessee Street is complete, investors out so there will be a traffi c shift on that bridge soon, perhaps in the of at least next week, I think.” According to traffi c control $400,000 plans presented by C.W. Mat- thews, road closures could span BY JAMES SWIFT as far north as Peeples Valley [email protected] Road and as far south as the AMC CLASSIC Cartersville 12 movie A 21-year-old Cartersville res- theater. ident was arraigned Monday in In an email, Georgia Depart- the United States District Court ment of Transportation (GDOT) for the Northern District of Assistant Area Construction Man- Georgia on a litany of charges ager Jordan Clement stated that in connection to a foreign invest- the closures would end by 7 a.m. ment scheme he has allegedly March 11. operated since 2016. “Some of the detoured traffi c Kevin Perry, the founder and would be utilizing East Felton CEO of Lucrative Pips Corp., Road and Market Place Boule- was indicted by a grand jury last vard,” Clement stated. “It appears December on allegations of wire this same method was utilized pre- fraud. Less than three months viously to demolish the other exist- earlier, the United States Com- ing bridge at the same location.” modity Futures Trading Com- The 41 northbound to 411 mission (CFTC) fi led a com- northbound detour, for example, plaint against the Acworth-based will have motorists taking a right business for several violations of onto Canton Highway before tak- the Commodity Exchange Act ing two left turns at Market Place and failing to adhere to a number Boulevard and Highway 20. of commission regulations. “They’ve got the detour routes Perry attended Allatoona High set up so that going northbound, School in Acworth and played you can get off Tennessee Street at basketball at the College of East Felton and go out to 41,” Sills Coastal Georgia in Brunswick. said. “And coming southbound, Among other illegal activities, JAMES SWIFT/THE DAILY TRIBUNE NEWS there’s a ramp to get you onto 41.” Perry is accused of operating an The roughly $30 million, 62-acre Interstate Commerce Park project offi cially broke ground in north Bartow Thursday after- The interchange reconstruction unregistered commodity pool noon. project near the 41 and 411 clo- and failing to register as an “as- verleaf began in 2014. According sociated person” of said unautho- Interstate Commerce Park celebrates groundbreaking to GDOT documents, total con- rized commodity pool. struction costs for the project have According to CFTC docu- BY JAMES SWIFT more calls for buildings in the 10, 20, 30, feet up to 120,000 square feet when it’s eclipsed $41 million. ments, the accused “fraudulently [email protected] 40, 50,000-square foot range or spaces in all developed.” “At present, that road — accord- solicited at least $400,000 from buildings like that, and we just don’t have Cartersville-Bartow County Depart- ing to the area engineer’s offi ce at least 30 pool participants, who Shortly after brokering a $12.5 mil- the inventory.” ment of Economic Development Execu- — is about 72 percent complete,” were defendant Perry’s friends, lion deal to sell the Cartersville Crossing Thursday’s dirt-moving at 1031 Cass- tive Director Melinda Lemmon acknowl- Sills said. “Then they will demol- acquaintances and members of Shopping Center off Main Street last year, White Road represented the culmination edged that a lack of smaller warehouse ish the remaining bridge and get the public, for a pooled invest- Mark Harris had a discussion with the of two years’ worth of planning on the spaces has cost the community its fair that under construction and that ment vehicle that is not an [el- head of New York-based Eckstein Prop- roughly 62-acre ICP development. Harris share of signifi cant investments in the will complete the work over Ten- igible contract participant] in erties. said the most aggressive site plan for the past. nessee Street.” connection with the trading of “He said ‘What am I going to do with property would include six buildings — “This is needed,” she said at the But that’s not the end of the retail foreign exchange (forex) this money?’” Harris, founding member ranging in size from 41,131 square feet to groundbreaking event. “This is the size project, Sills noted — after that, contracts.” of Cartersville-based H&H Realty LLC, 132,110 square feet — combining for a to- of buildings that we get requests on and there’s still some reconstruction Over a roughly two-year pe- recounted at Thursday evening’s ground- tal footprint of about 477,811 square feet. don’t have very much product of.” that has to be done with the High- riod, Perry is accused of depos- breaking ceremony for the Interstate “More than likely, we’re going to have it Within four years, Harris said he ex- way 41 infrastructure spanning iting pool participant funds into Commerce Park (ICP) in northeast Bar- pared down to fi ve buildings, with rough- pects the roughly $30 million park to be over the CSX railroad line and both his own personal banking tow. ly 320,000 square feet of gross area,” developed out. Pettit Creek. accounts and several Lucrative “I said ‘You’re going to build us some Harris said, “with tenants that will range Pips banking accounts — the warehouses,’” Harris continued. “We get anywhere from probably 20,000 square SEE GROUNDBREAKING, PAGE 7A SEE CLOSURES, PAGE 8A latter of which, the CFTC states, were all closed by March 2018. Per a CFTC complaint, Perry told pool participants that his company conducted foreign ex- Bartow super says reading program change trading through a trading company that was never regis- results ‘exceeded all my expectations’ tered with the commission. BY DONNA HARRIS gust and September, ready to assist our fi rst-grade SEE INDICTMENT, PAGE 7A [email protected] teachers build foundational skills in reading,” Su- perintendent Dr. Phillip Page said. “The interest A new pilot program started in four Bartow from our community was so great, we had to open County elementary schools this year has seen more training dates to accommodate the number such tremendous results that it will be offered at of volunteers rapidly signing up. The data we have all 12 elementary schools next year. collected so far, illustrating the success of this pro- Last summer, the Read to Grow program re- gram, has exceeded all my expectations.” cruited and trained about 160 volunteers from the Page said one of the three big ideas of a pro- community to go into fi rst-grade classrooms at fessional learning community — an initiative Allatoona, Clear Creek, Cloverleaf and Kingston currently being developed by the school system elementary schools to help students with their — is focusing on results, and for the program to reading in an effort to get them on grade level by continue and expand, “it was critical to see posi- RANDY PARKER/THE DAILY TRIBUNE NEWS the third grade.