Les Coffey, owner of Peerless Self Storage and the Peerless Mills site, filed the civil suit. He claimed he owned sewerage lines on the site and the city owes him $985,000 for using them. Coffey was arrested Feb. 16 when he threatened to pour concrete in the lines to block their use.
Judge Harold Murphy, in a 52-page summary issued Thursday in U.S. District Court in Rome, said, “The court declares that plaintiff (city of Rossville) has an express easement for the sewer line at issue, and that other express easements exist for the remaining sewer lines that defendant (Peerless Self Storage) contends cross the property.”
The judge’s ruling recognizes a 1958 deed and easement between Burlington Industries and the city of Rossville, said Andy Davis, the city’s attorney. It also referenced the deed between RDC Inc., which sold the property to Coffey and still holds a lien on it, and Peerless Self Storage, he said.
About Peerless
Peerless Woolen Mills was established in 1905, the same year Rossville was incorporated as a city, by John L. Hutcheson Sr. of Sweetwater, Tenn. The city boomed during World War II, as Peerless was the primary manufacturer of woolen blankets for the armed services. By the 1950s Peerless had become the largest single-unit mill in the world, leading America’s dominance of the textile market, with more than 3,000 employees.
In 1952 the operation merged with Burlington Industries, a large textile maker, and was then taken over by the Hutcheson family and Rossville Development Corp.
The plant closed in 1962 after a vote to unionize. The facility continued to be used eventually by more than a dozen industries that rented space at the site, but a huge fire in June 1967 shuttered its doors for good.
In 2007 Les Coffey bought the 27-acre site and its buildings for more than $1.3 million from the Hutcheson family and RDC Inc. Coffey says he has spent more than $800,000 to improve the site.
Since that time he has had ongoing disputes with the city, including legal actions. He claims the city has essentially harassed him, blocked his efforts to attract tenants and turn the site into a profitable business venture, and forced him into bankruptcy.
In February Coffey obtained a permit from the city to demolish the buildings and renovate the property into a metal recycling scrap yard and waste transfer station. RDC Inc., as the property's lien-holder, has blocked the demolition plans with a court injunction.
that was a civil matter between the tenant and the landlord, police had no right to be there and move that backhoe either, they violated many laws. Mr Coffey needs to go out of town where a lawyer can't be bought off.
I don't have to answer your wild , unrelated ,barely coherent questions. Neither does anybody else. Even when proven to be an 'ol fibber , you just make up something even more outrageous and irrelevant to throw at the city that you claim to despise so much. You are not the victim here, you are the causation of all this strife that burdens you so much.You have lost the goodwill of anyone who may have been even slightly simpatico with you by finishing win/place/show in the jackass sweepstakes.
Let me say for the record here that I am darn proud of the city for standing up to a bully like you. They're not perfect over there, but they have managed to checkmate your little pay toilet scheme pretty well now since 2007. Hats off to them.They are not corrupt. You are just resentful that they won't let you be a law unto yourself.
As for you. Well...You've managed to set a match to thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars that someday your kids will need. ( If you are reading these words in the year 2040 kids, your poverty is the direct result of having a dad thats as crazy as a rat in a coffee can. But as his kids,I'm sure you already knew that). Your ego and vanity has only served to enrich a few lawyers and unite the city of Rossville towards your eventual removal.Perhaps when you spend long lonely nights at FBI headquarters in Virginia,you will look back on your experience in Rossville and wonder where it all went wrong. Or maybe not.
Tick. Tock.
I normally enjoy debating with you, but find you never realy address any points. I have agreed with you on some things.
I must say I am more than a little iritated as we just realized that over the past 3 months a customer stole about 10,000 from us by way of fraud. I have doubts anything will ever be done about it.
Maybe the city will prove me wrong on this one.
Just what I thought. You like to talk a lot of trash and shoot off with the conversating anus, but when it comes to answering questions you have no answers.
Just tell me why would a municipality not be able to account for something as large as an automobile? Just gone poof gone into thin air. You there is a specific report they are obligated to file anually accounting for all seized assets not just cars. Then they have not a single one of those reports available. Why is that snarky? That is your beloved government over there that believes i following the rules and doing the right thing. I juts wonder. How many guns have they seized that no one knows where they are or where they ended up. How many murders or crimes have been commited with those lost guns. What about seized drugs. No record of them being destroyed or turned over to othet agencies. Wonder how may boats, jet skis, motorcycles and other things have been bought with seized money. I often wonder how a person working on a officers salary can afford not only a boat but 3 or 4 jet skis and other toys.
Snarky these are real issue that no one seems to want to talk about including you.
You worked for the FBI and you can't find a car ?
I must say I am honored that you would think and speak so highly of me.
So start explaining all the city's actions. Better yet, in your ultimate wisdon. Just tell me what ever happened to my car?
Les Coffey of Cell 8 , Walker County Detention Center , lafayette, Georgia !
( Via Satellite hookup)-
" Thanks Regis" " " I just want to say that a lot of hard work and discipline went into winning this award " " When I was a young boy in Portugal in the early 1870's ,we could have never dreamed that someday,my friend Neill Armstrong and I, would go on to accomplish things that would change mankind." " As I walked down those dusty roads barefoot in the Phillipines, I turned to General Mc Arthur and fairly cried out that what America needed at that time was NOT a brave elite super spy like me, but a solid waste tycoon that could take mountains of garbage and turn them into even bigger mountains of garbage." " And thus, on a country road in Belgium, an idea was born." "An idea that all men that can shuffle assets and liabilities long enough to keep his creditors at bay and confused about his finances and honesty." " So ,Regis, I am happy toaccept this award in the name of every man that ever dreamed a dream and committed multiple felonies while doing so "
Host: "Thank you, Mr. Coffey,but my name is not Regis"
The memo clearly shows my desire and intentions to keep the mill intact. It shows me as long as 30 months ago offering to come to the table with the city and do what was right for the property and the community. I waited another 14 months and endured 14 months of the city and the mayor talking trash to everyone including the media.
This memo does not show a man that is combative and self serving. It reflects a man that has an inner desire to do what is right. My inner desire to do what was right was met with a poisonous venom. I have no choice at this point but to do whatever I have to in order to recover the investment and move on.
Maybe you should ask your mayor and council member why they never walked across the street and asked me what they could do to help me make the Peerless site a success.
Also Bernard you are starting to show your lack of knowledge and lack of information. Let me go a step further. I also worked for the F.B.I.(anthrax case), The Army Corps of Engineers. Worked on Hurricane Ivan, Charley, Nicole, Wilma, Rita, Katrina, Fran, and I am sure a few more that I cannot recall at this time. To boot I spent roughly 1 year at the world trade center. Wait let me go on a little more. Was in Jackson, MS after the tornado about 6 years ago. Did the ice storm that hit the eastern Carolina's about 6-7 years ago.
As for the waste business. You just do not know much about it as you would have known that the 10 names I listed eventually were sold to Waste Management and are all part of the Waste Management system of 700 plus landfills today. Fresh Kills was the landfill on Staten Island that all the WTC debris was brought to. Also National Waste is not even real competition in the national landfill business. Allied Waste is now owned by Republic Industries who's largest stock holder is Bill Gates. Allied derived from BFI about 8 years ago when they took on 9 billion in debt in an LBO. They were in the last couple of years taken over by Republic. Then you have various regional landfill companies. Also I will not waste your time talking about the DOT projects, Airports, Military bases, TVA, Duke energy, Dominion power and Southern company projects I have been on or involved in.
So the public knows exactly what my work history is. I graduated from high school in 1985. I was working part time for Domino's pizza and moved to Memphis and worked for a company called Green Scapes. In 1987 I moved to Atlanta and worked for a company called Alfred A. Simpson at the time they were the largest landscape company in Atlanta. I then went to work for Sterling Property Management and started my own business on the side. I built that business from a rented lawn mower and a leaf blower to 150 men and more trucks and vehicles on the road than I could keep up with. In the mid 1990s I started buying houses in Decatur, GA as a side business. That progressed into commercial properties and at one time I owned the largest part of the downtown portion of Avondale Estates and several pieces along the main drag. In 2000 I sold many of the houses and stuck to the main business and the commercial. In 2001 I bought 2 industrial locations in Chattanooga and another one in 2003. In 2006 I sold the remainder of the commercial properties in Atlanta and bought 2 industrial location in the Atlanta area. In 2007 I bought the Peerless site. In 2010, I made an additional investment into an undeveloped piece of land that sits across the road from a Wal-Mart and Home Depot in an Atlanta suburb. We are currently trying to get Red Lobster or Longhorns to be an anchor and develop the site.
It must be noted that almost all transactions the past 4-5 years have been done through a group of LLC's that are owned by an entity based in Chattanooga that is subsequently owned by my children.
So see Bernard I have extensive experience in Waste, Disaster, Scrap, Demolition and Real Estate that the city of Rossville could have used to benefit the community. Instead their egos and power hungry attitudes burned that bridge.
So let's go ahead and get the personal thing out of the way so you guys can't try and make hay of that one. Been married and divorced twice. Filled a personal Chapter 11 in 20008 as my ex-wife got a 720,000 dollar judgment against me. The money was not the problem, but rather I was ordered to pay her at a rate of 13,000 a month and could not make the payments. Went to prison once in the early 90s, but Bill Clinton got me out of that one. I did not do anything wrong per se just got nasty with a judge and he jumped the gun. In the end he retired and I came on back to Georgia after 42 days in the lock up. Been accused of about everything known to man short of being a child molester or murder. I am a very polarizing and controversial person. I say what I mean and mean what I say. I do not kiss ass and do not let people push me around. I hate favoritism and politics. I have 4 kids. A 16 year old and a set of 11 year old triplets. The 16 year old lives with me all the time and the 11 year olds 1/2 of the time.
I am going to run for mayor of Rossville and I plan on winning. If I win there will be major changes in the way they do business. They will start treating people like citizens not subjects.
Back to the Peerless site. I have wasted 4 years of my life here. I am more than likely going to waste another 4-8 years here cleaning this shit hole they call Rossville up. In the end if the community ends up with a better government and real jobs with real business then it was worth it. Hopefully my kids will see the benefits of my labor some day.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
http://www.rossvillega.com/Peerless_Mill/cleartheair.htm
This memo indicates you are determined to PRESERVE the history the mill represents. Why the change of heart?
November 20, 2008
To: Johnny Baker
From: Les Coffey
Johnny;
This is an unofficial communication that is not intended to be for anything other than my desire to clear the air with you.
I was just reading a story on CNN about a WWII veteran finding out the last few days that his twin brother had died in a German Camp and the guards involved was not prosecuted for their actions. It made me think of the War Museum in the Peerless building and the men who fought in that war for our freedom. They really were not men they were boys.
That mill made almost every single blanket that every one of those men used in the war. Many of those men had wives, children, and other family slaved in the mill to make the blankets and clothes that covered the men at war. Many of those men died in the same clothes and blankets that their family made in the mill with their own two hands. No one has probably ever thought about it that way, but a guys family more than likely made the clothes and blanket he died in. It is a guaranteed fact that many men survived that war because of the blankets that were made by their family.
I would think that for at least 75 years and through WW I and WW II men were at war wearing clothes and blankets their family made in that mill. Every single day I meet a person that tells me about how their dad, mom, grandmother or other family member worked in that factory. The Hutcheson’s are wealthy to this day because of those many people laboring for pennies and hours on end in that building.
When we were cleaning out an area of the oldest part of the building we went into an area that I thought was a crawl space. I am 5’9” tall and could barely stand up in there. I later spoke with several people and was talking about how they had placed concrete in the crawl space. I was informed that was not a crawl space. That was the where the children worked in the early 1900s.
There are parts of this building that people who are long gone slaved in as children for pennies in unbearable conditions. These children lived through the great depression and were working in that building making military blankets for their brothers and fathers who were being killed in wars. T hey were working to provide the basic food to prevent them and the family that was not at war a meal that was one meal from starvation. I could go on for hours telling you the history I have learned about the Peerless Building. All of that history is tied to real people that have real family in the community today. You and I are free to fight with each other because of those people that worked in that mill and their family members that served in the various war’s to protect our freedom.
The idea that we would be on opposite sides of this issue is ludicrous. Isn’t it better that we put egos and money aside and do the right thing for the community and the people that served us before we were ever born? This building is a shrine to our American war veterans and their families. It should be treated as such. The Peerless mill is of enormous historical significance and should be saved and preserved. To allow it to be torn down for a shopping center or used for anything that is not productive and creates jobs for the community is like walking down to the war museum that sits in that building today and spitting in the war veterans face that are working there as volunteers.
There is no reason whatsoever you and I should be on opposite sides. I am angry that no one seems to have the respect and honor for such a valuable historic structure. Instead of fighting we should be banding together to protect the heritage that site has.
Les Coffey
You should be working in a upper level high powered management position at Allied Waste, National Waste (now part of Stericycle), or Republic Services if your experience is as extensive as you point out.
Just my opinion and making conversation - - - -
All I know is garbage dumps.
In June 1967 the fire destroyed 300,000 Sf of the building. In the fall of 1967 and winter of 1968 they re-built that portion with tilt up concrete buildings. RDC sued the insurance company and eventually won a settlement. After that the following compnaies were here. Rossville Cromotex, Borg Textiles, Rossville Mills, Galladay, and Culp textiles. There may have been others that I am not aware of or are missing. The last entity here was Rossville Mills which was owned by Bob Hixon. They lost a trade or patent infringment suit and closed shortly thereafter. Mr. Hixon left everything to include the personel files of the employees in the builindg. We burned those files 3 years ago. Just this week we found more files from 1995 for Borg and Rossville Mills stored in a room that had been blocked in with cinder blocks. A whole other set of room we had no idea was in the building.
I will agree that the flea market may or may not have made it. The fact remains the city sure did not make it easy on them. You cannot say Kenco was not financially capable of staying as they are debt free and have been for 50 years.
The fact is city business has been mis-managed for decades. That is why the city is where it is today. You cannot give all the credit to just a few people that have been in office the last 12 years. They have been passing the torch of corruption from one person to the other like it is an olympic torch or the eternal flame. Right now they are sitting over there planning on passing that torch to the next guy Teddy Harris. In 12-16 years if he gets his way he will pass it on to whom he picks. Just like dictatorships do.
Harold I do have an agenda and everyone knows what it is. I am willing to put my name out there and amdit such. Lets see who else is willing to do the same. My Agenda when I came to town was to develop a proeprty and make a profit. My agenda now is to clean as corrupt government up and expose them for what they really are and then make a profit.
Here is the sad part. The way it sits now we and I do mean we (me, Peerless, Rossville, and Walker County) have gotten so much bad press that no one in their right mind is going to move here or locate a business here. This fight has set the community back 5-10 years no matter who is right.
No one had heard a word from me until January 2010. If you look back at archives in the media Johnn Baker and the city were flapping their gums to the media in 2008. They were going on about Les Coffey and the Peerless site. I gave them a whole year and 6 months to sit down and shut up. They simply was not using good judgment. After they gave me no choice I came out the gate fighting and have not stopped since.
A prime example is the car they took from our front parking lot. Where is that car? Why have they not accounted for it? Why are there no records of it in the city files? Maybe some of you do not think that is a big issue, but the police pulling up and having a car hauled off to the city maintenance barn. Then it disappearing for no one to know where it has gone is not exactly good control measures. Just as the police coming over as the video showed and hot wiring a machine and hauling things off for you to never know where they are is ont exactly good controls. Then when you ask them why they did that? They say we do ont know what you are talking about. Then you show them the video and they say well we cant talk about that. Then they go on a witch hunt to charge the guy that has pointed these things out with any crime they can imagine.
These are not signs of good governement.
As the above article states - The plant closed in 1962 after a vote to unionize. The facility continued to be used eventually by more than a dozen industries that rented space at the site, but a huge fire in June 1967 shuttered its doors for good.
You are centering on Johnny Baker and his current council members who have not been in control for all these last 44 years. My point is Rossville has had a span of over 44 years to buy this property. If they really wanted it I am sure they would have made a deal back in the 1960's with the Hutcheon's when the price of property was reasonable and the original Hutcheon's would have given them a deal.
You are sure the flea market was pushed out and it was not because after the initial few weeks the business was not making money and therefore chose to close? It was clear after the first few weeks the cars out front (customers) were scarce. I only went once because there just was nothing the flea market offered that was worth buying. In my opinion the place closed due to lack of sales and profits not because the city forced him out with a city code violation. Just my opinion.
P.S. I really thought you were going to tear the place down and build a nice Town Center with cafe's, stores, offices and a nice center park. I have no idea where I EVER got that idea (must have been in my dreams) I am sad that is not your plan. Everyone would be on your side if it was.
That is not exactly the truth. There had been businesses operating here up and until about 15-18 years ago. They city had been lobbying the Hutcheson's. The city wanted the place for free. Go back and look at all the news archives about the Peerless site that last 15 years. In particular the last 10 and you will see Johnny Baker and the city was lobbying hard. They simple have never had the money or desire to pay anything for the place. That does not mean they do not want the property.
Also for watever it is worth, about 2002 RDC had a large part of this building rented to Kenco to store tires. They were tires Firestone was recalling due to the Ford Explorer situation. The mayor sent the fire department over and made a stink and forced them to move the tires in a fashion that made it impossible to store at the site. They claimed some kind of exit issues. A building full of tires that is not otherwise occupied does not need an exit strategy. Then if you recall the flea market/ stop and shop opened and the city ran him out of business as well. They used fore code on him as well. It is not new information that Rossville has made every attempt possible to run anyone who has located in this buildig the last 12 years off.
Also if you cannot see the links. Go to the L.U. Lafayette Underground page. They are there as well. You can always friend me, but I doubt you want to do that as the secret would be out that 99% of the people who post on here has an agenda.