The mortgagors in these foreclosures fall into four categories: builders, husbands and wives, single women and mixed names. Many of the builders indebtedness run over $10 million and up, usually from the purchase of a farm where they intended a subdivision, but they never paid for the land. Many of the mortgagee banks are shown as "successor to" or "successor by merger." This means the banks went belly-up from bad real estate loans and were taken over by the FDIC. Newton County has some of these.

Most of the single women’s indebtedness ran from around $100 thousand to a quarter of a million dollars. I am confused about the judgment used by loan officers in approving these loans. I wonder where all the jobs were in the Newton and Metro area that carried the required salary that would insure the payment of these loans.

The employees of the city of Covington have been well represented in recent foreclosures. One employee’s foreclosure notice ran six or seven times. This, also, I do not understand. Several city policemen’s properties have run in the legals. One policeman who heads a major crime unit has had six foreclosures. I thought our city should have financial responsibility and moral turpitude requirements in their personnel policy. These are placed to prevent the temptations regarding graft, corruption and bribes.

The city of Porterdale Police Department was also represented with high frequency with officers’ foreclosures. Most law enforcement agencies require that their officers keep their own houses in order. I wonder what these officers’ credit scores are.

The overall economic and moral fiber of Newton County seems to be sinking faster than the Titanic heading for the iceberg. I am sure that the self-anointed or so-called "movers and shakers" in Newton County will put out a call for Marshal John Barleycorn to come riding into the county on a white horse, wearing a white hat and save the day.

You reap what you sow.