Riverside – Memphis Flyer

In a press conference Wednesday morning, Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich and Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong announced that a recent drug and gang investigation brought forth 30 indictments for drug-related offenses.
JB

DA Amy Weirich

The lengthy investigation was conducted over several months and resulted in arrests within South Memphis’ Riverside neighborhood, an area that’s been plagued with gang activity and drug distribution for years.

MPD’s Organized Crime Unit seized more than 700 grams of cocaine, $400,000 in cash, and various automobiles and other items. Two primary targets of the investigation were brothers Kenneth and Keith Bohanon. The brothers were one-time major customers of the notorious Craig Petties organization.

Ten of the 30 defendants are charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to sell cocaine in an amount over 300 grams. This is a class A felony that normally carries a punishment of 15 to 25 years in prison. Twenty other defendants are charged with purchasing cocaine for resale. Three of the individuals charged are gang members: one with the Riverside Rollin’ 90s Crips and two with the Gangster Disciples.

Prior to the indictment, the Riverside community had been on the MPD’s radar. In September, the MPD’s Multi-Agency Gang Unit issued the first-ever injunction against a criminal gang. The injunction declared the Rollin 90s a public nuisance and banned its members from indulging in illegal activity, such as drug dealing, weapon possession, trespassing, and public drinking.

The 30-person indictment is not directly linked to the September gang injunction. However, it’s another step for law enforcement on its journey to restore the city’s Riverside neighborhood.

Downtowners will soon have another pleasant diversion.

Paul Evans, the city’s administrator of golf operations, said that the clubhouse at Martin Luther King Riverside golf course, overlooking Interstate 55 at Riverside Drive and South Parkway West, is complete. Evans is “shooting for early November” to reopen the nine-hole course.

The new clubhouse became controversial in the wake of a $4 million allocation for the Whitehaven golf center in 2003. The city council then appropriated over $1 million for the new clubhouse at Riverside despite the recommendation of the Memphis parks board against it.

Critics derisively dubbed the Riverside clubhouse the “Taj Mahal,” pointing out that the 5,000 square foot building was double the size of the clubhouse at a private club in the city.

Shelby County commissioner Joe Ford tossed fatback into the pork-barrel fire in a 2005 interview with the Nashville Tennessean. According to that report, Ford cited the clubhouse as an example of “my vision … to make sure we get our fair share of tax dollars.”

Evans, however, described the building as “functional.”

A delay in the reopening of the course fed speculation that a construction error closed the course indefinitely.

City administrator of building design and construction Mel Scheuerman explained, “The facility got caught up in the budget crunch last year and couldn’t hire staff.”

There were, he said, “no foundation problems. The clubhouse is built on the old number 8 green, and it changed the layout of the golf course.”

“It was right on budget,” he said, adding that the builder squeezed in a new tee box, parking lot, and two new greens not accounted for in the initial plan.

City councilman Edmund Ford, whose district includes the Riverside course, explained, “We had two options: Lose the golf course and put a new community center there. We were [also] planning on selling the park to Mapco for development.”

Ford attributes the new clubhouse and course improvement to a grass-roots campaign. A trailer had served as a “temporary” clubhouse since the original burnt in 1992. Community residents came out in support of the replacement.

“We had a meeting before all that took place. The neighborhood people decided they wanted [the clubhouse]. That was a big interest to them,” he said. “We didn’t know how many people used the park until we had the meeting a couple years ago.”

“That clubhouse should be doing fine,” Ford added. “I don’t play golf, so I don’t keep up. I hadn’t checked on it lately, all I know is that everything should be in place.”

Golf administrator Evans said that the $70,000 and $90,000 allocations for clubhouse furniture and information technology, respectively, have been approved. Communications equipment and cash registers have been installed. Once a staff is in place, the new clubhouse and updated golf course will open.

Ford explained that subsidies defray costs for both the Whitehaven and Riverside golf projects rather than each playing a zero-sum game with city taxpayers. According to Ford, funds from the sale of McKellar Park to the airport have been diverted to the Whitehaven golf club, and Mapco assists with the MLK-Riverside park costs.

“They’re bringing it back to where it used to be,” he said.