Legwork
STEVE Brown typed “PetroGen” into the Records computer system and waited while the database program searched the file structure.
Florida State University was now closed for the Christmas holidays. Last week he’d received a tip from Tom Weatherford that PetroGen had recently been buying large blocks of property in Alabama. Steve had called yesterday about access to the Alabama Department of Records files and today had driven to Montgomery, about 200 miles to the north. Records was located in a large low brick building not far from the Alabama state capitol building.
The pretty blonde in charge of the records computer system had shown Steve to a carrel containing a black and white X-terminal and handed him a plastic-covered page of instructions. The system was straightforward enough, and after a few minutes of practice he’d began the real work of searching.
The computer beeped, and the screen read “Search has found 7 items.” This was followed by a list of reference numbers. Steve clicked on the first reference number, and the database displayed the listing. It described eighty acre parcel of waterfront property located on the Tombigbee River. Steve recorded the details in his notebook.
The second item was also a parcel of waterfront property on the same river. The other five items were the same. Steve tried several other search keywords, but there were no more entries. Apparently all the purchases had been recorded with PetroGen as the legal owner. He totaled the cost of all the entries. It came to over $150 million. For some reason, PetroGen was investing heavily in the region along one particular stretch of river.
Steve exited the database program, gathered his papers, and strolled back to the outer office. The blonde girl was sitting at a desk behind the counter. The name plate on the desk read “Kathleen Scott”.
“Through already?” asked the blonde girl.
“More or less, Miss Scott,” said Steve, sitting down on the chair across from her desk. “I wonder if you could tell me something. Where’s the Tombigbee River and what’s going on over there?”
She laughed. “Oh, that. Some people think the Tombigbee Waterway Project is the greatest thing that ever happened to Alabama, and other people think it’s just a great big black hole for state and federal money. You see, there are some big rivers in the western part of the state ... over by Mississippi? ... that aren’t quite navigable and that don’t quite connect up. And one of our Congressmen, Tom Bevill, has been up in Washington for a long time, and he runs some appropriations subcommittee ... the one that has to do with water projects? And so he just told those Army Engineers that they should do something about connecting up those rivers, and fixing them ... so boats could go down them to Mobile and the Gulf?”
“He wants to make the Tombigbee a navigable waterway?” Steve asked.
“That’s right,” Kathleen answered. “So the Army started this project. And every few years the Congress gives them more money to work on it.”
Steve nodded. “So, how’s the project been doing lately?” he asked.
“Not so well,” she said. “It’s supposed to be almost finished, but there’s been a lot of pressure ... for cutting budgets? And the Army Engineers don’t have enough money to finish the project. Last I heard, they had stopped most of the work on it. According to the newspapers, a lot of the dredging and construction people have lost their jobs.”
“What about property values on the river?,” Steve asked.
“They’ve been way down,” said Kathleen. “My uncle Bob had some land over there, and after he died Aunt Clara had to sell it for next to nothing.”
“That’s too bad,” Steve said. “She should have kept it. I have reason to believe the prices will go up soon.”