Woman urges united Fouke against Alamo Ministries

FOUKE, Ark.—Sherry Potts is urging Fouke residents and property owners in the town to become united against the Tony Alamo Ministries.

“People, I care about you. United we stand and divided we fall. That’s what (Tony) Alamo does. He divides and then conquerors,” Potts said during a Fouke Board of Directors meeting Thursday night. About 60 people were in attendance.

As Potts ended her speech, the majority of the audience applauded and gave her a standing ovation.

Potts requested to be on the agenda to respond to statements made by Buster White and Donald Sweat during the October board meeting. White and Sweat represented Tony Alamo Ministries.

Potts defended Fouke citizens who had been attacked by Alamo through messages reportedly broadcast on his radio ministries program.

The ministry also hired a security company to restrict the public from traveling on two Fouke streets that access the ministries headquarters. The properties along the streets are owned by members of the ministries and not Tony Alamo.

After complaints from residents, Fouke City Attorney Rod LaGrone tested a guard by driving on the street about two months ago. The attorney was also stopped by a guard and LaGrone informed the guard he could not stop vehicles from traveling on public streets.

During her 20-minute speech Thursday night, Potts said, “Mr. (Buster) White said everyone was welcome to his church (Tony Alamo Ministries). So why the no trespassing signs, the cameras and the guards?”

Potts said on May 13, 1999, “Alamo’s people” presented four proposals to the council to build a 60-unit motel, a truck stop, 20 three-bedroom homes and 10 two-bedroom units; eight bungalows, a retail variety store and 10 to 20 townhouses or apartments.

“They are buying every piece of property they can get their hands on and of course, Alamo has nothing in his own name,” said Potts. “They will take over Fouke by getting their followers on the city council. One will be on there soon.

“They are buying every piece of property they can get their hands on and of course, Alamo has nothing in his own name,” said Potts. “They will take over Fouke by getting their followers on the city council. One will be on there soon.

“They will get them on the school board and eventually have their own mayor, like they did in Dyer, Ark. Alamo had people come in from Alma, Ark., and register at a post office box so they could vote and they elected their own mayor,” she said.

Potts referred to a reported broadcast on Alamo’s radio program verbally attacking Rodger Mixon, a member of Fouke’s board of directors and minister of the Fouke First Pentecostal Church. The broadcast is available by a compact disc.

“He (Alamo) called Brother Mixon a small spoke in the wheel of the Vatican, a blind leader leading the people in a ditch, making fun of his name, called him an imp, a weasel and a Nazi,” said Potts. “Alamo said he was coming against Rodger Mixon because he put out literature against him. … Brother Mixon did not put the information out on Alamo. He had nothing to do with it. Alamo called Brother Mixon a liar.”

During the recent campaign for mayor and the board of directors, Potts said literature had been circulated in the town and over the Internet about the “troublemaker,” a reference to her, Mixon and others.

The information has contained Social Security numbers, addresses, annual incomes and phone numbers, according to copies obtained by the Gazette.

“They will stop at nothing. They even went so low as to put out the information about my youngest son being killed in an automobile accident in July 2005,” Potts said. “What purpose did that serve?”

Potts said the Tony Alamo Ministries are not good neighbors in Fouke.

No one spoke on behalf of the Tony Alamo Ministries.

“On the Internet they put the year, make, model and license number of my car. They tried to intimidate all of us. Now I ask you all, does that sound like they want to be good neighbors?” asked Potts.

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