MINGO JUNCTION — Tensions boiled over at Mingo Junction Village Council’s meeting Tuesday during discussions regarding rumors that involve a local business and the chief of police.
Joseph and Erika Hicks, owners of Kane’s Auto Deals across from the Municipal Building, spoke at the meeting to address a rumor that had spread through the town alleging the two were using their business to sell drugs.
Erika Hicks, whose husband is Black, said she contacted the Steubenville branch of the NAACP as an advocate to help them figure out what is going on. Police Chief Willie McKenzie has also helped them to navigate the situation, she said.
She said the rumor has kept resurfacing and that she has become aware that “it’s council members saying things and getting phone calls” about the rumor.
Councilwoman Pat Cramblett said, “I was the councilperson who received a call. I didn’t recognize the name. I got a call basically stating that he believed that there were drugs being sold out of the car dealership.”
Cramblett said that, prior to the phone call, she did not know that the car dealership existed, a reality which she apologized for. The dealership has been in business for four years, Erika Hicks said, at one point needing to be rezoned to do business.
Cramblett said she was called down by Mayor Ed Fithen to the Municipal Building to meet the Hickses because word was spreading that she was the one who started the rumor about them. Cramblett said she did not start the rumor because the...
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