Lockneyites have chance to meet Samuel Fischer
 
By Richard Porter
Plainview Daily Herald - Plainview, Texas
 
A community meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Lockney Community Center, 502 S.E. Eighth, at which time the public will have an opportunity to meet Samuel Fischer, the man behind much of the controversy surrounding the purchase of a manufacturing building in Lockney.

Fischer, who has ties with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is the potential buyer of the former Tye Co. building located near the intersection of FM 378 and U.S. Highway 70.

According to Alice Gilroy, publisher of the Floyd County Hesperian-Beacon, Friday night’s meeting was set up at the request of Fischer, who in an interview with The Herald said he plans to establish a furniture business in the 175,000-square-foot building.

In a letter he faxed to The Herald, Fischer tells of how he decided to buy the building in Lockney, explaining that he first came through the High Plains in January as he traveled from North Carolina and became stranded in a winter storm in the Panhandle.

He began considering the region as a business location and looked into the purchase of property. Eventually, he wrote, he was contacted by a real estate agent in Lubbock about the possibility of purchasing the vacant Tye building.

The Lubbock real estate agent, Dwight Thomason with Rick Canup Realtors, confirmed Fischer has entered into contract for the purchase of the building and also provided "substantial earnest money."

In his letter, Fischer said he is aware of concerns in the community about his plans — which include an interest in a labor camp located on the east side of Floydada.

In an editorial in the Hesperian-Beacon, Gilroy spoke of Fischer’s alleged affiliation with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

In that editorial, Gilroy gave a brief history of the FLDS, including claims that it practices polygamy and that the leader of the group, Warren Jeffs, "was recently arrested in Las Vegas, Nev., on warrants out of Arizona and Utah on four total counts of rape of a child, stemming from his practice of arranging child marriages to older men."

In his letter, Fischer addressed the publicity his interest in the Tye building has generated.

"If the people of this community are interested in having my business locate here for the benefit of themselves as well as myself, I would like to know. There has been plenty of negative publicity regarding my beliefs which I would hope the honest in heart can see through. America was built on the premise that we give each other the freedom of thought, religion and the pursuit of happiness that doesn’t infringe on others. I feel that tolerance for others’ way of thinking, that may differ from our own, is what constitutes a peaceful society. . . ."

"I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you at 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 11 at the Lockney Community Center as a time to make your acquaintance and also take job applications for those interested in working at the new plant if this is what you are interested in."

Fischer went on to say that establishing the business will be a challenge for him and his "large" family.

"Yes, I have a large family," he wrote. "I have 24 children of which 13 are my own and I have adopted 11, although I don’t distinguish between the two."

Also, he explained that his interest in the labor camp was to use it to provide housing for his employees.

However, according to Sudy Cochran, executive director of the Housing Authority of Floydada, the labor camp is under the control of the United States Department of Agriculture.

She said the camp, which has been closed for three years, is not for sale and the authority plans to renovate and reopen it. People wishing to live in the camp once that is accomplished would have to meet specific USDA criteria.

Finally, Fischer — who stated he was introduced to the cabinet trade as a high school student in Salt Lake City — addressed the issue of providing jobs for local residents.

"Yes, we certainly are going to hire local people in our business," he wrote.

(Contact Richard Porter at 806-296-1352 or porter@plainviewdailyherald.com)
 
MyPlainview.com
Originally published May 9, 2007
 
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