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North St. Louis Business Loses $1.4 Million in Battle With Mexico | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

2 years ago

June 5, 2023

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click to enlarge Monica Obradovic Bill Hibdon founded Hibdon Hardwood 45 years ago.

As a teen, Bill Hibdon shoveled sawdust at his grandfather’s mill nearly 70 years ago. The experience left a mark, and he’d later start his own wood import business that he’d run for decades. But now, after 45 years in business, Hibdon is considering leaving the industry — and not by his own choice.

Hibdon says he’s been forced to consider ceasing operations at Hibdon Hardwood after two years of conflict with the Mexican government.

Hibdon Hardwood imports exotic woods from Mexico and Central America to north St. Louis. There, the wood is processed into parts for musical instruments. Most of Hibdon’s buyers, including C.S. Martin, Collings and Santa Cruz Guitars, use the parts to manufacture acoustic guitars.

For 25 years, Hibdon says his business has invested time and money in Mexico with no issues. The business has shipped more than 100 containers of wood, all properly documented and sourced from a sustained-yield in the Maya Forest, and never had any problems, according to Hibdon. That changed on June 9, 2021, when a container of wood valued at $83,000 was seized for seemingly no reason.

Hibdon says an unknown caller solicited a bribe of $30,000 in return for the containers, but he refused to pay. (Hibdon asked the RFT to leave out the name of the entity the solicitor belongs to in order to protect his supplier in Mexico.)

“He didn’t give his name, but he said ‘$30,000 will solve your problem,’” Hibdon says. “We reported this to the commerce department, and everybody else in the government that we spoke to.”

Two years later, the container of wood is still in Mexico’s custody, Hibdon says, as is a second container valued at $140,000 that was also later seized. Mexican state authorities told Hibdon they would not seize the second container, but federal authorities overruled this decision, and the container remains stuck at a port in Progreso in the Yucatán, according to emails between Hibdon and a trade specialist with the International Trade Administration.

Hibdon says federal officials in Mexico made several complaints about the containers, specifically about a form they said was completed incorrectly, which Hibdon denies.

“They were just drumming up excuses,” Hibdon says. “Nothing with any merit.”

The past few years have been full of stress for Hibdon and his wife, Nancy Fox, who’s a corporate secretary and part-owner of Hibdon Hardwood. They’ve sought help from the Department of State, the Department of Commerce, the Mexican Embassy and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, all to no avail, Hibdon says.

click to enlarge Monica Obradovic From left, Nancy Fox and Bill Hibdon.

At one point, an International Trade Administration representative in St. Louis told Hibdon to hire an attorney in Mexico. So he did and filed a lawsuit. He won last July. Still, the containers were never released by la Fiscalía General de la República or Mexico’s attorney general.

“Really, they’ve destroyed our business,” Hibdon says.

Hibdon Hardwood wasn’t the only business ruined from the issue in Mexico.

Around 2015, Hibdon had a hard time finding staff in St. Louis. He had developed a good relationship with his supplier in Mexico, Elmer Vasquez, and decided to finance a sawmill for Vasquez to run in X-Hazil, Mexico. Hibdon and Fox say they lent Vasquez $400,000 to run the sawmill, and they spent five months a year between 2015 and 2021 in Mexico training people.

Vasquez had to close his sawmill as the battle for the shipping containers dragged on. The sawmill employed eight young men, most with families. Vasquez still owed Hibdon $275,000.

“We advanced them money to acquire wood shipments as long as we could, but we had to stop because they couldn’t ship anything,” Hibdon says.

Hibdon Hardwood in St. Louis currently employs four full-time and two part-time employees. They’re spending their last few months in business selling off inventory and machinery.

Eventually, Hibdon had to start letting go of the business that he’s run for 45 years. All together, the financial loss from the seized containers amounted to over $1.4 million. It was too much to recover from.

“We still hope that it’ll be released, that we’ll get a phone call that it’ll be out on the next vessel,” Fox says. “At some point, you realize that may not happen.”

Hibdon and Fox say they’re negotiating with Guatemala to make instrument parts there so the business can carry on for their employees, customers and suppliers. But in whatever way Hibdon Hardwood continues, it will be without Hibdon and Fox.

“We’re not really sure what our plans will be,” Hibdon says. “We may find a way to stay in the industry in some way.”

“But currently, we are basically just in limbo waiting,” Fox adds. “We don’t know if the wait will be fruitful or depressing.”

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

1 year ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

1 year ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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