Andy Griffith as Sheriff Andy Taylor
Mayberry was a small town, loosely based on Mount Airy, N.C., the hometown of actor Andy Griffith, who played the part of Sheriff Andy Taylor. Mayberry was a slow, sleepy town where city slickers came by occasionally and Andy or Deputy Barney Fife or some other innocent person smoked them out and the story usually ended on a good moral note.
But my goodness, if Sheriff Taylor was around today (Griffith died in 2012) he would be blushing at what has transpired in Mount Airy, N.C. this year. A city slicker has taken taxpayer dollars to bring jobs to Mount Airy, but it turns out he’s a convicted felon in the state of California. That’s bad enough, but after Todd Tucker, president of the County Economic Development Partnership, was told about this conviction for fraud, he is still standing by his man. Incredible. L.D. Hardas, President of Awesome Products, was convicted in California in September of underreporting his workers’’ compensation payroll by more than $8 million and sentenced to five years in jail, suspended if he paid a fine and unpaid premiums and completed 10 years of probation.
In February he was hailed as the savior of Mount Airy when he promised to create 140 jobs by opening a household chemical plant out of a former furniture facility. In exchange, he was eligible for $300,000 of state funds and at least $543,448 from Surry County taxpayers. What’s the lesson for Mayberry? It’s okay to cheat another state and their employees as long as you help Mount Airy get some jobs and bring some money to the county. Wonder what Aunt Bee and the boys at the barber shop would say about that.
