Here’s an update from the City of Opelika regarding that alert they issued yesterday! And I had such a cool graphic of a call center guy with a long nose!
On Tuesday, June 24, 2015 the City of Opelika issued an urgent press release titled “Another Scam Circulating the Area”. The City issued this alert because several businesses had informed the City that they had received phone calls from a company with an Iowa phone number, looking to sell “their company’s name to go on a banner at the SportsPlex – or have their logos placed on towels at the SportsPlex.”
Because neither the City of Opelika Administration, nor the Director of Parks & Recreation had been given any information about this company or the project – and because there had been other “scams” involving city departments in the recent past few months the City of Opelika issued a SCAM ALERT throughout the area. The purpose of this alert was to notify the citizens / businesses about a project that had not been authorized by city management.
Unfortunately, the City of Opelika has discovered that an employee of the Parks and Recreation Department did have a conversation with a marketing company out of Iowa and did, in fact, authorize the hanging of a banner and placement of logos on towels to be distributed at the SportsPlex, with local businesses who wished to be affiliated with the SportsPlex. The employee did not follow policy and did not notify management about the existence of the agreement.
We apologize to the Iowa Company (563-424-XXXX) for having made inaccurate statements. This is a legitimate project taking shape at the Opelika SportsPlex and Aquatics Center. The City was remiss in not checking more carefully to ensure the accuracy of our information.
From the Archives — originally published on the Opelika Daily News on June 25, 2014. View the original page.
