Members of the Freemanville Water Board will be playing the waiting game for the next few weeks after deputies with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department and agents with the FBI seized records and computers from their office on Alabama 21 Friday morning at approximately 8:45, according to members of the water board.

Vice Chairman Jethro Dailey and Chairman Edward Adams were on hand in the hours following the raid and said law enforcement officials are likely looking for evidence of misallocated funds.

“There is a group that has said they’re not satisfied with how things are going,” Dailey said. “They are saying there has been some misplaced money.”
So far as I know, they won’t find anything,” Adams said.

According to the Freemanville Water Department Office Manager Roxanne Shows, sheriff’s deputies confiscated records dating back two years, as well as office computers. Deputies told office workers the records and computers would possibly be returned in as little as two weeks, depending on what is needed by the FBI agents assisting in the investigation.

The water board recently held a meeting where they voted unanimously not to merge with any other existing utility. In the past the board has resisted offers from both the City of Atmore and the Poach Band of Creek Indians to purchase Freemanville Water.

The office will continue to take payments following the raid, but officials are asking customers to bring their billing cards into the office.

As of press time, officials with the Escambia County Sheriff’s Department were not available for comment on the matter.