FOLEY - The Foley council voted to revoke the business license for International Construction Enterprises, Inc., or ICE Restoration. The decision was made due to charges business owners Jessica Wilkerson and Ronald Massengale are facing in Mobile County. Charges include insurance fraud and financial elder abuse. Currently no charges have been made in Baldwin County. The investigation is ongoing.

Wilkerson and Massengale allegedly submitted a claim with a 92-year-old homeowner’s forged signature to Cincinnati Financial Insurance. The claim said $40,000 of roofing work had been performed by ICE Restoration. Their indictment says Massengale and Wilkerson financially exploited the elderly homeowner in excess of $2,500. Further, the Alabama Homeowners Licensing Board suspended their roofing certifications in February. The suspension will remain in effect through June 11, dependent upon the outcome of the investigation.

Employees of ICE Restoration attended the public hearing held on Monday, March 1 to speak in support of Massengale and Wilkerson. Massengale says the charges are false, and his and Wilkerson’s innocence will be brought to light.

“Our attorneys are working on depositions, trying to get to the bottom of what’s there,” he said. “…We’re dealing with the attorney who’s interviewing people, we are working trying to get to the bottom of the accusations and the source of them and where they’re coming from.”

The company is unable to perform any roofing work with its license suspended by the state. Massengale said the team is working on collecting deposits instead. He said the deposits need to be refunded to the customers who paid them so they can move forward with hiring a new roofing company to perform work.

“The position that city staff is taking is if we issued a permit, we were allowing [ICE Restoration] to move forward with those projects,” said City Administrator Mike Thompson. “Any building permits that were applied for after our notification of the arrests we have just held, we have not issued it to them. We’re waiting to see what the outcome of this public hearing is.”

With a revoked business license, the waiting permits can be denied. This allows those citizens to seek another roofing company.

“It’s tough on the group that works there, but under the conditions we don’t have much choice,” said Council President Wayne Trawick. “If they don’t have a state license, they cannot operate. Although we feel bad for them, I don’t see how we can reaffirm this under the current issue … We tried to figure out how they could finish the projects that were in midstream and not issue new permits, but under the law they cannot even do that with their state license revoked.”

“If they end up being cleared of all these allegations, there’s nothing to prevent them from coming back and reapplying for a new business license,” Mayor Pro-Tem Charlie Ebert added.