Barrow saddened by local bank’s demise

Chartered in 1926, The Peoples Bank has been around longer than most local businesses.

“This bank has been in our family’s life for many, many, many years,” said Gwen Hill of Hill’s Ace Hardware. “And the bank has just done so much for this community. They (Maddox family) are a fine family and I hate to have this happen to them through no fault of their own. It just breaks our hearts.”

While some bankers are out only for personal gain, Peoples president and CEO Chris Maddox, was not that way, Hill said.

“Peoples Bank added so much to this community,” she said. “Over so many years, they helped so many people. It’s been a very good relationship with the community and it’s just a tragedy to see how this is happening.”

Winder’s mayor noted that Chris Maddox was the only landowner with property adjacent to the ongoing intersection improvement at Athens Street, Horton Street and McNeil Road to donate to the city government his portion of the required right of way.

“That’s the kind of people he and his family have been,” Thompson said. “They have been very conscious of the community and the work being done, and they have been a big part of it. They’ve done an outstanding job with it.”

W.T. Dunahoo, owner of Dunahoo and Associates in Winder, said the community would greatly miss the bank.

“They were what you would call a true community bank. They were part of everything that went on in the community, and we’ll miss them dearly,” he said.

As a premier lender to the local business community, The Peoples Bank often made loans to churches, to builders, developers and some businesses that probably could not have raised revenue otherwise.

“I guess that’s what ultimately took them under,” Dunahoo said. “They were just trying to serve the community.”


WELCOME EXTENDED
One of the groups most impacted by the failure of the bank is the Barrow County Chamber of Commerce.

“The chamber truly is going to miss The Peoples Bank and sincerely appreciates every corporate and commercial and community assistance the people there gave the Barrow County chamber,” said Danny Rampey, chairman of the board of the Barrow County Chamber of Commerce. We have thoroughly enjoyed the chamber’s relationship with Peoples Bank, and they’ve been absolutely one of the best corporate and business members that we could have asked for. With what they have meant to the chamber, and not just to the chamber but to the community, it’s going to be tough.”

Tommy Jennings, the chamber’s president, acknowledged that even though the bank’s failure was not unexpected, when an event of this magnitude happens, “the entire community is in shock.”

Jennings added: “We feel the pain of not only the Maddoxes, but the entire Peoples Bank family.”

On the other hand, he said, he believes Chris Maddox and his management team are smart, strong people who will not only survive, but thrive, in the days ahead.

In the meantime, the chamber is welcoming the new bank that purchased Peoples’ assets.

“We’ve got to group together and work together and look at this as an opportunity to welcome the new people to the neighborhood,” Rampey said. “I feel like that is what they want. They want to come in and be welcomed and to start on a new foot, a new relationship, not just with the chamber but with all of the businesses in Barrow County.”

Akins said the business community hopes that the new bank’s management will sustain Peoples Bank’s foundation of serving the community.

“That is what you can hope for,” he said. “Time will tell. This community needs them to succeed.”