Athens motel shut down after 15th meth bust in four years | wbir.com

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Athens motel shut down after 15th meth bust in four years

8:13 PM, Mar 25, 2010   |    comments

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Brittany Bailey

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An Athens motel is shut down after its 3rd meth bust in a month, the 15th in the past four years. 

On Tuesday afternoon, the 10th Judicial District Drug Task discovered evidence of meth use and meth-making in three separate rooms at America's Best Value Inn in Athens.

Authorities arrested 64-year-old Lonnie Lawrence, an employee at the hotel.

They say he was making meth in one room, smoking it in another, and then allowing another person to use a third room to make meth, too.

"It just took us by surprise, I mean, complete surprise," said Jessica Haynes, regional manager for the hotel, which has changed names and ownership over the years. "You hear about it in bigger cities, but nothing this close to home, and then, especially at a location that you're at every day and then have no clue that this is what's going on."

Haynes says Lawrence had been keeping one of those rooms closed, preventing it from being rented out, by saying it had continuing maintenance problems.

The motel's owner had been spending time outside of the country.

Around half of the hotel's 40 rooms were occupied at the time of the bust. Authorities evacuated them and then shut down the entire motel.

"I'm not going to let my child stay in a hotel where a meth lab has been found and has not been properly cleaned up, and I wouldn't expect anybody else to let their children or let themselves stay," Drug Task Force Director Mike Hall said. "It's an issue of public health."

The motel's owner must now have the entire hotel cleaned by a certified company before it can re-open. But managers say, despite the cost, they hope that will happen very quickly.

"He is losing over $1,000 a day just in room revenue, not counting what it's going to cost to come in, they had it tested yesterday, and it's $100 a room to have it tested, and then, from there, we don't have a clue what it's going to cost us to go in and actually clean those rooms," Haynes said.

Hall says it is becoming more and more common for meth-makers to rent out motel rooms, especially when they can be accessed from the outside.

"It's now a lot easier than it used to be," Hall said. "Everything fits in a small purse. All you need is one bottle, a pack of batteries and some pseudoephedrine and a few more chemicals, and you're cooking methamphetamine."

If you're a hotel owner and want to check on guests, you can search the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's Meth Offender Registry.

If you're a guest who's concerned about staying at a certain Tennessee hotel or motel, you can search for any past meth busts there in the state's database.