Ex Arcade mayor pleads guilty to threat charges

MONROE - Former Arcade Mayor Joe Sikes has pleaded guilty to charges he threatened city leaders after they pulled his business license following a fatal explosion at his oil recycling business in 2005.

Alcovy Judicial Circuit Judge John Ott agreed Wednesday to a negotiated sentence of six months of probation and a $500 fine on six misdemeanor charges of making harassing telephone calls.

The controversy over Joe Sikes Oil Service Inc., a petroleum recycling business, erupted June 19, 2005, when a tanker truck exploded at the U.S. Highway 129 processing plant. The blast killed an employee, 42-year-old Scott Dwayne Brown, who was loading liquid into the truck.

State Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John Oxendine found that a spark of undetermined origin ignited a mixture of oil and either gasoline or diesel fuel, causing the explosion.