Wells Fargo Sage Coach History

Wells Fargo ready to convert local Wachovia branches

`" Title="The Wells Fargo sign was installed this week at the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Norfolk. The bank will complete its conversion of Virginia Wachovia branches today. <span class='credit'>(Bill Tiernan | The Virginian-Pilot)</span>" style="color: #009DDD;" id="more_photos" >View full-size photo | Buy Pilot photos

Wachovia's blue-and-green signs and wave-like logo will make way this evening for Wells Fargo's red-and-gold stage coach.

Two and a half years after buying Wachovia Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. is converting the computer systems and procedures at Wachovia branches throughout Virginia.

Wells Fargo has been preparing for the conversion in Virginia for more than a year with such steps as installing new branch fixtures and more advanced ATMs.

"This is the best thought-out conversion I've been through," Janice Toben, a Wachovia veteran who became Wells Fargo's community bank president for eastern Virginia, said Thursday. "I can speak from experience. This is my ninth merger."

Toben will spend part of today meeting with dozens of veteran Wells Fargo employees from other states who are helping with the conversion in South Hampton Roads. "I'll also be visiting as many stores as I can to talk with customers," she said.

How smoothly Wells Fargo carries off the conversion could make a difference in how many Wachovia customers it keeps. That could pay off in its deposit-gathering. In mid-2010, Charlotte-based Wachovia held more than $4 billion of Hampton Roads' bank deposits, according to the latest figures available from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. At 20 percent, it was the largest share of deposits among banks doing business in the region.

Kenneth Hilton, a Virginia Beach businessman and Wachovia customer, said he had no qualms about the conversion because Wells Fargo is a well-established name. Still, he figured the slow, deliberate process of consolidation will pay off by easing any uncertainties.

The "People's Sherriff" to ride horseback through Kensington ...

Cheri will be riding a horse through Kensington to promote her campaign. We have some new green Cheri Honkala for Sheriff t-shirts and we want to a lot of people wearing them. Please come and let others know too. It's going to be a blast.

We're also still looking for someone with a pickup truck if anyone has any leads. August 27 at 11am. The campaign will be playing songs from Artists supporting her including political hip hop group Rebel Diaz, Yeye Organic Pop and more to promote the Cheri for Sheriff Party / Fund-raiser scheduled for September 14 at the Palladium. The candidate will be giving a press conference and taking questions from the press at the end of her ride.

Scenes From the Old West, Future Sheriff Cheri Honkala rides horseback thru Kensington

Monday August 29 11AM sharp on Kennington Ave near Allegheny People’s Sheriff want-to-be Cheri Honkala is graduating from helping evicted families occupying abandoned buildings, and stopping Sheriff Sales of family occupied homes, to running on the Green Party ticket to be the future Sheriff. Honkala tea-shirts and Honkala for sheriff buttons and sheriff badges will be prevalent, http://motherjones.com/politics/1995/03/april-hellraiser-cheri-honkala

Ironically Wells Fargo when it took over Fidelity Bank corralled Mayor Nutter to ride on an old fashioned stage coach through center city.

Actually the history that is being repeated is much more substanatial. During the first depression people like Chreri Honkala blocked the sheriff from evicting families, and in the end states actually passed anti-eviction laws. This local activity enabled Roosevelt to have the ability to end the depression.

People cry for a strong willed Democrat or third partyer to take over from Obama to really fight the depression, but it will never happen unless there are successful local efforts across the country to build on.

Without the local worker and unemployed solidarity efforts during the first depression, blacks, whites and Hispanics would have been killing each other like was in South Africa and Israel-Palestine.