Mary Likins of Northampton stands beside a poster Wednesday at her home that lists the 10 most wanted by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue for failure to pay child support which shows Gilbert Allen Smith, her son's father, in the second row.">
By Owen Boss
Staff Writer
NORTHAMPTON - The long-absent father of a local teen was ranked seventh on the Department of Revenue's top 10 most wanted list Wednesday, for owing more than $40,000 in court-ordered child support.
As the department's latest list was unveiled at a press conference in Boston, city resident and single mother of two Mary A. Likins, 43, spoke about her struggle to support her family on her own.
"Child support is not about having extra money to buy a new couch, it is about a child not having an enhanced and enriched life," Likins said. "It is about the absent parent being in debt to the child."
According to the department, the father of one of Likins' two sons, Gilbert Allen Smith, agreed in 1994 to pay $80 a week to support his now 15-year-old son, Dominik A. Likins. He currently owes her $41,800 in delinquent child support.
"The money he owes us has been piling up for practically Dominik's entire life," said Likins. "When he did make payments, he did so sporadically and inconsistently, and that was only over the course of a couple of years."
Without support from Smith, whom she never married, Likins said she was forced to rely on government aid to raise Dominik and her adult son, J.D., and although she is owed a large sum of money, Likins said she wants people to know that she hasn't just sat around waiting for it to come in.
"I think it is very important that people realize that I have remained very active and I have done everything I can for my family," she said. "We have relied on Section 8, welfare, MassHealth, food stamps, fuel assistance, the Salvation Army, church discretionary funds, strangers, friends, and most importantly, my church family."
Likins, who works for a local mental health outreach program, said she has had to make considerable sacrifices in order to juggle raising her two sons and furthering her education. While raising Dominik and J.D., Likins graduating with honors from Cape Cod Community College with a degree in comparative literature and later enlisted in the Commonwealth College at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and graduated summa cum laude with a degree in legal studies.
"Hope is in the belief that good things will happen. My hope today is that Gil will be found, that we can be paid our child support arrearage and that the state can be paid back," she said.
"Gil has not paid child support on a regular basis, which has made existing, much less living, more than difficult."
Fathers facing prison
Smith, 43, is wanted on charges of willfully failing to pay child support and leaving the state without making provisions to pay child support, Likins said and she believes he is hiding out somewhere in North Carolina.
A construction worker from Plymouth, Christopher John Lagos, topped the new list by owing more than $196,000 in child support payments for his two children.
The 10 individuals featured on the new poster owe a combined $733,481 in unpaid child support for 19 children.
Each faces criminal charges with sentences up to 10 years in prison and fines of $10,000.
The previous list, released in September 2007, resulted in the location of seven delinquent parents and the collection of $123,000.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.
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