Mayor Mathews spoke at length about the problem and again admitted that it was the City which dropped the ball on approving the business license last September.
The meeting was specifically for area residents and no representative of Mr. Venturi, the property owner, appeared nor it seems were they invited. I did copy the Venturi lawyer Mr. Garvis Sams with information that the meeting was to be held so the owner and his lawyer would have been able to attend if they had wished to do so.When the Mayor asked if there was anyone in attendance who favored the shop being there no one spoke up in favor of it, however, later in the question/answer segment Nancy Johnson did speak in favor of the shop saying that she knew the shop owners and that $18,000 in improvements had been made and that it was not possible to simply up and move.
Other than these several comments the audience reaction was entirely negative.
A Violation hearing for the shop is now set for Mon 4/2/12, at 6:30 p.m., where the City Council has 3 options as outlined by the Mayor. 1) Do nothing, 2) Suspend the License or 3) Revoke the license. The outcome of this meeting 4/2 will be to select one of these options.Residents of Summer Stream and Summer Brooke spoke and a Summer Brooke representative said that they had a petition signed by 75 of 112 residents in that subdivision which asked that the Pawn Shop be removed from the strip mall
.
Mayor Mathews stated that the name violation alone was a serious matter in that the Pawn Shop seemed entirely in the wrong by having used the term Jewelry and Loan where the Georgia Code completely bars that 'Loan' usage for any Pawn Shops opened after 1992.
A comment from the floor asked about other Title Loan businesses who might be in similar violation and the Mayor said that this issue was also being looked into.
Representatives of Summer Stream and Summer Brook will be in attendance at the April 2nd meeting.
Representatives of Summer Stream and Summer Brook will be in attendance at the April 2nd meeting.
