Thurs. Nov 1st is the mediation hearing between Venturi and the City.  The case title is Mack Dobbs Properties, LLC vs. The City of Kennesaw, Georgia.  The cost for arbitration is $300 an hour, but the City has insurance and after the deductable of $1,000 is paid the lawyer fee, court costs and arbitration is covered.  So we are not out all that much for this useless BS of Venturi and Sams.

It isn't open to the public but any resulting settlement will be published on the Cobb Court web site and if no agreement can be reached it will then go back before a judge for a trial.

If you want to keep up on this yourself you can go to:  http://www.cobbsuperiorcourtclerk.org/courts/default.htm and click on for 'Civil Search' then enter Kennesaw and after that choose which item you want to look at.  Or you can just come back here and I will have the info posted FYI.

Still Open - No Business

The truck is John's and the car is Serena's, still no customers.  I have never seen any business at this shop.

Place of Mediation changed

Click on for larger image then open in new window

Shop remains open but has no customers.

Pawn Shop Closed

At 2 PM on a business day the Pawn Shop is closed. For Good or a long lunch?

The Mack Dobbs v City Of Kennesaw is going to a mediation conference 11/1/12. 

The City is insured under Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) and we have a $1,000 deductible. That deductible has been paid and the GMA appoints the legal firm to represent the City.  There should be no other cost to the City except the deductable.

Business x 3

Is a business that does no business still a business?

Since opening I have looked in 4 times and there has never been any customer vehicles present. In the below photos the truck is his and the car is his wife's.

You might just wonder how they stay open, particularly as they close Sunday and Monday.

FYI:  Other interesting Kennesaw items are available at:  http://kennesawupdate.blogspot.com/

Alternative Dispute Resolution or Mediation

Notice of ADR Referral

The case has been referred to the ADR Program of the Cobb County Superior Court and the parties have been given the opportunity to select either:  Case Evaluation or Mediation and they have until Sept 4 to select their preferred ADR process.

Closed Sunday and Monday

 

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From:  8/8/12

 

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From:  7/30/12

It isn't quite the 'final chapter' of the Cruchelow Pawn Shop as we still have a lingering suit against the City by the property owner Venturi, but at least the last mention of the Pawn Shop is gone with the removal of the sign over those 2 units. 


The Pawn Shop is now in Marietta and hopefully the next tenant of the strip mall with be something that is not in violation of the zoning conditions.

Not Open Yet

Plaintiff Requests Discovery/Interrogatories

Defendant's Answer and Defenses

The City of Kennesaw has submitted its response to the Civil Suit filed by Venturi. The submission runs 24 pages and provides 20 defenses. Below are the first five pages, showing 17 of those defenses.

Of particular interest is #13, reading in part: 
Plaintiff proposed, agreed to, and then knowingly violated the very zoning condition that it sought to have lifted in its 2012 Application and that it continues to complain about in the instant action."  I believe that is legal jargon for what us common folks would translate as "Venturi whines a lot".  

Clearly Venturi has wasted his money with the Sams filing and the City is asking the Court to make him pay for our costs as well.

The remainder of the document can be found at:  http://www.cobbsuperiorcourtclerk.org/courts/docAltiffFS.asp?tiffFile=T4225694&pagesFile=24&currPage=1&cfn=20120119176   

For larger image right click then 'open in new window'

Ready for new tenants-

With Cruchelow Jewelry and Loan now moved to Marietta the double wide store front in the Venturi mall has been cleaned out, the old rugs and display cases are gone, the name and hours removed from the windows. The large sign over the store remains for now.

After leaving Kennesaw, pawnshop to opens anew

After leaving Kennesaw, pawnshop to opens anew

by Rachel Cooper
rcooper@mdjonline.com The Marietta Daily Journal

July 11, 2012 01:02 AM |

MARIETTA — Cruchelow Jewelry and Loan, the pawn shop forced out of a Kennesaw shopping center in recent weeks, apparently plans to set up shop in Marietta.

Marietta granted a business license effective July 1 for the store at 1245 Bellemeade Drive, in the Bellemeade Shopping Center, near Powder Springs Street.

When a reporter visited the address on Tuesday, there was no sign the store opened yet. A woman who answered the business’s telephone number declined to comment, saying she was tired of the media attention. A telephone call to their lawyer was not returned.

John and Serena Cruchelow originally opened their store in Kennesaw on Cobb Parkway, in the Mack Dobbs Point strip mall. That store opened on Dec. 28, 2011, and closed in late June.

In what the City of Kennesaw admits was an oversight, the city

granted a business license to the store, despite zoning restrictions put in place in 2004 that prohibited pawn shops and certain other kinds of businesses from opening in that particular mall. Celestino Venturi, who originally developed the mall, still owns it.

In February, Bill Harris, a resident of nearby Summer Stream neighborhood in Kennesaw, noticed small yard signs for the pawn shop and soon he and other neighbors began petitioning the city council to close the shop.

After Kennesaw’s City Council in May rejected a variance request that would allow the pawn shop to stay open, Venturi filed an appeal in Cobb Superior Court on June 15, arguing in part that his constitutional rights have been violated and seeking damages. As of late Tuesday, the city had not filed its response in the case.

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See additional photos at:  http://johncruchelow.blogspot.com/2012/07/blog-post.html
The new location is undergoing renovations and is not currently open for business.  It is located behind the Bellemeade Shopping Center, directly behind the Dollar General Store.  It is in a very downmarket neighborhood.