Town to form task force on ‘drug houses’
Nashville and county leaders are starting a new task force that will focus on using existing laws to push out “drug houses.”
Nashville Town Attorney James T. Roberts introduced the concept toward the end of the Aug. 16 town council meeting.
The idea came from former town manager/economic development director Scott Rudd, a Nashville resident, who, “from some very personal experiences, realized there is a need in this community to be vigilant regarding rental properties and residential properties that become drug houses,” Roberts said.
The new Collaborative Action Response and Enforcement Task Force force likely will include representatives from town and county police agencies, the prosecutor’s office and town council.
The idea is to use administrative law and the town’s nuisance ordinances “to put pressure on those people who use Nashville as a place to distribute illegal substances,” Roberts said. He told the council he had begun reviewing the town’s ordinances and would distribute his notes to the council and look at what other communities were doing as well.
Currently, Nashville’s nuisance ordinances specifically address the collection of “offal (entrails), filth or noisome (smelly) substances”; buildings that are in dangerous disrepair; overgrown properties; noise; and the spraying of “agents which might cause toxic or allergic reactions among neighboring residents.”
State administrative code also has sections dealing with health nuisances, public nuisances and property nuisances.
“I want to give credit to Scott; this was his initiative based on things that he has perceived in the area. It’s a very worthwhile project,” Roberts said.
Town council contributes to Playhouse fundraising
The Nashville Town Council is kicking in $2,500 to help the Brown County Playhouse meet its annual fundraising goal.
The money will come from economic development funds, said Nashville Clerk/Treasurer Brenda Young.
Bob Kirlin, president of the Playhouse board and former president of the town council, asked the council earlier this summer for help. The Playhouse needs to raise about half its funding from donations, and it had only raised about 13 percent in 2017.
The council unanimously approved the request on town council President “Buzz” King’s motion. He added that the Playhouse does fall under the category of economic development because of guests staying before and after the show to do business with other merchants.
Quafftoberfest to remain at downtown Big Woods
Big Woods Village downtown will continue to host its Quafftoberfest “rally in the alley” this fall despite a suggestion from a neighbor to move it to property on the edge of town.
The Nashville Town Council unanimously approved the request from Big Woods to close Molly’s Lane on Saturday, Sept. 15.
Big Woods Neighbor Diane Davern sent an emailed objection to the council and asked that it be read aloud and discussed. She suggested that instead of the alley downtown, Big Woods “have their parties in their new location where there is plenty of room,” referring to the 300-plus-acre Hard Truth Hills site on Old State Road 46.
“I would hope that you would start to take this into consideration before you make your decision on these requests,” she wrote.
The employee from Big Woods companies who attended the town council meeting said that traditionally, these gatherings have been done downtown, and that not every tourist wants to venture two miles outside town to Hard Truth Hills, even though that doesn’t seem far to residents. It’s “physically doable” to host Quafftoberfest at the Hard Truth Hills site, but people are loyal to the downtown properties and feel of that event, and they’re “trying to be slightly different (from Hard Truth Hills) downtown,” she said.
The town council voted unanimously to grant the request to close the alley. It’s usually blocked off at 10 a.m., said Town Administrator Phyllis Carr. The event will run from 1:30 to 9 p.m.
“It’s a business district and they’re doing business,” said town council member Arthur Omberg.
Brozinni’s: Riverfront liquor license spurred growth
Brozinni’s Pizzeria has permission to serve alcohol with its food for another year.
The Nashville Redevelopment Commission unanimously approved the restaurant’s riverfront district liquor license renewal on Aug. 14 and the Nashville Town Council affirmed it the same week.
Beer and wine sales don’t make up a large part of the restaurant’s business — only 4 percent — but having them as options definitely makes a difference, owner Ryan Seward told the Nashville Redevelopment Commission.
Before Brozinni’s had a riverfront license, “we had plenty of those days where you’d get a group of around six to seven people and one of the first things they do is ask, ‘Do you sell beers?'” he said. “… We’d have to tell them, ‘We don’t have a liquor license.’ … It pains you to see them walk out the door and they’ll go to another place that does serve it.”
Comparing the first half of 2017 to the first half of 2018, the restaurant grew its sales by about $24,000 after getting the liquor license. It also added an average of two dining room and two kitchen jobs, Seward reported on his renewal application.
“It really is a great benefit to us,” he told the commission.
The restaurant doesn’t promote a “bar-like atmosphere” — it caters mostly to families — and it hasn’t had any problems with people needing to be cut off from their alcohol consumption, he said. Even though riverfront district liquor licenses are three-way licenses, allowing the sale of beer, wine and liquor, Brozinni’s does not serve hard liquor, he said. “It’s really been a zero-issue kind of thing. … It’s been sort of stress-free.”
Redevelopment commission President Dan Snow said Seward’s numbers show that “the program is doing what it’s intended to do, which is adding more sales, more employees. … I hope the community recognizes that this program of allowing riverfront licenses is producing results.”
Nashville police trading vehicles with Martinsville
The Nashville Police Department has worked out a trade with the Martinsville Police Department to get different police vehicles than the trucks they used to use.
Earlier this month, the town council gave Chief Ben Seastrom permission to trade one police pickup truck to Martinsville in exchange for three, completely equipped “pool cars” with the same sticker pattern Nashville is using now.
“It’s a very good deal for the department,” Seastrom said. “It adds a replacement vehicle plus two more. … I could have used one today.”
The truck was valued at $12,000 to $16,000 because of a minor accident, Seastrom said. The other cars are worth more than that because of the equipment, he said. All of them have about 70,000 miles on them; the truck had about 34,000 miles, he said.
The town bought several brand-new cars for the Nashville Police Department last year, but there weren’t enough to go around for all officers.
Town won’t pay to cut tree on private property
The Nashville Town Council decided against paying to cut down a tree on private property, though the owner believed the town hurt the tree years ago while installing storm sewers.
Property owner Jeff Tatum at Franklin and Jefferson streets petitioned the council in August to pay to cut down the tree after it dropped a limb on a car.
Nashville Tree Board President Bruce Gould said that the property owners had called attention to this tree when the town was installing storm sewers in that area in 2010. They believed that when workers were trenching, they had damaged the tree roots. The owners wanted the silver maple to be taken down then, Gould remembered.
Gould told the council that the trenching work was about 10 feet from private property and that any roots hit were superficial. He advised the owners to “give it a little time and see what happens.” He said he noticed last year that there were some dead limbs on top, but it seemed to be part of the normal aging process for a tree. “I still wouldn’t recommend cutting the thing down,” he said. “There’s still a lot of good left on it.”
Town council member Jane Gore said that tree maintenance on private property is an owner’s responsibility. Town Attorney James T. Roberts said there’s no legal responsibility on the town to do anything as the statute of limitations would have been about two years. The vote was 0-5 against paying for the tree removal.
