City Tables Hotel/Motel Alcohol Sale Ordinance Proposal

By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor

The City of Trenton Board of Commissioners followed up on two main topics from last month at the June 9 meeting: the road acceptance ordinance and the hotel/motel alcohol sales proposal. The commission also discussed expanding training requirements for stores in the city that sell alcohol.

Monda Wooten (street commissioner) was absent from the meeting due to delayed travel, but the other three commissioners voted to move forward with the road acceptance ordinance. (Refer to the May 21 Sentinel for more details about this ordinance update.)

Second, all three chose to table the hotel/motel alcohol sales proposal, brought to the city by Ryan Faircloth. (Again, see the May 21 Sentinel.) Mike Norris (police commissioner) said that he didn’t think citizens are in favor of this. Lucretia Houts (fire and utility commissioner) and Terry Powell (parks/animal control commissioner) agreed, so the proposal was tabled.

Third, all three agreed to appoint Jennifer Taylor and Jon Wylie to the Downtown Development Authority (DDA). Alex Case (mayor) listed all three candidates that the DDA nominated (Taylor, Wylie, and Melissa Faircloth), but he noted the potential conflict of interest with having Faircloth and her husband, Ryan, on the same board.

Taylor attended her first DDA meeting (a short one) the next morning (June 10). The DDA is waiting to hear back from both banks about funding the façade grant, and Wooten has been tasked with approaching her fellow city commissioners about a $1,000/year grant to be used for marketing, flyers, communication, etc.

Wesley Bethune (DDA chairman) said he would also attend the next city meeting to make the request. He said, “As we grow and we’re seeing tax dollars raised from the DDA’s work, we can seek more funding.”

Of rural development grants which are contingent upon receiving a rural zone designation (see the May 21 Sentinel), Case encouraged the DDA to hold off on applying because he doesn’t feel that Trenton is ready yet to pursue and receive this designation. Bethune and Larry Moore (DDA member) agreed.

The problem is, Georgia might be discontinuing the program. Sandy White (Alliance for Dade president and CEO) is communicating with the state to find out more about the future of the program.

Back to the city commission meeting: Norris read the police report. In May, the Trenton Police Department answered 176 calls for service, conducted 968 business checks, answered 17 suspicious activity and five animal complaint calls, and worked 19 traffic crashes without injuries and four crashes with injuries. From 58 traffic stops, 61 citations were issued.

Steve Beaudoin (Trenton Police Department police chief) was unable to attend the meeting, but he asked Norris to talk with the commission about adjusting the alcohol ordinances so that all employees who sell alcohol must complete training—not just the managers. Norris said that since the city recently purchased a new ID/badge machine, trained employees should receive a city-issued ID which they must wear when working.

He added that a vape shop (presumably The Vapory) has been caught twice selling to customers under 21-years-old. Norris said, “Both times, she acted kind of like, ‘Well, I’ll just pay the fine and go on.’” He suggested establishing harsher punishments for repeat violations.

Case said the city can look at examples from other towns to begin the process of refining and adjusting the ordinances. He seemed in favor of the police department’s suggested revisions, but the other commissioners did not comment.

The commission will meet as the city beer board an hour before next month’s regular meeting to review recent violations.

Also bringing up another topic, Norris said, “I’ve had some people ask me to come up with some place in the city where they can put in a small restaurant, a meat-and-three type place.” He said the interested party runs a restaurant in another state but would like to come to Trenton.

As Norris began looking for properties or available buildings, he found that nothing affordable is up to code. The only options would require a significant financial investment. Case said that other restaurants have approached the city but have also run into this problem.

Powell reported that the city completed eight animal control work orders in May, and as of June 2, no animals were housed at the city shelter.

Houts reported that the Trenton Fire Department answered 108 calls in May, ten of which were fire related and 60 of which were canceled en route.

She added that eight property maintenance letters were sent out last month. Case explained that these letters notify property owners that they must clean up their property when they haven’t complied after in-person conversations. Houts said, “If you send out eight letters, you might get one person to work on [his/her property].”

Jane Dixon and Bobby Dunn returned to give an update on the Tree City USA topics they discussed last month. Dixon showed the commission the markers that will be placed in the ground in front of Tree City trees, and she thanked Wooten and the street department for quickly getting the new Tree City road signs up.

Per last month’s discussion, Dunn provided an updated list of recommended native trees and noted that Tree City chose the Southern magnolia to replace the Bradford pear as the official tree of Trenton.