A local business owner has taken a Clarkesville councilman to task over what he considers inflammatory comments made about him at a public meeting earlier this week.
Clarkesville Councilman Brad Coppedge outed the owner of Rich and Savvy’s Cigar and Bourbon Lounge, Richard Avirett, during a discussion over parking at a work session Monday, Feb. 3.
Avirett is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in multiple combat zones through the 1990s.
Coppedge’s remarks, directed at the business owner, insinuated Avirett had single-handedly been resistant to the councilman’s test program for parking. And at the meeting, Coppedge implied Avirett was one of only two people who insisted on parking on the square despite the councilman’s test.
The test program, as designed by Coppedge, sought to create a “self-policed” experiment by requiring business owners and employees to park off the square to free up spaces. This program will now serve as a foundation for Coppedge’s proposed parking ordinance.
Coppedge, who believes parking will grow to become a greater dilemma as more businesses flock to Clarkesville, initially began the task of bringing solutions to the issue just last year.
He first met with Clarkesville Main Street Director Colby Moore, then a majority of local business owners on the square, before the test program was enacted. Coppedge has since called that program a success, vowing to draft an official ordinance to bring to council in the coming months.
In remarks to fellow council members Monday, Coppedge also called Avirett an “unreasonable” person as it relates to parking.
Avirett responds
When Now Habersham interviewed Coppedge and Avirett together outside Avirett’s business Wednesday, Feb. 5, Avirett immediately took issue with Coppedge’s insinuations.
Avirett noted that he often doesn’t arrive at his business until around 3 p.m. on most weekdays, sometimes staying until 2 a.m. Under Coppedge’s proposed ordinance, parking limits could range from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday. In his own words, Avirett said “reasonable is relative.”
“It’s untactful to name names of citizens when (parking) is a general problem,” Avirett said. “I can tell you four business owners who are parked out here right now, as we speak. Not a single other name was mentioned, but mine was, multiple times, in a negative sense.”
In response, Coppedge said his intentions were not to insult Avirett. Coppedge explained that he was only looking to provide accurate information to council, as he saw it.
“So, the only thing I responded to is what I’ve been tracking,” Coppedge said. “So, as I come through (the parking lots), I’m able to log – and take pictures – and I’ve talked to the police chief to see if anything has been called in by other retailers. And (Avirett) and (the upstairs tenant) just happened to be the two.”
Avirett stressed issues of lighting in the lots behind his business. He said the city has not addressed those issues, which he described as a major reason he fears business owners and employees parking back there (off-square) until late-night hours. Avirett said both he and his former business partner have been approached by suspicious individuals on more than one occasion in the off-square lots.
Before the city requires business owners and employees to park behind the buildings, Avirett said he’d first like to see enhanced lighting as well as a heightened police presence.
“I let it be known, from the beginning, this parking lot is unsafe,” Avirett said. “There are vagrants who live back there, and I am the only business here until 2 a.m.-3 a.m. I will not let the staff park back there when it is dark…we don’t have a solution. The solution isn’t parking in the back…it is unsafe, and I will not let my staff park back there, especially in the evening time.”
Coppedge admitted lighting in the rear lots wasn’t adequate, though he didn’t provide a timeline in which those issues could be resolved. First, conversations would have to be had with city staff, Coppedge said.
“It’s something that we continue to try to manage. We had HEMC come in and do illumination adjustments…was it enough? I don’t know, but it wasn’t like we didn’t hear it,” Coppedge said, adding that an increased police presence in those back lots is a “fair request.”
As far as a potential ordinance goes, Avirett said he isn’t a proponent of Coppedge’s proposal.
“I’m reasonable when there’s a great solution,” he said. “And this solution doesn’t fit – it doesn’t fit where I’m at.”
