Council Approves Amendment to Alcohol Ordinance
Business, Community March 22, 2022
CLEVELAND, Ga.- The City Council held a special call meeting on Mar. 21, at that meeting they approved the amendment to the alcohol ordinance.
The council also approved an amendment to the secondhand goods ordinance. They approved the resolution to adopt a fee schedule for pawnbrokers.
The amendment to the alcohol ordinance is to allow curbside service. The council discussed this at their last work session and meeting. To review what was stated at the meeting visit https://white.fetchyournews.com/2022/03/15/city-council-passes-short-term-rentals-ordinances/.
The council made no further changes to the amendment before voting. It was approved unanimously. The ordinance will now allow retailers that meet the city’s standards an opportunity to sell alcohol through curbside pick up. To learn more about applying for an alcohol license visit https://www.cityofclevelandga.org/business/alcohol_licenses.php.
The next item that was approved was the amendment to the secondhand goods ordinance. The amendment was first brought before the council at the Feb. 14 meeting due to the ordinance not allowing for an owner to start a gun and pawnshop.
The council has deliberated many times on this subject and made changes to it. This was the second reading of the ordinance and as no further changes were made the council approved the amendment. To view the ordinance visit https://library.municode.com/ga/cleveland/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COOR_CH42SEGO.
Lastly, a resolution to adopt a fee schedule for the license of the pawnbrokers was approved. There was one change made and that was the deletion of an additional employee. After that was removed the resolution passed.
The owner that requested the changes was not present at this final meeting on the matter. The previous ordinance for pawnbrokers has been on the books since 2008 and was presented by a former sheriff. At the time there was no one looking to own a gun and pawnshop inside the city limits thus why it has not been a problem until recently.
City Council Passes Short Term Rentals Ordinances
Community March 15, 2022
CLEVELAND, Ga.- The Cleveland City Council passed two ordinances for short-term rentals during their meeting on March 14.
Police Chief Jeff Shoemaker promoted Major Wilden. The council also discussed an amendment for alcohol curbside pickup, and they continued discussions on the pawnbroker amendment ordinances.
The council began discussing short-term rentals at the meeting on Feb. 14. This was a continuation of an original discussion that the prior council began last year. To review what was discussed during that meeting about the ordinances please visit https://white.fetchyournews.com/2022/02/15/council-discusses-short-term-rental-ordinance/.
The ordinances that were passed were the 2022-02 zoning amendment and the 2022-03 short-term rental ordinance and application. 2022-02 the zoning amendment is to change zoning districts R1, R2, and R3 to allow short-term rentals into those districts. The short-term rental ordinance and application were approved after many discussions by the council.
Police Chief Shoemaker while promoting Major Wilden to Deputy Chief.
Shoemaker promoted Major Wilden to Deputy Chief at the meeting. Shoemaker stated that this promotion is due to all the support Wilden has provided since Shoemaker came to the job last year. After the promotion Shoemaker delivered the monthly department report to the council. To learn more about the police department visit https://www.cityofclevelandga.org/departments/police_department.php.
The council began the first consideration of the ordinance amendment to allow alcohol to be part of curbside pickups. There were adjustments made after the work session. The locations that provide the service have to show the city proof of their rules for carding, have a specific location for the pickup, and have cameras around that area, as well as follow all other city regulations. Currently, there are only two stores that are applying for curbside pickup.
The discussions on the pawnbroker amendments continued at the meeting as well. This week they reviewed the application fees for both the employer and employees of the company. That included defining which employees would be handling merchandise. They also reviewed the fee adoption schedule. This was the first consideration for both these items, there will be another consideration before the council votes.
Council Discusses Short Term Rental Ordinance
Community February 15, 2022
CLEVELAND, Ga.- The City council discussed the current draft of the short-term rental ordinance and gave City Administrator Tom O’Bryant new directions for the next draft.
Ed Ward proposed to the board a referendum to have a distilled spirits package store where the J.W. Reeds restaurant used to stand. The council also discussed the pawnshop ordinance amendments and made the decision to review the ordinance more before moving forward at their next meeting.
The short-term rental ordinance is being considered due to the growing tourism industry in the county. O’Bryant brought the council the current draft of the short-term rental ordinance for their review. The ordinance was put before the council last year but due to a new council set to come in at the beginning of Jan. and some other concerns the council postponed any decision.
City Administrator Tom O’Byrant while addressing the council about the short-term rental ordinance.
The new draft that O’Bryant proposed took the prior concerns into consideration. However, the council still had other concerns with the new draft and gave O’Bryant new directions to revise the document with.
Some of the concerns were that the document is too strict on issues that regular citizens don’t have to deal with such as trash pick up and parking. The council wants the ordinance to be fair to everyone involved including the future business owners and their guests.
Ward brought to the council the possibility of opening up a package store in place of his former restaurant J.W. Reeds. Ward had an alcohol license for the restaurant before the fire happened so he is far enough away from Churches and Schools to have a package store.
White County Commissioner District 1 Terry Goodger was at the meeting and offered his opposition to having a package store in city limits.
“I would speak against the package liquor store, I don’t think we need that type of business in Cleveland. Cleveland has come a long way to change the ordinances in alcohol in town to accommodate the restaurants that we have here,” explained Goodger.
The next item that was discussed was the pawnshop ordinance that former Police Chief Foster had put on the books in 2008. The ordinance is keeping a potential pawn store from being able to operate in the city.
The owner of the potential business has almost met the requirements for ATF to issue their Federal-Firearm License or FFL. To understand more about the FFL visit https://www.atf.gov/resource-center/types-federal-firearms-licenses-ffls#:~:text=Types%20of%20Federal%20Firearms%20Licensees%20(FFLs)%3A&text=An%20individual%20who%20is%20licensed,in%20the%20business%20of%20firearms. The owner previously owned a pawn store in White County next to Yonah Burger.
At this time the council felt they needed more time to review the ordinance and the possible changes they would need to make to it so they postpone the first reading of it until the Mar. 7 meeting. The owner decided that since this seems to be a lengthy process for the time being he would only sell firearms out of his business.