Teen club owner upset over city's tactics, news story on underage busts

By MONROE ROARK
mroark@thecitizennews.com

Recent statements and actions attributed to Fayetteville officials have one local business owner seething.

Business at The Market, a teen club that opened in mid-April, is down significantly since City Manager Joe Morton was quoted in The Fayette Daily News as saying that several arrests had taken place at the club in recent weeks, according to Taylor Williams, owner of The Market.

The article appeared under the headline “Drinking, loitering arrests made at teen club.” A second headline said, “Fayetteville officials say five nabbed for drinking under age.”

After the article was published, Williams delivered a written statement to The Citizen entitled, “City Manager is Lying.” He went on to challenge specific statements in the article.

Williams said that he met with Morton last week, and Morton claimed he did not say what was attributed to him in the article. Morton stated that a few arrests had taken place in the area near the club, according to Williams.

But Williams went on to say that Cindy Morley of the Fayette Daily News, who wrote the article, disputed Morton's recollection and said that she would never have interviewed him and written that story had he not made the statements she cited.

The city cannot officially confirm what may or may not have been said at the workshop. Minutes are not taken at City Council workshops and the meetings are not tape recorded, according to city clerk Judy Stephens.

Alleging that his business has been unfairly singled out for police attention, Williams has pulled police reports in an attempt to clarify what has been going on.

Only one arrest has taken place at The Market in six weeks, Williams said. A 14-year-old girl was arrested for underage drinking, and Williams said the youth was not even supposed to be at the club.

Police arrested five youths for underage drinking at the Exxon station across the street from the club, but Williams said they were not customers of his at any time that night and were simply hanging out in the gas station parking lot.

An off-duty officer Williams had hired to provide security at The Market saw them and walked across the street to make the arrest, he said. “They had a 22-year-old buying alcohol for them,” he added.

One event that has caused considerable concern to Williams is what he called “Operation Market,” when nearly a dozen police officers and two K9 units descended on the club the weekend of May 5-6. He thinks the reasoning behind even having such an operation is faulty, and says it was done simply to generate arrests.

“We're a new business. We haven't had any arrests. Why do this?” he said. “If they [city officials] want to get a point across to me, why use other people's kids to do it, give them arrest records and ruin their lives?”

Williams gave The Citizen a copy of a memo from Major H.L. Simmons to Police Chief Johnny Roberts, dated May 8 and referred to by Simmons as an “after-action report” concerning “Operation The Market.”

The report states that the aforementioned teenage girl was the only one arrested for underage drinking during the operation, and an investigation revealed that she had become drunk at home while her parents were at church.

Williams said that he has been investigating police activity at other establishments in Fayetteville, such as the bowling alley and the movie theaters in town. On the night of “Operation Market,” a drug arrest took place at the bowling alley, Williams said, which makes him wonder even more why he has gotten so much police attention.

Morton was quoted in the Fayette Daily News as saying the city had written several letters to Williams concerning activities at The Market, but Williams says that simply is not true. He presented a single letter from Morton, dated May 8 and received May 11, after Morton's interview with Morley had taken place. He claims that is the only letter he has received from the city.

Williams said he has taken significant steps to ensure order in his establishment, and he wants the public to know that no alcohol and drug use is taking place there. He hires his own security people to watch over the club, above and beyond anything required by the city, he said.

He also alleges recent problems with the city over his parking and crowds, even though the club's parking capacity has been known to city officials since he first started trying to open the club. “I'm required to have 39 parking spaces, and I have 42,” he said. “They've known all along my capacity is about 1,000. I don't know why that's a problem now.”

He suspects that part of it has to do with cars parked in other areas near his club, which he has no control over. He added that he thinks many people have no idea what is going on at The Market — which he says is just good, clean fun for teenagers — and panic when they see the size of the crowd.

As far as noise complaints, Williams says they are ridiculous. He notes that during “Operation Market,” when a large number of officers were present, none of them mentioned the noise, yet he has gotten complaints from the city since then.

The notoriety from these events has had a major effect on business at The Market. Williams said that the crowds the weekend of May 12-13 were down 200 Friday night and even more Saturday. “Instead of a normal Saturday crowd of 450, we had 85 kids,” he said.

Last weekend was still slow, with Friday business down 30 percent and a total of 100 customers Saturday.

“I've been getting 40 calls a day from people asking if I'm still open,” said Williams. “I'm repairing damage that should never have been done.”

Williams said that if Morton was indeed misquoted, then he should be as upset as anyone else and say so. He added that he does not wish to pursue legal action against anyone, but he expects someone to be responsible for the events that he feels have unfairly caused him to lose a large amount of business.

Morton said Tuesday he would try to meet with Williams this week and further address his concerns as well as those of the city.

Acknowledging that the headline of the Fayette Daily News story was not consistent with what he said in the story or what actually happened, he said that while he understood the incidents did not take place at Williams' facility, there was “a relationship” between the crowds at The Market and the groups of people at the neighboring establishments.

Morton said that he was not involved with “Operation Market,” which was a police operation, but he suggested that it could have been motivated by the number of complaints that have been coming in recently, mostly from residents in the neighborhood. Indeed, the proximity of residential neighborhoods to The Market is part of the problem, he said.

“This is a unique facility,” said Morton. “It's in the Main Street district. People live a couple of houses from there.”

The bowling alley and movie theaters are not compatible situations in that regard, Morton said, because they are in completely different zoning districts, with no residential zoning next to them.

Williams has doen everything he is required to as far as codes and other requirements to do business in his location, Morton said. “The use is permitted but not really compatible with what's around there right now, with the high number of kids there,” he added. “We've just never had to deal with this before.”