After a fire destroyed Vaiden nightclub, Main Attraction, formerly known as Danny’s Lounge, a few weeks ago, many people in the community are asking if the club will rebuild.
While many ponder that question, the Vaiden Board of Aldermen are debating a different one presented by their board attorney. If this is not the image you want, how do you pump the breaks before the rebuilding begins?
During the Monday night board meeting in Vaiden, while that question is being considered, Board Attorney Lane Greenlee suggested that the town consider making an amendment to their zoning ordinance.
“You might want to consider tweaking it,” Greenlee told Mayor Mel Hawthorne and the board. He said that the Town of Vaiden did have an adult entertainment ordinance, but it didn’t have a nightclub ordinance or an actual zoning ordinance.
“It doesn’t have be zoned, but right now your ordinance is has it limited to it can’t be near a church or a school,” he said.
Greenlee said the club was on 16th section land and the location made it commercially feasible and aldermen may want to think about that.
“What if they want to rebuild again?” Greenlee said.
He also said aldermen should consider what happens after someone comes in and applies for a business permit.
“They fill out the paperwork and then what? There’s no procedure. Who issues the permit? Who makes sure that everything is right? Does the mayor do it or does the town clerk do it? Does the board review the application themselves? They fill out the piece of paper and then what?”
Greenlee said no one knows exactly what they are supposed to do, and aldermen should consider creating a procedure.
Greenlee told the board that the time to do all of this is now because if someone does rebuild, it will be too late.
Hawthorne said he’ll talk it over with the board, and it will be something they consider while they can.
He also told board members that the town is preparing to apply for another Community Block Development Grant for their sewer lagoon. He said there was something wrong with their survey the last time they applied, and he’s hoping everything goes well this time.
“I spoke with Chris Pope [with North Central Planning and Development District], and we’re going to try for the grant again,” Hawthorne said. “It’s similar to what we’ve done before.”
Hawthorne said that right now, their discharge from the lagoon is going into the Big Black, and it has to be treated before entering the river and the cost to do it is something the town can’t do on its own.
“We can’t afford to do it without a grant,” he said.
He said there will also be some road work in the grant because there’s a half line on North Street that will have to be dug up and repaired in the process. And, he said a sewage line collapsed on Vaiden-Kilmichael Road, and the lift station had to be shut off in order for the crew to bypass the station to fix the problem.
He said the line is 12-feet deep and the protective wall will also have to be repaired.
• Hawthorne informed the board that a candidate, which he didn’t name, wanted to use the Vaiden High School gym for an announcement. He said he wouldn’t give a name because he didn’t want the impression that Vaiden supports the candidate by even giving a name.
“I don’t think we should do it,” he said. “It’ll make it look like the town of Vaiden supports this one candidate, and we support all the candidates.”
“If the person has more people in the race, then it could make them feel like they don’t have a chance in Vaiden and they won’t come here,” he said.
• All of the aldermen agreed that it was a risky thing to undertake and decided to deny the request.
• Approved a one-eighth page ad for the Winona Times/Carroll County Conservative’s 2019 Profile Edition.
• Approved the summer feeding program. Clerk Sonya Greenleaf said the program will begin in June and go through the entire month of June.
