Elizabethton Cruise-ins will be limited to monthly events

ELIZABETHTON — The Carter County Car Club defused a long-standing controversy in downtown Elizabethton on Thursday evening by agreeing to limit its popular cruise-ins to once a month. Club President Jim Bass had originally submitted a road closure request for the downtown section of East Elk Avenue that would have closed the street to normal traffic every Saturday evening from beginning of May until the end of October so that classic cars could be displayed on the street. At the beginning of the meeting, Bass told Mayor Bill Carter that he was submitting a revised request, which would reduce the number of cruise-ins to once a month. The council considered the revision and approved it. Only Councilman Kim Birchfield voted against the motion to approve the one-per-month request. Councilwoman Debbie Gouge did not attend the meeting because she was being inducted into the educator's hall of fame that evening. The revised Carter County Car Club Cruise-ins will now take place on the second Saturday of the months of May, June, July, August, September and October. The full-day car show will take place in on the second Saturday of July. The club will also hold its annual Trunk-or-Treat Cruise-in on Oct. 31. The schedule marks a major change for the car club. It held weekly cruise-ins in downtown Elk Avenue for decades. That changed last year, which the city council voted to limit the cruise-ins to downtown Elk Avenue on one weekend a month. The cruise-ins would continue to be held on the other weekends, but they were held on E Street. Bass told the council that the cruise-ins on E Street were not popular. He said the traffic patterns the opposite of what people had grown used to, with the one-way street running in the opposite direction. There were other things that helped make the different location unpopular, and Bass told the council that things have now become more unfamiliar with changes made over the past several months on those city blocks of E Street. The reason the club had to hold most of its cruise-ins on E Street last year was because of opposition the club was receiving from some downtown business owners and community leaders who argued that restricting traffic every Saturday afternoon and evening was difficult for them. There were other community leaders and business owners who argued that the cruise-ins benefitted their businesses and downtown plans. Two business owners with different perspectives on the impact of the weekly cruise-ins on their business both addressed the council with their points of view. Lisa Fletcher of Fletcher's Homemade, a quilt and sewing shop, told the council "my sales were up quite a bit" when the cruise-ins were limited to one weekend a month on Elk Avenue. In contrast, Kevin Cole, the new owner of Dino's Restaurant, told the council that his sales were down 60% when the cruise-ins were not on Elk Avenue. He told the council member that "a vote against the car show is a vote against Dino's staying open." Bass was making the change reluctantly. He told the city council members that "the car club is going to have to take a step backward." One of Bass' deepest regrets was that the amount of money it raises for children's charities will be taking a big drop off. He said one of the reasons the club fought to keep the cruise-ins as weekly events was because of the money it raised for the charities. Now, there will be a significant drop off. He urged those business owners who said their businesses would have more revenue if the street was not restricted on Saturday afternoon to donate some of their increased revenue to the car club's children's charities. Former Mayor Curt Alexander also argued the council to allow weekly cruise-ins, saying he drove down Elk Avenue on the Saturdays when there was no cruise-in last year and found the downtown are to be dead. One merchant who supported less cruise-ins said that the empty weekends would be filled with new businesses and opportunities.