Marietta granted a business license effective July 1 for the store at 1245 Bellemeade Drive, in the Bellemeade Shopping Center, near Powder Springs Street.
When a reporter visited the address on Tuesday, there was no sign the store opened yet. A woman who answered the business’s telephone number declined to comment, saying she was tired of the media attention. A telephone call to their lawyer was not returned.
John and Serena Cruchelow originally opened their store in Kennesaw on Cobb Parkway, in the Mack Dobbs Point strip mall. That store opened on Dec. 28, 2011, and closed in late June.
In what the City of Kennesaw admits was an oversight, the city
granted a business license to the store, despite zoning restrictions put in place in 2004 that prohibited pawn shops and certain other kinds of businesses from opening in that particular mall. Celestino Venturi, who originally developed the mall, still owns it.
In February, Bill Harris, a resident of nearby Summer Stream neighborhood in Kennesaw, noticed small yard signs for the pawn shop and soon he and other neighbors began petitioning the city council to close the shop.
After Kennesaw’s City Council in May rejected a variance request that would allow the pawn shop to stay open, Venturi filed an appeal in Cobb Superior Court on June 15, arguing in part that his constitutional rights have been violated and seeking damages. As of late Tuesday, the city had not filed its response in the case.
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Let the trolls run the comments section.
To the editor. You post many comments worse than mine.
So Im out of here. Please take over the oversight of this fish wrapper and this hick town.
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So you think that the MDJ is only worthy of wrapping fish and that Marietta is a 'hick town'.
I suspect that you will be back soon, if not as Tex G then some other made up name. Perhaps the comments editor will at least block your IP address and computer so you are truly gone.
Tex G - how do you know Bill Harris?
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Tex G does not know me at all, he is the board troll, why his comments get posted at all is unknown. Perhaps the board moderator just likes to post his personal attacks to increase readership of the comments section.
My posts state my position and ask interesting questions, his are short nasty comments which do not provide information or contribute to any discussion.
Tex G is a prolific commenter. I can tell you that there are many posts that he makes that never see the light of day. I tend to approve most of them unless he is just blatantly off topic or clearly crossing the line on personal attacks. I am always happy to take feedback on comments.
cbailey@mdjonline.com
Chris Bailey, Internet Editor
"Why his comments get posted at all is unknown." This is a comical uneducated comment. You've enjoyed your comments being approved, which ask questions probing into peoples' lives, which does not add to Cobb people getting the facts of what happened, it just riles those involved.
Your short, nasty jabs at a web editor are a great way to get your anger out at Tex G. I applaude your hypocrisy.
In my many posts on this the whole issue the question and problem is where does this busy body nanny state stuff stop? There are three strip centers not a block away empty. Why do we need to run off private business to satisfy a guy who thinks he is a Kennedy or something but buys a home net to a blooming state highway with two pay by the week hotels already in existence?
The whole deal stinks and Bill Harris has gotten his way. He needs to just shut up, go away, and move to Cape Cod with the rest of the blue bloods.
Us working folks have to work and dont have time to destroy other folks lively hoods all to satisfy our sense of style and whats acceptable or not.
1) Why was that strip mall such an attraction to Cruchelow? It may be the only strip mall on Cobb Parkway with a restriction on having a Pawn Shop.
2) Why is Venturi suing the City? The pawn shop was gone a good week prior to the filing and Venturi and Sams both knew this. So why bother since the shop had already moved?
3) How long before Cruchelow files suit against Venturi? The mall owner and his lawyer Sams knew that Pawn Shops were 'illegal' in that mall, yet twice in the 35 page lease it clearly refers to the business as being a 'pawn shop'.
4) Who is John Ross Salazar, late of Texas?
Now lets hope they all sue Bill Harris and let his defend himself and see what it feels like to be bashed in the press and have your business destroyed.
2) The City allowed this to happen and has done nothing but shut down a good business as a remedy for thier mistake. Why sue? Loss of rental income due to the City's mistake and actions to remedy. Vanacy rates all around the metro area are still high, and now another space will still gathering dust. Good work, BH.
3) If the lease was terminated without penalty, no suit should be brought.
And a question many may have, why do you still care what happens now that they are closed. Isn't that what you wanted? Move on to your next cause.