City gets update on paving project needs across town
The owner of Sparkwell Variety and Vape Shop, a business at the intersection of Georgia Highways 138 and 81 in Walnut Grove that also sells legal adults-only psychoactive hemp products, is appealing the city’s recent decision to deny renewal of the store’s business license.
According to information presented to Walnut Grove’s mayor and city council at their non-voting
Thursday meeting by City Administrator Joe Morris, a recent code compliance inspection at Sparkwell revealed the business had not held a current business license since 2021.
In addition, according to Morris’ report, required licenses for hemp and tobacco sales were either not present at the business or had expired prior to 2023.
Morris’ report also noted that the business, which opened a few years ago claiming to be a variety store that also sold bait and fishing supplies, had no recreational fishing equipment or supplies on the premises during the Jan. 22 code compliance inspection. That circumstance prompted a note in Morris’ report informing the mayor and council that Sparkwell had not reported any “change in the characteristics of the establishment since 2021.”
Sparkwell owner Zahir Keshwani appeared before the mayor and city council Thursday, with an attorney, to appeal the denial of his business license. The council heard the appeal, but will not make any decision on Keshwani’s business license until their next voting meeting, set for March 12 at 6 p.m. in the Municipal Building at 1021 Park Street.
In comments to the mayor and council, Keshwani admitted to a lack of diligence in maintaining his local business license, but contended his state hemp license is current.
Under questioning from the council regarding concerns about his infrequent presence at Sparkwell, Keshwani admitted he was only at the Walnut Grove store once every few weeks, but told the council he would “try to get back here” more frequently.
“I would love to see you in the store more often,” Mayor Stephanie Moncrief told Keshwani, chastising him later by noting, “As a business owner, you’re not following the rules.”
Moncrief was serving on the Walnut Grove City Council, as were a couple of sitting council members, when Keshwani came to them originally seeking a business license. Until recently, the council was in charge of issuing business lienses, but that is now an administrative responsibility of city government staff.
Councilwoman Maxine McClanahan, who was not on the council when the original business license was issued, said Thursday there was no indication at that time that Sparkwell was going to be a vape shop.
“It was very clear to me that it was going to be a variety shop,” McClanahan told Keshwani.
Addressing Keshwani’s continued failure to renew his local business license, McClanahan said she was not particularly bothered by the nature of Sparkwell’s business, but was concerned that Keshwani “just didn’t bother” to keep current with his business license.
Councilwoman Rachel Davis, a driving force behind the city’s current effort to establish ordinances tightly regulating the display of age-restricted psychoactive substances sold at Sparkwell and elsewhere in the city, and to take other action to prioritize youth safety and welfare in the community, was blunt in her criticism of Keshwani.
Davis called the on premises advertising of Sparkwell’s products, which has attracted the attention of her young children, “morally reprehensible.” The store is painted with a whimsical outer-space- themed mural which Davis indicated she would like to see painted over.
Earlier this month, the council approved a resolution, which does not carry the force of law, signaling its intent to pursue local legislative initiatives to “… prioritize youth safety, welfare, and protection … .”
As a first step, at the same March 12 meeting where it could make a decision on \Keshwani’s busines license, the council also could take final action on a proposed ordinance that would tightly regulate the display of adults-only psychoactive substances at stores where they are sold.
Broadly, the proposed ordinance would require adults-only psychoactive products be kept out of sight of minors and the general public, including from outside any location where they are being sold.
Inside those locations, the proposed ordinance would require that such products be stored in locked cases accessible only by employees. The proposed ordinance also would require any retailer offering age-restricted psychoactive products for sale to obtain an annual regulated product permit in conjunction with their annual business license renewal.
If enacted, the ordinance “would have a big effect on that store (Sparkwell),” Moncrief said.
Paving work upcoming
In other business at last Thursday’s work session, the mayor and council got an update from Morris on the city’s need to start working on paving needs across the city, likely using local sales tax dollars and state Local Maintenance & Improvement Grant funds.
“The goal is to start getting asphalt on the road,” Morris said. A list of road work priorities prepared for the city some time ago by an engineering consulting firm has languished, but suggestions made in that analysis are still valid, a Thursday presentation from Morris indicated.
Of particular concern, Morris said, are Park Street and some other nearby residential streets, including Greenhill Way and Woodland Circle. Those streets, along with other nearby streets such as Church Way, Valley Drive and Woodland Circle, were identified by the consultant as needing paving and other work at a cost estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A next step, Morris told the mayor and council, will be getting bids for the work, as Moncrief cautioned,
“We have to look at what we can afford.”
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