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The Franklin City Council reached a consensus Monday, April 14, to not close down Main Street for the Franklin Cruise-In this year in an effort to encourage cruise-in organizers to move the May-October weekly event to another part of the city.

The cruise-in has been held for the past decade. It begins with a large Saturday kickoff event in May, then meets weekly on Wednesdays from 4-7 p.m. In October, a large Saturday event brings the cruise-in to a close for the year.

The cruise-in typically features vehicles occupying the public parking lot in front of the building that contains Franklin Fire and Rescue and the Franklin Registrar’s Office. The city has previously shut down Main Street for the event, allowing cars to line both sides of Main Street.

COUNCIL INPUT ON THE MATTER

The council addressed the matter of the cruise-in during the Report on Pending Items agenda item on April 14.

Ward 1 Councilman Mark R. Kitchen said, “We have people here tonight that are part of another organization that the cruise-in swooped in and took their meeting place, which makes octogenarians walk a few blocks to get to their location.

“If you’re looking for pavement and food and drink, and we’ve already had one cruise-in behind Bobby’s (Tire Discounters) in front of the bowling alley, there’s another one scheduled, why can’t that be a weekly thing? It’s a whole lot safer for people, you don’t have one person running the show.

“If it’s about money, you’re giving money to the businesses at the bowling alley,” he continued. “There’s 12 businesses out there. Now nobody’s going to the dialysis clinic or the gym, obviously, but they’ve got restaurants and bars out there that can put in money to the people that come here, which are probably 80% out-of-towners.”

He concluded his comments by saying, “I’m getting tired of people approaching me in public giving me a hard time about the cruise-in, and I’m getting tired of people sending me nasty emails giving me a hard time about the cruise-in.”

Ward 4 Councilman Dr. Linwood Johnson said, “The cruise-in has been going on for several years, basically, and it brings people to the community in the downtown area in the city. That is one of the things that’s most important to this area.”

He later added, “The downtown area represents growth and development for the city, and that’s why I feel it’s significant. I feel we can work out the differences with the two groups, and we move forward as a community.”

Ward 5 Councilwoman and Vice Mayor Wynndolyn H. Copeland said, “I know at one point it impacted the registrar’s office, didn’t it?”

“Yes, it did,” Ward 3 Councilman Gregory McLemore said. “They couldn’t get in to vote.”

“How can we remedy that?” Copeland said.

“Move it,” McLemore said.

As he began his comments on the matter, McLemore said, “I think that at the time, there were two members on council who both personally benefited from the cruise-in being where it was located — one was a restaurant, one was another shop. Those members on council aren’t here any longer, but I don’t think it’s right that people who are elderly have to park so far from being able to walk to Fred’s Restaurant or to any of the other businesses that are downtown. If you’re an elderly person and you want to utilize downtown on Wednesday nights, you’re pretty much shut out.”

But he noted that if the cruise-in was held in front of the Franklin Bowling Center on Armory Drive, it would bring more revenue to all of the businesses in that area.

“Tonight we were talking about debt and how much money we make off of sales tax,” he said. “I think we would generate a lot more sales tax revenue if they brought all those out-of-towners over to the bowling alley and they had access to go in there and bowl some games.”

He said that the bowling alley also has beer, and he added that other businesses that could benefit from patronage by cruise-in participants include Wendy’s, the Great Wall Chinese restaurant and Subway.

“And it may even inspire somebody to do something with that theater,” he said, “so I don’t see how it can be a bad thing for us to take a chance and move it over there and free up our downtown.”

Ward 2 Councilman Richard Grizzard said his only concern was making sure that the owners of the property where the cruise-in would potentially be held were OK with it before any movement there takes place.

Franklin Mayor Paul Kaplan said he had mixed feelings on the matter of the cruise-in location.

Serve Restaurant is adjacent to the public parking lot used by the cruise-in downtown, and he spoke with the restaurant’s owner who said they do not see the customers they would normally have on Wednesday nights during the cruise-in, but this is largely compensated for by the people coming from the cruise-in who patronize the business. 

Kaplan said David Rabil, of Fred’s Restaurant, said he sees a slight increase in business during the cruise-in, and Kaplan indicated that other businesses said they saw no increase.

“I love the idea of bringing people downtown, I agree with Dr. Johnson on that,” Kaplan said, “but I also like the safety of it being at the bowling alley. So I see both sides of this.

“I know, having worked in the registrar’s office, the inconvenience we had time after time with having parking for the voters,” he continued. “I know that the shag club does meet on Wednesday nights, and that’s been a problem for them getting into Fred’s, so I see both sides of this issue, and I’m planning on abstaining on this tonight because I see both sides.”

Franklin City Manager Rosylen Oglesby clarified the extent of the council’s power in reference to the cruise-in event.

“This is just dealing with closing the street for this event to take place, but it can still take place without the street closure,” she said. “All they’ve got to do is just park downtown.”

Kaplan said, “That gives me another piece of heartburn because I feel like if we’re going to allow them to have it, it’ll be safer to close the street. So again, I can see both sides of it.

“I do think that the money generated at Wendy’s, Subway, the Chinese restaurant and the bowling alley might offset what we’re seeing coming in from downtown,” he continued. “So tax money-wise and utilization of our businesses, I see maybe more there than where it is downtown.”

It was determined shortly thereafter that a consensus existed on the council to not close Main Street for the cruise-in.

“I think the consensus is strong,” Kaplan said.

CRUISE-IN ORGANIZER INPUT ON THE MATTER

Christine Hill, along with her son Roy Hill and Drew Dunn, are the organizers of the Franklin Cruise-In, formally moving into that role prior to the 2024 season after attending for years.

In a Monday, April 21, interview, Christine Hill described the council’s consensus as “very disheartening.”

“We were kind of blindsided,” she said. “We didn’t know it was on the agenda, but there were other people that did know it was on the agenda.”

She said she did not see the necessity to move the cruise-in to Armory Drive, taking the money that it helps generate to franchises. She noted that she would rather keep that money with the local businesses downtown.

“And not closing the street’s really not an option for us,” she said. “I don’t think there’s safety in not closing the street.”

She also addressed another suggested alternative of holding the cruise-in exclusively within two separate parking lots, the one currently used and the one down the road in front of the Franklin Farmer’s Market.

“That’s really not conducive to what we do,” she said. “It’s about community and fellowship, so if we separate it out, that’s really not bringing people together.”

She noted that the weekly Wednesday editions of the cruise-in draw around 80-plus cars to downtown Franklin.

“It’s taken me a while to get to the issue, and it’s been going on for years, I guess, that we block the shag club once a month from going to Fred’s,” she said. “I don’t know a lot about logistics, but I do know that it’s no further from coming across the street from the parking lot than it is coming from Serve or Billy Phillips or behind Fred’s or whatever. To me, that’s not the issue.”

She said there is more to this matter than just the cruise-in holding an event or blocking people from getting to the front door of Fred’s.

She explained how the cruise-in has accommodated those not involved with the event, responding to reported conflicts.

“We left parking spaces open last year when this came up, handicap parking spaces and open spaces on the side,” she said. “We allow people to come in and park and go to the restaurants and eat. There was an issue, I think a couple years ago, about voters coming in. We had no problems last year at all, a few the year before, and we’ve resolved all that. So like I said, it goes deeper than just Fred’s being blocked and people not being able to get to the front door of Fred’s, and I think that’s just sad to say.”

She said that a lot of people had no idea she, her son and Dunn had taken over the organization of the cruise-in around two years ago.

“So I think there lies the problem,” she said. “It’s about people, who you are, who’s who, and that’s the problem, that’s the issue. It’s not about one club versus another club or an event versus another event.”

Summing up her perspective on the current situation involving the cruise-in and the council’s consensus, she said, “It’s just disheartening, and it’s very sad it’s come to this, that we even have to fight or defend ourselves or defend our character.”

She said a lot of people are upset about it.

Cruise-in organizers plan to speak at the Franklin City Council meeting on April 28.

“So now we have to defend ourselves on the 28th and go speak before council when I think this whole thing should have been squashed a long time ago,” she said.