« Gallatin News-Examiner | Main | AT&T »
March 03, 2006
Highway 52 Yard Sale
An Open Letter to the Mayor and Aldermen of Portland
Dear Sirs:
If the Yard Sale Ordinance is passed as it, it will have a very negative impact on the Highway 52 Yard Sale.
As you know, this yard sale is a multi-county effort currently involving three counties and five cities. The event is publicized all over the state and bringsbuyers and sellers from all over the country. This will be the seventh year for the Highway 52 Yard Sale which has become a very successful event. (On the Monday after the yard sale, look at the people in the banks depositing money and the people in restaurants and stores spending money.)
The ordinance, as it stands, will hurt the yard sale in three ways:
1) There will be scores of people selling during those two or three days. Having to go to the trouble to get a permit amongst the crowd will discourage people from selling.
2) The ordinance prohibits anyone except property owners from having a yard sale. A successful yard sale like this must have out-of-town sellers. The more out-of-town sellers we can attract to the area, the better the yard sale will be.
3) There is some discussion in the newspaper that out-of-town sellers will be permitted, but the property owner from which they are renting will have to get a permit. Many out-of-town sellers will simply arrive on Friday morning, knock on a door and get permission from the property owner to set up along the highway. If the property owner is forced by law to get a permit that morning, chances are good he'll just tell the seller to go away. (Also, if the seller arrives on Saturday, City Hall will be closed and nobody can get a permit.) The land owner may lose rent money. The seller may move to another city or county.
All of these things will hurt the Highway 52 Yard Sale. They will hurt Portland.
The Highway 52 Yard Sale has been recognized as an innovative concept by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development -- the people that gave Portland our Three-Star Award. The Highway 52 Yard Sale is something that Portland needs to support.
The solution is simple. If the City still wants to pass an ordinance, please add something like this to the end of Section 12: "The annual Highway 52 Yard Sale is exempted from the residency restrictions of this section, and permits are not required for this event."
Thank you very much.
Charlie Myers
Co-webmaster
www.PortlandTN.com
www.TN52.com
Posted by admin at March 3, 2006 08:47 AM
Comments
There has been so much said about yard sale signs and where they can or cannot be placed. The Utility poles are off base no doubt for yard sale signs and I have heard of the powers to be removing them from poles as they should! SOOOOOOOOOO......
I have watched a bunch of VERY LARGE Daisy Flowers that have been placed directly in front of Ann's Flower Basket on the telephone pole, matter of fact they are all but hanging & covering over the speed limit sign, it is obvious who must of placed those flowers on that pole, they have been there for atleast "6" WEEKS or more!! So I ask is there different rules for businesses when it comes to placing things on the utility poles. Must be.... a yard sale sign would of been stripped in less than 24 hours if placed on a pole!
As for how many garage sales one should have... there are several professional garage sale sellers in this town. If you want to run a business go down town and pay over $1,000 per month for a commercial building, get a business licence & pay taxes. Residential property is just that, the place you reside, a place to live, your home. Yes I've seen it, "no one should tell me what I can or cannot do with my home" On the flip side of that, if I wanted to live in a busy commercial zone with lots of noise, traffic, polution & people parking in my yard every day I would live on main street but I don't. I live in a residential area like 99.9% of us do please respect that and your neighbors! Having 1 or 2 sales a year is no problem, but every week or every other week is nothing more than a business trying to beat the system.
And with that I believe this is why the city wants residents to pull a free permit for a yard sale. I think the road side illegal residential businesses will not want to have to go before the city every week just to conduct business, there may be a method to their madness that just might work!
Happy Yard Saleing
Posted by: jas at September 7, 2006 10:38 PM
once again the "we dont want to be like gallatin
crowd" finds another way to be just that.
hypocrite council members
Posted by: digman at July 29, 2006 04:33 PM
I think that is fine, make an exception for only this event. But have "the powers that be" be very visible after the sale is over to re-enforce that this was only an exception and be prepared to write a citation to anyone in violation after the weekend of the sale.
Posted by: Jonathan A. at March 4, 2006 11:01 AM