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Home > Blogs > Hamilton News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > April > 25
Friday, April 25, 2008
Ronda’s Courthouse Cafe
A new lunch business is in town.
Moving into the space exited by Fat Wally’s shortly after the new year, Ronda’s Courthouse Cafe is now prepared to start feeding the downtown crowd.
I’ll sit down with Ronda later this afternoon to talk about her hopes for the new restaurant. For now, it looks like it’s going to pick up where Fat Wally’s left off.
Keep reading if you’re curious why Fat Wally’s left downtown.
Popular spot to grab a bite to eat closes doors
By Joshua Rinaldi Staff Writer
HAMILTON - Fat Wally’s, a popular downtown restaurant opened in 1999, has succumbed to lean times and has closed its doors. Co-owners Scott Shepherd and John Curtis placed the blame on the five-month delay in opening their West Side location that “ate up” all their working capital. When the West Side store opened in August, there was Scott Shepherd co-owner, Fat Wally’s no money left to market it and it never really took off, they said. Shepherd said the West Side location was supposed to be the store’s savior. The last two years’ revenues decreased between 20 and 30 percent for the Third Street restaurant, Shepherd said. “I never thought it would be worse downtown now than in the year we opened,” Shepherd said. Shepherd said they couldn’t close one store and still operate the other because the assets are tied together and now being claimed by the bank. Now, Shepherd and Curtis are declaring bankruptcy and, consequently, they said they’d likely both lose their houses. Fourteen employees, four from the downtown store and 10 on the West Side, have lost their jobs as a result of the closure. Shepherd also said that because of the bankruptcy any unhonored gift certificates could not be refunded. Tony Traub, president of the Downtown Special Improvement District, said it was unfortunate that Fat Wally’s was closing while new businesses, such as the Cincinnati Bead Co., were coming to downtown. “It’s disappointing to see any business close,” he said. Gary Richards, executive director for ReDiscover Hamilton, said Fat Wally’s had been a mainstay for downtown Hamilton and its closure was a big loss for the city. “I feel bad for downtown. A lot of people depended on Fat Wally’s,” Richards said.
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TweetRevisiting a city impound lot
Earlier this month, I wrote about how the city is considering owning and operating its own impound lot. It thinks it can bring more money to the general fund by operating its own lot instead of contracting the services out.
I hadn’t thought about the matter in a few weeks, but today I got a letter from a concerned citizen. It sounds like he owns one of the impound lots the city contracts with, but I can’t be sure. It does remind me of the comments another impound lot operator told me.
Either way, I thought you might be interested in reading his letter.
750,000.00 per year
Where did this fellow get his figures from? If the tow yards were making this kind of money at the time this study was generated, that’s 150,000.00 dollars each per company. Which this is based on five towing companies being on the list at the time of this study. We sure would be very happy and less worried and certainly less stressed. Storage from impounded cars, that’s cars that has not been involved in an accident or just broke down and are strictly cars that was towed for such things as o.v.i. , no drivers license, expired tags, abandoned vehicles, stolen, or hit and run cars alone. Keep in mind , this is a not cars from car crash’s and they are cars that has been labeled police tows. In this model estimate, there was nothing in there about salaries of employees or all the benefit’s that come along with employees. Insurance for theft, property or fire. Were not just talking about one person here. You have to have someone qualified and capable of releasing vehicles, preparing vehicles for the auction, which by the way has to be advertised and that not free. Someone has to get the vehicles ready for the scrap yard. A lot of the impounded cars will come into the lot with all of their worldly possessions in them sometimes every thing they own. Now don’t get lost here thinking wow your going to be able to sell all that stuff. now when you open the door up to see all the worldly possessions after you become the new title holder you are knocked back about two feet due to the smell of rotten clothes and junk you couldn’t sell in a yard sale or donate to the needy. Remember this car was impounded the people are usually in jail or drugs have taken over there lives and have got down to living out this car. The cost of removing the articles in the cars is not factored into this equation and the scrap yards will not accept the cars unless they are removed. Also behind every good business you have to have someone to do the books. When Trenton and Oxford opened there impound lots back a few years ago, the cost for a city tow from a private individual was anywhere from 35.00 to 45.00 dollars. a police tow was 75.00 and you could charge extra for crash cars. now since the high cost of doing business and fuel prices have plummeted, the private individual will now pay around 75.00 dollars to get the car towed within the city. Now we get 90.00 now for police tows and we are no longer allowed to charge extra for clean up, that’s sweeping glass for sometimes as high as 30 minutes and disposing the trash when you’re your finished. We also are not allowed to charge for flipping cars back to the upright position or winching them from ditches or putting floor dry down on the ground even though the fire department charges for the floor dry and clean up. I certainly feel It would be hard to find a wrecker service that would want to tow the cars into the city’s lot that have the qualifications and dedication of the company’s that are on the list today. Now don’t get me wrong here. I do realize the city will find someone or maybe some of the wrecker services would continue to service the city’s needs. But for an extra 15.00 to be on call 24 hours, deal with the people already mad because they somehow can’t except the fact that they was impounded for a reason. Carry the insurance we are required to carry just because we tow for the police. Oh yes don’t forget this don’t include the poor old attack dogs you have to feed for the times you do have to leave the lot. The person who generated this model probably didn’t know what we go through, and I’m sure if he did. He would have certainly looked at the numbers a little different, and I’m sure he was not provided the correct information. So Let’s put this back into perspectives. We don’t make the kind of money projected in this model, and he certainly didn’t look at the whole picture. If you’re going to tell the public figures that don’t exist, at least give them the full pictures. I love and respect my job working with the city and it has been a pleasure, but this is Hamilton, Oh. last time I checked and a lot of people live paycheck to paycheck here. About 80 percent of the people only carry liability insurance. When they crash their car, it’s done, they don’t have the money to get them out or repair them. The cars that is impounded and labeled police tows are normally beyond their last leg. Maybe we should put this model back on the shelf and get the downtown water park model back out.
SINCERELY YOURS
KEVIN WOODS
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