Please Help Us Save Our Small Business
CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE OF CITY COUNCIL’S POLITICS, OUR SMALL BUSINESS MAY LOSE OUR BUILDING.
Our small, family-owned business chose beautiful Hiawassee to serve as a hub for our amazing trail community. Before we signed our lease, our historical 1935 building sat in vacant disrepair for years, and we've made huge improvements to help restore it. As a small business, we invest heavily in our employees and we have donated tens of thousands of dollars to local charities, schools, and trail nonprofits.
We're excited to announce that we're working to purchase our building from our landlord – and we’re ready to invest another $183,000 to complete our historic building’s restoration.
The City of Hiawassee owns the buildings directly beside ours, and the city has started renovating those buildings after years of decay. Today, the city's buildings still have tarps over their roofs and do not have gutters. As a result, that property pours massive water on Trailful’s foundation when it rains. Our building’s lower level has flooded multiple times, and our building inspector uncovered many feet of rot in our foundation.
THE CITY STATED CONSTRUCTION WOULD BE COMPLETE BY MAY 2024.
We have been very patient in anticipation of the city project’s eventual completion.
A city representative just told us that their project is out of funding, and that a majority of City Council will vote against a loan to finish their construction on October 30th.
A CITY COUNCIL MAJORITY IS PREPARING TO VOTE NO, STOPPING CONSTRUCTION.
As a very small, family-owned business, we cannot afford to purchase our building and invest a small fortune to fix our building’s issues – and then allow the city property to continue to damage our building’s foundation.
The City of Hiawassee should complete the project they have committed to. Further neglect of the city’s buildings will continue to destroy the foundation of our historical building and the survival of our small business in Hiawassee.