The Town Gazebo will not be available for any public events until further notice.
During the latest meeting of Franklin’s Town Council, town staff brought up concerns about public safety related to large public events during the COVID-19 pandemic. This summer has seen several gatherings of hundreds of people, including rallies for Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter, centered at the gazebo. Because these gatherings have drastically exceeded state instructions for maintaining social distance (outdoor gatherings are only allowed to have up to 50 attendees), town attorney John Henning Jr. argued that the town needed to take steps to prevent future events from causing outbreaks of the virus.
“You have a sudden boom in requests for that one particular piece of property,” Henning said. “We’re asking you to consider, at least while there is a declared state of emergency, to implement a moratorium on use of the gazebo area.”
Rally organizers not happy
The decision didn’t sit well with organizers behind the Faith, Family and Freedom Rally they hoped to schedule for Sept. 26 in conjunction with a larger rally in the nation’s capital.
Pastor Michael Stephens of Franklin Church of God said he was disappointed with the board for denying his request to use the gazebo for the event, worrying that this event was being targeted by the decision. However, the organizers did have a backup plan to use the parking lot at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts.
“We are disappointed with the decision of the board, but nonetheless, we’re going to proceed with our alternative plan,” Stephens said.
Tough decision
The prospect of a moratorium on gazebo events was an uncomfortable request for some of the council members, who worried that such a decision would be viewed less as an act of public protection and more as an attack on First Amendment rights. Council member David Culpepper pointed out that the council’s role in reserving the gazebo for events was typically treated as a scheduling issue rather than a permission issue and argued that prohibiting future events would be an overreach.
“It’s the people’s square, and I do think that we need to allow people to gather there peacefully,” Culpepper said.
There also wasn’t much consensus on how such a decision could be enforced. Nobody wanted to see arrests over excessive turnout in the downtown area. Police chief Bill Harrell asked that the town allow for officer discretion in monitoring such issues, while council member Joe Collins said that they were doomed to face the same problems that they encountered with all municipal coronavirus-related rules.
“Are we going to figure out that it is probably fruitless to figure that we can actually enforce anything?” Collins said. “Do we believe it’s a reasonable remedy to just to shut everything down?”
In the end, however, the council members came to the conclusion that attendance at downtown events had grown to unsafe levels and that something had to be done. Mayor Bob Scott said that local governments all over the state and the country were making similar decisions to protect the public and, while they didn’t like having to do it, it was the responsible course of action.
“The issue right now is public safety,” Scott said. “This is not something that just Franklin is doing. … It has not been easy and you have to empathize with people.”
Henning backed up that way of thinking and said that the town is within its rights to deter massive assemblies for the sake of protecting its citizens.
“You’re permitted to have reasonable time, place and manner restrictions,” Henning said. “Speech has to be allowed. It has to be permitted as freely as possible while keeping in mind public safety and concerns of that nature. … You don’t have to make every square inch of the town available for any use at any time.”
The council approved a moratorium on reserving new events at the gazebo until further notice by a margin of 5-1 with Culpepper voting against. Events that were already scheduled for the venue will be allowed to proceed as planned.