I was very surprised to receive a brochure at my door recently touting Theresa Gavarone’s experience as a business owner as a reason why we should elect her to the position she was appointed to fill in August. Based on my time working at one of Gavarone’s businesses, I do not believe her experience as a small business owner warrants support.
Anyone who has frequented Howard’s Club H knows that part of its charm is in its grungy appearance. What you might not know is that until very recently that grunginess ran bone deep. While her family owned Howards, employees were regularly forced to wade through vomit and other human waste multiple times every night to plunge the toilets that hadn’t flushed properly (read: hardly at all) for years.
Those boxes of plastic gloves you saw behind the counter? Not for food prep.
In addition to the infamously inadequate bathrooms, closing duties included dumping gallons of bleach down floor drains behind the bar to prevent an unbearable stench from filling the business the next day.
When the smell didn’t drive customers away, the broken AC and furnace did.
Fortunately these issues (which posed a clear health risk to employees and patrons) were fixed immediately when new ownership took over. That makes me wonder though, why were these issues – issues that were resolved within days of the business being sold – not addressed for YEARS under Gavarone’s ownership?
I don’t believe that letting a business fall into that degree of disrepair should be considered a qualification, and I certainly won’t cast my vote for anyone who thinks it’s acceptable.
JJ Dennis
Bowling Green
