Hyrum council approves pawn shot permit despite 'heartburn'

By Emma Tippetts

March 19, 2005 | HYRUM -- Citizens of Hyrum showed up to the City Council meeting Thursday to protest a pawn shop coming to their neighborhood.

The pawn shop was approved earlier this month by the Planning and Zoning commission and sent to the council. The council debated for almost an hour before they approved the plans by a vote of 3-1, with Councilwoman Stephanie Miller casting the opposing vote.

Miller started the debate with concerns about the image of a pawn shop in the city. "Pawn shops are seen as junk collectors," she said.

Rod Garner wrote a letter to the council and came to the meeting to protest the pawn shop, which is planned to go in next door to his residence. Garner said he is concerned about brining too much traffic and a different type of citizen to Hyrum.

"My impression is that people pawn for one of two things," Garner said. "Either to support a drug addiction or an alcohol problem."

Garner said he was concerned about the area becoming unsafe and bringing in an increase of crime. "I have concerns with pawning second-class items and getting a second-class area."

Mike Bachman owns the commercial building at 270 N. 400 West and agreed to rent a portion of it to Todd Christensen for his pawn shop. Bachman said they want to be good neighbors and would be willing to work with the neighbors to provide a residential friendly business.

"If you come to me I'll fix it that day," Buchman said.

The portion of land where the building sits is zoned commercial, but is placed in the middle of a residential zone. Buchman originally planned to put apartment buildings into the remaining 970 square feet, but was asked by the council and planning and zoning commission to keep the building as commercial property.

"We must respect zoning, even though we don't know how it got there," Mayor Gordon Olson said.

Olson said the council doesn't want the area degraded, but if the business is fenced in and kept up nice, it might not be too bad.

"I think you understand," Olson said, "we have some heartburn about this issue."

Christensen said he is planning on keeping the outside appearance up and running a "high class" establishment. He said he will not accept anything, only things with real value and they will accept nothing they cannot store inside the building.

Tom Labau brought a different perspective to the debate. Labau said he is a user of pawn shops to support a hobby of his. Labau said pawn shops are one of the most heavily regulated organizations in the state and are no longer a place for thieves to make money.

Labau said the image that the only people who pawn are drug users or alcoholics is no longer true. Pawn shops can be good for college students or those who are struggling financially.

Labau said he called the Logan City Police Department and asked about the biggest problem with their pawn shop. Labau reported the police department said the only problem was theft and the rates of burglaries were just the same as any other retail store in the city and they have had only two burglaries in the past five years.

Susan Netzley, a citizen of Hyrum stood up in the meeting to protest the pawn shop in her neighborhood. "It scares me," she said. Netzley said she has three small children and she would be worried about their safety with a pawn shop so close by.

"Pawn shops get a bad rap of being dingy and dirty," Labau said. "But this is a nice building."

Christensen said he would not only maintain the building but make it better.

"You can't say commercial is this and commercial is not this," Olson said. "You don't have that option on this side (of the table)."

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