Mount Vernon – For a full month, (May 17th – June 16th) the City of Mount Vernon as well as others throughout Southern Westchester County have been watching the real life reality show, where The Thomas Administration illegally shut down two businesses OK Freddy’s Meat Market located at 132 South 4th Avenue and Mega Beverage Redemption Center located at 121 East Third Street. Westchester County Court Judge Susan Cacace orders the locks removed, and the city puts them back on, not once, not twice but three more times. Each time the parties return to court and the Judge repeats her previous orders.
Employees for both businesses have been out of work for approximately 15 days as their place of employments opens back up, gets shut down, opens back up and gets shut down, opens up, gets shut down and then opens up and gets shut down again only to go back to court and the city settled with the businesses not to shut them down again. The community came out and held a rally for justice and everyone else watches on trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Some questioned if this attack on these businesses were personal or just an ol’ fashion land grab.
This latest round, on Tuesday evening around 7:00 P.M. the building department held a mock inspection, despite the fact OK Freddy’s filed their new plans and applied for the proper permits and the city cashed their check. The Building Department on orders of Mayor Thomas shut the businesses down again. In court Wednesday afternoon, Judge Cacace ordered all parties (OK Freddy’s, Mega Beverage and Corporation Council Lawrence A. Pocari Jr, Esq,) in her court room Thursday morning. When everyone got there the judge called a recess and basically told the parties to work it out for themselves. Pocari agreed to allow the businesses to reopen, to give OK Freddy’s back the liquor licence he illegal removed from the wall of his business, when they shut them down on May 17th and to back off the businesses. On Friday morning at approximately 10:30 A.M. the locks were removed.
This ongoing saga is supposed to be officially over, but OK Freddy’s is still reeling from the lost income and legal fees from the on and off again closure. Will this be the end, time will tell, since it appeared that way after the prior times the judge ordered the locks off! The taxpayers of Mount Vernon could be the ultimate losers of these illegal closures, if the two businesses decide to exercise their option to sue the city. BW will keep you informed if there are any further details in this developing story.
AJ Woodson
AJ Woodson is the Editor-In-Chief of Black Westchester and Co-Owner of Urban Soul Media Group, the parent company, Host & Producer of the People Before Politics Radio Show. AJ is a Father, Brother, An Author, Journalism Fellow (Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism), Hip-Hop Artist - one third of the legendary underground rap group JVC FORCE known for the single Strong Island, Radio Personality, Hip-Hop Historian, Documentarian, Activist, Criminal Justice Advocate and Freelance Journalist whose byline has appeared in several print publications and online sites including The Source, Vibe, the Village Voice, Upscale, Sonicnet.com, Launch.com, Rolling Out Newspaper, Daily Challenge Newspaper, Spiritual Minded Magazine, Word Up! Magazine, On The Go Magazine and several others.
