Austin Lewter/Jefferson Jimplecute
Jefferson could soon have a new restaurant franchise and public funds have been requested to help get the new business off the ground.
However, the Jefferson Economic Development Corporation (JEDCO) tabled action on the grant application Tuesday night.
The funds from which would help remodel the old Sonic Drive-In building on Hwy. 59.
Local businessman David Neely asked JEDCO for $75,000 to offset renovation costs in transforming the vacant property into a Louisiana Famous Fried Chicken.
“We aim to bring a new, profitable restaurant to Jefferson,” Neely told the board.
He and his wife currently own and operate Cooter’s Liquor— across US59 from the restaurant property.
“I’ve never owned a restaurant before,” Neely said. “This is all new, but I’ve been in business awhile and think this will be a great benefit to the community.”
According to Neely, Louisiana Famous Fried Chicken is a chain restaurant with outlets all-across the state.
He said the Jefferson location will offer a full menu, beer, outdoor seating and take out.
“There will be no indoor seating,” Neely said. “But we will have a nice area for tables outside… we have bought the building and work is underway… we don’t have an exact open date planned yet, because we don’t know how long it will take with the remodel. The weather has slowed things down.”
When asked for specific amounts estimated to complete the renovation, Neely said, “It’s all speculation right now. I’ve never done this before. It’s all estimated. We are doing this one day at a time— one week at a time.”
Neely thanked the board for their time and excused himself.
“I’ll let ya’ll talk about it. I have to get to work,” he said and left the meeting.
After some discussion, the board opted to table the request.
“I’d like to see a more specific renovation plan,” board member Lynn Daughtrity said.
Raymond Sanders agreed.
“And usually when we’ve done these projects in the past, we write checks to contractors— not the property owner… we need to know what the money will be spent on,” he said.
The motion to table passed unanimously.
The Board then agreed to move forward with a potential agreement to deed 13 acres of JEDCO owned land to Queenwood Products.
Queenwood general manager Avery Harper told the board that his firm is eying a $7 million expansion of their Jefferson location where they produce wood shavings for animal bedding.
“This expansion will triple the size of our operation and employee at least a dozen new employees,” Harper said.
The 13 acres in question borders Queenwood’s existing plant on Old Colony Road— outside of the Jefferson City Limits.
Harper asked if the board will be willing transfer ownership of the land.
The conversation was preliminary, and, in the end, the board agreed unanimously to allow Sanders to act on their behalf moving forward.
Any action or land swap would have to come back to JEDCO for approval and, ultimately, be approved by the City Council.
In other action Tuesday night, the JEDCO board:
-Agreed to renew their bookkeeping services with Cooner and Cooner, PC.
-Deferred getting an update on the ongoing Retail Coach recruiting process in Jefferson.
-Accepted the monthly financial report and approved the minutes from the November 8 meeting.