Brookhaven’s last remaining pool hall is scheduled to open in afresh facility in downtown next week, but a few area businessowners are not looking forward to sharing the streets with abusiness they’re afraid will offset downtown’s image.

Parking availability, late-night crowds and general rowdinessare all concerns cited by some local entrepreneurs who are speakingout about the relocation of Brookhaven Billiard to downtown. Theysaid the addition of a pool hall to the quaint streets will shatterthe family atmosphere established there.

“I guess if I had to say I’d be against the pool hall coming innext to our apartments,” said Bill Lofton, owner of the Upper RoomApartments adjacent to the pool hall’s new building. “It would notbe my choice of a neighbor to go in next to our apartments but I’mwilling to give the guy a chance to act right.”

Despite opposition to the presence of a pool hall down town,local law protects such establishments. The city’s 1992 zoningordinance for downtown, the Central Commercial District, protects”recreational or amusement classification when conducted whollyinside an enclosed building.”

Brookhaven Billiard owner Mark Montgomery said he plans to openhis business by July 1 in the former Factory Connection building onWhitworth Avenue. The pool hall and AAA Check and Payment Centerhave both been forced to vacate their former facilities in the oldGibson’s shopping center on the northwest corner of the Highway 51and Brookway Boulevard intersection because Ron Craddock, owner ofMcComb’s Craddock Oil, recently purchased the property and plans toraze all the buildings.

While AAA Check and Payment Center is up and running on SchwemAvenue near Dirt Cheap, Montgomery and his shooters are comingdowntown. He said last week that he doesn’t “play games” in hisestablishment.

“We don’t allow any alcohol in here, we don’t play loud music, Idon’t allow any loitering…” Montgomery said. “I have run off somegood customers here who didn’t know how to act.”

That’s fine for Lofton and other business owners, as long as itcomes true.

“I’m willing to give him a try, but I also believe we need tostay on top of it and hold his feet to the fire so he’ll do what hesays he’s gonna do,” he said. “Just because of the element itusually attracts and the behavior you have with the pool hall, withpossible drinking and just loud activities … it’s just notfitting in with a family-type atmosphere that we’re trying todevelop downtown.”

But questionable behavior is not local business owners’ onlyconcern. Joe Fleming, owner of toy store Just Kiddin’, said hisbiggest concern about Brookhaven Billiard is patrons filling updowntown’s already limited number of parking places.

“There are small businesses right next to this pool hall thatmight be affected by the parking,” Fleming said. “When people go into play pool, they play four to five games, and that can take anhour or longer. (Montgomery) has to understand that retail storesaround him have to survive. If he lets people come in and park forhours at a time, it’s going to strangle those small businessesout.”

Not all downtown business owners are as worried, however.

Shoe Outlet Manager Judy Hart said long-term parking by nextdoor pool players could be a problem for her business, but she saiddowntown has a parking problem that existed long before BrookhavenBilliard began moving tables into the building next door.

“Whether they’re there or not, we have a problem,” she said.

As far as potential rowdiness at the pool hall is concerned,Hart said she could not judge a business that hasn’t yet had itsfirst day open.

“Until it happens, I can’t assume,” she said. “I believe in freeenterprise and a free America. They have a right to put that poolhall in there just like I have a right to have a shoe store.”

Veronica Sanders, owner of Vam’s Interiors, which lies a fewdoors south of the pool hall, was also non-critical of the poolhall.

“I’m always for a new business,” she said. “When a new storeopens up, it’s better for the community than having an emptybuilding. We have a lot of people living in these apartments, so itwould be something for them to do.”

Sanders said parking shouldn’t be a problem because the poolhall’s primary hours of operation are after 5 p.m., when mostdowntown businesses close.