Security Makes it a Flat Tuesday

We hear several bar owners along Fayetteville’s Dickson Street have been grumbling that sales were down on Mardi Gras day, compared with Fat Tuesday in 2003.

Sandra Reynolds, co-owner of Rogers Rec., said her bar’s business dropped by 50 to 60 percent on Feb. 24, compared with Fat Tuesday in 2003. That’s flatter than a stomped on doubloon.

Cooler weather might have had something to do with it. But some people we talked to thought it might be due to the police presence on Dickson Street that night. About 30 police officers combed the street in near riot-gear outfits like they were looking for Osama Bin Laden.

The police blocked off Dickson Street from Rollston to West streets. The police cars, with blues lights flashing, probably didn’t do anything to help the party atmosphere.

Reynolds said businesses along Dickson Street pay taxes to the city just like other businesses.

“It looks like the city would be a little more interested in promoting things like Mardi Gras,” she said.

Reynolds, whose husband Robert “Swifty” Reynolds is on the Fayetteville City Council, said the police were cooperative.

“We just didn’t need as many police officers out there,” she said.

But John Gilliam, owner of Ozark Brewing Co., said he was glad to see the police on the street.

“I’m 46 years old,” Gilliam said. “I’m glad the police are here.”