Long Branch Entertainment Will Host “Rally in the Valley”

After an exciting special called planning commission meeting on Thursday, August 2nd that left the commission undecided, Pickens County Planning and Development Director Joey Low has allowed Long Branch Entertainment to host a one-time event called “Rally in the Valley”.In the meeting on Thursday, the planning commission was left undecided on whether or not to grant Long Branch Entertainment a special conditional use request to allow for a music and event venue on a 193 acre piece of property, formally the site of an Arcadia Wildlife Reserve.

This would mark the second planning commission meeting the company had been to after the decision was postponed on July 9th after Low said he would,

“like to have a meeting between Long Branch Entertainment representatives and County representatives to make sure the venue would be managed properly. “

Long Branch Entertainment, expecting the request to be approved on Thursday, once again left empty handed after several neighbors from the Long Branch area spoke out against the conditional use request.

“Our biggest concern is Long Branch Road is very narrow and very dangerous,”

said Peter Jennings, a member of the Long Branch community. Jennings continued speaking on behalf of the Long Branch community by saying that their biggest concern was for the safety of the people who would be traveling down Long Branch Road to get to the event. The plans for the event by Long Branch Entertainment is to have all cars, motorcycles, and emergency vehicles travel down Big Ridge Road to get to the event and all other bigger vehicles, such as campers and recreational vehicles, travel down Long Branch Road.

After hearing similar comments from three other members of the Long Branch community, the planning commission was left undecided on what to do on the subject, because the commission had thought all safety issues had already been addressed and investigated by Pickens County Chief Fire Marshall Curtis Clark.

The planning commission then asked Clark if he thought access to the event on Long Branch Road was indeed difficult.

Clark did not think access from the road caused a problem.

“We have had fire equipment down the road before,”

said Clark. He also informed the commission that as far as getting patients out of the event, the County had set up an area to allow a Med-E-Vac to be established on the property in the event a life flight is needed.

“There are issues with the road, but is it inaccessible to us, no,”

said Clark.

At this point, the planning commission meeting ended with the commission again postponing the Long Branch Entertainment request because of the new safety concerns.

After reporting last month that Long Branch Entertainment stood to lose around $30,000 if they were not granted the special use request in time before its scheduled “Rally in the Valley”, FYN sought to learn more about Long Branch Entertainment’s plans.

On Monday, August 6th, FYN was greeted by Long Branch Entertainment representatives Jerry Wyrosdick and Jay Bird to a tour of the 193 piece of property, once the home to such exotic animals as lemurs, giraffes, elk, and even the home of the infamous 1996 Atlanta Olympic stadium invader, “Stadium the Fox”.

While on the tour, FYN also learned that Planning and Development Director Joey Low had allowed the company to hold a one-time event in order to host their upcoming motorcycle rally “Rally in the Valley”.

The plan, both Wyrosdick and Bird said, is for the Planning Commission to determine after the event if the property is suitable to be a music and event venue.

Since loud noise was also one of the major concerns at the first planning commission meeting about the event, the planning commission plans to compare the venue to other music venues in the state of Georgia, such as Chastain Park and the Verizon Amphitheatre. Currently, a sound ordinance does not exist for Pickens County, but a future sound ordinance is planned that Long Branch Entertainment and all future music venues would have to abide by.

If the event is successful, Wyrosdick and Bird told FYN that they plan to host other events in the future that will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project and the Girl Scouts of America.

Long Branch Entertainment representative Bird also told FYN that he thinks the venue could be a big economic boom for the community,

“We just want to do some good for the locals,”

said Bird.

“Rally in the Valley” is scheduled to start at 2:00 p.m. August 10th at 2083 Long Branch Road in Ranger, GA. The event will continue on August 11th and 12th and will feature the band “Skinny Molly” with former Lynyrd Skynyrd band member Mike Estes, Dave Hlubek of Molly Hatchet, and Jay Johnson of Blackfoot.