HUNTINGTON, WV (WOWK) — The City of Huntington announced that the Public Outdoor Designated Area, or “PODA,” will have to pause for three hours on Thursday due to a concert being held at Pullman Square.
Normally, the PODA would operate on Thursdays and Fridays from 5 to 11 p.m. but according to a previous West Virginia state law, when a festival, fair, or in this case, a concert series is being held in the same area, the PODA has to be paused.
“The interpretation at the state level is that fairs and festivals could not operate within the PODA district at the same time as PODA hours,” owner of Summit Beer Station Jeff Mckay says referring to the previous state law.
Mckay is just one of many bar and restaurant owners affected by this and he says this is nothing new. “I immediately started talking to legislators when we found out this was going to be a pretty big hiccup for cities that have implemented PODA,” Mckay says.
The state law has been eliminated, but city officials still have to update their regulations which could take some time.
“There’s going to be growing pains and the next couple of pauses will be those growing pains, but we’ll get past it and we’ll be okay,” Mckay says.
Huntington city officials say these pauses are only temporary and they already have an ordinance that’s on its 2nd reading. This means they will be putting it to a vote at the next council meeting on June 10th.
In the meantime, business owners like Mckay say they’re just being patient as the process continues.