19-04-2025
Carter Co. Car Club Cruise-ins moved to Elizabethton High School parking lot
ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (WJHL) – The Carter County Car Club has moved the start of its seasonal cruise-ins from downtown Elizabethton on East Elk Avenue to the parking lot of Elizabethton High School's (EHS) stadium due to the temporary closure of the Broad Street Bridge.
The Broad Street Bridge has been closed since Hurricane Helene due to structural damage sustained from the storm. The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) originally said the bridge was slated to be back open in late May. That has now been pushed back to early July.
A lot of traffic is now rerouted through downtown Elizabethton because of that closure.
In the past, the cruise-ins have caused tension between downtown business owners and the car club.
Some said it helped their business on Saturday evenings, while others said it hurt their sales instead.
David Williams, a manager at Dino's Restaurant in downtown Elizabethton, said he doesn't think the car show being moved will affect Dino's revenue much.
'We would stay full pretty much from the time it started till the time we closed,' Williams said. 'But as far as the car show actually affecting our bottom line for it not being here, that will be negligible just because of the fact that I had to have so much extra help and had to prep so much extra food that it's kind of a wash in the end.'
Prepping that much food wasn't always a win for Dino's on Saturday evenings.
'Then there are other times when the weather would have an effect, like it would be nice all day and we prepare all this food and then it would start raining about 4:30 [p.m.], and then the car show would get canceled. And then, unfortunately, at the end of the night, I'd have a bunch of food to throw out.'
Williams believes his customers generally didn't have a problem with the weekly car cruise-ins. However, he said it might've kept some away.
'I think some of our regular customers just avoided downtown on car show nights just because it was so hectic. So, without the car show, more of our regular customers will probably come in on Saturdays. '
'I never heard any complaints. Some just thought maybe having it every week for five, six months was maybe overkill. They would sometimes say, 'why don't they just have it twice a month or once a month?' Because they'd like to come down here more often on Saturday, but they just don't like fighting all the traffic and everything like that on Saturday nights when the car show's going on.'
Whitney Johnson, owner of The Wicked Whit, said during the cruise-ins, she would stay open later. She also said she would get more foot traffic and make more sales during that time.
News Channel 11 visited other businesses along East Elk Avenue about the change. They didn't want to speak on-camera, but said the change of pace is needed.
'I've not talked to anyone specifically, but I just heard rumblings that some of them love the car show, they love the atmosphere of it,' Williams said. 'And then others thought that they were actually losing business because of the parking situation and things like that.'
Williams said the cruise-ins also helped bring in a lot of people from out of town.
'Some people came as far away as Virginia and North Carolina to come to the car show. So it was great having tourists in town. So I kind of wish it was still going on. But at the same time, as far as me personally, our business, it's not going to have a big effect on us.'
The Carter County Car Club will have its first cruise-in of the year on May 31 in the EHS parking lot from 5 to 9 p.m. It will continue there every Saturday night until July.
Jim Bass, President of the Carter County Car Club, said he hopes to move the cruise-ins back downtown after the Broad Street Bridge reopens.
He will make a request to the Elizabethton City Council for the move.
News Channel 11 will have an interview with members of the Carter County Car Club before their first cruise-in of the year.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
