Volunteers wash cars in hopes of

Lenoir City family karaoke club may close due to foreclosure

JOSH AULT-6 News Reporter

LENOIR CITY (WATE) - A community has come together to save a family karaoke club in Lenoir City.

LC Family Fun and Karaoke Club on Old Highway 95 opened three and a half years ago.

The owner says the recession has caused the building to go into foreclosure, but that is not keeping the kids who come there from working on trying to save it.

Cierra Bibens, 14, and Jada Allison, 12, love singing karaoke at the club. They say coming here on Friday and Saturday nights keep them out of trouble.

"It gets you away from all your family problems and hang out with friends," Allison. said

"To get away from all the drama and to hang with my friends, and be happy and stuff," Bibens said.

Along with karaoke, this club also provides other activities, including basketball, pool and line dancing.

"We've had some good times, but with the economy, it's been slow," club owner Melody Cotner said.

Cotner says the building is now in foreclosure, and is scheduled to be sold on July 24.

Teenagers who frequent to the club have come together to try to save it. They started a bake sale Friday night, and plan to have a car wash on Saturday.

Allison said she and the other children are willing to work for the funds to help keep their center open, but they need the community's assistance.

"Help with the fundraiser," Allison said. "We can use all we can get."

Cotner says she is doubtful the last minute fund raisers will save the building, so she is looking at other alternatives.

"I'm looking for a place to take it to a smaller location and with the fundraising, help us to get in a smaller building unit to help them still have a place to go," Cotner said.

She says Saturday will be the last day for the club to be open unless something happens to save the building.

The bake sale and car wash will continue Saturday from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

For more information, you can call 865-332-0957 or 865-816-6060.

Volunteers wash cars in hopes of saving Lenoir City karaoke club

JESSA LEWIS-6 News Reporter

LENOIR CITY (WATE) - Saturday is the last night for a popular Lenoir City teen hotspot.

6 News reported that the Lenoir City Family and Karaoke Club located on Old Highway 95 is shutting its doors at midnight, because their building is going through a foreclosure.

For the past three and a half years, Lenoir City teens have had a safe place to hang out and be themselves.

"I grew up here and there wasn't a thing to do. We didn't have anything. We had a roller skating place, it closed down. We had a bowling alley, it closed down," explained owner Melody Cotner. "There's nothing really for the children to do, so I though what better thing than open it up for the children to have a safe place that they can come to and their parents would know they've safe."

With the news of the building's looming foreclosure, several of the regulars are pitching in to help save the club.

"Since I graduated high school. Just something to do, stay out of trouble, just keep my mind pre-occupied and stuff like that.make sure to have fun and be who I am just hanging out I guess," said volunteer Mick Rhymes.

The car wash and bake sale are an attempt at raising the money so the club can move elsewhere, but Cotner says it will cost about $1,000 a month to keep it running.

"Still trying to work on that so that's why we're trying to raise money today to go toward that so we can move, if we don't we will be closed and there will not be anymore karaoke club in Lenoir City," Cotner added.

If you would like to donate to keep the club open, call (865) 256-9264.