An estimated 100 people packed the Town Council's Work Session and Action Meeting Wednesday morning — filling the room and spilling into the hallway — for the latest chapter in the fight over Lured Market & Grill's lease. Cara Brock held up a rent check on camera and asked the Council to take it and move on. The Council didn't. And when this reporter asked from the audience whether the decision to terminate the lease had ever been put to a formal Council vote, no one answered.

This is a follow-up to our August 25 report, Filed at 3:27 P.M. — Before the Hearing, Not After, and our August 24 report, The Lease the Council Actually Approved.

A room built for fewer people

Lake Lure's meeting space wasn't built to hold Wednesday's crowd. Several attendees, including this reporter, questioned afterward why the Town hadn't moved the meeting to a larger space — the facility's lobby area, for instance — given how much interest the lease dispute has already generated over the past week.

The Council allowed three minutes of public comment per speaker and did not take questions from the floor.

Unanimous in the room

Roughly 30 people spoke during public comment, and the sentiment in the room was, by this reporter's count, unanimous in support of keeping Lured Market & Grill in place — including about eight speakers who identified themselves as vendors or employees of the Market. Several vendors described the business as central to their livelihoods, noting that they live in Lake Lure, work in Lake Lure, and spend what they earn in Lake Lure. One speaker described plans to open a local-artist corner inside the Market, featuring work from area artists.

Some speakers were candid about where they thought Second Mountain LLC — the Brocks' company — had gotten it wrong. Several acknowledged that changing the locks on the police boathouse without first talking to the Town probably wasn't the right way to handle the dispute, and that a different approach might have avoided much of what followed. But the overriding message, repeated speaker after speaker, was a request — bordering on a plea — that the Town work something out with the Market rather than let the lease termination stand.

Paul Brock spoke second-to-last. He thanked the crowd for its support and said he was simply trying to bring fun, music, food and a sense of community to Lake Lure. He declined credit for the town's Hurricane Helene relief effort, attributing that work instead to Lured Market's staff and the broader community. He also raised the stakes directly: if the Market's lease is lost, he said, the Brocks will likely have to close their original Lured Market & Grill location too, since the two businesses have become financially intertwined.

Nick Sottile, owner of the Smokehouse Restaurant, spoke to thank Paul and Cara Brock for letting him run mobile food service out of the Market's location during Helene recovery — support he said the Brocks provided without ever charging him a cent or asking for anything in return.

The check, the chant, and "there are procedures"

Cara Brock spoke last, and delivered the moment of the morning. She told the Council the boathouse no longer mattered to her and Paul — that they simply wanted the entire dispute behind them — and held up a check for the Market's rent, asking the Council directly whether they'd accept it and move forward. In exchange, she said, Second Mountain would drop its boathouse lawsuit and abandon its claim to the boathouse clause in the lease altogether.

Town Attorney Marty Benson responded that the offer had never been raised during mediation. Paul Brock, from the crowd, called that characterization false. (On a separate, earlier occasion, Paul has said the Brocks brought multiple proposed solutions to the Town, and that Town Manager Olivia Stewman rejected each of them — a claim this reporter has not independently verified and is noting here as a prior statement, not something said at Wednesday's meeting.)

Part of the crowd began a brief chant of "take the check." Mayor Carol Pritchett looked toward Benson, who shook his head no. She then told the room she was sorry, but the Town couldn't do that — there were procedures that had to be followed. Benson added that because the Brocks now have legal representation, any resolution would have to go through their attorney rather than be accepted on the spot. He told the crowd he would "forgo his breakfast" and reach out to the Brocks' lawyer after the meeting concluded.

Commissioner Jim Proctor spoke up as well, saying that if the boathouse dispute were resolved, he didn't see a reason the Town couldn't move forward with the Market's lease and drop the eviction. As he has in prior public comments on this dispute, Proctor again described himself as speaking in a "private citizen" capacity, despite sitting at the dais with the rest of the Council.

Mayor Pritchett drew a comparison of her own: she told the room that during the Helene response, she and her neighbors on Firefly Cove had gone without power and pooled a shared generator and her Starlink connection — and that this, in her telling, was essentially the same kind of community response the Market had provided. The comparison drew notice in the room and, in this reporter's assessment, understates what the Market actually did: neighbors sharing a generator is a genuinely nice thing to do for each other, but it isn't the same as running a logistics hub that fed FEMA personnel, National Guard troops, and other relief and rescue workers free of charge for weeks.

What wasn't said

Nothing at Wednesday's meeting resolved the open question this outlet has been reporting on for the past several days: whether the Town Council ever formally authorized the decision to terminate Lured Market's lease, in open session, closed session, or at all. Asked directly, the Council offered no response. Benson's comments were about the mediation history and the process for handling Cara Brock's offer — not about how the termination decision itself was made in the first place.

Separately, as of this writing, the Town has not published minutes for any Council meeting since July 27, 2026 — meaning the public record of what's been discussed and decided at Town Hall over the past month, including whatever led to the August 18 termination letter, is not currently available for review.

What's next

Benson's commitment to contact the Brocks' attorney after the meeting is, for now, an open thread. Cara Brock's offer — full payment of rent in exchange for the Town dropping the boathouse fight — is on the table, but nothing said Wednesday committed the Town to accepting it, and the Town's own attorney was clear that any resolution will run through legal counsel rather than a handshake in a crowded meeting room.

Separately, this reporter has learned that the current list of names on the petition supporting Lured Market, along with the comments attached to those signatures, was forwarded to all four Town Commissioners and Mayor Pritchett Wednesday morning — putting the volume and content of public support for the Market directly in front of every elected official, regardless of what comes of Benson's outreach to the Brocks' attorney.

Lake Lure Insider will follow up on whether that outreach happens, and what, if anything, comes of it.

Sourcing Note

This account is Lake Lure Insider's own eyewitness report; our founder attended Wednesday's Work Session and Action Meeting in person and took notes throughout. Quoted phrases in quotation marks are ones this reporter is confident on the exact wording of; longer statements are described in reported/indirect speech rather than quoted directly, since this is based on notes rather than a verbatim transcript or recording. The Town of Lake Lure and Town Attorney Marty Benson had not been reached for additional comment beyond what's described above at the time of publication; this piece will be updated if and when they respond. Paul Brock's claim that the Town Manager rejected multiple proposed solutions from the Brocks was made on a separate, earlier occasion — not at Wednesday's meeting — and has not been independently verified by this reporter.

Last updated: 2026-08-26