A fuller review of Wednesday's audio — provided to this reporter, and cross-checked against this reporter's own attendance and the Town's own records — fills in what came before and after the moments captured in our first report. For the first time, the Town read a detailed account of its own version of events into the record. An audience member who identified himself as an attorney raised a specific, serious question about the timing of the Town's eviction filing. And it turns out the boathouse and boat-dock plans at the center of this fight were part of the deal from the very beginning, not something Second Mountain invented later.

This is a follow-up to our August 26 report, Packed House, No Answers, and our August 25 report, Filed at 3:27 P.M. — Before the Hearing, Not After. Journalist Annie Dance, who publishes the newsletter Cops & Congress, also filmed Wednesday's meeting in full; her video is worth watching directly if you want to see it for yourself.

The Town's account, in its own words, for the first time

Before public comment opened, the presiding official read a prepared statement — the most detailed public account the Town has given since this started. It says Second Mountain entered the police boathouse in the fall of 2025, changed the locks, and moved belongings in without notice; that the Town asked the tenant to clear out ahead of refilling the lake, and when that didn't happen, removed the items itself and stored them (still available for pickup, per the Town); it references the June 2026 lawsuit, and says the Town offered "reasonable and generous terms" at the August 14 mediation — abide by the lease, Town stays out of the boathouse during litigation. It ends, mid-sentence in the transcript, noting Second Mountain "again defaulted" during the case. It's the fullest timeline the Town has offered — and it still doesn't answer whether Council ever voted to authorize termination.

This didn't come out of nowhere: the boat docks were in the deal from day one

A point worth making plainly, because it's easy to lose in a fight that now centers on locks and a single rent payment: the idea that this leased space would come with lake and dock access isn't something Second Mountain cooked up after moving in. It's in the Town's own record from the start of the lease process.

When the Town was fielding competing proposals to lease the former ABC Store property at 2654 Memorial Highway in late 2023, the winning bid wasn't Paul Brock's alone — it was a joint proposal from Wade Oppliger, Paul and Cara Brock, and Leslie Rowland. Per the Town's own November 29, 2023 work session minutes (preserved on page 47 of the December 12, 2023 meeting packet), that proposal was described this way: "Mr. Oppliger and Mr. Brock's proposal involves the use of the building, [scull] area, and boat docks," with the group proposing "$4,000 per month for rent of the building plus concession from Mr. Oppliger's non-motorized operations," and a further note that "Mr. Oppliger has proposed the deck on the back of the building but constructed with Town funds." (The competing bid, from Lake Lure Tours, Inc. and KML Investments, LLC, wanted only the building and parking signage, for $4,500 a month — no lake or dock component at all.)

In other words: the Town's own Council chose, in December 2023, to award this lease specifically because it included a plan built around the building, the water, and boat docks — brought to the table by Oppliger, the Brocks, and Rowland together. Whatever the merits of the current fight over the boathouse specifically, the broader idea that this tenant would be using lake and dock access wasn't a surprise, a stretch, or an after-the-fact justification. It's what the Town picked.

"Unbeknownst to us": the morning's most serious allegation

The sharpest moment of public comment didn't come from anyone connected to Lured Market. An audience member who identified himself as an attorney told the Council that when he saw the Town file its eviction action Monday afternoon (Aug. 24), he thought — had he represented the tenant — he'd have moved to dismiss it and sought sanctions. His reasoning: at Monday evening's meeting, asked directly what the Town wanted the building for, Mayor Pritchett said on the record that the Town had "no intent for the use of that building" — this reporter was in the room for that exchange and can confirm the mayor said it, not just relay the attorney's paraphrase. The other half of the claim — that the Town had already filed for eviction hours before that meeting started — isn't new either: this outlet reported it directly from the court record on August 25, having reviewed the complaint itself. The Town filed at 3:27 p.m. Monday, hours before the evening meeting where the mayor made her statement. The attorney in the crowd wasn't raising a new allegation; he was pointing at a sequence this outlet had already put on the record the day before.

A second business getting pulled down with it

New: Lake Lure Gym, in the same building, appears headed for the same fate. A resident said he, the gym's owners, and another local business figure had approached the Town about a separate "clean" lease to save it, and got on-record confirmation the Town was aware of that effort. Gym co-owner Leslie Rowland said she and her husband were already moving to sell the business before the eviction process began, and that the gym is now being told it owes Lured Market's share of the building's ~$4,000/month rent to keep its own space. A second, unrelated small business now looks genuinely at risk over the same dispute — worth its own follow-up.

The room, briefly

A longtime homeowner asked for a public accounting of legal spending — a question our pending records request is separately chasing. A retired attorney raised the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing against the Town's refusal of the rent tender. Vendors and residents described the market as central to Helene recovery and to daily life.

One of the more affecting moments came from an unexpected source: a letter written by Olivia, age 11, was read into the record on her behalf. In it, she described meeting Paul Brock as a six-year-old catching frogs behind the market, and asked the Council directly to find a way forward: "I may only be almost 12, but this town is my home. I care about it. I refuse to sit back." It's a reminder of how far this dispute's reach has extended beyond the adults negotiating it.

Where it landed

Second Mountain again offered to pay outstanding rent on the spot for lease reinstatement and dropping the boathouse claim. What happened next has, until now, been reported only secondhand or in general terms — but Commissioner Jim Proctor addressed it directly himself, posting on Facebook afterward because, in his words, "with all the posts and reporting I have seen about yesterday's Lake Lure Town Council meeting, none acknowledge what I said and Paul Brock's response." Per Proctor's own account:

"If Second Mountain [Lured Market in the old ABC store] stops pursuing the boathouse and they adhere to their lease, that's the solution. So, let's do it." — Commissioner Jim Proctor

"I'm happy to let the boathouse go." / "We need to stop this litigation." — Paul Brock, per Proctor

Proctor added: "I sure hope this happens." It's the clearest on-record statement yet from anyone on the Town's side that a specific deal — Second Mountain drops its boathouse claim, the Town reinstates the lease — was floated in the room and met with, at minimum, no objection from Paul Brock. Mayor Pritchett separately said the Town's attorney was legally barred from negotiating directly with Paul or Cara Brock now that they have counsel, and reiterated a commitment to reach out to that attorney the same day. Town Attorney Marty Benson cautioned against taking the check on the spot. The underlying eviction matter is confirmed for a hearing at 10 a.m. on September 3, per the complaint this outlet reviewed directly for its August 25 report.

Whether that outreach between attorneys happened, and what came of it, remains the open question this outlet had been following most closely — until the evening of August 27, when a source close to the negotiations told us that outreach had in fact happened, and that Second Mountain had tendered proposed terms for a revised lease. Read that update separately: The Attorneys Are Talking: Second Mountain Tenders Terms for a Revised Lease. What's still unanswered is whether the Town will say, on the record, what it actually wants that building for, and whether its own elected Council ever voted to put the Lured Market lease on this path in the first place.

Lake Lure Insider has submitted a public records request to the Town Clerk seeking Council communications, police and fire records, and other documents related to this dispute, and will update this reporting as records are produced or as the Town and Second Mountain's attorneys respond to requests for comment.

Sourcing Note

This account is built from a fuller review of Wednesday's meeting audio, provided to this reporter, cross-checked against this reporter's own attendance and firsthand recollection of statements made in the room — including Mayor Pritchett's "no intent for the use of that building" remark at Monday's meeting, which this reporter heard directly. Quoted phrases in quotation marks are believed accurate to the audio, or are pulled directly from primary documents and cited as such; portions of the audio were unclear in places, and passages affected by that are described in general terms rather than quoted directly. The claim that the original 2023 lease proposal included boat dock and lake access is drawn directly from the Town's own November 29, 2023 work session minutes and the December 12, 2023 meeting packet. Commissioner Jim Proctor's account of his exchange with Paul Brock, and Paul Brock's quoted response, are drawn from Proctor's own public Facebook post under his own name. The eviction filing's timing, case number, and September 3 hearing date were established through this outlet's own direct review of the court complaint, first reported August 25 in "Filed at 3:27 P.M. — Before the Hearing, Not After." Video of Wednesday's meeting is also available via journalist Annie Dance / Cops & Congress, credited and linked above. 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.

Last updated: 2026-08-27