SPOKANE, Wash. --- A summer tradition for many South Hill residents, the Rocket Market concerts are a regular evening event in the Comstock neighborhood.
However, some neighbors have decided to sue the local grocery store and venue because of the noise and the allegedly rowdiness of people who attend the concerts.
Another neighbor, Kate Pogue Rau took to NextDoor – a social media application for specific neighborhoods - to rally support for the local grocery store after hearing news of the suit.
“The Rocket Market is the gem of our neighborhood!” she said in a message to KREM 2.
When her other neighbors online responded with words of encouragement and she spoke to the owners, Pogue Rau started a GoFundMe account to help Rocket Market handle their legal costs. As of Tuesday, the site had raised over $6,000.
“I believe this lawsuit is totally frivolous, and fighting it is going to be expensive,” she said.
One of the owners, Alan Shepherd said they are just trying to figure out what to do next.
“We actually found out about this from the news, so we just got an attorney on Thursday,” Shepherd said. “They sent us a letter saying if we didn’t stop, they would sue us back in September, and we didn’t hear anything else until like, last week.”
In a lawsuit filed last week, a few nearby households claimed the music keeps them up at night, is too loud for them to hear the television, and people attending the concerts have damaged their landscaping, littered and even urinated in their yards.
The neighbors who filed the lawsuit claim to have incurred costs for sound proofing and landscaping repairs and medical costs for psychological treatment. The lawsuit also references the “chronic noise exposure” that the neighbors claim affects their physical, emotional and psychological health.
Shepherd has said previously they reduced the number of concerts to two per week and changed the hours of music to be between 7:30-9:30 p.m.
“These folks have suffered for a long time and they want the Rocket Market to be a good neighbor, but unfortunately that has not been the case,” wrote the attorney for the neighbors who filed the suit. “Real damage has been done to these people’s lives and they deserve their day in court.”
PREVIOUS: Neighbors plan to sue Rocket Market
“I just want to really stress how wonderful it is that people come from all over the city to enjoy these beautiful warm summer nights,” said Pogue Rau. “Living nearby is a privilege and again, it's WHY I live where I do.”
Shepherd said the lawsuit does not prevent them from holding concerts at this time, so they are booking bands for the summer season.
“That’s the other part of it, in the last year we raised $40,000 for different non-profits with these concerts,” Shepherd said.
He said they are very thankful for the community support they have received since news of the lawsuit broke.
“We’re just super grateful to our customers and supporters,” he said. “It’s been absolutely overwhelming, it’s been very stressful in the last few days as we try to figure out what we’re going to do.”
Any unused proceeds from the GoFundMe fundraiser will go to the college fund for Isamu 'Som' Jordan's children. He was a local musician and writer, who died in 2013.
