The parking situation at the El Tequila in Madill has been a hot topic in Marshall County over the last few months. The business for the local hot spot was affected almost immediately when barricades were put up on the neighboring property decreasing the amount of parking for El Tequila and has left customers wondering where to park.
Manager Lourdes Garcia said that they noticed a drop in sales within the first two weeks after the barricades went up. El Tequila customers have used the old Madill Laser Tag parking lot since the restaurant opened.
“Our sales have definitely gone down, it’s confusing for the customers,” Garcia said. “Every single day I have a customer coming in saying ‘Hey, what is going on with your parking lot’.”
Garcia and her husband, Jose Garcia, have managed the restaurant located at 1st street in Madill for seven years and said they believe that the restricted access to the parking lot next door has been the cause. They said they know that they need to get ahold of somebody at Chickasaw.
“There is nothing I can do about it until we actually get a hold of someone from Chickasaw.”
Garica said that her boss and the owner of the building both knew that the parking lot was not a part of the restaurant's property, but always relied on access to it. They never expected something like this to happen after seven years of being open.
Garcia said that when a representative from the Chickasaw Nation came to the restaurant one day before the process of blocking off the property next door, they had no clue that the parking lot would be blocked off nor how it would affect their business the way that it has.
“They came one day before and they were like this is what we are going to do, here is a survey, we are just letting you know this area is going to be blocked off,” Garcia said.
A representative gave Garcie no explanation as to why the parking lot was going to be blocked off, but did say that one possible reason could be that on the survey the building on the property next door was labeled as “Boys and Girls Club '.
Being left with no other option, Garcia said she knew they would have to find a way to work around the situation and deal with it as best as they could.
“We are going to try to move some parking spaces around for now, but it definitely made an impact on our business.”
Garcia said she believes the parking lot ws blocked off because about three months ago, people began using the parking lot as an open flea market of sorts.
“It all really started because of that and whenever theydidcomeinhereandtalk to us they did say they didn’t want to be liable for anybody selling stuff or ‘parking in our area.”
Garcia also stated that working out a possible lease agreement for use of the parking lot would be an ideal resolution to the situation. However, they haven’t had any luck reaching a representative. They reached out to the Madill City Manager, James Fullingim, in hopes of finding someone to reach out to; but have not been able to obtain any contact information.
Garcia said that even though they have not made any public announcements their regulars have been very understating and they will continue to work on finding a solution.
Madill Record’s attempts to reach the Chickasaw Nation have been unsuccessful to date.