WARNER ROBINS – Mike Black insists he’s not out to destroy Chuck Shaheen, but only to protect his own credibility and good name.

Shaheen, facing a Dec. 1 mayoral run-off election with Chuck Chalk, has denied discouraging Black from opening another Meldino’s restaurant on Commercial Circle, a historic area near the intersection of Watson Boulevard and Davis Drive where the city owns the buildings and leases space to various merchants.

Black said he went public with his story---granting interviews last week to WMAZ-TV and WMAC radio---only when he heard Shaheen’s denials and after Shaheen’s mother, Barbara, reportedly told several people attending a Nov. 17 mayoral forum at City Hall that Black was a “liar and not to believe anything he said.”

“It’s wrong for (Shaheen) to deny what he said,” Black emphasized. “It wasn’t a misunderstanding. He told me to discontinue my efforts on Commercial Circle. That’s what he said and what he meant.”

Shaheen, asked about Black’s comments last weekend, said he is trying to figure out why Black believes he would discourage the opening of a new restaurant at the Commercial Circle location.

“I don’t have the authority to do that,” he said. “I’m a mayoral candidate. It’s his money, his business. How could I logically be an influence on his business? I have done nothing but support businesses on Commercial Circle. He has misinterpreted everything.”

Black said the initial exchange came in early fall when Shaheen and other members of his family visited his Centerville Meldino’s on Oct. 2.

“He said he felt I should discontinue my expansion to Commercial Circle because the city should not be in the leasing business,” Black recalled. “He said the city needed to level the area and start over.”

Black told Shaheen he had a signed agreement with the city and had invested too much money to back out.

“It put fear in me that I would lose everything if he’s elected mayor,” the Kathleen resident said. “So I called a couple of city councilmen to verify that I was covered.”

John Williams, council point man for Commercial Circle development, confirmed receiving a call from Black. Williams said tearing down existing buildings and starting over would not happen – at least not in this lifetime.

“Not with the economy like it is,” Williams stressed. “It would take millions of dollars. The buildings are sound. They are good structures. And we’re working on a number of things including providing additional parking.”

Williams said he told Black that a mayor cannot take unilateral action in this case.

“It takes four votes from the council,” Williams stressed. “The mayor can’t do anything like that.”

Gary Lee, executive director of the city’s redevelopment agency, said Commercial Circle rehab has already begun, with a focus on infrastructure improvements such as drainage, sidewalks and parking.

“For example, water backs up there when we have a hard rain, so we’re bringing in an engineering group to let us know what we need to do,” Lee said.

There is no plan to level the area and start over.

“There are too many people over there. You can’t level McCall’s and Ace Hardware,” Lee confirmed. “Even though we’ve refaced the buildings, that’s not how they’re going to look in the future. They’re going to look totally different. The plan we have is a great visionary plan.”

Black said he was willing to drop the issue until the media got wind of it last week. “I don’t know how that happened,” he said. “I certainly didn’t call them.”

The Northside High School graduate said he believes Shaheen wanted to discourage competition for McCall’s restaurant, a Commercial Circle fixture for many years.

“He’s close friends with the McCalls and I think he’s worried about them,” he said. “Right now, they’re busy and take up most of the noon-time parking. When I came in, I’ll be busy also and the parking situation will be a problem.”

Shaheen said Black brought up McCall’s during their October conversation.

“I said, ‘What?’ Competition is good,’ ” The mayoral candidate said his response was “If you have more restaurants on Commercial Circle, more people will come down there. I told him I would help him, promote his business, eat at his restaurant.”

Ken McCall confirmed that Shaheen has been a customer at his restaurant for many years. “And he’s always asked me why we can’t get more restaurants down here,” McCall added. “A similar restaurant on the other side of the circle would be great. Anything that brings people in would help us all. There’s no doubt that he supports my business and that he’s a supporter of business in general.”

However, McCall concedes that an abiding concern has been parking, an issue he’s been trying to work for the last ten years.

“And I’ve gotten no where with the city,” he reported.

As for the Black – Shaheen disagreement, McCall said there are almost always two sides to any story.

“And usually the truth lies in the middle,” he said. “It’s a ‘he-said, she-said’ kind of thing.”

Shaheen has questioned the timing of Black’s public interviews, particularly since they came days before the run-off election.

Black said he doesn’t care who wins the election. “I don’t live in the city. I can’t vote,” he indicated. “I’m just trying to salvage my reputation.”

Chuck Chalk, Shaheen’s opponent in the run-off, said any implication that the disagreement was coming from his camp is ridiculous.

“Mike Black and I have had maybe one conversation,” Chalk said. “I heard he was coming to Commercial Circle so I went to his Centerville restaurant and talked with him. I’ve done that with several businesses. That’s the extent of our relationship.”

As for the reported comments by his mother, Shaheen said he had not talked with her about it.

“I’m learning in this political environment that you have to really come together with people you can trust,” he noted. “I trust my mama. Who better to trust? If she said something and there was a misinterpretation, then I can’t speak for her. I trust and love my mom and I’m standing by her.”

Gena Vaughn, owner of Flamingo Follies on Commercial Circle, attended the Nov. 17 mayoral forum and confirmed that Barbara Shaheen told her Black was lying.

“She was confrontational and jabbing her finger at me,” Vaughn said. “Barbara was animated and I guess under a lot of pressure. She called the next day and apologized.”

Vaughn supports Meldino’s coming to the area. She said she gets mixed signals from Shaheen on his support for businesses.

“Customers know the battle I’ve been fighting to be here,” she noted.

Black, who plans to open the Commercial Circle restaurant in December, said he wished the incident had never happened. “The only reason I’m doing this is because he’s denying it,” he offered. “It’s making me look like a liar and I’m not a liar. I have no reason to lie.”

Black said he has decided not to be a member of the silent majority. “That’s why this world is in the shape it’s in,” he indicated. “It’s the loud minority that gets things done. This has put me in a place where I had to back up my words. That’s why I’m fighting this.”