KENNESAW — Madelyn Orochena was born and raised in Kennesaw, so Wildman’s Civil War Surplus, the Confederate-themed store in the city’s downtown, is nothing new to her.
About to begin her first term on the Kennesaw City Council, Orochena, 33, hopes to make the shop a relic, like the items it sells.
“I believe it holds us back,” Orochena said of the store.
Orochena told the MDJ she will work to get the store closed by legal action or through code enforcement. The business has continued to operate at 2879 N. Main St., despite protests from residents.
Blight complaints previously lodged against Wildman’s were dismissed in September 2022. At the time, Marjorie Lyon, who took over the store following the death of its founder-owner Dent Myers in January 2022, was miffed by the store’s opponents.
“People have their knickers in a twist,” Lyon told the MDJ at the time.
In the same interview, Lyon added that the city’s code reviews of the store showed its leaders caved to pressure from people who call for diversity of thought yet don’t extend the same courtesy to Wildman’s.
“They were getting hit with emails and letters and demands,” she said.
The second go-around
Closing Wildman’s was the cornerstone of Orochena’s first campaign for City Council Post 1, which she lost in a bizarre turn of events in the days after the Nov. 8, 2022 special election.
That race was to fill former Councilman James “Doc” Eaton’s seat, who resigned his position five months earlier over the reopening of Wildman’s (the store briefly closed after Myers died before Lyon resurrected it).
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