Short-term rental debate goes long at council | After tense exchanges, city charts middle path

Everyone who stood up to speak on short-term rentals had plenty of time at the podium Dec. 18 – it made the Gladewater City Council’s meeting a bit longer, a bit more contentious, perhaps, but everyone got their say.
More than once, in some cases. Both sides said their piece, at length.
That was the goal, Mayor Brandy Flanagan said during the council’s final meeting of 2025: The issue of ‘If’ or, more likely, ‘How’ AirBNBs, VRBOs and the like will continue on the shores of Lake Gladewater (and elsewhere in the community) needed to be aired out fully before local elected officials and their legal counsel could really dig into the details and chart a path forward.
“It was important to me to give whatever time,” she said, to city and county residents as well as the owners of properties currently being rented on leases held by the municipality. The topic was first discussed in public session in September: “This agenda item has been a three-month time they’ve been waiting on, and they deserve to all be heard.”
With numerous audience members standing by to weigh in, and with the city attorney’s clock running, the council moved up their planned Executive Session discussion from the end of the meeting. The elected officials spent a bit more than half an hour in consultation with counsel, Ronald Stutes, before returning to open the mic and relax the typical time limit on speakers.
“The council has been pretty transparent about how we want to come to a middle ground on this,” Flanagan said. “We want to allow AirBNB and rentals, but we want to have regulations that protect our residents.
“What we’re trying to do is create consistency and create… regulations that protect our residents, protect our lake, but also allow for short-term rentals to be in our city.”
Jimmy Paul McMahon, a White Oak resident who rents out his lake home, underscored his careful vetting of would-be renters.
“I’m very strict on who I let on my property,” he said. “If they don’t have a 4.5 or higher out of 5, I won’t entertain it. I have a lot invested in my property and I want it taken care of.”
East Lake Drive resident Ed Long emphasized the tourism benefit he’s seen through his home-turned-rental.
“We’ve had probably 25 bookings,” he said, “and had no problems with anybody at all.
“They go to town and they buy groceries. They go to the restaurants and eat.”
South Lake Drive resident Ken Collyer is leading the charge to restrict rentals, and his frustration was evident last month.
“Did I buy residential property or did I buy commercial property?” he asked. “Are you going to mandate that rentals are ADA compliant? How are you going to collect the hotel tax?”
Likewise for Upshur County Judge Todd Tefteller and lake resident Mike Atkins. Atkins doesn’t rent out his lake house, but he’s had his fill unpleasant encounters with rowdy renters nearby.
“Far as them going and buying groceries and all, I don’t see that,” Atkins said. “People walking in my yard at 11, 12, 1 o’clock in the morning… I shouldn’t have to put up with this at my home. Would y’all want it next to you? How are you going to monitor all this? Who’s going to be the enforcement, is what I would like to know.”
The city’s mid-process, councilman Kevin Clark said from the dais, just a few feet away from where Stutes was dutifully tracking questions, concerns and complaints.
“Tonight was an interesting microcosm of exactly what we’re doing here,” Clark said. “Extremely responsible renters… Extremely opposed residents.”
The problematic rental-owners were conspicuously absent, he added.
“I don’t want someone walking on my property at 1 o’clock in the morning. I promise you, we are taking it all into consideration.”