Story Published:
Oct 9, 2009 at 5:48 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Oct 9, 2009 at 5:48 PM CDT
On the Finley River in Ozark, floodwaters have pushed out of the banks and invaded the Riverside Inn once again. The owners have said the next damaging flood would be the last, and they would close the restaurant.
Friday night, they're checking to see just how much damage the flooding has done, and say they'll make some sort of decision on closing Saturday.
If or when the Riverside Inn closes, the property it sits on could be bought out with federal dollars. But the FEMA grant application is also causing some concern; The Christian County treasurer as well as another person called the Attorney General's office, concerned that open records law may have been violated.
KY3 obtained the invoice Christian County received from Great River Engineering for their work on the FEMA grant application for Riverside Inn. The grant helps the county to purchase and demolish the restaurant.
"I think Eric and Lisa were tired. They have flooded several times over the years, and Eric found this grant on the internet, and he approached me about the possibility of running it through the county," says Presiding Christian County Commissioner John Grubaugh.
"I normally receive the Christian County Commission agenda, and I had seen nothing about a meeting about this riverside Inn acquisition, and as I understand, the county will, at some point in time, acquire this property, and I thought it might be pertinent that the county had a meeting about this," says Arendt.
The County Clerk tells KY3, the issue has never been on a commission meeting agenda. Grubaugh says meetings with input from other commissioners and citizens will come, and the grant process is far from finished. "We would have a meeting to discuss whether or not the county would want to continue with the grant application, or whether the county would walk away and not do it, and Eric and Lisa would have the same opportunity to do that," Grubaugh says.
Arendt says, "I believe it should be looked into, and if everything turns out fine, fine with me."
The Attorney General tells us it would be up to FEMA if the grant process would be put on hold because of the concern over Sunshine law. It's not yet known if the law was violated, and we have tried to reach FEMA officials, with no reply yet.
Riverside Inn's owners told KY3 on the phone, they were concerned about bringing up the grant application too early, because folks may think they would need to cancel their reservations, when the entire grant process, they were told, could take up to two years.
