Marble Hill plans meeting for owners flood-damaged businesses

A town hall meeting for Bollinger County businesses recovering from flood damage will be at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Bollinger County Library.

Organized by business leaders in the community, the meeting is for anyone with commercial property within the flood plain in Bollinger County, and is advertised as an "informational and brainstorming meeting about how to work with the governmental agencies that deal with flooding."

According to a flier distributed by the library, representatives from Regional Planning, National Resources Conservation Service, SEMA and local officials will be present to answer questions.

Jer Thorne, owner of Jer's Restaurant in Marble Hill, said he's interested to find out what will be available to help businesses at the meeting. Jer's wasn't able to reopen until Saturday, almost a month after the flood. Thorne said his building had three to four inches of mud caked on the floor and up to 21 inches of flood water inside, requiring the replacement of carpet, drywall, insulation, kitchen equipment and more.

Jay Santi of Jay's BBQ said he was thankful his restaurant didn't suffer as much damage as others, though he did have to close the doors for a couple of days to clean up the mud.

Santi said he was impressed with how businesses pulled together to help each other during the crisis.

"Bill Fetterhoff with Pizza Pro sent over pizzas for us to eat while we cleaned up, and that was so nice of them; we all help each other when it's needed," Santi said.

Santi also expressed thanks to the Marble Hill Fire and Rescue volunteers who pressure-washed the mud from city parking lots and streets, making it easier for business owners to get into their buildings and back to business.