By Martha Jacob –
Ripley Village Mayor Tom Leonard announced at council’s June 14 meeting that Odyssey Canvas Works, Inc. would be leasing the old shoe factory building as a temporary place to operate the business after losing nearly everything in a fire on May 27.
Owner operator of Odyssey Canvas, Bob Blom said in a phone interview that he is working hard to get back up to full operation, and is currently operating out of three different locations in order to fulfill his obligations to customers.
“I’m operating partially out of our burned out building, plus a location owned by Jim Griffith and now the old shoe factory,” Blom said. “I have six employees and we are struggling to get all our orders out, but we’re doing it. I do plan to rebuild at our location, it’s just going to take some time.”
Odyssey Canvas Works, Inc. has been a locally owned and operated business in 1962, specializing in manufacturing custom fabric and aluminum awnings, signs, electric signs, letter signs and signs advertising specialties manufacturers.
“We are glad to have Bob renting the shoe factory,” Mayor Leonard said. “I need for council to approve the contract with Odyssey. This is a good business for our village and we need to do what we can to get him back and keep him here.”
Council immediately approved the contract of $500 per month for rent in the shoe factory.
In other actions Administrator Pete Renshaw talked briefly about at least four recent power outages in two weeks .and issues he was having with fallen branches over power lines that had to be addressed. He said Georgetown, Russellville and Higginsport had the same experience. He said he would be launching an aggressive tree trimming project in cooperation with Duke Energy.
Renshaw said the village has not experienced any more vandalism in the past couple of weeks and he was happy to report that. He said that police officers had discussed the issue with some young people in the village and hopefully the vandalism will stop.
“We’ve been busy filling in potholes on our streets,” Renshaw said. “They’ve all been filled with hot mix, and they’re in good shape right now. Also, the Women’s Club has donated to the dog waste stations, which will be here in about a week so we’ll be getting them installed.
Councilman Travis Arnett told council that he was going to look into what it would cost to place surveillance cameras at the ball park near the village bathrooms. Councilwoman Nowana Bingaman said that the Ripley Life Squad has surveillance cameras everywhere and invited Mayor Leonard to inspect them and see how well they operate before making any purchase.