Lexington, KY - It was a morning that Roy Bowen and Scott Leedy, the owners of RS Guitarworks, will never forget.
"That horrific morning when Roy called me, Ö I was on my way out the door anyway, and Roy was here first and said, 'Get down here, the building is flooded,'" said Leedy. "I turned the corner, and all the way out to the streetlight, it was flooded."
Upon entering the building, Leedy and Bowen were greeted with a harbinger of the damage they would discover: the body of a bass belonging to Tom Petersson, the bassist for Cheap Trick, floating in the middle of their tech room.
Further inspection began to paint a clear picture of the devastation caused by the Spring 2008 flood. A box of guitar pickups, valued at between $4,000 and $5,000, was found completely underwater. Vintage velvet-lined guitar cases had soaked water more than a foot up the lining. All the computers of the business had been sitting on the floor when the water came in and were destroyed. Even over a year later, finishes are falling off guitars soaked by the flood.
"Everything in the entire building was ruined - in our brand new building, that Roy and I took a leap of faith on and signed our lives away on," said Leedy.
"Turned into the community pool," added Bowen, laughing grimly.
All told, Leedy and Bowen estimated the total direct cost of the damage to their business was at least $150,000. It took two full weeks and over $1,250 in cleaning supplies to restore the business after the flood. That flood, and the ensuing damage, is now the subject of a lawsuit by RS Guitarworks against the city of Winchester.
RS Guitarworks sits in an industrial building next to railroad tracks a few blocks away from downtown Winchester. In this nondescript building, however, Leedy and Bowlen have created a reputation for building and customizing high-end guitars. From humble beginnings as a basement hobby, Bowen and Leedy now serve such notable clients as Joe Perry from Aerosmith, Rick Nielson from Cheap Trick and Joe Walsh from The Eagles. They also currently have a contract to put aged finishes on guitars from G&L Musical Instruments. At their peak before the flood, they put their gross yearly revenue at nearly three-quarters of a million dollars. They estimate that this number has been scaled back by at least a third as a result of the flood and other black economic tidings.
"The horrible thing is the flood hit at about the same time as the economy seemed to tank," said Bowen.
The flood in April of 2008 was not the first time the property had been flooded under their ownership, however. The first flood came during construction of the building in August of 2007.
"During the process, [the builders] had the foundation and they had the outer shell and they had just started the interior, Ö and the building flooded out. The city said, 'Pour the pad - the floor - higher. Pour the concrete another four inches (higher),'" said Leedy. "So, we complied and did it five inches."
The flooding had been caused by an improperly maintained storm water drain off the front corner of the building. In November of 2007, in response to concerns about the flooding, the City of Winchester asked for and was granted an easement of 15 feet around the drain. The deed of easement states that the easement was given by RS Guitarworks "for and in consideration of storm sewer improvements to be performed by" the city of Winchester.
After that, Bowen said, "We never saw them again."
The second, disastrous flood came five months later, and Leedy and Bowen went to the city to ask for help with the matter.
"They were very quick to tell us, 'No,'" said Leedy. "They weren't interested and told us to call our insurance company."
Desperate for help, they then called CSX Railroad, who owned the land above the malfunctioning drain pipe. CSX quickly came out and began to work, eventually replacing the pipe running away from the drain on RS Guitarworks property. CSX discovered the cause of the flooding to be a section of the drain pipe that had been installed in 1916 and had caved in, blocking the flow of storm water.
Since the flood, Bowen and Leedy have tried several times to get the city involved in the damage recovery. Once, they attended a city commission meeting to voice their concerns, only to be rebuffed by the mayor with the statement, "We'll get some people working on it."
They have since filed their lawsuit against the city. When contacted by e-mail, City Manager Ken Kerns replied that he had been advised not to comment, as a lawsuit had been filed. Mayor Ed Burtner had no comment, other than to say that the city would "aggressively defend" against the lawsuit.
The proprietors of RS Guitarworks feel that there was no way they could have foreseen the damage from flooding that occurred and that the city is responsible. They were unaware of the particular flooding problem with their property and only learned of the propensity to flood after the fact. The City of Winchester has ordinances in place that concern "Flood Damage Prevention," but since the property is not in a "special flood hazard" area (as determined by findings from the Federal Emergency Management Agency), no ordinances or statutes exist for building standards that could have prevented damage from the flood.
For Roy Bowen, the flooding problem boils down to one issue.
"The city was still not willing to take responsibility for the part of the drain that they legally accepted the responsibility for," he said.
Bowen and Leedy hope to change that through their lawsuit.
In the meantime, RS Guitarworks has compiled an online dossier of pictures, videos and documents about the flooding, available at: www.rsguitarworks.net/flood.