Logan County Wedding Venue Owner Says Damaged Roads Causing Decline In Business

“We built the venue and we put everything we own into it,” said Bruce Temple, the owner of Rustic Rose Barn. 

Temple and his wife opened for business last year expecting to host a lot of weddings, but because of damaged Logan County roads, they have lost some business.

“Every time someone doesn’t come, and they pick a different venue we lose thousands of dollars,” said Temple. “Then, we don’t get the referrals off of that business and it is a chain reaction.”

So, when they do have weddings or people come to look at the venue, Temple has to send out specific written directions to make sure they don’t run into the muddy roads.

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“It is all blacktop and asphalt road, so it is safe and easy to get here,” said Temple.

The problem for people visiting the Rustic Rose comes when they plug in the address to their GPS. Then, depending on where they are coming from, they’ll run into low water spots.

“Low water spots is what they call them, and the roads are rutted, and you just can’t get past it,” said Temple.

Due to GPS taking some guests that way, Temple has had to leave weddings to go pull them out.

“It is just a bad reflection on us,” said Temple.

The county has been grading the roads. Temple admits they are better, but thinks it is a temporary fix to a bigger problem.

“If you don’t cut the ditches, then the next time that it rains, it’s going to wash off everything you did,” said Temple.

But, Marven Goodman, the Logan County district one commissioner, said he has been working to fix the roads as quick as possible.

“Over the next several months, we will continue to incrementally improve the drivability of all of our county rural roadways,” said Goodman. “However, our priority will always be to the worst roads that service the most people.”

“We just want them to do their job, we pay our taxes,” said Temple.