Scrapbook scrape
The Shelbyville News
Friday, August 10, 2007
By Bettina Puckett
Staff Reporter
Shelby County officials raided a scrapbooking bed and breakfast near Geneva last month, shutting down the illegal business and sealing off the building.
Craig Bridgers is the owner of the Olde Geneva Dairy, 2801 E. Vandalia Road, which is also his home. He claims’ county officials have not tried to work with him and have singled him out in enforcing certain zoning codes.
“Just because the county does something to somebody, doesn’t mean they are right, “Bridgers said.
But county officials say they have tried repeatedly – without success – to get Bridgers to comply with zoning, inspection and health laws.
“Since April, we’ve been dealing with this case,” said Amy Dillon executive director of the Shelby County Planning Commission. “Mr. Bridgers was fairly compliant with us until July 13, 2007, when he hosted the (scrapbooking) retreat.”
Dillon said Bridgers violated zoning laws because his property is zoned agricultural and it was being used for business purposes without any variance or rezoning.
An unsafe building citation was issued because it did not have adequate facilities for a bed and breakfast retreat, such as a commercial type kitchen. Also, two new bathrooms were installed, plus electrical and other improvements were made, without getting the necessary permits, she said.
On April 20, 2007, Bridgers signed an affidavit stating he would only use the structure for his residence and would not conduct any business activities on site until all local and state permits had been obtained.
Bridgers, 43, and his ex-wife, Talitha Bridgers, began the scrapbooking business in 2005. The company’s Web site advertises it as “the number one scrapbooking retreat destination in the world” and claims it has had 120,000 visitors from all over the country and Canada in 2 ½ years.
A quick search of the Internet found a few complimentary remarks about the Olde Geneva Dairy, even as recently as February 2007. “It was very nice, albeit cramped with a house full of women and only two bathrooms,” said one posting on a scrapbooking site.
But when Craig and Talitha Bridgers got divorced in April 2007, the business began to go downhill.
“Women are sending me complaints online and it’s really embarrassing,” Talitha Bridgers said Thursday. “I feel for these people, and I don’t want them to be hurt.”
The scrapbooking women have been reporting to local and state officials that they have indeed been hurt financially. The Better Business Bureau received eight complaints about the business and gave it an “unsatisfactory” rating.
While 92 percent of all companies contacted by the BBB respond back, Bridgers did not, said Linda Carmody, president of the BBB of Central Indiana, which covers 46 counties.
“Most companies contact us and say “We’ll do everything the consumer wants, or we feel we owe them this and not that,” Carmody said. “They want to maintain their good reputation.”
Carmody also had found a number of negative comments made by scrapbookers online. One woman visited the Olde Geneva Dairy in November 2006 with three of her friends.
“It was really in need of deep cleaning at that point, so I’m not surprised it is closed,” the woman wrote on the “Two peas in a Bucket” Web site. “It is a really old farmhouse and would require thousands and thousands of dollars to convert it to a safer place I feel bad that the guy running it is now deceiving people. Earlier this spring, he was having the retreats off site while working on “zoning issues.”
Many of the complaints to the BBB and those listed online involve women who had signed up to attend the Olde Geneva Dairy, but had to cancel their plans and were unsuccessful in getting their $75 deposit back.
“There are several complaints that are pending.” Carmody said, “Hopefully, he’s going to do the right thing and refund their money since he couldn’t provide what he sold to them.”
At one point, Bridgers filed a petition with the Shelby County Board of Zoning Appeals for a use variance to allow the scrapbooking retreat facility to operate from his property. But he was withdrawn that petition.
Nonetheless, several of his neighbors gathered at Tuesday night’s BZA meeting to get an update on Bridgers. In her remarks to the board, Dillon described a type of raid that occurred at the Olde Geneva Dairy on July 13, 2007.
Phone inquires continue.
Since July 13, 2007, Bridgers has not hosted any more retreats. But Dillon’s office continues to be swamped with phone calls. “Ladies who have booked reservations want to know the status.” She said.
“I know for a fact that he is no longer in business at the Vandalia Road site and that several agencies are inquiring about this business,” said Robert Lewis, business manager at the Shelby County Health Department.
Bridgers has obtained a food permit from neighboring Bartholomew County.
“There are still a lot of open ended questions,” Lewis said. “I feel sorry for some of these ladies who have dealt with him. We’re hoping to get him on the right page.”
On Tuesday, Duke Energy cut off the electricity in Bridgers’ home, upon an order from Goodrich. However, for an unknown reason it was abruptly turned back on the same day Duke declined to comment.
Bridgers said the county did not have the legal authority to shut off his power.
Other complaints about Bridgers have come from his neighbors, but he said they are angry about minor things, such as his children playing paintball on his 33-acre site and a friend’s dog that ran across a neighbor’s property.
Bridgers said Dillon has been circulating a letter saying he is out of business, but he is now operating the retreat at an undisclosed location in Bartholomew County.
“It is legal for me to prepare and serve food in any county in Indiana,” he said “It’s looking that (Dillon) is trying to damage my business out of the county.”
He said out-of-town women would often spend an average of $500 each on a weekend, including $250 for the retreat and for other services, such as massages and manicures.
“Thousands of people have come here and all the money has stayed in Shelby County,” he said. “The women ate in local restaurants and shopped locally.”
Bridgers has been fined several hundred dollars by the county and was issued a court summons by the county for illegally operating the business. He has a court date set for September 13, 2007 in Shelby Superior Court II.
A hardcopy of this article is available at the Shelbyville, Indiana Library’s Genealogy Services located at 58 W Hendricks Street, Shelbyville, IN 46176 or you can call 317.398.8144
How the July 13 scrapbooking raid at the Olde Geneva Dairy went down
(Excerpts of Amy Dillon’s report to the Shelby County Board of Zoning Appeals)
The Shelbyville News
Friday, August 10, 2007
By Bettina Puckett
Staff Reporter
Warren Goodrich, Shelby County’s building, electrical and plumbing inspector, received a call that Friday form one of Craig Bridgers neighbors who complained that Bridgers was holding a scrapbooking retreat at the Olde Geneva Dairy.
At 4:58 p.m., Goodrich contacted Amy Dillon, executive director of the Shelby County Planning Commission. Goodrich contacted the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department to request assistance. Dillon, Goodrich and Deputy Denis Ratekin traveled to the site to investigate.
Upon arrival, Goodrich asked Bridgers if he was hosting a retreat and Bridgers indicated he was allowing patrons of his scrapbooking retreat business to meet at the location and then travel to the Lees Inn in Greensburg to have the retreat. Bridgers said he was letting two or three of the ladies take a break and have a snack before proceeding to the hotel.
Bridgers said he was led to believe that he could reopen his retreat after the July 10, 2007 Board of Zoning Appeals meeting. Dillon said he had not received zoning approval from the BZA and was to reappear at the August 7, 2007 meeting for a determination if the business would be allowed to operate at the location.
Because Bridgers did not have approval to host a scrapbooking retreat from the BAZ, and for several other reasons. Goodrich ordered that Bridgers and his guest vacate the premises.
When Ratekin, Goodrich and Dillon reached the top of the stairs, they found nine women working diligently on their scrapbooks. When Dillon questioned the women, they said they had not been told they would need to travel to the Greensburg Lees Inn. They had been assigned their rooms, had begun scrapbooking and had been informed of the weekend schedule.
When questioned by Goodrich, Bridgers said an unsafe building citation that had been hung on the front window had blown away, but that he had picked it up and taken it inside. Goodrich hung another citation and told him not to remove it.
Dillon said in her report that none of the women knew where their cars had been parked, which made them uncomfortable. The ladies also indicated they were uncomfortable with the guest room arrangements, particularly the group that was assigned to sleep in the basement.
The women witnessed an argument between Bridgers and one of his neighbors in front of the retreat shortly after their arrival. They said the two men were shouting at one another, and they thought there might be a physical altercation.
While the women were loading up their vehicles, a car with at least two other women arrived. One of the patrons told them about the events of the evening and they left.
Dillon drove the women to their vehicles. One car was parked on private property in Geneva at the former grocery store. Three were hidden behind a large boat located in a wooded area near the river on Bridgers’ property. Another car was parked behind the retreat building in the back yard.
Bridgers told the three county representatives that forcing him to vacate the premises was unfair. He asked if he could go back to the site to wait on other patrons who still hadn’t arrived, but Dillon told him that the building had been sealed and he was permitted back on the property.
A hardcopy of this article is available at the Shelbyville, Indiana Library’s Genealogy Services located at 58 W Hendricks Street, Shelbyville, IN 46176 or you can call 317.398.8144
Customers critical of retreat
The Shelbyville News
Friday, August 14, 2007
By Bettina Puckett
Staff Reporter
The office of Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter is investigating an illegal scrapbooking retreat near Geneva that was shut down by Shelby County zoning officials last month.
Customers of the Olde Geneva Dairy, 2801 E. Vandalia Road, claim that owner Craig Bridgers failed to refund their money after they read unfavorable reports about the retreat and canceled their reservations.
“It looks like we have two open complaints that were filed on August 6, 2007” said Sarah Rittman, a spokeswoman for Carter. “They are pending, which means we are investigating them.”
Rittman said the attorney general pursues action against companies that have violated the Deceptive Consumers Sales Act.
The Better Business Bureau of Central Indiana received eight complaints about the business and gave it an “unsatisfactory” rating.
Following a story in Friday’s newspaper at least 10 women living in several different states said in article comments that they felt they had been scammed by Bridgers.
“I am one of the scrapbookers who lost $75 to Mr. Bridgers,” Bobbie Howder who lives in the state of Washington, said in an article comment. “Our retreat was scheduled to begin on July 27. We were never notified that the original location had been shut down.”
Howder is a member of a club called “ScrapGoods.” One of the group’s members, Nina Donnell of Indianapolis, drove to the Olde Geneva Dairy before the retreat weekend and found it had been condemned as an unsafe building.
“We have yet to resolve this issue with Mr. Bridgers and are anticipating that he will do the right thing by refunding us our money,” wrote Angela McCluskey of Vermont.
Back in April, when the Shelby County Plan Commission began investigating complaints from neighbors against Bridgers, he signed and affidavit stating he would use the Olde Geneva Dairy only for his residence and not business activities until all local and state permits had been obtained.
But when the scrapbooking women who have flown in from all over the country, have arrived in Shelby County, they learn that they will not be staying at the original location – the quaint Olde Geneva Dairy that is depicted on the Web site - but instead are shuttled to various hotels in the area for their retreats.
“Mr. Anson Craig Bridgers did not communicate with us about a change in location or about the zoning issues when we attempted to contact him,” wrote Donnell. “Instead he was evasive and rude.”
“Scam” reported
Although at least one member of the scrapbooking club said she reported the so-called scam to local police, spokesmen for neither the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department nor the Shelbyville Police Department said Monday they could find any complaints on Bridgers that have been filed.
For his part, Bridgers maintains the situation is being blown out of proportion and that county resources are being wasted on his case.
“I wish that Shelby County would spend as much time trying to get rid of illegal drugs and crack houses as they have with trying to stop women sitting at a table scrapbooking,” Bridgers said Monday night.
While Bridgers remains in the middle of a firestorm of criticism from women who believe they have been ripped off, one local woman who briefly worked for him came to his defense.
Pam Etheridge, of Boggstown said she worked for Bridgers one night a few months ago at the Olde Geneva Dairy after one of Bridgers’ neighbors told her Bridgers needed some help washing dishes and cleaning up during a scrapbooking retreat.
“There were 12 women that weekend, and they were all having a wonderful, fabulous time,” said Etheridge, who filled in for one of Bridgers workers who was sick.
She said Bridgers served the women a three to four course meal that included an appetizer of shrimp cocktail and Cajun pork chops as the man entrée. Etheridge admits she is a Martha Stewart “wanna be” and was impressed with the feast. “You would have died for the meal he prepared,” she said.
“I thought it was a unique thing, because scrapbooking is getting so big,” Etheridge said. “It was the neatest concept.”
More than half of the women at the retreat were form out of state and it was the third trip for two of them, she said.
Etheridge admitted she knew Bridgers for only that one night, but she said he paid her well for helping him from 2:30 p.m. until 2 a.m. “And that kitchen was cleaned up spotless,” she said.
“Instead of blackballing him out of there like he was running some sort of meth house. I wish the county would embrace him,” Etheridge said. “Why doesn’t Warren Goodrich (Shelby County’s building, electrical and plumbing inspector) help him get up to code? Why don’t we help people instead of hurt them?”
She views Bridgers as someone who is trying to get his head above water after a recent divorce.
“This fellow is a human being,” she said. “He was trying to get a little business started, but everybody jumped on top of him and tried to drown him.”
Retreats moved
Since Bridgers is no longer allowed to hold the scrapbooking retreats at the Olde Geneva Dairy, he has relocated them to another undisclosed location outside of Shelby County. According to the Dairy’s web site, the company reserves the right to move the retreat location at any time the facility at 1208 E. Vandalia Road is unavailable for retreats.
“A facility within 50 miles of our location will be utilized that can offer comparable amenities as our original location,” the policy states.
While Bridgers has used several area hotels for the retreats, he is not welcome at all of them. Without elaborating, Lavay Brown, general manager of Lees Inn Greensburg, said Bridgers has been put on the unwelcome list at her hotel.
Meanwhile, although Bridgers does not have a food permit in Shelby County, he has obtained one in neighboring Bartholomew County.
“He does have a license,” said Collis Mayfield, environment health manager. “He operates out of Hope.”
Bridgers shares a pizza place called “Whitt’s Place,” which is owned by Richard Whittington and located at 407 Washington St. in Hope, Mayfield said.
Mayfield said health department officials conducted an initial inspection of Bridgers’ catering business but have not done a mandatory second inspection that is usually done a month later because they have not been able to catch him at the restaurant. “We don’t know if he’s operating down there or not,” he said.
A Shelby County Health Department document shows the water at the Olde Geneva Dairy was tested last year and found to be “bacteriologically unsafe”.
Negative attention
Bridgers said Monday night that the negative media attention already is costing him future customers. He forwarded an email from a Middletown, Ohio, woman. “Under the current circumstances with the diary closed by the local government and the ongoing legalities, I need to cancel my reservations for my daughter and I for the Labor Day weekend,” the woman wrote. She asked that Bridgers credit her PayPal account for the $150.
“Hopefully, we will see you back on your feet sometime soon, and we’ll be able to come back to the diary,” the woman wrote.
Most of the retreats in Indiana require full payment before arrival, but not the Olde Geneva Dairy, Bridgers said. “And we have never canceled a retreat, ever,” he said. “The customer got everything they should have gotten.”
Bridgers has been fined several hundred dollars by the county and was issued a court summons for illegally operating the business. He has a court date set for September 13, 2007 in Shelby Superior Court No. 2.
A hardcopy of this article can be found at the Shelbyville, Indiana Library’s Genealogy Services located at 58 W Hendricks Street, Shelbyville, IN 46176 or you can call 317.398.8144
County has authority to cut off electricity
The Shelbyville News
Friday, August 14, 2007
By Bettina Puckett
Staff Reporter
Olde Geneva Dairy owner Craig Bridgers claims Warren Goodrich and Amy Dillon overstepped their authority by ordering the electricity cut off to Bridgers’ house last Tuesday.
Goodrich is Shelby County’s building, electrical and plumbing inspector. Dillon is Goodrich’s supervisor as well as the executive director of the Shelby County Plan Commission.
Dillon said Bridgers violated zoning laws because his property is zoned agricultural and it was being used for business purposes without any variance or rezoning.
An unsafe building citation was issued because the Olde Geneva Dairy did not have adequate facilities for a bed and breakfast retreat, such as a commercial-class kitchen. Also, two new bathrooms were installed – plus electrical and other improvements were made – without getting the necessary permits, Dillon said.
Bridgers said the power was turned off for less than an hour and then turned back on after he called Duke Energy Indiana to complain.
Dillon said the county does indeed have the authority to cut off someone’s electricity, and that jurisdiction is outlined in county and state building codes. She said due process was followed before Bridgers power was turned off.
Goodrich provided documentation to the newspaper of the county’s authority, citing Indiana Administrative Code 675 and other applicable laws.
“We are looking into this situation,” said Angeline Protogere, a spokeswoman for Duke Energy Indian in Plainfield. “We want to be cooperative, so we need more information and have contacted the county attorney.”
A hardcopy of this article can be found at the Shelbyville, Indiana Library’s Genealogy Services located at 58 W Hendricks Street, Shelbyville, IN 46176 or you can call 317.398.8144
County hires special counsel
The Shelbyville News
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
By Bettina Puckett
Staff Reporter
The Shelby County Plan Commission as hired a special counsel to put together a case against Craig Bridgers of Shelbyville, who owns a scrapbooking retreat called the Olde Geneva Dairy that county officials shut down last month.
“The magnitude of this case warrants special counsel,” Amy Dillon, executive director of the plan commission, said Monday. “Mr. Bridgers obviously has been noncompliant. We’re in the process of putting together our case.”
On Friday, the plan commission hired attorneys Brady Rife and Cameron Morgan, both of whom work for McNeely, Stephenson, Thopy & Harrold, a Shelbyville law firm, Dillon said the plan commission’s attorney, Mark McNeely, has a conflict of interest in the case, and county attorney John C. DePrez IV is too busy preparing for an upcoming trial to handle it.
On Monday, Rife said he was in the process of examining documents about the case that Dillon gave him.
“At this point, there are a lot of public-safety issues going on,” Rife said. “Recent reports are that retreats are still going on, despite an order that was posted that said (Bridgers) was no longer able to have any more retreats. That’s not acceptable.”
On Friday, Robert Lewis, the business manager of the Shelby County Health Department, received several telephone calls from Bridgers’ neighbors and others alleging that Bridgers might be hosting another retreat at his house. Deputy Scott Debaun of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department was sent to the scene to document any activity, including any retreat customers that might be there.
“At this point it’s still a zoning investigation,” Lewis said Monday. “We’re not in the middle of it unless we find out (Bridgers) is doing something to violate any health rules, law or ordinances.”
Debaun could not be reached for comment on Monday. However, Bridgers alleged that Warren Goodrich – the county’s building, electrical and plumbing inspector – and “somebody with a badge” came to his house on Friday night.
“My kids were in their pajamas,” Bridgers said. “They made illegal pictures through the windows of my home.”
Dillon said Goodrich did not work on Friday. “The sheriff’s department tried to contact Warren on his cell phone, and it was turned off,” Dillon said. “Scott Debaun stayed in his car and took three photos from the road.”
Bridgers, 43, said he was not running the retreat when Debaun took photographs that night around 9:15 p.m. of a car with an Ohio license plate parked outside of Bridgers’ home.
“I had no customers,” he said. “They were wrong 100%. How can the county barge into my home when there is not a dangerous situation? They have no court order, and they have no search warrant.”
In April, when the Shelby County Plan Commission began investigating complaints from neighbors against Bridgers, he signed an affidavit stating he would use the Olde Geneva Dairy only for his residence and not business activities until all local and state permits had been obtained. When he did not get the required permits for additional bathrooms he installed in the house and for other construction work – and because he had not obtained a variance to operate the business in the agricultural zone – the county shut him down.
Electricity dispute
Meanwhile, a dispute involving Bridgers, county officials and Duke Energy Indiana still has not been resolved. After the Olde Geneva Dairy was issued an unsafe building citation Goodrich requested that Duke Energy shut Bridgers’ electricity off. The Plainfield based utility initially complied with Goodrich’s request, but after Bridgers called to complain, Duke switched back on the power that had been turned off for about an hour.
Bridgers maintains that the county does not have the right to shut off his power, while Dillon said due process was followed and that the county does have the authority.
According to Bridgers, Duke Energy is taking his side because his electricity remains on. But that’s not the way a Duke Energy Indiana spokeswoman viewed the matter.
“We are waiting on more information from the county and have not yet received that information.” Duke’s Angeline Protogere said. “In short, we are not taking sides and are waiting on more information in order to make a determination about what can and should be done.”
Complaints continue
The Shelbyville News continues to receive written complaints from angry scrapbookers from across the country who claim the Olde Geneva Dairy has turned into a scam.
Gerry Gagnon said she traveled to the local retreat from Battle Creek Michigan last February (2007).
“When we arrived, the outside didn’t look at all like it did on the web site – for one thing, there was barely enough room to park between the building and the road,” Gagnon wrote in an article comment on Saturday. “We went in and were welcomed by the smell of sewage, rotting fruit and warm salad dressings on the dining room table and cluttered-filled kitchen countertops and sinks.”
Instead of a spa, Gagnon found “six bottles of nail polish, a broken down desk and a discount-store quality foot tub.” In the room she was assigned, she found three stripped beds with a pile of what she assumed were laundered and wrinkled bedding and towels.
Gagnon said the attached bathroom was in no condition for guests. When they complained to Bridgers about the conditions, he told them the sewage smell was from recent construction and the maid had called in sick, but he was on his way to pick up someone to clean the house.
Gagnon discussed the situation with two women from Cincinnati who were upstairs in the scrapbooking or “cropping” room. The women said they didn’t feel safe because there were no locks on the doors. The Cincinnati women told Gagnon that if her group was leaving, so were they. “A $75 deposit was not worth staying in that filthy dump,” Gagnon wrote.
“The condition of this place was not the result of the maid not showing up for one day,” Gagnon wrote. “He is intentionally scamming people and making a living off deposits.”
Local, state investigations
Numerous complaints about the Olde Geneva Dairy have been filed with the office of Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter and the Better business Bureau of Central Indiana. On Monday, a spokeswoman for Carter said all of the cases involving Bridgers are pending.
The Olde Geneva Dairy will be sent a letter with the issues that have been raised, and Bridgers will be asked to respond, said Staci Schneider, Carter’s spokeswoman. “We can’t do a whole lot until we receive that response,” Schneider said.
Although Bridgers has a food permit in neighboring Bartholomew County, Lewis said there are not “state” food permits, and that Bridgers would need to apply to each county to serve food there.
“Even if he prepares food (at the Olde Geneva Dairy), he has to tell us,” Lewis said. “There are some critical procedures there that we would like to see if he is being a caterer and bringing food to our county. If people got sick (because) he didn’t follow the procedures that would be unfortunate.”
Lewis said the health department has talked to Bridgers about its food concerns, plus sent him a certified letter.
But Bridgers disagrees with Lewis’ assessment.
“I can serve food in any county in Indiana legally,” Bridgers said. “If you have a legitimate license to prepare food in Indiana as a caterer, you may serve that food in any county in Indiana.”
Despite numerous complaints from Bridgers’ customers and women who tried unsuccessfully to cancel their reservations after talking to other scrapbookers on the internet, Bridgers remains defiant against Shelby County and determined to keep his business. He has been fined several hundred dollars by the county and was issued a court summons for illegally operating the scrapbooking retreat business. He has a court date set for September 13, 2007 in Shelby Superior Court No 2.
A hardcopy of this article can be found at the Shelbyville, Indiana Library’s Genealogy Services located at 58 W Hendricks Street, Shelbyville, IN 46176 or you can call 317.398.8144
