COVINGTON, Ky. -- The MainStrasse Village Association lost more than $100,000 when bad weather and poor attendance tanked its annual Oktoberfest celebration, forcing the organization to announce it would declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The future of the many events it organized over the course of three decades is uncertain, Mayor Joe Meyer said Wednesday.
That's not his most pressing concern.
The association still owes a total of around $8,500 to 15 officers and three civilian employees of the Covington Police Department who worked during the ill-fated Oktoberfest.
Federal court records showed it had not actually made a bankruptcy filing two months after declaring its intention to do so, and its official contact information returned a disconnected phone number and an automatic response via email.
According to Meyer, that inaction leaves the 18 affected city employees in limbo. Outside of Covington, a group of Kenton County Sheriff's Office employees is also owed $3,500.
"That's a significant sum of money for people as we are entering into the holiday season," Meyer said. "We want to -- we need to get these issues addressed sooner rather than later."
