Lack of a fire protection system, zoning debates, and a strained relationship with the town of Trafalgar have put an end to local restaurants.
The Southern Comfort Cafe, located at 200 W. Pearl Street in Trafalgar, closed this summer after the Indiana Fire Department issued an emergency closure order on May 12, citing a malfunctioning fire protection system. was closed to
The restaurant is part of the former Indian Creek Elementary School and has been operating there since 2020. The owner, James He Rochard, also lived with his family in another block of the school.
Rochard said he tried to work with town officials and the fire brigade to remedy the situation, but received little response.
Town officials also planned to cancel Rochard’s dispersal to live in and run the building, saying he had long violated zoning standards, aside from the fire system issue.
Most of the town officials involved have remained silent on the matter, other than a few comments made at public meetings, and have refused to be interviewed about the situation with the cafe. The question was deferred to the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, which conducted the investigation, but the office also declined to be interviewed.
what happened to the cafe
Civil complaints led to the first inspection by the state fire department in May, according to Trafalgar City Council member Jason Ramey.
Lochard was caught off guard by the inspection and received no warning, he said. According to the inspection report, he was first tested on May 5 by her inspector Michelle Knoy of IDHS.
During this inspection, 34 fire and safety violations were found, including failure to complete several required routine inspections and training, misuse of extension cords and decorative lights, and failure to clean oven hoods. The building was not closed at this time, according to reports, and Rochard was given 30 days to rectify the violation.
The May 5 report did not say there was an emergency breach in the active alarm or sprinkler system, simply saying it should be “monitored” by fire surveillance.
After an inspection on May 5, Noy returned on May 12 and issued an emergency shutdown without prior notice, Rochard said. Rochard and everyone inside him had to evacuate the building. If we wanted re-entry, we had to notify the town to let us inside.
Rochard said he had handled most of the violations from the initial inspections at the time of the closure.
“It took 30 days to fix everything, but suddenly they changed their minds and came in and shut the building down,” Lochard said.
He said the fire alarm system was offline when the inspection was performed. He turned it off because it had worked before when there was no fire.
Less than a week after the building closed, the alarm system was restored, but the sprinkler system still failed inspection. This was confirmed by Trafalgar Fire Chief Mark Dunn, who reported the building’s closure to Trafalgar City Council at a May 19 meeting.
Lochard believes the town of Trafalgar is partially responsible for upgrading the suppression or sprinkler system.
He said he was told by company RSQ Fire Protection that the problem was insufficient water pressure from a two-inch pipe to the school. For the sprinkler system to pass inspection, he said, the pipes would need to be updated.
The building operated as a school for years from 1939 to 2016, and some of its systems needed major improvements. Rochard said the matter was beyond his control and wondered why he was able to pass the inspection before this.
“It’s a big problem involving the city… it’s out of our hands because we can throw money at the problem, but it all depends on the city being able to supply it,” said Rochard. I was.
However, Dunn and other town officials denied Rochard’s claims about the water supply. Lee Rogers, Trafalgar’s former utility chief, said he was unaware of the problem.
Dunn also said he was not aware of any pipe issues and said the building had passed all fire safety inspections so far.
“While the building was used as a school, we can ensure that all required inspections were completed on time and successfully,” Dunn said in an email.
Dunn declined further questions. Because the inspection is being handled by her IDHS state fire brigade, the town and fire department are not involved in it.
Despite the town’s allegations against Rochard, IDHS spokesperson David Hosick said in an email that the town has problems with its water supply. However, they also said that Rochard needs to do an upgrade.
“The closure order was issued based solely on a life safety breach with the fire protection system not working. No documentation has been provided to IDHS to show that,” Hosick said.
IDHS declined to conduct an interview to answer further questions about the test.
RSQ Fire Protection has confirmed that the company assisted Lochard in trying to remediate 34 violations listed by IDHS. However, they did not confirm any water supply issues.
RSQ’s Amy Stewart said:
A strained relationship with Trafalgar
Before the restaurant closed in May, Rochard said the town of Trafalgar had a history of being hated.
Lochard originally opened Southern Comfort Cafe in 2017 at another location on Highway 135 in Trafalgar. After moving into her former school in early 2020, she began having problems with town officials.
When originally sold, the building was rezoned for commercial use. Lochard began renting from his owner, Brian McDonald, in January 2020.
Town records show that Rochard’s business was the subject of discussion at eight Trafalgar Planning Commission and zoning meetings over the course of two years for a variety of reasons.
Minutes from the January 2020 meeting details required Rochard to let his family live in the building without a town permit and to request zoning distribution.
Following that meeting, Rochard was mentioned at three more meetings as he had not yet requested waivers from the town, according to the minutes of the August and September 2020 meetings.
In Rochard’s case, he said the town was having trouble acknowledging what he wanted for zoning differences, and that town inspector Tim Geier inspected his building to get the differences. They hadn’t met their demands for months.
However, Guyer said he had done all the inspections asked of him and said the town was fair to Lochard despite alleged violations of zoning standards.
“He was out of compliance from the beginning. They gave him an exception to the zone change even though he was out of compliance,” Geier said in an email.
Rochard was eventually granted a zoning exemption for a commercial space and two residences, including his own, in March 2021, according to town records. A Planning Commission meeting in May recorded that the building also passed inspection with only three minor violations.
Rumors began circulating later that year that Rochard was renting out more rooms than his dispersion would allow, according to Planning Commission minutes for December 2021.
Rochard denied this and said he had never violated the variance. He said he only had one other tenant and had never rented out another room.
“From the time I moved in until the time we left, nothing had changed in terms of plans,” said Rochard.
This was brought up again by Trafalgar City Council on May 19 of this year after the building was closed for the fire system. A complaint was sent to the town council asking for Rochard’s building permit to be revoked.
Council members expressed concern, claiming that “no one knows how many people live there.” The council voted to allow the Town Board of Zoning Appeals to reverse the changes if Rochard was able to reopen the building.
“It turns out he has more people living there,” said Kyle Siegfred, a member of the council, during the meeting. He is also the chairman of the community development committee, but he declined an interview request from a daily newspaper.
Rochard’s fiancée (now wife) also ran an in-home daycare out of the house, and two other businesses, Red’s Gym and Spa, ran in other parts of the building.
“Let’s assume the problem we have is that he found a way to fund the repairs and get approval. We still have unauthorized residents and businesses that we need to pay attention to and deal with.
Ramey said in an interview earlier this month that he had nothing against Rochard, but the town wants the business to follow zoning rules. He said he wasn’t directly involved. But he doesn’t think Trafalgar should be held responsible for the restaurant’s closure.
“The town had nothing to do with them being closed. It was because firefighters were called. Our problem is only with improper renting within the zoning of that building.” Raimy said. “We can’t turn our heads when things aren’t done properly.”
Geyer also said in an email that it was Rochard’s “negligence” for closing the restaurant.
“It was his own fault for not paying the fire company. It put the state back in play and shut him down. The town and state only care about keeping people safe.”
go ahead
Rochard said he eventually gave up on reopening the restaurant in Trafalgar and has since found a new place for his family to live.
He also found new ways to generate income outside of the restaurant business. He and his wife recently opened his A Lil Piece of Southern Comfort clearinghouse in Franklin.
In this business venture, Lochard buys and resells truck pallets of goods from places like Amazon, Walmart, and Home Depot at discounted wholesale prices.
We sell our products online on Amazon, eBay and Facebook marketplaces. You can also shop directly at the massive storage garage leased by Rochard at 930 Hurricane His Street in Franklin.
He said he decided to pursue this rather than open another restaurant, given the current state of the food service industry and the shortage of workers. He once thought about opening a store while running Southern Comfort Cafe, but it never materialized.
“For example, when we were running restaurants, a lot of our merchandise came from Bulldog Liquidators, so I always wondered about pallet sales and such,” says Lochard.
Business has been successful so far. Products are selling fast on Amazon, and people are visiting storefronts.
The store has a wide range of products, from furniture and decorations to clothing and baby products. All prices are bargainable, according to Rochard.
As for Trafalgar’s former school and restaurant building, the building is for sale by the owner.