KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson covers portions of Johnson County, including Overland Park, Shawnee and Mission. If you have a story idea to share, send Alyssa an email to [email protected].
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An Olathe food truck owner is trying to recover from a financial hit to his business after Overland Park canceled its Fourth of July event.
Heavy rains Wednesday left muddy conditions at Corporate Woods Founders Park where fireworks, food trucks and music were planned for the holiday celebration.
That meant a lost business opportunity for Bryce Reynolds, the owner of Bryce's Food Truck.
"We do hand-breaded chicken tenders," Reynolds said. "I breaded about 1,200 chicken tenders."
The business expected to have one of its biggest days of the year if Thursday's event not been canceled.
"Got a call at 10 a.m. and said pretty much they had to reschedule fireworks because of the flooding and would hopefully do it on Friday. So I was thinking we’d be doing it with them," Reynolds said.
To his surprise, the fireworks show will happen, but there won't be food trucks.
The city told KSHB 41 Thursday afternoon food trucks wouldn't be at the event because of scheduling conflicts. The city also pointed to agreements with vendors that outlined what would happen in the instance of a rain out of the full July 4 event.
"It turned into a panic of 'What do I need to do next and what do I gotta do to make sure I can find a way to make money off the food I lost and make money on a day when I'm supposed to be making money?'" Reynolds said.
He knows problems with weather are always looming. You can anticipate it, but you don't always know what the outcome will be.
Even so, he prepped food for hundreds of people and it has to go somewhere or he takes the loss.
"I hope people understand it's an expense to buy all the food and do all the work," he said. "You're staying up for hours breading chicken tenders."
Reynolds looks forward to Overland Park's Fourth of July event. He hopes his food truck will be invited again.
All he asks is for the city to plan for contingencies in the future.
"It's a great event. I just want there to be a plan in place, a backup Plan B," he said. "Hey if it floods, here's what our option is. Keep that day off as well."
Bryce's Food Truck will be out Saturday afternoon at the Baldwin City, Kan., Independence Day event.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to include information from Overland Park on agreements vendors reached that outlined what would happen in the event of a rain out.
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