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The violation, according to Vereyken, revolves around the interpretation of the definition of a public water system.

The Kalkaska Ccounty Construction Codes department informed Vereyken that he did not have a listed pump in his well system that feeds his sprinkler system inside Gio's.

Vereyken hired a downstate company, Fire Safety Inc., to study the system and render an opinion. The company rendered a dual opinion that the system meets the state and federal requirements as a public water system and it also has met all the testing requirements of water flow for the sprinkler system, according to Vereyken.

The meeting began with the KCCC board claiming that the code violation was above and beyond what they could rectify at the meeting.

"This issue is not with Kalkaska County. In the MMC, which is the Michigan Mechanical code, it states that Ôthe construction documents which are required shall be endorsed in writing and approved. Such approved documents shall not be changed or altered or modified without authorization of the code official.' This is not the county or the states problem with the water supply as it is there, the fact of the matter is that any changes must have a field set of plans and go through a plan review and be approved and installed according to the plan. This system was not installed according to the plans. So, at this point, he has to submit a new set of plans and have them approved by a third party plan reviewer, then submitted to our office for approval, which has never been done. As such, the county can take no action until we receive an approved set of plans from a plan reviewer. It is not the well, it is not the system, we need an updated set of plans that are approved. So, we can not act until we receive those new plans," said Bill Hiller, KCCC mechanical inspector.

The original plans called for a 20,000 gallon storage tank in the basement with a four inch fire pump. Instead of doing that, according to KCCC, Gio's drilled a six inch well to get the GPM's (gallons per minute) required for the fire suppression system. This change was not put through a plan reviewer. KCCC claimed that it had never received a revised set of plans. Vereyken begged to differ.

"I sent those plans to you," Vereyken claimed. The board member supposedly in receipt of those plans disavowed any knowledge of ever seeing or receiving those plans. Vereyken assured the member that he had sent in the plans, and had in fact seen them on the member's desk and would be more than happy to send in further copies of said plans. A breakthrough occurred approximately half way through the meeting when KCCC board member Gerald Gaultier stopped the meeting and asked Vereyken how long the board had been in possession of these revised plans. Vereyken informed Gaultier that he had sent the plans in September.

"So, the board has had these plans since September? Why are we only just now taking any action on this?" Gaultier said.

Gaultier's reaction elicited a hardy applause from the gathered crowd. Even though the board, at first, appeared to dismiss Gio's original argument that the fact that their pump has been classified as a "public water system" has no bearing on their decision making, it appears as though, according to Gio's attorney and various private experts, it should. The classification that was made for Gio's water supply as a "public system" changes everything being presented in the KCCC's original argument. A public water system is governed by a completely different set of rules than is a private supply.

Gio's did not dispute that an error had been made in the submission process. Gio's does, however, feel that the KCCC's actions were far above what would be required to fix the, according to Gio's, relatively minor problem. According to Vereyken, shutting his business down and putting his employees out onto the street is a much harsher penalty than is actually required.

Gio's entered the meeting hoping to secure a temporary residency permit which would allow work to resume at the restaurant while Vereyken attempted to alleviate the worries of the KCCC board. Vereyken was not alone in his efforts to secure that permit.

"On behalf of the other Gio's employees here, I would like to request that we be allowed to open again. We have thousands of families leaving Michigan everyday because of the lack of employment in this state. I am the mother of four children and am also faced with no choice but to have to leave if we can not find jobs. I had a great job through Gio's. I'd like to keep my job and I'd like to stay in the community by having you open Gio's again," said Megan Cores, an employee of Gio's.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the KCCC board voted 5-2 to allow Gio's to reopen temporarily while Gio's works on rectifying the current state of affairs.

Not long after that meeting, Vereyken received a call that the KCCC board had effectively changed their mind and would not be allowing Gio's to open. The board will be filing an appeal with the state and a subsequent meeting will be scheduled for up to 30 days from the date of the filing.

"There's nothing much that we can do. I would like to thank the community for its continued support. It has meant so much to all of us," Vereyken said.