The Eufaula City Council at its Monday monthly meeting gave whole-hearted approval to a zoning change that will allow La Finca restaurant owner Abel Gonzalez to build a La Finca Express.
“Thank you so much for allowing me to be part of your town,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez has built restaurants in Greenville, Ark., Tulsa, Checotah, Warner and two in Eufaula.
A native of Vera Cruz, Mexico, he is a restaurateur with an eye for opportunities. When his La Finca became a hit in Eufaula, he moved from its first location at 18 Oak Ave. to 220 S. Main St. He established Lakehouse Sushi Hibachi at the Oak Avenue address.
Now, with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation building a casino on Birkes Road, Gonzalez has seen another opportunity – a vacant lot on the north side of the Best Western Motel on Birkes.
The lot was in an area zoned industrial and so he requested the city to re-zone it commercial so he could proceed with his purchase of the lot and to put in one, possibly two, more businesses.
The city unanimously approved the rezoning application and Gonzalez said in February or March he will begin building the express, a smaller version of his popular La Finca, and possibly a 24hour coffee shop on property next to the restaurant.
Round-up Club disbands City Manager Jeb Jones informed the council that he had received word from the controversial Eufaula Round- Up Club that it had disbanded, leaving the city without a round-up club for the first time in almost 80 years.
“I think it was a matter of their kids having grown up and gone in different directions and the club not able to have the participation they would like, so they disbanded,” Jones said.
The original club was founded in Eufaula in 1946, when football and rodeos were the main entertainment here.
The Burdine family and other locals ran the club for almost 30 years, until 2017, when a group from Checotah joined and eventually took over the name of the club.
In a controversy that carried on for months, the Checotah group claimed rightful ownership of the organization while Jon Burdine and his sister Gayle said they were the rightful owners.
The controversy sprang up when it came time for the club to sign a contract with the city to operate the fairgrounds.
The city signed a contract, but it was debated who the contract was with – the original Eufaula group, or the Checotah group who were newcomers.
The council decided the contract was signed with the Checotah group, leaving a bitter taste in the mouth of Eufaula folks.
Now, the city is without a round-up club and the future of rodeos is uncertain.
Jones said he is confident someone will step forward and fill the void.
“I’m going to go back and take a look to see if maybe a civic organization wants to do something,” he said. “Maybe the Chamber or someone. We don’t want to lose the rodeo. We will figure out a way. There are a lot of different ways we can go. We will be working on that endeavor this spring.”
He says the rodeo is too valuable an asset to the city for it to be allowed to disappear.
Streets part of Creek Nation The council signed a second Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation to allow some of Eufaula city streets to become part of the tribe.
A few months ago the city agreed to allow Birkes Road and five or six other streets to be placed on the tribe’s inventory of streets, which many communities in the tribe’s reservation area have done.
When the streets are part of the tribe’s inventory, the streets are eligible for tribal funds for street repairs.
The tribe isn’t obligated to work on the streets, that obligation is still on the city, but if funds are available the tribe may be able to assist.
It doesn’t cost the city anything for the streets to be on the tribe’s inventory of streets.
This time 6.1 miles of streets on the west side of town have been added.
