Lemonis theres massive devastation. This is a street. An entire main street underwater. Oh, my goodness. I met the mayor. We toured the city the only way we could, by boat. Its okay. Roads closed and businesses wiped out. Look at this. Kim oh, my god. Lemonis . A severe burden on the local economy. Peter so im on the city council, and so we are gonna have some serious budget problems like never seen before. Lemonis and with relentless rain, well, its paralyzed this town. Man 2 what i was afraid of. Lemonis as for the people who live here, theyve had enough. How do you recover from a disaster like this and restore enough hope that people who live here dont abandon everything . The reason that i wanted to come to the Mississippi River is, as i think about it, it almost feels like the most important freeway in america, right . It goes from minnesota all the way down to new orleans. Its how Farmers Transport things. Its how ships get up and down throughout the country, and its, quite frankly, maybe even a more efficient way to travel. What i wanted to understand is how this river is being impacted by natural disasters. Now, its been seven weeks since the Mississippi River flooded this town, and what i saw shocked me. I mean, look. Talk about devastating. Where this road is, theres a boat. Katherine im along main street here in grafton, and ive got to show you this. Right now, many homes and businesses are flooded, including the popular loading dock restaurant. Lemonis this town relies on Summer Business to keep it alive. Were a third through the summer. Water is 30feetplus high, and this has been here for almost seven weeks . They havent experienced any commerce. Reporter 2 grafton mayor rick eberlin is in the fight of his life trying to hold back the Mississippi River floodwaters from swallowing up his town. Lemonis i wanted to understand how people in this community have been affected and how i can help this town get back on its feet. Hi, there. Rick hi, marcus. Lemonis how are you . Rick rick. Im good, and you . Lemonis what is your name . Rick rick. Lemonis rick, are you the mayor . Rick im the mayor, sir. Lemonis how long have you been the mayor . Rick twoplus years now. Lemonis first flood youve had . Rick fourth flood ive had. Lemonis okay. You had the governor here yesterday . Rick we had the governor here. This is a crisis. Lemonis what makes it a crisis or not a crisis . Is it the level of water . Rick level of water, the businesses affected. Theyre 80 off on their revenues from last year or 100 , as in the case with some of them that havent even been able to open. Lemonis and they make their acorns right now . Rick right now, yep. Lemonis graftons economy relies heavily on tourism, and an 80 loss of revenue to any business is enough to force them to close their doors. Rick if they dont get some sort of assistance, they will go bellyup. What were seeing here is more issues of manmade. The corps, you know, they havent had the ability to dredge. When i was a kid, youd see dredges come up and down the river, you know, two to three times once every two to three years. Lemonis is that just giving the river depth . Rick give it more depth and width. You know, the inability to dredge like they used to dredge, you know. Lemonis why is it an inability . Rick i think its just their budget, that they just dont have enough to go around. The average graftonian, you know, they got tired of fighting this, and they took buyouts and walked away. Lemonis buyouts from who . Rick federal government, and thats whats hurting grafton now. Lemonis jesus, look at that. Rick we have these properties that we can never do anything with as a city because once you accept a buyout, it can never be commercialized again. Lemonis can you buy them back from the government . Rick cant buy them back, and thats all we want. Lemonis when they have a flood, fema, the federal Emergency Management agency, comes in and buys properties from the property owner, and then the federal government owns the property, and locally, nothing can be done with it. Im looking at house after house, business after business that are closed and underwater and wondering, if fema buys all these properties, whats left of the town . Rick we dont want handouts here. We just want a helping hand. Lemonis its okay. This emotional moment was pretty pivotal because i never intended to stay in grafton and make this a summerlong project, but as i sit here with the mayor, and i see the sincerity, it really does prompt me to think, whos gonna take the initiative . How do these towns work . Is this just gonna become a ghost town . Rick its been a strain. Lemonis i wanted to walk the town and meet some of the Business Owners and understand exactly what theyre going through, so i started with oliver, a veteran who owns a local fish market. Oliver, im marcus. Oliver marcus . Glad to know you, marcus. Lemonis nice to meet you, sir. How long have you been in town . Oliver ive been here all my life. Lemonis how many floods have you been through . Oliver all of them. You see, back in the 70s, we had the 73 flood. That was 33 feet. And then we had the 93 flood. That was 38 feet. Lemonis like many towns up and down the Mississippi River, grafton experiences floods from time to time. The residents usually recover. Its considered a flood at 18 feet or more above sea level, and now, seven weeks in, the water has only dropped 1 foot from its peak of 35 feet. The full damage of loss of revenue and structure repair have yet to be determined and wont be until the water levels come down. Is that your business right there . Oliver thats my business. Uhhuh. We fry fish for people. Ive been in the business 52 years. Lemonis wow. Oliver i spent three years in the army. Lemonis thank you for your service, by the way. Oliver and when i come out, i went into business in 1967. Lemonis whats a good day . What a good day dollarwise . Oliver 1,000, but weve lost mothers day and memorial day. Lemonis mothers day is typically a major revenue driver for this community, and olivers business, like many other businesses, was closed that day. Does Something Like this make you want to call it quits . Oliver if i was younger, no, but you get to the age on me . Yes. Lemonis wow. Oliver is similar to a lot of people here in grafton. Hes losing hope, and the loss of hope to an individual or a town can be devastating. Next, i wanted to check out the loading dock, a popular tourist destination. Peter marcus. Lemonis how you doing, sir . Peter how do you do . Nice to meet you, sir. Lemonis it wasnt easy to get here. Peter well, route 3 takes you right into the river at this point. The water is almost three blocks from where it should be. Lemonis what is this building . Peter this is my building. This is the old grafton boat works that we turned into a bar. Lemonis what was it originally . Peter it was the grafton boat works. Dates back to 1899. Lemonis uhhuh . Peter probably 80, 90 years of boatmaking history here. We have seating for 800 people. Lemonis whoa. Peter . Mostly outside. This whole south side of the building is decks and patio. When were packed, therell be 1,000 people in there. So its. People have to travel. Its a destination. The attraction of my business is the proximity to the water. As you know, in all the beautiful places, people want to sit on the water. Yeah. Its a calculated risk being here. The good news is, this warehouse, its all brickandmortar. Theres nothing permeable. Theres no drywall. Theres no carpet. All the outlets are up 6 feet high. Lemonis whens your. Whens high season for you . Peter flea markets. High season is april through october. Lemonis like, right now . Peter yeah. Lemonis and so what sort of revenue are you losing for every week that youre not open . Peter i would say 80,000. Lemonis and how long has it been like this . Peter weve been closed for seven weeks now. Lemonis really . Peter yeah, yeah. Lemonis so youre already out half a Million Dollars . Peter i would think so. Yep. And this town survives on sales tax. Theres really no other revenue. Theres no other industry in town other than tourism, and im also an alderman. So im on the city council, and so we are gonna have some serious budget problems like never seen before. So im not sure how thats gonna work out. Lemonis peter told me he employs 80 people. Thats a lot of people displaced without work. I was starting to really doubt myself like, what have i gotten myself into . How can i even help these people . I cant in good conscience just drive away. How are you doing, my man . Rick thanks for coming back. Appreciate it. Lemonis while i was thinking about it, it really became more about the potential extinction of a community in america, but i couldnt just throw money at it. Money wasnt gonna fix it. Id have to dig in and set an example and bring in volunteers and roll up my sleeves, and i was taking on this Herculean Task that had a high risk of failure. And i think that challenge, along with helping people, was probably my motivation. So the water, even here, looks better, yeah . Rick tremendously, yeah. Lemonis yeah. Rick its down over 6 feet now, you know, when you were here last. Lemonis oh, this was all underwater. Rick oh, yeah, absolutely. Lemonis oh, but its still there. Rick yeah. Lemonis whats the good word, my man . Peter hi, marcus. Ready for a boat ride . Lemonis yeah, man. Peter alright. Lemonis are we going out to your spot . Peter we are. Lemonis you think its going to drop again today . Rick yes. Itll drop another foot by the morning, i think. Lemonis is that mud line where the. How high the water was . Rick yep, yep. Lemonis ayeyiyi. Peter no sign of any beer coolers . Man 3 no. Peter all of our beer coolers were sitting on top of here. Theyre gone. This is brutal. Lemonis is this worse than you thought it was gonna be . Peter i. Well, i think thats safe to say, but most of it will clean up. Lemonis you just powerwash the [bleep] out of it. Peter daunting. Yeah. Lemonis i kept asking people what the backup plan was if the water didnt subside, and over and over again, they would tell me not to worry. Nine weeks later, the water is still here, and i hope peter can recover quickly. The 80 people who work here cant afford this business to be closed. Rick i dont like those sky colors. Lemonis feel like now youre gonna get more rain . Rick yeah. Lemonis the storm looks nasty. Looks like a hurricane is coming. This town and its businesses are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. This storm is a gut punch. Rick holy cow lemonis come on. Lets get inside. Rick not good, what i was afraid of. Lemonis the flood is coming back . Rick nope, not coming back, but its gonna sit now for four or five days. Lemonis its gonna stay like this . Rick its gonna make it that much more difficult. Lemonis coming up, Mother Nature wont let up. The water was how high . Up to there . Dan yeah. Brenda oh lemonis oh, my god. This is, like, heartbreaking. Im looking to buy a building here. Im putting my money on this town. burke at farmers, we know a thing or tweve seen a thing or two. Like how nice it is to save on your auto policy. But its even nicer knowing that if this happens. Or this happens. Or this. Or this. Or even this. Weve seen and covered it. So, switch to farmers and you could save an average of three hundred ninetyfive dollars. Get a quote today. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. Tylenol®. Am i too old to start skateboarding . Something on your mind . Chew on it twizzlers chew on it no roads, no visitors, businesses closed for months. We didnt get to meet. Im marcus. Kim very nice to meet you. Thank you for being here. Lemonis and youre kim . Kim yes. Lemonis i want to understand what businesses are affected and what its gonna take to get them open, so kim, whos the mayors wife and also owns an ice cream shop, is gonna walk me through town. How long have you been married to rick . Kim i would say since 2003, 15 years. Lemonis yeah, hes a good guy. Kim he is a good guy. Lemonis when did you guys buy this building . Kim 2011 when i bought the ice cream shop. Lemonis and its been good to you . Kim yes, very good. Lemonis except not. Kim yeah. Its been rough. Im fortunate not to have water, but im still down by 80 . Lemonis you are . Kim yes. Lemonis in the summer, if the flood wasnt here, what would today be like revenuewise . Kim probably about 2,800, between 2,800 and 3,500. Lemonis wow. Kim and so now were back to the bank, borrowing more money. Lemonis you are . Kim absolutely. Lemonis just to keep the doors open . Kim yes, yes. Lemonis id like to walk the town with you. Kim okay. Oh, i havent looked inside here yet. Lemonis this . Kim i manage this guest house. Lemonis this one . Kim yeah. So it was built in 1836 for the first mayor. Hi. Lemonis oh, my goodness gracious. Kim oh, my god. Oh, my gosh. Woman its awful. Kim [ gasps ] lemonis oh, my god. This is, like, heartbreaking. Kim it was beautiful. Lemonis the water was how high in here . Kim it was up to where the wall is cut out. This is all original flooring. Lemonis oh, my gosh. The floors are totally destroyed. Kim this place was booked all the way through the middle of july. Lemonis marcus. Dan dan, dan bechtold. Lemonis nice to meet you, sir. Dan my pleasure. Lemonis this is your house . Dan yes. Kim he owns this house, and he owns the woodshop. Dan over there we lost the furnace, the hot water heater, 200amp service. Lemonis Flood Insurance . Do you have Flood Insurance . Dan no, on neither place. Lemonis so this is out of your pocket . Dan out of my pocket. Lemonis what do you think itll cost you here . Dan oh, id venture, say, 20,000. Lemonis in a lot of places like this with a history of floods, you may not be able to buy an insurance policy. There may not be a carrier or company who is even willing to provide a policy. This is the front of the woodshop . Dan yeah. Lemonis how much inventory do you think you lost . Dan 60,000. Lemonis the water was how high . Up to there . Dan yeah, there. Lemonis well, its receded pretty good. Dan oh, yeah. Lemonis but were also still on main street. Dan yeah, were on main. Lemonis this building feel. Whats it made of, cinder . Dan concrete blocks. Lemonis so thats gonna be fine. Dan yeah. Well be back. Well make it. Lemonis yeah. Dan its. Ive had rougher times. Lemonis grafton, illinois, has had floods before, very few like this, and although most of main street is underwater, there is a small stretch that isnt underwater. What is that . Kim hmm . Thats tares market. Lemonis has it always looked like that . Kim yes. Lemonis when it comes to flooding, this is the least vulnerable section of town, yet strangely the worst caredfor. The key to rebuilding this city is to invest in areas that are less susceptible to flooding, to put the money in the real estate that you know will be the least affected. Hi, there. Alison hi, marcus. Lemonis im marcus. Alison great to meet you. Lemonis nice to meet you. What is your name . Alison alison rohan. Lemonis nice to meet you. In order to do that, i wanted to see if there was an opportunity for me to invest in some properties and bring it up to a standard that i think is right, and maybe people will follow this example on their own properties. So you have this building . Alison i do. My sister and i own it. My parents bought it in the 70s. Lemonis oh, wow. Alison and normally this town is booming. Lemonis and what about now . Alison we dont have any business right now. Lemonis zero . Alison no. Yeah, no business. Lemonis can i go inside . Alison absolutely. Come on in. Lemonis so is the building for sale right now . Alison it is. Lemonis and how much are you asking for it . Alison 179,000. Lemonis wow. Why do you want to leave . Alison im tired. You do get tired, but i love this town, so i wont leave. Lemonis one of the financial experiments i wanted to test is followtheleader. I wanted to know if i invested in property, can i attract other people to invest in the town as well . If more people invest in property, it would stabilize the realestate market, and with a more stabilized realestate market, it may prevent fema from buying up more land. More, ugh. I mean, you almost think theres just, like. You got to be kidding me. Alison i know. Lemonis holy moses. In order to understand how the citys finances work, i asked the mayor if he would be willing to open up his books and to sit down with the city council and the city treasurer, which i expected the answer to be no. But i think the mayor understood that the grave nature of what the town was under, and maybe thought an outside set of eyes could help. How bad are the finances today . Joseph this years budget was a deficit budget for the general fund of about 30,000, and i think its going to actually wind up being worse just because it didnt have any of the floodrelated costs in there. Were probably talking about adding another 100,000 to the deficit, and we dont have a big cash reserve. Lemonis do you have a cash reserve now . Joseph yes, about 800,000, i think. Lemonis okay. And the deficit obviously eats into that. Joseph correct. Lemonis i can tell you from an outsiders point of view, if you dont do something different, youre out of business. Woman 2 right. Lemonis period, end of story. Coming up, an american town in crisis. How much do you think is past due . Rick between 250,000 and 300,000. They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident. Cut is that good . No you were talking about allstate and. I just. When i. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. A lot goes through your mind. With fidelity wealth management, your dedicated adviser can give you straightforward advice and tailored recommendations. Thats the clarity you get with fidelity wealth management. And tailored recommendations. Whats the longterm plan . Whats the town going to be known for, because ultimately that becomes the marketing engine for everything that happens. Peter i think it all starts with the natural beauty, really. Woman 2 it really is the key west of the midwest. Lemonis that is exactly what im looking for. Rick its a great slogan. Woman 2 and we use that line. Lemonis ive never heard it. I havent seen it anywhere. Any business or town for that matter has to be known for something. Why do people want to visit there . Why do they want to open a business there . And this town seems to be struggling with its identity, and if it doesnt get its identity right, theres nothing that will pull people to come. Do you guys want to be known as the key west of the midwest . Rick absolutely. Peter yes. Lemonis okay. Thats your jumpingoff point. Peter that works. Lemonis i asked the mayor to gather the community at the local school. I thought it would be a good idea to talk to everybody about what my vision was. [ applause ] so the reason that i wanted to get everybody together tonight is to really understand, where, as a town, you want to go and how youre going to get there. The flood has definitely put the city in a very uncomfortable position financially and, more importantly, emotionally. But the town of grafton has something to prove to the rest of america. Im putting my money on this town. Im looking to buy a building here because my opinion is worthless unless i actually put my money where my mouth is, right . And we want to be known to be good people who are just hardworking americans who dont need a handout, just a hand up. Stand up please if you were in the military. Stand up. Stand up. There you go. I was given the chance to come to this country, and i was given a chance to earn a living in this country. And none of that would be possible without you. Thank you for your service. [ applause ] if the city will help us move forward, well find a place thats visible from the river that will give our town the biggest American Flag on the Mississippi River, okay . [ applause ] so tomorrow the cleaning will start. Can you guys volunteer starting tomorrow . Man 4 yes. Woman 3 yes. Lemonis on the count of three, i just want a go, grafton, okay . Just get a little enthusiasm. 1, 2, 3. Crowd go, grafton lemonis well see you tomorrow, folks. I got as much work as yall can handle. We want to get this town back in shape. Im feeling good about the fact that people are out this morning, and theyre working. Theyre at city hall. Theyre at the loading dock, and theyre all over town working on each individual little business. I feel the momentum. You doing okay . Tammy as we can be. Lemonis whats this stuff out front here . Is this stuff. Tammy its all going. Lemonis im gonna get you a dumpster out here. Tammy okay. Lemonis ill get it cleaned up. Were gonna go to the fudgery. Well clean all this up. Edge this really tight. Lets trim this tree up a little bit. What do you need here on this facility . Kelly right now mainly just, like, outside cleaning up and whatnot. Thats. Lemonis pressurewashing the building . Kelly right. Lemonis after a long day of getting a lot of labor done outside, i did want to sit down with the mayor and his wife and really understand what the future of grafton looked like, and was he gonna be part of that future or just gonna be a resident . When did your term start . Rick 17. Lemonis are you happy you did it . Kim its been hard. Rick its been hard. Kim what do you get paid a month, like, 200 some . Rick 272. Lemonis does that put a lot of pressure on you . Kim oh, yeah. Im gone 10 to 11 hours a day. Taking care of your house and the business, you know, its a lot. Lemonis what do you do fulltime . Kim i work for gershman mortgage. Lemonis do you mind me asking if you make a lot of money doing that . Kim no, i dont make a lot of money doing it, but i need benefits. Our quality of life has gone down the tube. Lemonis ultimately youve been a Civil Servant your whole life. You do have to start to, at some point, draw a line in the sand and figure out, where do i take care of my family . Where do i take care of my quality of life . How do you build the revenue stream so that you can be mayor, not have a conflict and the family can actually have income . Rick well. Lemonis because 275 aint gonna cut it. Rick no, its not. Lemonis when we think about how to have the town prosper more than today, its about increasing revenue and decreasing the expenses. Rick correct. Lemonis simple math like any business, right . Alright. Come on down here. All i want to just do on this board is, heres the revenue. Here are the operating expenses. Here are the city assets. Rick okay. Lemonis loading dock, the different lots around town, city hall building. This town needs capital. It needs the ability to function with working capital. I want to take a look at all the assets and understand what it has that it can sell or it can lease. Am i missing any assets here . Rick the marina. Lemonis okay. Do you have anybody leasing that today . Rick yeah. Its being leased. Lemonis so how much is that, 50,000 a year . Rick no. Lemonis 10,000 a year . Rick south of 5,000. Lemonis okay. All those boats only generate less than 5,000 a year for the city . Rick yes. Lemonis what does the lease tell you that the tenants pay . Rick 3 . Lemonis 3 of what . Rick boat slip rentals. Lemonis okay. So it says the tenant agrees to pay the city of grafton 3 of the total gross sales receipts derived from boat slip rentals on the subject premises. Rick but the interpretation somehow came to be that it was only on transient. Lemonis but thats not what it says in the lease. Rick i know. Lemonis so do these folks owe you money . Rick i believe so, yes. Lemonis okay. How much do you think is past due . Rick between 250,000 and 300,000. Lemonis whats gonna maximize the most amount of money . Kim i dont know yet. Lemonis well, i cant do it unless you come up with the idea. Did you know Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance tada lemonis do these folks owe you mon so you only pay for what you need . I should get a quote. Do it. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Sounds like a really good deal jake, from state farm at 3 in the morning . Who is this . Its jake, from state farm. What are you wearing, jake from state farm . Uhkhakis. Like a good neighbor, state farm is there. When we closed our wynn committed instantly to keeping all 15,000 team members onboard. We then focused our fivestar level of service to all who needed it. We made improvements to peoples lives. We strove to be better and we made people happy. This closure may have temporarily taken us out of wynn and encore, but it couldnt take the wynn and encore out of us. And now, we are proud to welcome you back. Rick i believe so, yes. Lemonis okay. If you are using an asset of the city and not paying your fee, you either have to pay it or get out. Rick i understand fully. Lemonis has anybody talked to them other than you . Rick there have been other Council Members that have tried to reason. Lemonis at this point, you have no choice other than to fight for what you know is right. You are the shepherd of this town. Its not personal. Its just business. Ive decided to go ahead and buy the Bank Property that i saw. I ultimately want to own a piece of property that i feel good about, but i also want the other people in town to know that im fully invested. And while ill fix up that property, i have no interest in operating a business here. I am willing to give kim a shot at actually opening up a second business in grafton for her and her family. Kim i just know i want to be a part of whatever enterprise youre thinking of. Lemonis well, what do you want it to be . Kim i. Lemonis i cant do it unless you come up with the idea. Something that allows her to make a living and sets the tone for what we want to do on main street. It can be whatever you want it to be. Whats gonna maximize the most amount of money . Kim i dont know yet. Lemonis do you want to go to key west to come up with some ideas . Kim yes. Lemonis for the idea part or just to get away . Kim yes, both. Lemonis i thought id get them out of there for two reasons. One, give them a change of scenery, but i also want to give kim ideas on her new business. Alright. Kim sounds like a plan. Lemonis see you soon. Key west, here we come kim key west. Man 5 . 31, radio check. Lemonis for me, duval street is our main street. I think what id love to do is just walk duval and identify places that would be cool. Rick yeah. Lemonis have you noticed all the roosters . Rick oh, yes. Kim yes. Lemonis so whats graftons rooster . Rick it would be the eagle because, you know, people come to grafton to see that. Kim we need a jewelry store, like a touristy jewelry store, and look at all the people around that little hut. Lemonis what about a store like this . This would be a good store that the Bank Building could have. Kim yeah. Well, youve got stuff for kids. Youve got stuff for adults. Lemonis and grafton has nothing like this, right . Kim no, nothing like this. Rick no. Lemonis lets go to a conch fritter place. Come here. Bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk. Rooster ah [ rooster crows ] man 6 this is the cracked conch with orangehorseradish marmalade, our conch fritters with key limemustard dipping sauce. Thank you. Kim mm, thank you. Lemonis so we have to charge forward and figure out what were gonna get done. Rick i think that every business on main street has a lot of positive features. Theres something. Lemonis not all of them. If you really want to continue to be the mayor, i think its either, you got to be the mayor, or you got to be everybodys friend. The reason that i wanted to be in grafton and came back to grafton was singularly because of you. I genuinely felt that way. Rick okay. Lemonis i thought the sincerity and the love that you have for your town is amazing, and i worry that sometimes. Rick whew. The problem that i struggle with is, my mom instilled in us if you can help somebody, you know, you dont need a pat on the back. If youve got the means or the position, why not do it, you know . Because its not. Kim you need a minute . I am so incredibly excited. Thank you for everything, and lets do this. Crowd yay kim whoo to kiddo curls. Ays. To playgrounds reimagined. 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Lemonis its who you are, and thats what makes you an amazing leader. The other part of being a leader is, its got the nonglamorous stuff that comes with it, which means that you also are responsible to make sure that theres not a kid on the team thats creating chaos for everybody else. Rick [ sighs ] lemonis from this day forward, if you could think about your role as mayor no different as being a coach, and at some point its like, ive asked you to pay the rent that youre supposed to be paying. Ive asked you to not take advantage of the city, and youve crossed the line. And now theres a consequence to it. Youre off the team, or youre out of the marina because my job is to protect the city and the people that live here like its to protect the team and the players that play for the team. Look, i feel really good about my time with the mayor in key west. I feel like he understands what the clear vision is. In a couple of weeks, im going to head back to grafton and see what theyve accomplished. I know youre capable of it. Okay . Rick yeah. I said the water was gonna go away, and it did. Look at us. Lemonis its been a little over a month since the last time i was in grafton. The water is finally back where it belongs in the Mississippi River. Theres people here peter how about that . Lemonis they came back peter took a minute. Lemonis this feels so good. It looks so good. Peter were proud of it. Lemonis this is unbelievable. Over at the loading dock where its been almost three months since the first time i was there and it was 34 feet underwater, it is open for business. And the 1,000 people that the owner told me was gonna be there . I think he was wrong. Theres 2,000. How much revenue do you think you lost . Peter we lost 13 weeks. Yeartoyear, were down 80 . Kim were making ground up, but well never make it all up. Peter i think its still possible. Lemonis how many property transactions happened . Rick three so far. Lemonis and are there other things working . Rick in the works. Lemonis and how many fema buyouts were there . Rick none as yet. Woman 4 i think weve been busier than weve ever been. Rick yeah, yeah. Lemonis wow. Woman 4 were so excited. Were overjoyed. Almost every day we come down here in tears. Lemonis i think at the end of the day, its the resiliency that you have to be grateful for, right . Woman 4 yes, absolutely. Lemonis you have your faith. Peter amen. Lemonis . And you have your community, and thats all that matters. Whats happening with the marina . Have you sent them an invoice yet . Rick yeah. We got the invoices out. Lemonis how much was that . Rick about a quarter million. Lemonis okay. Have they gotten it yet . Rick oh, yeah. Lemonis theyre in receipt of it. Rick theyre in receipt, but they wont sign, you know . Lemonis okay. Well, you still got it, so. Lemonis so how do you think thats gonna play out timewise . Rick theres a hearing date on the 20th. Lemonis the owners of the marina have now received a proper invoice for their pastdue fees. Itll take a while to resolve this issue, but there should be some money coming to the town sooner rather than later. Part of the reason i needed to come back to grafton is to close on the Bank Building that i bought, and i also wanted to hear from kim exactly what her plan was to open up her own Small Business in this space. So whats the plan . Kim well, the plan is souvenirs. Lemonis yep . Kim like the shop that we saw in key west, so grafton, uniquetografton tshirts and sweatshirts, koozies, key chains, anything that speaks to grafton. When people come here, theres nowhere to get souvenirs right now. Lemonis great, and whatever the towns Business Plan is, is what this stores Business Plan should be. They should mirror each other. Kim right. We came up with grafton a real American River town. Lemonis i love it. Kim so it can tie in with our deep appreciation for all the veterans. Lemonis we were the leading community in the state of illinois per capita as far as the veteran population. We value, we treasure our veterans here in this community. Lemonis we have some paraphernalia ready grafton, a real American River town. The flag could be part of it, and maybe part of what youre here to do is to celebrate your veterans. Rick that would be tremendous. Lemonis be known for something. It was important for me that grafton be known for something, and the fact that there is a really high veteran population gives us something to celebrate, something to stand for. And one of those veterans, dan, had his woodshop reopened. Put those two tables on hold. Well put them in the store. Any other eagles you have here . Dan yeah, were on the main drag here. Lemonis i like the fact that we would use businesses from grafton to help us finish our store. Kim i would prefer that. Lemonis do you have a lot of photography of grafton . Man 7 some. Lemonis any grafton stuff that you have, well buy it wholesale and sell it. Do you have a Business Card . Woman 5 i do. I have a website. Lemonis also, im so glad olivers fish market has once again beat another flood. But what will make the town really special is to put up a giant American Flag that says to the world, come hell or high water, were still here. So right here . Rick hereabouts, in this general area. Lemonis uhhuh . Rick almost from alton, youre gonna be able to see this thing. Lemonis thats the key. Rick you get on that ferry, youre waiting in line, youre gonna see this. Man 8 you can do three times the height of those trees. Those trees are, say, 50 feet tall. Rick 50, 60 feet tall tops. Lemonis we may go 150. Rick okay. Lemonis i think putting in the flag will not only honor the veterans, but it will give people a reason to drive here to see this beautiful, amazing thing. Its gonna be awesome. Kim it is gonna be awesome. Rick it is. This flagpole is going to be a symbol of strength and how much our veterans mean to the United States of america. What will be the first thing you do as soon as youre able . At ikea, we wondered that too. We found that people didnt say catching a new movie, or going on a trip. It was to simply be with loved ones. Lets get ready for whats next. Ikea. Capital one knows life doesnt update you about your credit card. So meet eno. The capital one assistant that looks out for charges that might surprise you and helps you fix them. Whats in your wallet . I thought it had to be thick to protect. That might surprise you and helps you fix them. But new always discreet is made differently. With ultrathin layers that turn liquid to gel and lock it inside. For protection i barely feel. New always discreet. Dont bring that mess around here, evan whoo dont do it. Dont you dare. I dont think so [ sighs ] its okay, big fella. Were gonna get through this together. [ baseball bat cracks ] nice rip, robbie. Raaah when you bundle home and Auto Insurance through progressive, you get more than just a big discount. Im gonna need you to leave. You get relentless protection. [ baseball bat cracks ] you get relentless protection. Lemonis im back in grafton after several weeks, and i wanted to be here to celebrate kims grand opening of her new shop in my grafton Bank Building, but i also wanted to be here for the flag dedication. Kim thank you, everyone, for being here. I am so incredibly excited, and i could not be here without the help of a lot of people. So thank you for everything, and lets do this 3, 2, 1. Crowd yay kim whoo awesome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Lemonis holy moses, it looks totally different. Congratulations. Kim thank you so much. Lemonis im so proud of you. Look, i love the fact that kim took so much pride in bringing her store and her town to life. I really am shocked at how good it looks. And i like the fact that she followed the Business Plan of the town what is the town gonna be known for and make the store look exactly the same. She did a pretty darn good job. I like the fact that everything in here ties to the town. Kim these are made by people local here in grafton. Lemonis are you having fun doing this . Kim yeah, i love it. Lemonis what does everybody think . Man 8 its great [ cheers and applause ] lemonis i have to tell you that this store isnt really just about being a store. It was really watching the whole town rally together to bring something to life. Theres towns around the country that are suffering and struggling, and you guys are now role models for them. The town feels awesome, right . Alison yes. The vibe is amazing. Lemonis awesome. Well, thank you, everybody. Well have fun today. Hi, guys. Thank you for your service. Rick what a fantastic evening. On behalf of the people of grafton, i sincerely hope that this dedication ceremony will give everyone in attendance a very clear and resounding idea of just how much our veterans and our firstresponders mean to this community and mean to this region. Man 9 ive been waiting for too long rick there will be days, there will be times ahead, that this flagpole will stick out of floodwaters. Theres no doubt, but that flag is going to be a symbol of strength like it has been for the United States of america. Man 9 to get me through breathe in, breathe out breathe in, breathe out sing, sing because you know youre not broken sing, sing because the darkness is falling sing, sing because you know youre not broken so sing, sing lemonis very proud of you. Rick thanks. Lemonis i really am. Rick thank you. The city thanks you. Kim his mom would be really proud. Im very proud. Good job. Lemonis look, i think you were meant to do this. While everybody here participated in helping the town come back, it would have never happened without you. Rick well, theres more to it than me. Yep. Lemonis i came into the city three, four months ago, and it was totally underwater. And i watched a town rally around their family, their community, their livelihoods and bring it back from the ashes. When things dont look so good, you got to keep pushing through. This country provides you with that opportunity, and this flag demonstrates that because no matter how much the water comes in and out of this town, that flag is going nowhere. You know you got a friend for life in me, okay . Rick i thought that from the day we brought you. Kim what about me . Lemonis the day we met. Yeah, well let you in, too. Ill see you guys later, okay . Kim take care. Lemonis good luck. Man 9 sing, sing because the darkness is falling sing, sing lemonis tonight, were going to california. More than just scenic, sunny, and trendsetting, the golden state is also the greenest. Man were ending prohibition and were mainstreaming pot. Damian theres blue dream, gorilla glue, sour banana, green crack. Lemonis why do i think green crack is more potent than sour banana . Medical marijuana has been legal here for years. But now, the game changer proposition 64. Woman marijuana is now legal in california. Lemonis soon, any adult will be able to buy weed. Did the vote passing increase the odds of you becoming a billionaire some day