While the community has shown its support for Gilbert Santos-Valencia, the former manager of Tequila’s in Carmi, the jury is out on how his potential comeback will be perceived. That’s mainly due to the secrecy surrounding the location of the new eatery. Rumors have swirled in recent days that an agreement has been reached which would lease the White County Fairgrounds Floral Hall to Santos-Valencia for a 5-year term. Santos-Valencia said he couldn’t comment when reached by telephone. White County Fair Board members including Board President Brent Edwards and longtime wirepuller and former president Rick Barbre have refused to respond to inquiries from WROY/WRUL News even as construction is underway.
Jc Tinsley, who served on the fair board for more than 15 years, left the non-profit on Thursday morning of the most recent White County Fair citing transparency concerns, a lack of communication, and overall direction of the organization. Two other fair board members, Jason Draper and Vice-President Joe Winter also left shortly after the Fair’s conclusion. Drew Phipps left the board on Wednesday, August 27th morning mentioning a lack of formality or transparency.
This latest development is also apparently news to some of the current board members who have said they were either against the move or were left in the dark it was moving forward. The idea was allegedly floated at a meeting following the 2025 fair in July but nothing was set in stone. Since then, work has been ongoing in the floral hall with partial wall/partitions constructed.
Further complicating the matter, many of the organizations that either have standing agreements or have rented the floral hall weren’t notified. The Carmi Christmas Elves, who produce the annual Christmas Lights of Hope and then supply White County school age children with a free pair of shoes luckily are planning to take the year off. Cynthia Attebury, President for that non-profit says she spoke to Edwards this morning. She says the organization is planning to take this year off to fix lights, make other repairs, and attempt to summon additional volunteers. The 2025 Holiday Hoorah is the only event that will be affected by the restaurant opening, according to Attebury. An organization spokesperson says they’ve already spent thousands to rent reindeer for this year and also has committed funding for carriage rides. Attebury says the organization has more than enough money in reserves to continue the shoe giveaway this year.
The Daughters of the American Revolution holds their Festival of Trees inside the building and hadn’t received word as of Wednesday morning. White County CEO typically utilizes the building twice a year, Pets at Risk holds an annual fundraiser there, and there’s no way to know without communication how many wedding receptions or other events/parties are booked that will now have to be moved. Beyond that, White County Clerk Kayci Heil hadn’t heard anything and utilizes the building for all 7 of Carmi’s precincts which she thought would have her scrambling to find another location. David South, a County Board member and the Liquor Commissioner, says the restaurant would close on election days and voting would continue to take place there. There are still questions about the liquor license as the event license the White County Agricultural Society obtained for the fair was a special event license that only covered the Thursday – Saturday of the 2025 fair.
Furthermore, 4-H will potentially be forced to find another location for their events.
At this point, there’s been no liquor license applied for that WROY/WRUL News can find and the only real evidence we have is activity at the floral hall which clearly shows partition walls being constructed within the building.
WROY/WRUL News is actively looking to find information on who stockholders are and how many stocks there are. We’re also digging to attempt to find by-laws that would show leasing the floral hall to be used as a for-profit business is allowable.