‘Money in our pocket’: Before weekend, Ozarks city leaders anticipated large crowds
Before the Memorial Day weekend put the Lake of the Ozarks in the national spotlight, with anger rising at the sight of partygoers flouting social distancing guidelines, local leaders in one lakeside city expressed their delight at the anticipated crowds.
The discussion came prior to the official start of a Thursday night meeting of the board of aldermen for Osage Beach, Missouri, a town of about 4,000 that is involved in the regional tourism industry.
The meeting was held via videoconferencing and was recorded. It came days before video of crowded parties in Osage Beach and elsewhere around the lake circulated around the nation on social media. Several days later, public officials from St. Louis County and Kansas were asking travelers returning from the Ozarks to self-quarantine.
Many feared that, even if the partygoers escaped harm from a coronavirus outbreak, they could carry the disease home with them and put others at risk.
The video of the Thursday meeting captured the city leaders in chitchat as they prepared for the start of the meeting.
The talk centered around the upcoming holiday weekend, the large number of people visiting the area and the money those visitors would pump into the economy. But even as the elected officials welcomed the coming financial boon, some said they planned to stay home and avoid the crowds that would soon trample over public health guidelines.
Mayor John Olivarri asked if anyone had plans. Alderman Phyllis Marose replied she intended to confine herself to the patio. Others concurred, saying they planned to do the same.
“Based on what I’ve seen when I went shopping, I’m going to be staying home,” said Board President Kevin Rucker. “There’s a ton of folks down here.”
The parking lots were full at Hy-Vee and Walmart, said Rucker. There were a lot of people on the road.
“At noon today, Dierbergs had all of its grocery checkout stations manned and somebody was buying groceries at every station,” said city attorney Ed Rucker.
“It’s good,” said Marose. “That’s money in our pocket.”
“Did I hear you say, ‘Cha-ching,’ Phyllis?” Olivarri said to Marose
“Yeah, yeah, right, right. You betcha,” she said. Marose then asked Alderman Tyler Becker if they were busy over at the marina.
“Today we were pretty busy,” Becker said. “Expect the next two days to be a little crazy.”
That’s good, Marose said.
“Could be the next four, easy,” Olivarri added.
The discussion then turned to the weather forecast.
Olivarri didn’t return an email or call requesting comment on the pre-meeting conversation and the events of Memorial Day Weekend.
He told a Star reporter on Sunday, however, that he did not think the crowded pool parties could be prevented or stopped.
“My concern is for our workers and whether some of the folks that have come down might be creating a health problem for the community, absolutely,” Olivarri said Sunday. “But the only other thing that you could do would be shut it down. I don’t know how you would shut down Lake of the Ozarks. There’s no way to control that.”
Because of the lack of social distancing, the Kansas Department of Health and the Environment on Tuesday said Kansas residents who visited the Lake of the Ozarks over the holiday weekend should self-quarantine for 14 days after they return home.
On Monday, St. Louis County issued a travel advisory asking people to self-quarantine.
Kansas City Health Director Rex Archer said in a tweet Monday that anyone having “compassion for others” should self-quarantine if they didn’t follow social distancing guidelines while at the Lake of the Ozarks.
This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 2:30 PM.
