Bourbon Fire Protection District Chief Tim Ware asked on Aug. 11 if the aldermen would hold Mayor Sky Huddleston accountable for comments made during a KTUI radio interview.

The interview, which KTUI posted on its Facebook page on July 27, featured guest Dan Gray, of the Bourbon Café and Coffee Saloon, and Huddleston.

During the interview, Huddleston mentioned that the new owners of the Historic Bourbon Hotel have started on renovations.

“The reason why that hotel has changed hands so many times is because people with vision, and with money and with grit, will buy it, and then will try to do something with it, try to fix it up and restore it,” Huddleston said. “At the time, a certain organization that I shan’t name was trying to say that these codes that they put down said that if you, if it required 50 percent more money to renovate it than what it would, than what its value was, then you just had to demolish it, and so people were just selling it from one party to another because they didn’t know this until this party that shan’t be named would inform them after they bought it. Now that that’s gone because we got that thrown out in court…the new owner can actually, and has, to my knowledge, started the work.”

Ware said that the mayor should know not to slander other people and entities, while also pointing out that the ordinance that Huddleston mentioned during the interview was actually a Bourbon city ordinance.

“That’s your own ordinance. I would think you would have, you know, as mayor, you would know, study, know all this and not slander other people and entities because that can become a nightmare,” Ware said.

Chapter 505 of the city’s ordinances says that if a building’s condition is dangerous to the health, safety or general welfare of its occupants, is a fire hazard or is erected in violation of the terms of any city ordinance and cannot be repaired, it will be demolished.

If the aldermen do nothing about the incident, Ware said that they are showing people what happened is acceptable in Bourbon.

“You four are (Huddleston’s) boss,” Ware said. “You’re allowing him to run the city of Bourbon through the mud, and it’s gotten quite ridiculous.

All the aldermen declined having knowledge of the interview, but Ward 1 Alderman James Naquin said that he would listen to it.