FRUIT HEIGHTS -- The possibility that the Rock Loft and the businesses established there may lose their business license over upgrades to the property is settled. Susan Harkness, owner of Secret Haven and the Rock Loft met with Fruit Heights City Manager Brandon Green late last week.

"The whole issue is settled when we get the letter from the EPA stating that they have no interest in creating a problem where there is none," he said.

This became an issue when the current city manager inherited a problem that had been verbally handed down from two previous city administrators.

The so-called verbal warning was that the area of the Rock Loft needed to be addressed with major upgrades to the property. It had to do with federal regulations regarding the Clean Water Act. Improvements would include the paving of the parking lot along with the drainage improvements and curb and gutter. The cost of these upgrades, according to Harkness, would be cost prohibitive. "We could not stay in business," she said.

Thanks to research by Harkness, there was no paper trail that this issue could be traced to and there was no evidence that the EPA is even interested in the area at this time. According to her research the property is grandfathered under previous agreements and officials do not see a problem.

Green said the whole issue is over. "Probably the only thing we could have done better is the notification of the owners of the businesses and the way we handled it. For this we apologize. But we did learn from it. We want business in our city and we want to work with them and in this case I think we did."