Owner OF Downtown Business Damaged By Floods Hopes To Come Back

He says most of the store & merchandises was destroyed.

 

Frederick, Md (KM). The owner of a downtown Frederick business which was hit hard by flooding wants to come back. Vinyl Acres on East Patrick Street received 18 inches of rain during the torrential downpour in the downtown Tuesday evening.

Vinyl Acres sells used and some new records. “It’s a beautiful spot. It’s a beautiful town. I’m a happy guy. I’m 70 years old and I’m doing what I love doing. I don’t want to close. I don’t want to go away,” says owner Bob Berberich, who was a guest last week on WFMD’s Mid-Maryland Live.  .

“I lost over 4,000 records in this flood,” he said. “I had them protected in vinyl bins underneath the table, but the water came in and got so high it came in and went in the bins. Once the record is wet–even though the record itself is playable–once the cover’s gone, it has no value. I can’t resell them, and I can’t take the time to even restore them.”

In addition to the records, Berberich says he also lost turntables and amplifiers to the floods.

“There is no insurance,” he said. “Not only would be no insurance because of if it’s a flood,  we had difficultly getting insurance because it’s used product. And the insurance companies don’t want to insure something that they don’t have a print out of what everything is worth. And I wouldn’t have it either. I buy these things and I don’t have an inventory except for in my head.”

Prior to selling records, Berberich was a musician. He says he got his first drum set at age `15, and within the next year, he was part of a band called The Hangmen. They had a regional hit song entitled “What A Girl Can’t Do,” which he says knocked the Beatles out of the number-one spot in 1966. After that he played with Nils Lofgrin in a band called Grin, which toured with Jimi Hendrix, Van Morrison and Neal Young. They released four albums. That group split, and Berberich says he formed a country band called the Rosslyn Mountain Boys, which opened for such acts as Loretta Lynn, Alabama and Conway Twitty. They were also the house band at the Birchmere. The Roslyn Mountain Boys also released an album which sold 10,000 copies alone in the DC area, he says.

Berberich says he would like to reopen his business. He was flooded out in 2015. “I’m hoping to speak to the city. Since I’m the lower spot, if a storm drain was put in front of my store, I wouldn’t have the problem I have today,” he says.

He also wants to reopen Vinyl Acres in its current location. “These storms are becoming regular now. It’s not a once in every 100-year thing,” Berberich says. “I don’t want to move. I can’t afford to move to a more expensive spot.”

Right now, a Go Fund Me page has been set up to help Berberich bring his business back on line. “The money helps because I’m going to have the lost income for at least three weeks if not a month. And also I have to replace 4,000 albums,” he says.

The Go Fund Me page is entitled “Vinyl Acres Flood Recovery.” The number to call is 301-606-8953.

 

By Kevin McManus