Winners in this year's inaugural Fire in the Valley barbecue competition have a bad taste in their mouths.
More than 30 teams participated in the June 4 contest, intended to raise money to support schools in Red Bank, but so far the winners haven't received any prize money.
Jason Cole said he decided to make the drive from Nashville to participate in the pro competition at Camp Jordan because $20,000 was up for grabs. But now, two weeks later, he is still waiting on the $3,000 he won, and he said everyone else he's talked to who placed in the event is waiting for their payouts.
"Obviously, it's a first-year event and you're going to have your challenges," Cole said. "But not to pay people is pretty crappy."
Cole said he and the other winners haven't heard anything from event organizers and his phone calls aren't being returned.
Eric McRoy of the sponsoring Red Bank Foundation, a new community-minded consortium of about 50 businesses, did not return multiple messages seeking comment Monday. The event's organizer, Callie LeCompte, also did not return phone calls asking for comment.
Cole said the participants were told by LeCompte before the competition began that she couldn't write checks to the winners at the event itself because of the group's nonprofit status. But Cole questioned the legitimacy of that claim, saying he's never experienced this problem in any other competition.
"All of the teams started to think something fishy is going on here when she said that," Cole said.
Michael Broom also participated in the competition, and said he hasn't received the $1,500 he is due for winning the backyard division.
The event was originally scheduled to be held at Red Bank Middle School, but McRoy previously told the Times Free Press the competition outgrew the space and organizers decided to move it to Camp Jordan.
Broom said he thinks the competition lost a lot of participants due to the move, and he wishes the organizers would have just said they couldn't afford to make the promised payouts.
"Some of these competitions you don't get as many entries as you'd expect, and you adjust the payout at the cooks' meeting, but they didn't do anything," Broom said.
Cole said it cost him between $500 and $750 to participate in the contest when he tallies up the cost of meat, gas and supplies.
"If they didn't have the money they should have canceled the event," he said. "And now, if they don't have the money and are not calling and telling us, it's only making it worse."
Staff writer Kim Sebring contributed to this story.
Contact staff writer Kendi Anderson at 423-757-6592 or kendi. anderson@timesfree press.com. Follow on Twitter @kendi_and.