There was plenty of media coverage late last year (2015) and early this year when Harrisburg mayor Dale Fowler (now state senator-elect) “brought” Z Factor Amusements to the empty Kmart building next to Tractor Supply on Commercial Drive. However, there’s been NO media coverage of the situation that emerged in October 2016 when Z Factor’s power was cut...and Tractor Supply was reportedly left with the bill. The situation was further exacerbated when former employees of the amusement facility took to social networking to air their reported difficulties with the place. Shown here is the front of the building as of the second weekend in November.

Newly elected senator under fire

HARRISBURG – Rumors surrounding the status of one of the “projects brought to you by Dale Fowler” have lit up the city of Harrisburg, but the only thing definitive the public is able to know right now is that Z Factor has been sued in Saline County court by a company that’s done business with them for a sprinkler system.

Z Factor Amusements, sited in the old Kmart building next to Tractor Supply Store on Commercial in Harrisburg, was one of the tenuous businesses Harrisburg Mayor and state senator-elect Dale Fowler was slamming into town nearly from the moment he put in a petition to run for a state office.

The screenshot came directly from the ‘reviews’ section of Z Factor’s Facebook page and was the initial indication that there was something spurious going on. Z Factor took down all questionable posts, many of which included allegations of serious wrongdoing (and could subsequently cause problems for the commenters). They were forthcoming with Disclosure; Tractor Supply hadn’t returned messages sent two weeks prior to deadline for this issue, however.

Posting signs all over town about “projects” he was – according to the signs – solely responsible for (although that responsibility wasn’t ever made clear; it may have been related to Fowler’s employment at Peoples National Bank, but the signs were apparently designed to put the ownership on Fowler), Fowler was able to convince the public that he was the consummate mayor bringing business to his town…but with the problems “his” businesses have since encountered, he may be backing off some of that claim.

Z Factor

Z Factor is supposed to be something of an “amusement” location, featuring trampolines, bounce houses, paintball, dodgeball, volleyball, basketball dunk goals and an “ice skating” rink (in quotations because it’s not ice; it’s synthetic, according to sources who’ve been on it, a polymer floor that sort of functions like ice but is considerably slower to skate on.) It’s supposed to be “family friendly” and the amusements aren’t expensive at all; as an added bonus, they also provide “special needs” facilities and hours for children with disabilities.

It opened without much fanfare at some point in time in either late 2015 or early 2016 and received about the same reception by the public that one of Fowler’s other projects, the movie theater one shopping center over, did: plenty of initial interest, which tapered off quickly when reports began circulating that it wasn’t that big of a deal.

No A/C

At Z Factor, things deteriorated over the summer when complaints began surfacing about lack of air conditioning in the building, definitely not something a high-activity amusement locale should have a problem with.

But Z Factor persevered, as did Fowler, who continued to take credit for siting various businesses with owners coming seemingly out of nowhere.

That was the situation with Sal Sulaymanov (Sulaiman, Sulayman and other spellings or misspellings), owner of the amusement who hails from New York City.

Other media outlets cryptically stated that Sulaymanov “was aware” of the location open in Harrisburg “through other real estate investments.” However, the only other connection Disclosure had been able to find (as of deadline) that Sulaymanov has to the area is TruFlo Solutions, a well waste/saltwater disposal system in White County.

Then something happened at the end of October: A fight erupted on Facebook.

While that’s not unique in and of itself, this one was based on complaints coming out about the way Sulaymanov was running the place – including disputes about payroll tax deductions, allegations of romantic trysts among employees (including Sulaymanov)….and a revelation that the facility was allegedly stealing electricity from the next-door neighbor, Tractor Supply Company (TSC).

Epic thread

The mess on Facebook erupted on October 27, and reached Disclosure the next day, as those involved were screencapping frantically before Z Factor could delete critical comments on their own page, as well as the comments being issued on others’ pages regarding all of the above allegations.

So on October 28, Disclosure, unable to reach Z Factor by phone, contacted Tractor Supply and explained that there were allegations that ZF was “stealing” electricity from TSC, and that the manner by which this was accomplished was that TSC had been experiencing higher-than-usual electric bills from Ameren Illinois, and when they called Ameren to check it out and explain it, Ameren discovered that ZF was “tapped into” TSC’s meter…and was illegally taking electricity from them.

Harrisburg’s TSC could not comment on the matter on the 28th. Disclosure contacted TSC’s corporate office with the query, but as of deadline (November 12) there had been no return call.

Disclosure was unable to reach ZF, as it turned out, because the phones either “weren’t working” or were impacted by the electricity situation.

Tri-State sues

On Nov. 1, Tri-State Fire Protection Inc., an Indiana corporation that provides sprinkler systems to businesses across Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, filed a lawsuit against ZF.

Tri-State Fire claimed that they had provided services and materials to the business, on and after February 17, 2016, apparently installing a fire protection sprinkler system (likely as required by law under the circumstance of the building being a ‘public place of amusement’) in the total amount of $16,228.54.

They were seeking the payment of this sum as it was invoiced to ZF over February and March of this year.

The summons for the court case was unable to be served upon the registered agent for the limited liability corporation that is ZF, Melissa Trout, whose registered address reads 1025 Highway 1, Carmi. Court documents show that Trout “no longer worked” at ZF, so she was unserved, this on October 14.

A court date was set for December 12, assuming someone will be noticed for the hearing.

Vague in the details

Disclosure was finally able to reach ZF by Facebook message on Nov. 11.

Asked specifically whether the issue with TSC and Ameren had been worked out, since the amusement facility was once again advertising its business on Facebook again, an unidentified spokesperson for ZF stated “We’ve taken the appropriate actions to resolve our problems with the building. We are in currently dealing with a lawyer against our landlords to resolve this issue. TSC has been very understanding and helpful to us. As for details of the case I’m not allowed to discuss them until it’s settled. There is no issue with Ameren or Tractor Supply.”

Asked specifically if the problem with TSC and Ameren had anything to do with the recent filing of the lawsuit by Tri-State in Saline County court or if the filing were something separate, as well as name of the landlord of the building, the spokesperson said “It’s all the same and I’m not allowed to give the names out to anyone unless it’s dealing with the case directly or for paperwork to do with Z Factor, our lawyers have to deal with it. I’m not being rude in any way, I’m just not to talk to anyone but our lawyers about it until it is settled, to protect the integrity of our case.”

Asked if they were going to open the weekend of the 12th-13th, the spokesperson said “Yes, there will be a few days here and there we will be closed. We’re trying to do it on our slower days and days we don’t have parties. We will keep everyone posted on schedule changes on the Facebook page. Rather than shut the facility down for a two week stretch and start more rumors that we are closing, we’re doing our best to keep our facility available during our maintenance on the building.”

ZF’s Facebook page reflected that they would be open all weekend, but prior to that, messages on the 10th had indicated that the place was “temporarily closed for maintenance.”

On deadline, Disclosure received information that the facility was running on two generators.

There were still no working phones, according to the Facebook page and to those who had been attempting to call for several days.

Where’s Sal?

In the meantime, it’s unclear where Sulaymanov actually is.

Sources speaking with Disclosure on condition of anonymity (although the same material came out on the Oct. 27 Facebook epic rant about the place) advised that he had been going back and forth from Harrisburg to New York, with a pregnant wife on the east coast, and a person he was seeing locally in Harrisburg for whom he’d purchased a house and a vehicle (her name was mentioned on the Facebook rant but will not be mentioned here).

Fowler, having somehow won his bid for state senator, was apparently too busy getting his photo taken for campaign purposes with the president-elect to weigh in on the ZF mess or, perhaps, come to their rescue.

Tractor Supply, sources in Harrisburg have been told, is livid about the fact that they were taken advantage of, although whether it be by the unnamed landlord of both businesses, or whether it be because they’d tried to work it out with Z Factor, and Z Factor had welched on money they owed TSC for the electricity like they allegedly had with pretty much everyone else they’d done business with in order to site the amusement facility, is something unknown.

And an intensive internet search regarding Sulaymanov’s many names and social networking pages has turned up that it appears, at least, that he has the place for sale…for 1.3 million dollars.

Many feel if he has a place worth that, there may indeed have been the “need for traffic control,” as Fowler opined Harrisburg may have to deploy upon the opening of Z Factor and the movie theater that has ones of patrons on any given night, were they to have opened at the same time. However, there wasn’t, which means a lot of people still don’t even know what Z Factor is.

Disclosure intends to look closely into the matter, however, and find out exactly what is going on; be watching upcoming issues.