DC council sets preliminary tax levy increase of 10 percent

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The Deer Creek Lions Club has its hands in just about every project completed within the City of Deer Creek—either with financial support or in providing physical support from its members. 

In fact, the local club has donated approximately $100,000 over the past year with proceeds from its gambling license which includes pull tabs and meat raffles. The local group hope it stays that way, even if it doesn’t proceed with a request from Wet Woody’s bar and grill in Deer Creek to conduct a weekly bingo event moving forward.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, approximately a dozen members of the Deer Creek Lions Club attended the meeting to show their support for the contributions the club has made to the community. Several people in attendance addressed the council and said they hoped the club would be allowed to continue to operate its gambling business in town, despite concerns over not holding weekly bingo events at the local bar. 

Steve Grey, of the Deer Creek Lions Club, said bingo would be every Tuesday night at the local bar. The club also conducts weekly meat raffles on Saturdays and has pull tabs in the bar as well. The group found out shortly before their last meeting that the local bar and grill wanted to have bingo as soon as a few weeks later, but the local organization still had additional questions that needed to answer, before it could decide one way or another. The club would also need to purchase specialized equipment that would take time to get to town. 

“I understand (Wet Woody’s owners) standpoint as he has a business to run, but to get things to go through the club it just doesn’t move that fast,” said Grey. 

Unfortunately, some members of the local Lions Club raised a concern that if they did not move forward with the weekly bingo night at Wet Woody’s that they could eventually be pushed out of the gambling business at the bar altogether. 

Though members of the city council said they would not be in favor of such a move, if that were to happen the city and surrounding organizations would likely receive less money than they currently do through donations from the Deer Creek Lions Club.

Over the course of the past year the Deer Creek Lions donated nearly $100,000 to everything from the City of Deer Creek for things like fireworks and various causes, to Wadena-Deer Creek School, Deer Creek Fire Department and local youth. While any organization who came into the community to conduct gambling would be require to donate 10 percent of their proceeds to the community, how the money was spent would be left up to that organization.

“If another organization comes in, they would be required to give the city 10 percent they would be required to give the city some money,” said a member of the Lions Club who estimated that number would be close to $36,000 per year. “What we would be losing out is all of the other community things. We really believe in our sense of community, we really believe in our youth.”

Grey said if the Deer Creek Lions Club ultimately cannot commit, or want to do Bingo every week, the local group would give the necessary permission for another group to come in and conduct that weekly activity, while continuing to have pull tabs and meat raffles as they currently do at Wet Woody’s.

“If we choose not to do (Bingo) we will give the option to allow him to bring someone else in,” said Grey. 

At the end of the discussion, councilman Jayme George thanked the members of the Deer Creek Lions for all they do for the community and local youth.

“I just want to thank all of you members for all of the things you do…for so many families and school districts,” he said. “You just don’t get thanked enough. We really do appreciate all of you guys.”

The council said it supports the Deer Creek Lions Club and hopes the two sides will work together to help both Wet Woody’s bar and grill and the Deer Creek Lions Club as a whole.

In other news

• Approved changing Santa Day from the first Saturday in December to Saturday, Dec. 13 due to a scheduling conflict. 

• Heard the monthly call report from the New York Mills Police Department, which showed the department spent 29 23/4 hours in town and responded to 23 calls for service. 

• Heard from Debbie Koep concerning a request from the Deer Creek Lions Club and the City of Deer Creek about potentially purchasing the basketball and pickleball court area from Koep’s son Dominic Koep, who purchased the former Deer Creek School several years ago. Debbie said she had a brief discussion with her son about the request and he said he would be willing to entertain the possibility of selling the basketball and pickleball courts to the City of Deer Creek. The city and Debbie will meet with members of the Deer Creek Lions Club, who has expressed an interest in resurfacing the pickleball and basketball courts in the future. 

• Approved a request from Marty Friedrich to remove two smaller closets and replace it with a larger closet in the back of the meeting room in the community center to store items for the American Legion. The goal would be to have all of the American Legion items in one spot, instead of several rooms and closets in the community center. 

• Heard the city received two applications for its part-time cleaning position. The city council will conduct interviews prior to a special city council meeting on October 8.

• Approved a 10 percent increase in the city’s preliminary tax levy. The city council has approved similar 10 percent increases in recent years and can lowered, but not increased, when its levy when it is finalized later this year. 

• Heard the painting of the new water tower should be completed within the next few weeks and a tree will need to be removed that is leaning on the well house. Utility supervisor Dan Kovar said he is planning to wait to flush the fire hydrants until the water tower project is completed this fall. 

• Heard a new rescue van has arrived in town. The city purchased the van from Fergus Falls with the help of the Deer Creek Lions Club who contributed $5,000 with the city chipping in another $5,000 for the vehicle. The remaining $10,000 will be split by the townships, unless more donations are received to offset that cost. 

• Heard a request from George about putting a line item in the city budget for maintenance at the city-owned baseball field. George said the baseball field has brought a lot of people to town since it was redone, including Deer Creek Shockers and Wadena-Deer Creek High School baseball games. The hope was to put money into the city’s budget to help offset maintenance and upkeep costs. The money could take the pressure off of fundraising for day-to-day expenses at the field.