By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The owners of Wet Woody’s Pub and Grub in downtown Deer Creek have served a 30-day notice to the Deer Creek Lions Club to end its charitable operation at the Deer Creek establishment. 

During its regularly scheduled meeting last Monday night, Rod Woodward of Wet Woody’s Pub and Grub, informed the city council that he served the local non-profit group official notice to vacate the bar.

“It’s time for a change. I gave the Lions Club organization a 30-day notice to stop gambling operations. I think February 24 is the ending date for that,” said Woodward. 

The notice comes after a tumultuous few months for both the Deer Creek Lions Club and the Woodwards as disagreements over charitable gambling have spilled into city council meetings. In October, Rod and Cathy Woodward asked the city council to officially change its non-profit gambling organization when the local bar owners felt the Deer Creek Lions Club weren’t providing all of the gambling options they wanted, like weekly Bingo games.

The Deer Creek Lions Club has provided Bingo on a nearly weekly basis since the beginning of December and reportedly enlisted the help of the Woodwards to come up with a set of rules to operate the weekly Bingo games at the establishment. The Bingo games are staffed by the Deer Creek Lions Club each week, which is in addition to providing pull tabs and a weekly meat raffle in town. 

However, a new request from the Woodwards would set up a weekly horse racing event that they said needed to be staffed by members of the Deer Creek Lions Club, in addition to all of the other activities run by the Lions Club at the establishment. 

Several members of the Deer Creek Lions Club spoke during the meeting and stated horse racing is considered a pull tab by the State of Minnesota and can be operated by staff members at Wet Woody’s if the Deer Creek Lions Club purchased the equipment for horse racing—something Woodward said he wasn’t interested in doing. 

“I was invited to a meeting for the Lions Club to discuss horse racing and how that was going to be run,” said Woodward. “How it was going to be run was not by them and they want us to do it and that is not how it is going to work OK. Even though the state says we can run it, it’s just not feasible. They have to run these programs; they are our gaming agency.”

Rod Woodward also made several accusations against the Deer Creek Lions Club like the pull tabs are occasionally clumped together, a late cancellation of Bingo on Monday, Jan. 26 that occurred the night before the city council meeting and that the rent is not always paid between the 10th and 20th of the month, even though he later admitted there is no state law that says rent needs to be paid during that time period. However, Woodward said the rent payment was an agreement the Lions Club made in a message to him.

“I know it is not required for them to give us a date, but they did and I am going to hold them to it,” he said.

When addressing several of the concerns that were brought up by Woodward, Korie Gray of the Deer Creek Lions Club, admitted the rent was late this month due to a medical procedure that she endured during the middle of the month. She said she communicated with Woodward that the check would be late and was granted a one week exemption from the State of Minnesota to get the necessary paperwork filed due to the procedure.

Throughout the conversation last week, members of the Deer Creek Lions Club said Woodward has made several demands and was unwilling to budge from his requests for gambling, like moving back the start of Bingo by 30 minutes from 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m., in order to give staff members more time to get to Deer Creek from their other jobs.

“We asked can we start Bingo at 6 instead off 5:30, and I don’t think that was a huge ask, and it was no we aren’t going to consider it at this time,” said Gray of the request to bump back the start of Bingo each week.

After a lengthy back-and-forth from the Woody’s co-owner and the Deer Creek Lions Club, councilman Jayme George asked if there was any way possible for the two groups to work together moving forward. 

“Is there any way possible that we can still try to work together on any different alternatives where we can try to keep the Lions in your facility? Is there anything we can look at, anything we can possibly change within the club, possibly. Personally I think it is in the best interest if the Lions stay in there,” said George to Woodward. “There is not a lot the city can do about it. We can’t force people to work together and that is not a good relationship either.”

When asked by George if he would reconsider the notice to force the Deer Creek Lions Club to leave his establishment and what it would take to do so, Woodward said there was a slim chance that would happen. 

“Slim, but I can give you a list,” he said about what it would take for him to rescind his 30-day notice to vacate the bar. 

“If there is a slim chance lets hear it,” said George, who along with several city council members have said they would not support another non-profit group into the local bar if he kicked out the Lions Club. “This has escalated long enough.”

Even though the Deer Creek City Council cannot force Wet Woody’s to have the Deer Creek Lions Club as their gaming organization, they have the right to refuse a gaming license to another organization that may want to conduct charitable gambling at the establishment. 

In addition to Wet Woody’s Pub and Grub, the Deer Creek Lions Club hosts pull tabs and even some meat raffles at several establishments throughout Wadena and Otter Tail County area, like Drastic Measures in Wadena and the Shoreline in Battle Lake. Each of the other establishments staff the pull tabs and meat raffles with their own staff and not members of the Deer Creek Lions Club. 

“Woody’s is the only site where we have to do staffing for everything and I am asking for a compromise on that and only on the horse racing,” said Gray, who added that Bingo has been about break-even since the Lions Club started the games in December. “We said even though we are running at a loss or a break even, it is something we want to continue because we see the enjoyment and entertainment it is bringing the community.”

While the Deer Creek Lions Club said they were willing to spend several thousand dollars to purchase the equipment necessary to provide the horse racing games at the bar they also have run into an issue with enough people willing to work another night at the establishment each week.

“We want to work with you. We want to work with you to give you what we want. Right now we cannot staff horse racing, and it can be fully staffed by the bar,” said Gray, who added the Lions Club had already agreed to purchase the $4,000 computer and system to operate Bingo and the horse racing system out of its reserve fund. “I had asked that the compromise be that because we are putting out huge expenditures to get Bingo started that you please do it as a bar option only, because we do not have the staff available to do another night.”

Gray said the Deer Creek Lions Club was trying to find a compromise with Wet Woody’s and was asking for understanding as the club is trying to find solutions to adding the additional games that the Woodward’s want with a limited staff.

“There seems to be no compromise,” said Gray. “It’s this is what we want (and) you are gaming and you are going to do it. We are trying to accommodate those things, but we are also a business that is struggling with staffing.”

While they want to remain as the charitable gambling organization at Wet Woody’s, Gray said the last several months have been difficult on members of the Deer Creek Lions Club with the threats of potentially being kicked out of the bar. 

“The club does not want any tensions—we want to work with him,” said Gray.

George said there is a lot of tension within the Deer Creek Lions Club and owners at Wet Woody’s and tried to find a creative solution to staff the horse racing. He asked that if city clerk/treasurer Miriam DeCock was willing to sell the horse racing pull tabs one day a week, if the Woodwards would reconsider kicking out the Lions Club as their gambling organization. 

Woodward said he would entertain that idea, but then left and later returned to the city council meeting with a handwritten note with four conditions that reportedly need to take place within Deer Creek Lions Club.

The conditions included:

1. Korie (Gray) and Lance (Wohlwend) need to be removed from gaming

2. Someone needs to run horse racing, Bingo and meat raffle after they are removed

3. There needs to be better checks and balances in the operation

4. (Woody’s) wants a full blown audit on gaming

Throughout the discussion council members Bob Lund, Nicole Helmrichs, Danny Hendershot and George all spoke in favor of finding a way to keep the Lions Club or another organization in Deer Creek, in the establishment for the betterment of the community (mayor Troy Beiswinger was not in attendance last week). 

Last year the Deer Creek Lions Club reportedly gave $90,000 to the local school and city causes and oftentimes are just a phone call away if the city or another organization needs funding for a project, something that Hendershot said may not be as easy to get if a new gambling establishment comes into the community.

While non-profit gambling organizations are legally required to donate 10 percent of their proceeds back into the community in which the funding is raised, Hendershot said the City of Deer Creek and its various organizations have a unique working relationship with the Deer Creek Lions Club that donates far more than just 10 percent of income in town.

  “We actually have a working relationship with the Lions that they will come to the city or the fire department and say we have some excess funds we need to get rid of. Do you guys need anything? We will never see that coming out of town (if there is an outside organization in charge of gaming),” said Hendershot.

When asked by members of the city council if they would approve an outside non-profit to come into the community if Wet Woody’s Pub and Grub followed through with its eviction of the Lions Club, councilman Bob Lund said three city council members have already stated several times that they would not approve an outside organization to conduct gambling in the local bar/restaurant.

  Lund highlighted the long-standing working relationship with the Deer Creek Lions Club and the various parts of the city that have benefited from charitable gambling from having the organization in town. 

“Dan said no, Jayme said no and I said no, that nobody else is coming in. It is going to be that way. You have to go beg them (outside organization) for money where you people have been so generous to the city and the school too,” said Lund. “I’m going to nix anyone else coming in here.” 

At the end of a nearly 90 minute discussion, members of the Deer Creek Lions Club said they would hold a special meeting to address the requests made by the Woodwards and see if they can find a compromise with the bar owners prior to the end of the 30-day notice to vacate. 

In other news

• Held a public hearing concerning the new fee schedule with the City of Deer Creek. The hearing was held to update items like the failure to license a dog, rental charge for utilizing a fire hydrant and more. 

• Heard the individual who was hired as the custodian at the community center has resigned and the council agreed to offer the position to the second person who recently interviewed for the position.