Saloon Owner Fears Inspector May Close Him Down
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
A public meeting between the owners and the state is tentatively scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the saloon. Owner Tim Carter and his daughter, Beth Thompson, who also is the bar manager, encourage all Mentone businesses and patrons to attend.
Carter said the tavern has been in business for seven years, starting out at the old Garret’s Sports Bar next door to its current location in the former Pill Box Pharmacy. The pharmacy closed about five years ago and owner Bill Winn gave Carter the opportunity to purchase the building.
“We purchased the building, and at that time, I went to the town of Mentone and asked them what we needed to do. We wanted to do some remodeling inside. They said as long as we did nothing to the outside structure, we could do anything we wanted to the inside of the building,” Carter said.
A restaurant was built inside the pharmacy building. At that time, he said, Teel’s Restaurant was not open because it had a fire and was out of business. When Teel’s reopened, Carter knew there was no way they could compete with them, so they were looking at doing a lot of remodeling on the original bar, or moving over to the pharmacy and building a new bar.
Carter again went to the town, which has its own building inspector. Again, the town gave them the same response – don’t touch the outside structure, but do what you want inside.
“So then we went to excise and talked to them and told them our intent, what we wanted to do. They had us draw up a floor plan. We submitted it to the state, they approved it and transferred our (alcohol) license to this address and started business,” Carter said.
That was Oct. 31, 2009.
On May 8 of this year, the Bulldog Saloon got a visit from the Division of Fire and Building Safety, Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Indianapolis.
“In the seven years we’ve been in business, we’ve never seen anybody. I never knew anything about it. So they come in and tell me they’re going to do an inspection on our building. They spent over eight hours doing an inspection,” Carter said.
Thompson said, “They told us it wasn’t planned. They just had driven through town and had noticed a new business and thought they would stop.”
During that inspection, Carter said, a new building inspector was being trained. He was Ed Sorensen, fire and building code inspector. Sorenson was being trained by Building Inspector Mark Shaver.
In a telephone call Wednesday afternoon, Sorensen stated, “I’m not authorized to speak with the media.”
Sorensen directed all inquiries to the Division’s public information officer. Questions submitted to the PIO were not answered as of this morning.
The inspectors wrote Carter’s business up for 16 violations. The violations ranged from switches and electrical outlet boxes needing covers to fire extinguishers needing to be installed on hangers or brackets. They were written up for their stove hood needing cleaning, but the state wrote Carter back later and apologized because the hood had been serviced and therefore was not a violation.
Carter addressed all the violations that they could, but two of the violations had him concerned because they could potentially force the Saloon’s closure.
His business was cited for “No construction shall be done on a Class 1 structure until a design release has been issued by the division unless the construction is of a type specifically exempted from the design release requirements by section 4 of this rule. Design releases may be issued by this division.”
Carter said he never knew anything about a design release.
“I went to my building inspector here in town. They didn’t know anything about it,” he said.
The other violation of concern was “No change in the character or use of any building or structure shall be permitted which shall cause the building or structure to be classified within a different occupancy group or within a different division or the same occupancy group.”
Carter said, “They’re telling me this was a retail supposedly and now we’ve made it like a gathering place. So to make this a gathering place, I have to do this construction permit. I can not do it myself. They require me to hire an engineering firm to draw up prints of the building to meet their requirements. They’re considering this like a new construction.”
After the Division of Fire and Building Safety kept threatening fines, Carter said he hired a Plymouth firm which charged Carter $2,500 to draw up prints. He’s supposed to submit them to the state to get the construction permit.
The state also wrote him up for operating without a special event endorsement.
“We pay BMI, we pay ASCAP ... for the music rights. They’re saying I have to do that with the state now. They tell me to go online and we fill out this form,” Carter said.
Thompson said they also had to pay $99, and she wrote the check out to Homeland Security, for the permit to have entertainment at Bulldog Saloon.
That was the first inspection May 8. Sorenson came back May 29 and told Carter he can’t issue him a permit because the Saloon still has violations. Carter was written up again for no permit and for another violation which had not not found May 8.
Inspection three occurred June 24. Sorensen wrote the Saloon up that time for having a doorway between the two buildings, a whole new violation.
“I reopened these two buildings. That was an original opening that had been framed in with lumber,” Carter said.
Sorensen also wrote Carter up for several continuing violations and a whole new violation regarding the hot water heater.
“We’re having this meeting on the 30th. (State Rep.) Tim Harman’s gotten involved with it. (State Rep. Rebecca) Kubacki’s got involved in this now. They’re coming down for the meeting,” Carter said.
Others expected to be at the meeting include the state fire marshal, Sorensen, Shaver and Donald LeBrun, assistant director, Fire & Building Code Enforcement, State Fire Marshal’s Office, Indiana Department of Homeland Security.
Kubacki said she received a call about 1-1/2 weeks ago from Carter, who felt the Division was making him jump through hoops unnecessarily. Normally, she wouldn’t get involved in a state department’s day-to-day business. However, she also received complaints from others, including the county fair, about Sorensen asking vendors to do unnecessary and repetitive tasks.
Kubacki was asked if she could get some of these questions answered, which she plans to do at Tuesday’s meeting. She said at this point she only has one side of the story and wants to get both sides. She said it could be a matter of Sorensen being new and not sure how to handle things.
“Our whole point we work for in Indiana is promotion of entrepreneurs and small businesses, and then having someone work in the opposite direction, we can’t have that,” Kubacki said.
She said she thinks a lot of questions can be answered at Tuesday’s meeting.
Rita Price-Simpson, Mentone Chamber of Commerce president, said she planned to attend Tuesday’s meeting to find out more information. As of this morning, the only information she knew was what she heard around town. She wants to know more about what’s going on and how it may affect the town and its businesses.
Carter said he hasn’t applied for a state construction permit yet because he first wants to see if he can get a variance for his buildings.
“But I finally asked Ed, I said, ‘It looks like I’m the only building you’re inspecting here in Mentone. Why is that?’ And that was on his second trip ... He told me, ‘I’m going to be here in Mentone the next couple of weeks doing inspections.’ I said, OK.’ He never came to Mentone and did any inspections. He’s been in here now four different times,” Carter said.
To meet all Sorenson’s requirements, including fire-rated doors, sprinkler system, fire alarm and smoke detector, it will cost him tens of thousands of dollars – costs he can’t afford.
Sorensen told Carter that if he moved back next door, he wouldn’t have to do anything.
“If this goes, it will put us out of business. There’s no way we can do what they want us to do,” Carter said.[[In-content Ad]]
A public meeting between the owners and the state is tentatively scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the saloon. Owner Tim Carter and his daughter, Beth Thompson, who also is the bar manager, encourage all Mentone businesses and patrons to attend.
Carter said the tavern has been in business for seven years, starting out at the old Garret’s Sports Bar next door to its current location in the former Pill Box Pharmacy. The pharmacy closed about five years ago and owner Bill Winn gave Carter the opportunity to purchase the building.
“We purchased the building, and at that time, I went to the town of Mentone and asked them what we needed to do. We wanted to do some remodeling inside. They said as long as we did nothing to the outside structure, we could do anything we wanted to the inside of the building,” Carter said.
A restaurant was built inside the pharmacy building. At that time, he said, Teel’s Restaurant was not open because it had a fire and was out of business. When Teel’s reopened, Carter knew there was no way they could compete with them, so they were looking at doing a lot of remodeling on the original bar, or moving over to the pharmacy and building a new bar.
Carter again went to the town, which has its own building inspector. Again, the town gave them the same response – don’t touch the outside structure, but do what you want inside.
“So then we went to excise and talked to them and told them our intent, what we wanted to do. They had us draw up a floor plan. We submitted it to the state, they approved it and transferred our (alcohol) license to this address and started business,” Carter said.
That was Oct. 31, 2009.
On May 8 of this year, the Bulldog Saloon got a visit from the Division of Fire and Building Safety, Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Indianapolis.
“In the seven years we’ve been in business, we’ve never seen anybody. I never knew anything about it. So they come in and tell me they’re going to do an inspection on our building. They spent over eight hours doing an inspection,” Carter said.
Thompson said, “They told us it wasn’t planned. They just had driven through town and had noticed a new business and thought they would stop.”
During that inspection, Carter said, a new building inspector was being trained. He was Ed Sorensen, fire and building code inspector. Sorenson was being trained by Building Inspector Mark Shaver.
In a telephone call Wednesday afternoon, Sorensen stated, “I’m not authorized to speak with the media.”
Sorensen directed all inquiries to the Division’s public information officer. Questions submitted to the PIO were not answered as of this morning.
The inspectors wrote Carter’s business up for 16 violations. The violations ranged from switches and electrical outlet boxes needing covers to fire extinguishers needing to be installed on hangers or brackets. They were written up for their stove hood needing cleaning, but the state wrote Carter back later and apologized because the hood had been serviced and therefore was not a violation.
Carter addressed all the violations that they could, but two of the violations had him concerned because they could potentially force the Saloon’s closure.
His business was cited for “No construction shall be done on a Class 1 structure until a design release has been issued by the division unless the construction is of a type specifically exempted from the design release requirements by section 4 of this rule. Design releases may be issued by this division.”
Carter said he never knew anything about a design release.
“I went to my building inspector here in town. They didn’t know anything about it,” he said.
The other violation of concern was “No change in the character or use of any building or structure shall be permitted which shall cause the building or structure to be classified within a different occupancy group or within a different division or the same occupancy group.”
Carter said, “They’re telling me this was a retail supposedly and now we’ve made it like a gathering place. So to make this a gathering place, I have to do this construction permit. I can not do it myself. They require me to hire an engineering firm to draw up prints of the building to meet their requirements. They’re considering this like a new construction.”
After the Division of Fire and Building Safety kept threatening fines, Carter said he hired a Plymouth firm which charged Carter $2,500 to draw up prints. He’s supposed to submit them to the state to get the construction permit.
The state also wrote him up for operating without a special event endorsement.
“We pay BMI, we pay ASCAP ... for the music rights. They’re saying I have to do that with the state now. They tell me to go online and we fill out this form,” Carter said.
Thompson said they also had to pay $99, and she wrote the check out to Homeland Security, for the permit to have entertainment at Bulldog Saloon.
That was the first inspection May 8. Sorenson came back May 29 and told Carter he can’t issue him a permit because the Saloon still has violations. Carter was written up again for no permit and for another violation which had not not found May 8.
Inspection three occurred June 24. Sorensen wrote the Saloon up that time for having a doorway between the two buildings, a whole new violation.
“I reopened these two buildings. That was an original opening that had been framed in with lumber,” Carter said.
Sorensen also wrote Carter up for several continuing violations and a whole new violation regarding the hot water heater.
“We’re having this meeting on the 30th. (State Rep.) Tim Harman’s gotten involved with it. (State Rep. Rebecca) Kubacki’s got involved in this now. They’re coming down for the meeting,” Carter said.
Others expected to be at the meeting include the state fire marshal, Sorensen, Shaver and Donald LeBrun, assistant director, Fire & Building Code Enforcement, State Fire Marshal’s Office, Indiana Department of Homeland Security.
Kubacki said she received a call about 1-1/2 weeks ago from Carter, who felt the Division was making him jump through hoops unnecessarily. Normally, she wouldn’t get involved in a state department’s day-to-day business. However, she also received complaints from others, including the county fair, about Sorensen asking vendors to do unnecessary and repetitive tasks.
Kubacki was asked if she could get some of these questions answered, which she plans to do at Tuesday’s meeting. She said at this point she only has one side of the story and wants to get both sides. She said it could be a matter of Sorensen being new and not sure how to handle things.
“Our whole point we work for in Indiana is promotion of entrepreneurs and small businesses, and then having someone work in the opposite direction, we can’t have that,” Kubacki said.
She said she thinks a lot of questions can be answered at Tuesday’s meeting.
Rita Price-Simpson, Mentone Chamber of Commerce president, said she planned to attend Tuesday’s meeting to find out more information. As of this morning, the only information she knew was what she heard around town. She wants to know more about what’s going on and how it may affect the town and its businesses.
Carter said he hasn’t applied for a state construction permit yet because he first wants to see if he can get a variance for his buildings.
“But I finally asked Ed, I said, ‘It looks like I’m the only building you’re inspecting here in Mentone. Why is that?’ And that was on his second trip ... He told me, ‘I’m going to be here in Mentone the next couple of weeks doing inspections.’ I said, OK.’ He never came to Mentone and did any inspections. He’s been in here now four different times,” Carter said.
To meet all Sorenson’s requirements, including fire-rated doors, sprinkler system, fire alarm and smoke detector, it will cost him tens of thousands of dollars – costs he can’t afford.
Sorensen told Carter that if he moved back next door, he wouldn’t have to do anything.
“If this goes, it will put us out of business. There’s no way we can do what they want us to do,” Carter said.[[In-content Ad]]
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