Bar owner to try his luck with new Town Board

A rearranged Fredonia Town Board from April’s election has prompted the fourth liquor license request from Little Kohler Haus owner David Cook.

The request that is coming before the board next month will be decided in part by new Chairman Chris Janik as well as newcomer supervisors Steven Jentges and Robert Eichner, who have all expressed a willingness to reinstate Cook’s license.

Cook pleaded guilty in January to a misdemeanor charge of serving liquor without a license and, as part of his plea agreement, had a charge of buying liquor for commercial distribution from a retailer dismissed. The charges stem from a July raid of Little Kohler Haus conducted after a missed renewal deadline cost Cook his license the previous month.

Those opposed to restoring the license, including former chairman Lance Leider and current supervisors John Depies and Jim Stemper, have argued Cook’s license violations are just the tip of the iceberg of issues at Little Kohler Haus.

They say the tavern was dilapidated and a general source of lawlessness in the town.

Janik, Eichner and Jentges, however, have pointed to work recently completed by Cook at the tavern and the very few formal, written or in-person complaints about it from neighbors.

“There was a reason to deny it. There were concerns that needed to be addressed,” Eichner said in January. “From what I have heard at the meetings I’ve attended, those concerns are addressed or are being addressed.”

Janik said this week that he was open to granting Cook a license and that it was more likely to happen with the new board, but noted “a license is a fragile thing.”

“Like everything, you have to look at things long term and how it all fits together,” he said. “I don’t want the people who live close by there suffering because of (the license.)”

Cook denies that Little Kohler Haus was unusually raucous or disruptive.

“We never had trouble,” he said last week. “It is a bar so there is a fight here and there. But everyone shakes hands and gets along in the end.”

He said the entire issue stems to a simple bureaucratic error involving his renewal forms and a misunderstanding that has “snowballed into a world of shit.”

Cook said that he had accidentally filled out the forms wrong and wasn’t aware that meant he had to immediately stop serving liquor after the renewal date.

In July, Wisconsin Department of Revenue officers and sheriff’s deputies raided the bar and found receipts at the bar indicating Cook had continued to sell liquor after his license expired.

The officers came into the bar armed with assault rifles and rummaged through the building “like some big drug deal was going on,” Cook said.

“They wanted to find drugs and guns but they didn’t find anything. So they did their best to make stuff up,” he has said.

Stemper has been one of Cook’s most vocal critics. He said Tuesday that granting the license would be ridiculous and pointed to the fact that two people had fatal overdoses while living in campers on the property over the last couple years.

“Not only the fact he has a conviction, its a public safety issue,” he said. “There are kids in the neighborhood. Someone could pick up a baggie of Fentanyl and overdose. It’s a realistic thing.”

The first overdose death was a woman who was tending bar at Kohler Haus that had nowhere to go, Cook said, adding he didn’t know she used drugs until her death.

The second was a man in between apartments and needed a place to stay for a week. Again, Cook said, he didn’t suspect he used drugs until he overdosed and died a few days into his stay.

“My only fault is that I am too nice to people, I guess, and I get taken advantage of,” he said, adding that he hopes to run a cleaner and more up-scale operation when he reopens.

“You can’t pick your customers, but I’m hoping to get some quality people coming,” he said.

Stemper fears the Town Board could be held liable for issues at the bar if it approves the license, which he said would be grossly reckless.

“At that point, I want a roll call vote to show that I am against. I don’t want to be subpoenaed to a trial,” he said.

Stemper said he hopes the license request will die with a 2-2 vote as it did last time.

Jentges, who has said he is a neighbor and was a customer at Little Kohler Haus, should abstain because of his connection, Stemper said.

“Jentges said he was Cook’s customer,” he said. “Is he going to abstain? It sounds to me like a conflict of interest.”

Stemper pledged that neighbors unhappy with Little Kohler Haus will attend the meeting.

“This I can guarantee you. There will be people that live in Little Kohler at that meeting,” he said.

As part of negotiations with the Town Board, Cook said, he tore down an ax-throwing room he had built. The room was built without a permit and had safety issues, Town Clerk Christophe Jenkins said.

In addition, Cook said, he has completed $8,000 in repairs and renovations to meet the town inspection code.

“This was my retirement plan. I’ve got $300,000 to $400,000 in this, and without the license this is worth nothing, so I am going to fight it,” he said. “I’ll be fighting it if it takes 100 years.”