Comments on: Authorities Force Shutdown of Club
By Dean Higgins on 09-12-07
While it is true that Flanagan’s did bring some fine music to the ‘Fish…it’s tiring to see all this farewell junk. Flanagan took a great building, in a killer location and ran it very poorly. I gave up on seeing music there after 4 shows. They never started on time (I am a working stiff and can’t stay up that late), the drinks were typically overpriced and the food was always mediocre. My wife would no longer go into the place based on the condition of the restrooms.
A telling picture is that if you walked through the Fish on a weekend night..the Northern, Bulldog, Casey’s and other clubs…always packed…Flanagan’s was usually deserted.
So good luck to Flanagan in M-town…I hope he has more respect for his clientele down there.
By Roark on 09-12-07
The fun police are alive and well in Whitefish.
By Nick on 09-12-07
You know what Roark, you’re the biggest idiot in the world! You obviously know NOTHING about how the police and AET do their checks or anything of the nature! All you do is try to get people like me pissed off. After reading the article, I’d say Flanigan is VERY lucky. It would be one thing if they were actually targeting them, but when the state liquor board gets involved, it’s obviously more than just targeting someone. This same issue is becoming a huge problem in Seattle right now, only to a much more severe degree. You’re right though, as long as people are having fun who cares if people are getting shot. Screw that, and screw you Roark! The Flathead Valley is a quaint and quiet community that doesn’t need to be a breeding ground for stupid bar owners to serve underage kids and cause problems for the valley. As dean made the excellent observation, every other bar in town is packed on the weekends, and they actually FOLLOW the rules… SHOCKING!
By anxious for options on 09-12-07
Thank you Nick.
By Everyone's Tired of Roark on 09-12-07
Roark’s pissed off ‘cause his weirdo friends at the EDGE are going out of business, and will lose their broadcast license too.This repugnant republican based tirade is way over done, no one is being fooled and they just can’t handle it.
Get out your crayons and write letters to the editor, dude.
By Nick on 09-12-07
So that’s the story behind this guy! Now it all makes sense. See, it was pretty obvious he was a hard-core republican, but I think he’s a good candidate for my theory that the far-left and far-right aren’t really all that different when you look at the big picture. It just humors me. I dunno, as annoying as this guy is, and believe me he IS, he gives me something to respond to with his pointless rants and absurd claims. Thanks for the fun Roark! 
By Nick on 09-12-07
Oh, and by the way, I am a republican myself… obviously not to the extreme like EDGE-boy up there, but I don’t want to be associated with him or his stupid station anyway. Does anyone even know anyone else that likes that guy/station? All I hear is that people are tired of his ugly building sitting there with nothing but crap coming out of it. I’d like to see it bulldozed down… oh, but those are only dreams. At least our boy Stu Stadler put him in his place recently! HAH!
By NoOne Knows on 09-13-07
First of all, Whitefish is upset with the building that they approved.Flanagan didn’t build that building, he just took it over. He also took the violations very serious by firing staff, hiring new people and re-iterating the importance of checking ID’s. Unfortunately he employs people who do make mistakes, just like the police department has made there fare share of mistakes.
As for the ranting story of lies about the club, I know for a fact that Bruyer never performed a “bar check” last winter, where an officer walked the balcony and quote “felt like getting punched in the face with marijuana smoke”, and then reporting to the “drunk manager on duty “. That is a bold faced lie. If it did happen, then why wasn’t the 3 individuals guilty of smoking pot arrested, and the reporters called to make a big deal out of it.
Bruyer says there are 4 “compliance checks” a year and that they didn’t target Flanagans, then explain to me why they were in about 4-6 times a month.
I have spoken to a couple of the other bar owners and they agree that Flanagan was on a hot list even before all the violations.
I guarantee if you walk into any of the other clubs on a Friday or Saturday night you can find someone underage, or doing drugs. This article makes it sound like none of the other clubs have issues, not true, Caseys has the police there almost every weekend to brake up fights inside and out. There has only been 1 fight in front of Flanagans, and that was caused by 4-5 guys coming across the street from Caseys and starting crap with 3 guys that were sitting in the open area at Flanagans.
If the community is truly concerned about violence, drug use, and under age drinking, then maybe they should look at Casey a little closer.
People are pissed because Flanagan came from out of state and made a few enemies or rubbed a few people wrong or just didn’t feel the need to pay “the people in power” their hush money.
By Nick on 09-14-07
NoOneKnows~
Okay, obviously if he was doing something about the problem, he did a piss-poor job of it and should still be held responsible, regardless of its effectiveness. As for making mistakes… once or twice, it happens. But how do you mistake a REAL ID with an underrage birthdate? I mean, if it’s his primary job to check ID’s at the door, then he had better damn-well know what date makes a person legal. So that excuse is lame, don’t try to make us feel sorry for his inability to hire competent people.
Secondly, how do “in fact” know that bar checks were not done, and the reporting was a lie? Were you one of the smokers? Were you the drunk manager? Were you the owner getting talked to about it? Were you the officer who did the check? Probably not. It’s funny that so many people “know” exactly what is done and how it is done by police. You “think” you know what goes on, but trust me, you don’t. I know some guys on the AET, and when they’re out, you’d never know it. They’ve had someone actually come up to them and ask if they have any weed on them!!! I mean, talk about bad luck. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for this girl, they couldn’t do anything about it. So don’t tell me you know what law enforcement does. Not to mention, if the kids threw the stuff away before the cop found it, there’s really not much he can do. Trust me, there’s always more than meets the eye. Oh, and by the way, depending on the amount of pot they had, not everyone is arrested for having pot on them. If you know anything about the county jail right now, it stays pretty busy and Im sure they don’t want the hassle of a misdameanor drug paraphanalia charge taking up room that should be used for DUI’s. So yeah, make sure you KNOW what you’re talking about before you start accusing and defending. As for the reporters, shockingly enough this isn’t Hollywood and it probably wasn’t Lohan or Paris out there so no one really gave a rat’s ###. You’d be surprised what you don’t know… trust me.
As for targeting Flanagan’s… why not? I mean, if Im a cop looking to bust someone, Im not going to go hit up an old-folks’ home because I need to be “fair.” That’s stupid. You go where the crime is. You think cops patrol the deserted neighborhoods on Friday and Saturday night looking for DUI’s? No, they drive main street, and hwy 93, and hwy 2, because that is where they’re going to catch the morons that like to drive drunk. Personally, they should be lucky there weren’t more citations.
Oh, and Flanagan’s has ALWAYS been on the “hot list.” It’s a known fact that, even before Flanagan’s when it was Club Central, that building could hold the most people and usually generated the most after-hours activities outstide. Why do you think WFPD posted cops on that corner? Because they’re not idiots. I mean sure, you could go sit outside the rainbow bar in Evergreen and get 1 or 2 DUI’s, but why not sit outside a packed bar and get 10 or 20? It’s called logistics, and yes law enforcement is still a business to get the most they can.
And yes, you will find the underragers and drug users everywhere. But like I said above, you go where the biggest problem is. But they actually do still hit up other places… like I said, you just don’t know it.
And don’t worry, Casey’s is next on the list. They’re not a whole lot better than Flanagan’s, but if you’ve only seen one fight out front, it’s because there are almost always cops stationed on that corner so no one is dumb enough to start something. But it doesn’t mean that Flanagan’s is in the clear. And no we’re not upset because he’s an out of stater, that building has ALWAYS been a “hot spot”, back when it was Club Central. And the only people he rubbed wrong were the cops and neighbors who had to deal with the result of the bar, and not just Flanagan’s, but others too. No one is denying that there aren’t other problems, we’re just saying take control of the BIGGEST contributor and work down from there.
By Nick on 09-21-07
“At no time did I feel the Whitefish Police Department was picking on Jim Flanagan or his bar,” said Whitefish Assistant Chief Mike Ferda. “He made no attempt to rectify things,” he said, adding that the present outcome is one nobody wanted. “It’s entirely on his hands.”
Flathead County Alcohol Enforcement Team coordinator Det. Travis Bruyer also said his team made no effort to single Flanagan out.
“It’s not that he was ever targeted,” Bruyer said. “He had the opportunity early on to train his staff and he never did.”
By Nick on 09-21-07
“Flanagan says he tried to maintain a dialogue with city officials and made attempts to fix the problems, like firing the bartenders cited for serving after hours and signing up for alcohol sales education classes, which ultimately were never attended.”
“As head of the Alcohol Enforcement Team, Bruyer conducts quarterly compliance checks on Flathead County businesses that sell alcohol. During those checks, an underage person is sent into a bar or liquor store to try and purchase alcohol with their real ID, which shows that they are under 21.
Bruyer began intensive, valleywide rounds of compliance checks in 2005.
“When we started with compliance checks, we did everyone the same,” Bruyer said, noting that every time Flanagan’s was checked, so was every other bar in the area.
Flanagan’s failed compliance checks four times, and was cited in November 2005, December 2005, February 2006, and November 2006 for selling alcohol to minors.
Then on Sept. 4, 2006, the club was cited for remaining open after 2 a.m. and after-hours alcohol sales. It was hit again with the same two offenses four days later.
The violations prompted the Montana Department of Revenue to issue a revocation notice for the club’s liquor license in January of this year.”
By Nick on 09-21-07
“I’m trying to take the high road out of town,” Flanagan said.
I don’t care what road he takes as long as it leads OUT of town.
The views expressed in the comments section do not reflect those of the Beacon.