Howling Dog Saloon owner asks state to waive license fees, citing crash injuries

The owner of the Howling Dog Saloon in Fox is asking the state's alcohol board to waive unpaid fees for waivers that let the bar keep its liquor license, saying injuries from a motorcycle crash have left him unable to run it. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board takes up his request Nov. 10, along with the bar's license renewal.

In an Oct. 21 letter to the board, Ralph Glasgow said a driver hit his motorcycle in 2020, breaking his sternum and ribs and damaging his brain. "My speech, memory and brain function are a lot slower these days, which makes running the bar obsolete," he wrote, citing ongoing medical debt.

Glasgow plans to sell the bar and its cabins next spring and keep three acres for himself. The property was subdivided this summer.

A bar that's open less than 240 hours a year needs a waiver from the state to keep its liquor license, and each waiver costs double the one before. State staff approved Glasgow's first two, which cited a large drop in sales from COVID-19, and he paid those fees. His third and fourth requests are incomplete because the fees haven't been paid, according to the board agenda, and the license is temporarily surrendered.

The board may waive the fees after a licensee's death, the destruction of the premises or "comparable circumstances showing extraordinary hardship," according to the regulation. A state staff memo says medical issues have kept Glasgow from operating the business.

The board grants a waiver only if the bar couldn't be operated through no fault of the owner or was under construction. If it denies a waiver, it also denies the next license renewal.