Lakes area workers and business owners are paying the price during the state government shutdown. 

Chris Villella, of Bada Bing, was ready to open his bar/restaurant more than a month ago. But the shutdown meant he wasn’t able to get the liquor license needed to open. Bada Bing is along Highway 371 near Brainerd International Raceway. Matty’s bar and restaurant, across the highway, sits in the same limbo. 

 “Everything is ready to go,” Villella said, who is waiting to go to work along with eight employees. “We can’t go to work because of the state.

“I’ll end up losing everything if we don’t open soon. I’ll probably lose my house, my car, can’t pay my child support. It’s been rough on me.”

At Anderson Brothers in Brainerd, the news of a possible agreement Thursday between Gov. Mark Dayton and the GOP leadership to end the stalemate left workers waiting optimistically the ordeal may end soon. 

Anderson Brothers employs about 150 people in the field. One high profile state project the Brainerd construction company was working on was Highway 371 between Baxter and Nisswa. Now that project sits idle. 

Terry Curtis of Anderson Brothers construction said they’ve moved workers to residential and commercial projects — any work without a state fund attached. 

But without an end in sight to the shutdown and before talk Thursday of a deal, there was concern the shutdown may stretch into the fall or beyond. 

So Anderson Brothers began contacting other contractors — landscapers and excavators — trying to find employees any kind of work in the interim. They’ve even worked to place employees in temporary positions in neighboring states like North Dakota. They were looking at employee skills and trying to match them with other industries such as carpentry, trucking and manufacturing that had jobs to fill either temporarily or long term. 

Curtis said they were trying to see if they could find any openings for a few good people just to help the families make ends meet and get a paycheck. 

“We are doing this knowing that these good employees may never return to Anderson Brothers,” Curtis said. “Basically we’re grasping at straws looking to help these families.”

Curtis said the shutdown came after workers were just getting back into jobs following winter layoffs and needed to put in work hours for insurance.

Anderson Brothers hired a young man from Fargo, N.D., who moved his wife and new baby here with expectation of starting work last Monday. The shutdown put the work on hold. Anderson Brothers made calls to get the young man, who had a construction background, a different job. 

That’s the human side of the story, Curtis said. 

“We recognize these employees have got to make ends meet and we’ve got to do what we can,” he said, adding senior employees have stepped aside to let younger workers with fewer hours have the available work. 

Area resorts have been fielding calls from out-of-state guests worried they won’t be able to fish during the vacations they plan for all year. At Frank’s Resort on Ruth Lake in Emily, guests told them they may have to cancel prime summer vacations because of the DNR’s position on enforcing the requirement for a fishing license even when guests can’t get one because of the shutdown.

For Villella, the hold up came as the Health Department had to sign off in order for him to get his liquor license, and that didn’t make it before the shutdown. The liquor license was approved by Crow Wing County and Villella said the state cashed his checks to pay for the fees. Even if he can’t open to make money, Villella said the banks still want to be paid. 

Bada Bing is hosting a cage fighting event with Brock Larson in conjunction with the BIR’s annual Nationals event in August. Villella said the fighters already have $50,000 invested in the event and it will go on either way even if he has to have the liquor catered. 

Villella said he’s heard there are 50 other bar/restaurants in the lakes area that will lose their buyer’s card, needed to purchase from wholesalers, on Sunday. 

“All we needed was for the Health Department to sign off on it,” Villella said. “It’s just a shame.”

On a positive note, Villella said Crow Wing County refunded the license money paid to it since they weren’t able to open. 

“So big applause to them,” Villella said. “That was really nice.”

Curtis said with the news Thursday morning that a deal may be in the works, they still don’t know how fast everything will fall back into place. After the state shut down its job sites, Anderson Brothers moved resources such as asphalt equipment to other jobs to stay busy. When the state reopens it will be a scheduling task to see when work can begin again on state projects like Highway 371. 

The state failed to live up to its contract and there will be added expenses in getting back to mothballed job sites and delays in construction schedules because of the shutdown, Curtis said, adding he thinks a lot of contractors will be filing claims with the state. 

“In the grand scheme of things,” Curtis said, “this shutdown cost the taxpayers.”

RENEE RICHARDSON may be reached at renee.richardson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5852.