Bingo back at Fort Museum

Funds to go toward operating budget, new projects

By JESSE HELLING, Messenger staff writer
B-I-N-G-O — and funding was its name-o.

At least, that’s the hope of organizers of the Fort Museum in Fort Dodge.

Absent since 2006, bingo games will return to the museum March 26.

‘‘We’re excited about some of the new projects we want to implement in the near future at the Fort Museum,’’ said Executive Director Alan Schaefer. ‘‘In order to implement these projects, we need a steady income we can depend on.’’

Initially, Fort Museum Bingo will be held at the Fort Museum Opera House on Wednesday and Sunday evenings. Cathy Ponsar, of Fort Dodge, has been hired as the operations manager for the bingo games, Schaefer said.

Under the terms of the bingo license, at least 75 percent of all revenue derived from the games must be directed to the Fort Museum’s operating budget.

The remaining 25 percent can be spent on operating the game, including paying Ponsar and other staff hired to work during the games.

The license, which is issued through the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals’ Social and Charitable Gambling Unit, stipulates that up to three bingo sessions can be held per week, though no more than 14 sessions may be held per month. Each session is limited to four hours.

The license for the game will be held by the board, according to Schaefer.

‘‘All profits will go to support the Fort,’’ he said.

Eventually, the Fort Museum may progress to holding the maximum number of sessions, Schaefer said.

For decades, bingo games were a major source of funding for the Fort Museum. But in October 2006, the Fort Dodge Dragoons, which organized in 1974 under a city charter for the purpose of promoting the growth of the Fort, decided to direct bingo funds elsewhere following a payroll dispute.

The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals sought to pull the Dragoons’ bingo license amid allegations that the group broke charitable gaming rules.

However, in June 2007, a consent order approved by John Priester, a state administrative law judge, ended revocation proceedings.

Dragoons member John Edens said that revenue from their Bingo game has supported “numerous organizations in the past,” including local Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, the Humane Society of North Central Iowa and the Domestic/Sexual Assault Outreach Center.

In 2006, the bingo games generated $256,468 in revenue, according to an Internal Revenue Service Form 990 filed by the Dragoons in May 2007.

Based on this precedent, members of the Fort Museum’s board of directors decided to start a new bingo game.

‘‘Once we get this operation up and running, I think we’ll see a lot of changes out here,’’ said Kim Alstott, vice president of the museum board of directors.

The Fort Museum does not receive financial support from the city of Fort Dodge or Webster County.

The Fort offers memberships, with levels ranging from $100 to $1,000. Membership, which is tax deductible, is recognized on a nameplate in the Fort Museum Trading Post.

Establishing the bingo game as a source of revenue could allow the Fort to grow, both in physical terms and in the amount of educational programs offered. Plans are afoot to construct two new buildings at the Fort, which has been in operation since 1964.

Designs for a new artisan workshop building are being discussed. A new building, to be constructed in cooperation with the Fort Dodge Stoneware Collectors Society, has also been proposed.

‘‘Those buildings will likely cost at least $25,000 to $30,000 apiece,’’ he said.

Another of Schaefer’s goals is to make the museum more interactive to inspire more people to visit.

‘‘We’d like to get more of an educational program out here,’’ Schaefer said. In particular, Schaefer envisions historical re-enactors giving demonstrations of some of the things pioneers did — smithing and candle making, for example.



Contact Jesse Helling at (515) 573-2141 or jhelling@messengernews.net