The troubles for Metro Drug's weekly grillout continued Thursday when a complaint from a business neighbor and recently ousted Fargo city commissioner temporarily cut short the downtown tradition.
Myron Berglund, environmental health manager for Fargo-Cass Public Health, shut down Metro's grilling about 11:15 a.m., shortly after former City Commissioner Rob Lynch called to complain about smoke from the grill drifting into his next-door restaurant, the Fargo Dog House.
Lynch, whose four-year term as commissioner ended Monday night, said he didn't ask the city to shut down the Broadway grill.
"I called the Health Department to let them know the front of my restaurant was filling with smoke," Lynch said. "Whatever happened from that point is up to the Health Department, not me."
About a half-hour after Berglund's visit, Metro manager Steve Parmer had a sign in his business window announcing why its weekly grilling of hamburgers and chicken sandwiches was not available.
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It began in bold type: "Due to complaints from Rob Lynch, owner of 'The Dog House,' the city health department shutdown our Grill Day."
Later, Parmer questioned Lynch's reasoning for his call.
"If your restaurant is filling up with smoke, don't you call the fire department?" he asked.
Thursday's development re-ignited a controversy started last September over Metro grilling on the sidewalk in front of their store at 123 Broadway.
Berglund said he's heard a few complaints like Lynch's over the years, but usually they came well after the grilling was done, when inspectors could not judge how bad the smoke was.
On his visit Thursday, the smoke didn't seem bad until a worker opened the grill and smoke billowed out, Berglund said. Wind carried the smoke to Lynch's hot dog house just south of Metro Drug.
The weekly Metro Drug grillout began 14 years ago. Last fall, when the city began enforcing an ordinance relating to sidewalk marketing, Parmer was forced to move the operation off the sidewalk and to the store's doorway.
Some people who were upset with the new enforcement suspected Lynch was behind the complaints.
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Lynch previously said he did not push the issue but acknowledged that some of his downtown neighbors complained of Metro's smoke, grease spots and blocking of the sidewalk.
This spring, the Fargo City Commission unanimously revamped the ordinance by allowing sidewalk grilling as long as it's on a regulated pushcart.
Parmer said he hasn't bought the new equipment because it costs too much. Besides, he only hosts the event to draw people downtown, not for the money, he said.
Parmer said he planned to resume grilling next week. Hopefully, the smoke won't be so bad for Lynch's Fargo Dog House, he said.
Berglund said that would be fine, as long as the complaints don't become common.
Parmer said he wasn't upset with Berglund. He also said he didn't want to be too harsh on Lynch.
One of Parmer's employees took care of that.
In a fax to the news media, Metro Drug worker Corey Weisser referred to a "buddy system" between city officials and Lynch that continues "even after he has been voted out by the people."
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"He (Lynch) will stop at nothing and is only concerned with his own business," it continued.
Lynch, who lost his re-election bid June 8, dismissed the comments.
"It sounds like a publicity stunt to me," he said.
Parmer said he didn't know about Weisser's statement until after it was sent.
"Well, I guess I didn't want to go that deep into it," he said. "I'll never get anything done if we attack City Hall."
Readers can reach Forum reporter Dave Forster at (701) 241-5538
