Submitted Photo From left are Cale Westerness and Zander Thompson at The Hideout arcade and youth recreation center.

A Mohall father founded the Mohall Lansford Sherwood Community Improvement Association (MLS CIA) with the intention of creating a recreational space for children as the nonprofit’s first order of business.

The aforementioned father is Dustin Myaer, and creating Mohall’s youth center has been Myaer’s passion project for the past several years.

Myaer’s son originally inspired Myaer to found the MLS CIA after Myaer had taken his family to a Minot establishment for his son’s birthday party when his son was 5 years old.

“For the pizzas, the rental, the space, my credit card bill was over 650 bucks,” Myaer said. “There’s not a lot of people that can afford to go down for a birthday and spend $500-$600 on one kid.”

For Myaer, driving an hour and spending a large amount of money on his son’s birthday helped him see a need in the Mohall community that wasn’t being filled.

It was this need that pushed Myaer and the MLS CIA to purchase the previously abandoned Midwest Telemark Inc. (MTI) building and transform it into a space for youth, families and recreation.

The original vision for the space included an arcade, rec center, a sports simulator, a birthday lounge/event area, bowling lanes and mini golf.

The arcade and the recreation center both officially opened this past April 15.

“The rec center for the kids has a pool table and dartboard in there, some TVs, some booths, just kind of a place for them to congregate if they’re not in the arcade,” Myaer said.

The sports simulator room and bowling alley are still slated for construction.

“At the end of this month, we’re going to start construction again with that. It just matters, with funding and stuff like that, how fast this project goes,” said Myaer.

One of the only changes Myaer and the MLS CIA have made to their original vision is regarding the plans for a mini golf course.

Myaer’s son, who’s 12 now, told Myaer that mini golf courses are fun but only once or twice. This, combined with the fact Mohall is a small town, dissuaded Myaer and the board from investing the $15,000-$20,000 needed to build a mini golf course.

“So we’ve kind of changed that room into a multipurpose room,” Myaer said. Myaer’s idea is to have the room be a designated space for various rotating activities, such as laser tag or cornhole, to regularly renew interest from youth.

Myaer also has involved his son in the naming of the arcade and rec center. The board had tried to come up with a name but came up short in finding something modern and appealing to children.

“My boy and his three friends kind of came up with ‘The Hideout’ because it’d be ‘The H.O.’, you know, and that’s cool and it kind of stuck,” Myaer said. “So it kind of gives the kids a sense of being a part of naming it.”

Myaer has also taken suggestions from his son to host gaming tournaments in the future at the center.

“Believe it or not, I listen to my kids quite a bit,” he said.

The involvement of Myaer’s son has paid off and helped create an inclusive, youth centered atmosphere for all young people. Myaer has seen children of all demographics interacting in the rec center during pool tournaments or in the arcade.

“They’re not staring at their phones. They’re actually talking to each other,” Myaer said. “I went back to where people were sitting at the booths and they’re talking. There’s not four people sitting there staring at their phones.”

The staff for The Hideout is essentially Myaer and his wife for the time being, plus another bartender for the lounge section of the center, where parents can order drinks and children can order pizza.

In 2022, around 845 total man hours had been used towards the project, which included demolition. Myaer now estimates the total work hours from everyone involved to be at around 1,800 hours.

The project also had some bumps along the way, including roof leaks that needed repairs.

“I think it was $22,000 for the roof,” Myaer said. “That took a lot out of our funds.”

The leak has put the project behind, as has COVID, but despite these challenges, Myaer and the MLS CIA continue to march forward, opening whatever doors they can to serve Mohall youth, community members and visitors in the meantime.

“It’s taken a lot out of us. But, I mean, me and my wife are invested in it and we’ll do whatever we can to make sure that it works,” Myaer said.

Another motivator for Myaer to make the center as successful as possible is to help bring more families and businesses to Mohall.

“We’ve had couples come from Minot and Kenmare, and they’ll come up and they’ll play with their kids for a while. They’ll come across the lounge, have a drink or two. And then before they leave, they go across the street, and they’ll have supper at Double J’s before they head out back home,” Myaer said.

“We’re working with the rest of the community and the other establishments to make sure that everyone kind of gets a piece of what we can offer,” Myaer said. “It’s not only just to bring more communities and more people to town, but to help other small businesses also.”

Myaer hopes by providing a youth space to Mohall children, more families will be willing to move to the town and stay.

The hours for The Hideout during the school year are from 3-10 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from noon-10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.