Liquor license renewals were due by June 30, but tonight the City Council will deal with five renewals still pending.
Plainfield Liquors on Watchung Avenue is up for renewal now that outstanding renewal fees have been paid and JC's Lounge on Richmond Street has received clearance for a change in corporate structure due to the death of the license holder. The other three - Chez Maree, Pueblo Viejo and Clinton Liquors - failed to get the four votes necessary for renewal at a June 28 special meeting. The latter two only attained renewal in 2011 after the council imposed special conditions to address problems uncovered in police inspections.
The city has 32 liquor license holders, down from 38 in years past, but still too many to suit Councilman William Reid. At the Aug. 13 agenda fixing session, Reid said the city has more liquor licenses than all four neighboring towns together. Reid said they detract from the city and are a burden on police, and called license holders "entrepreneurs who don't give a durn (sic) about the city."
Actually, most licenses are renewed without any problem, but a handful have had past offenses including fights, drug sales, prostitution and infractions of state Alcoholic Beverage Control rules regarding employees.
The council has requested reports of police calls to each establishment and even considered giving over the governing body's status as the ABC board to an external one that would meet monthly to monitor establishments with liquor licenses. The board would have to be set up to conform with a state statute and would have three members appointed by the mayor.
Councilman Cory Storch said he has been on the council for nine years, and a number of liquor establishments have had problems every year. But after hearing about the makeup of the board, Storch said he didn't think it would be better.
Another issue was the fact that police recommended renewal of most licenses. If a license holder contested a denial of renewal, City Solicitor David Minchello said, "I assure you, I would not prevail (in court) without a recommendation from the Police Division."
The proposal for a new ABC board failed to get a consensus on Aug. 13 to move it to the regular meeting for a vote.
--Bernice
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Fire and Brimstone...
ReplyDeleteYes..should the owners be somewhat accountable for the actions of the patrons if they are creating an environment that allows behavior like that...absolutely.
Should the police do their job better, because according to all comments and posts about it continual situations are well known to the police department. You'd be amazed the intimidation factor of a police cruiser sitting outside one of these problem establishments for one random 2hr period a week for a month or so... If the owners won't clean up or if their SERIOUSLY negligent -- ie " My customers were selling drugs out of my cooler ?? " yeah, that ones got to go