Category Archives: License Commission

License Commission

Posted on September 19, 2008 by | 1 comment

From SUN on-line…
City pulls plug on Under Impact Pub
By Lisa Redmond, lredmond@lowellsun.com
LOWELL — After the city License Commission gave a local gay bar a warning two weeks ago to turn the volume down, one commission member said it was like “spitting in our faces” to have another noise complaint as recently as Wednesday night.
The commission on Thursday voted to pull the plug on the Under Impact Pub & Lounge’s entertainment license until the club at 160 Merrimack St., has professional soundproofing installed.
For the next week or so, until the soundproofing is installed, the commission said can be no bands, disc jockeys or jukebox — no music, period.

Longing for the days of the ‘Downstairs Café’? According to neighbors who attended the meeting and an account on SUN.com; the License Commission has suspended the entertainment license at the Under Impact until they install sound-proofing. Damn! There will be no more music flowing through the streets of downtown until 2AM. I was just getting used to the 60-decibels of base…LOL.

I was especially happy to read this; “I could hear the music from a block away,” commission member Raymond Weicker told Jennifer Delbrey, Under Impact’s treasurer, during yesterday’s hearing.
So! At least one of the commissioner’s has had the experience of enjoying the music from Under Impact; probably from seating at an outdoor bar/restaurant… I have enjoyed their music myself from my table at Fortunato’s; Café Paradiso; Mambo Grill; and Bad Dawgs…not to mention the occasional downtown sidewalk bench on a really nice night.

I know that there will be plenty of the usual, “you live downtown; what do you expect…”, comments about this, however, this particular situation is a very recent phenomenon and it is such an extreme case, even the License Commission has had to do something. There has been a bar in this location, I don’t know, forever…and when the building was converted to condos, (two business and two residential units), all was not perfect. There was music at night in the bar, the upstairs residents asked if they would turn it down a little after midnight; the owners did; communication & compromise…I love it when that happens! The rest of the neighborhood benefited too; you could walk down the sidewalk at night and hear music coming from the building; enough to let you know there was entertainment there, but not enough so you could still hear it when you got to John St. Ahhhhhh, the good ole days…

Enter the “NEW” owners…Whoa! Not the most open-minded, cooperative individuals you would hope will open a business next door to you. And this is a point that is often left out of this conversation…let’s say you own a fine restaurant across the street from this bar…your diners are spending a pretty decent amount of money to have a nice leisurely dinner…when suddenly, the music starts! I’m not exaggerating; I’ve experienced this, (and so apparently has one of the Commissioners). So, it is not just “new people in the neighborhood”, that are being effected; this place has a pretty dramatic affect on neighboring businesses. The owners of Under Impact should have some respect for other bars/restaurants, many of which have been in the neighborhood for a very long time, all of whom (despite the occasional spat) are considerate of one another…and if music hemorrhaging out of this place late at night is effecting the income of other business owners…that’s just not good for anyone.

There is one more thing that bothers me about this (and another recently notorious bar) situation…I don’t own a bar and I don’t have an MBA; but I’m guessing that when you lose your entertainment and/or liquor license, you must lose an awful lot of business = money. Instead of spending a bundle of cash to hire an attorney; install sound-proofing to the bar; wouldn’t it have been cheaper to have just turned down the music a little the last 18 times the police asked you to do it?

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Posted in Downtown, License Commission, Lowell

License Commission meeting

Posted on August 8, 2008 by | 3 comments

Since the SUN does not bother to cover the License Commission meetings, and I was there anyway…I thought I would write a little report of my own. Not to mention I have the luxury of never being confused with a journalist, so I don’t have to refrain from adding my own “two-cents”.
You can find the entire agenda at the city web site:
Agenda August 7, 2008
http://www.lowellma.gov/depts/license/agenda.2008-08-07.3953521462

Sometimes it is better to start at the end and work backwards…in the end I learned a few things:
1. I was really impressed with how thorough the discussion of evidence was between the commissioners and those charged with violations. Stephen Greene, VP, LDNA usually attends these meetings…I may go more often; I was impressed!
2. I did not know that a police officers testimony is “hear-say”… I always thought if something was documented in a police report that would pretty much be “solid” evidence. Turns out I was wrong (there are criminals out there somewhere thankful I was never one of their jurors). The commissioners gave all testimony a full hearing. I did find it interesting that all three commissioners seemed to interpret the same information differently. I think this a positive thing…there wouldn’t be much of a “fair-hearing” if everyone thought the same way. No kidding, I really learned something.
3. Should you ever be in trouble and find yourself in need of an attorney… call George Eliades.

I will not bore you with the details of every item; just a few things of particularl interest to me.
Commissioner Akashian – on the matter of the festivals listed in agenda item one and two mentioned last year he could hear the music from the festival all the way at his house five streets away “as if it was in his own yard”. He asked if that could be monitored better this year. The applicant presented a plan to monitor the sound “and” have it signed off by police at intervals throughout the event. This was cool… there was a question; there was a prepared response and resolution to the situation that will accommodate both sides. The applicant was granted the license. What if this kind of thing happened all the time? YIKES!

sidenote: I was considering calling commissioner Akashian at about 12:30 Thursday night when I was sitting at Caffe’ Paradiso with friends and we were listening to the music from the Under Impact Café “as if we were inside the place”!!! If I knew where it was located, I would have “pulled the plug” on this place. I hope the neighbors called the police. I have received emails from the neighbors; they have been calling the police to report the gross violation of the city noise ordinance. The neighbors, and most everyone else, longs for the days of the old Underground Café…it was a great place and a good neighbor.

Oh, before I forget…I am going to have t-shirts made that say, “CALL A COP”! I am going to give them to the staff at all the bars so they will be reminded to call the police dept. when they have a problem (I may have mentioned this before; LDNA members learned this lesson the hard way). I was positively giddy when Mr. Bayliss reminded the proprietors, when there is a problem, any problem; you are required to call police.

I do not know why the logic of this simple statement eludes so many bar owners. When you “throw them (trouble-makers) out” onto the street to save yourself from trouble and don’t’ call the police to alert them; what you are doing in reality is sending your trouble out to become someone else’s trouble… endless…and kind of cruel to your fellow bar owners who have to deal with your mess.

In the end, the commissioners’ decision for what they determined to be proven violations against the Under Impact was:
Take away the license for six days. However, that was suspended in lieu of six months probation. If the club has another proven violation during the next six months, they will have to close for six days, all of which must be Fridays and Saturdays.

I was personally satisfied with the decision…I really think the owners will start to call the police when they see a situation starting. I know for sure their upstairs nieghbors are going to be calling the police more often.

A hearing on the allegations against the owner of the Dubliner was scheduled for September 4th at 3PM.

I will leave it at that… for your consideration and comment.

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Posted in Bars, Downtown, License Commission