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An amended resolution adopted by the Asbury City Council this month removes restrictions placed on the House of Independents liquor license.

The liquor license, valid for the Cookman Avenue entertainment venue as well as the Lake Avenue Asbury Festhalle & Biergarten, called for off duty police officers to be stationed at the venues during certain evenings and specified months.

The stipulations were replaced by a Security Plan that permits a private security team to police the venues’ neighborhood in order to keep disorderly conduct at bay.

“We’ve made some changes to try to improve upon our impact because we know it’s a big impact on the city,” Festhalle & Biergarten general manager and partner Jennifer Lampert said. “Basically, we are trying to control things right in our vicinity that comes from our area.”

Lampert said their private security team makes a continual patrol loop from their Lake Avenue venue down to Moonstruck, across the Sackman-owned parking lot, up Cookman, and around to the edge of their property on Emory.

“The presence of someone patrolling keeps people in line,” Lampert said. “It helps with the other businesses too because Lake Avenue and Cookman are getting traffic from all the bars in town.”

Over the summer and again in recent weeks, complaints of disorderly conduct came to a head.

A social media post by a Cookman Avenue resident resulted in other downtown resident and business owners sharing their complaints and concerns. They ranged from shouting, spitting, public urination, and other general drunken disorderly behavior.

The City Council responded to the post by saying they will immediately implement initiatives to curb disorderly conduct in the downtown.

“Whatever it takes to correct this problem will not be lost because of a dollar amount,” Mayor John Moor said. “We are a city on transitional aid but we will find the money to correct this.”

The immediate policy given by the governing body is to shift the hours of the special officers who patrol the entertainment areas. Their hours will shift from a 2 or 3 p.m. start to a 5 or 6 p.m. start to allow them to remain on patrol as the bars and clubs are closing, Deputy Mayor Amy Quinn said.

The City Council has asked for someone in the administration to begin a dialogue with club and bar owners.

“We well let them know about the complaints we are getting,” Quinn said.

The discussion will include being mindful about overserving alcoholic beverages as well asking patrons to be mindful that the commercial districts include residences.

Quinn said it is imperative that business owners make police reports for any acts of vandalism and/or disorderly conduct.

“We ask that they please put in a call to the police department so we can get some sort of data about exactly what is going on in the downtown,” she said.

The municipality currently has a policy in place that any bar, club, or restaurant with violations will have restrictions placed on their liquor license. Those restrictions could include the mandate to hire off-duty police officers.

But the uptick in noise complaints have some questioning the parameters of liquor licenses throughout the city, particularly residents living within the downtown corridors.

“There are currently now, a number of establishments that [have extended] a license, thus potentially increasing the number of establishments that serve above the ‘set’ limit,” city resident Jill Marie Potter has said. “This does relate to noise levels increasing, as more establishments equal more people.”

According to the state’s Division of Alcohol Beverage Control [ABC] spokesman Zachariah Hosseini liquor licenses are capped by population. While the city is permitted a bar liquor license for every 3,000 of its population, licenses in existence before the 1947 law was passed are exempt from the count.

City Clerk Cindy Dye said there are 32 consumption [bar] licenses in the 15,855 populated city. Another four licenses pertain to facilities that have a bar but sells packaged liquor in another part of the facility. There are two inactive licenses.

Acting Police Chief Anthony Salerno said there are a number of establishments that have received liquor licenses extensions but all were done under the purview of the state’s Alcohol and Beverage Control agency in conjunction with city officials.

The police department conducts investigations for all ABC changes, amendments and premise alterations, Salerno said.

“In order to receive a liquor license extension, a business must be connected under one ownership,” Salerno said. This means one set of books that accounts for all purchases via that license.

Establishments like Cookman Avenue’s Brickwall Tavern, The Annex and Happiness Bar and Grill fall under one liquor license as well as the soon to open Bond Street Bar extension that will extend its license to a neighboring building to house at least two restaurants.

Lampert said their downtown businesses have begun to implement changes.

“We are having postcards made with every single taxi company’s telephone number that will be distributed to our patrons,” Lampert said. “This is so there will be less foot traffic on the streets and that will help with less noise or less shenanigans.”

They are retraining all their staff and looking to establish a local restaurant and bar association to work on the impact entertainment businesses have on the community.

“I look forward to meeting people who have been here longer,” she said. “We are challenging ourselves as business operators and our employees to be on the top of our game.  We want to maintain a close communication about the impact we are having beyond our doors or our area so we can work on that with other business owners and the city.”

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