Saugus considers scaling back hours

SAUGUS – Town Meeting member Ray Lawrence is concerned that if other communities are rolling back bar hours perhaps Saugus should look at it as well. But Selectmen are not convinced rolling back the hours is something they need to do.Lynn’s City Council officially voted Dec. 18 to roll back bar closing times from 2 a.m. to 1 a.m. though bar owners are still fighting the issue. Revere will hold a public hearing on rolling its bar hours back Thursday.Lawrence is concerned that if Lynn and Revere both roll back hours, it could send late night partiers into Saugus for last call.”Last call in Lynn would be 12:30 (a.m.),” he said. “That would give people an hour more to drink in Saugus.”Lawrence said considering the town’s manpower shortage in Public Safety, it could be an accident waiting to happen.”We really don’t have the people to help if there is an incident,” he said. “I really think if other towns around Saugus are doing it, Saugus should think about rolling back its hours.”As the License Commission, that means the Selectmen would have to be the ones to act on such an issue.Selectman Stephen Castinetti said he has mixed emotions on the issue.”I don’t think we have the same situation that they have in Lynn or Revere with the bars,” he said. “I think in our town, we don’t have a lot of bars, but we do have restaurants that stay open for food and drink until 2 a.m.”Kowloon, owned by board Chairman Donald Wong, is one of those restaurants, which prohibits him from voting on the issue. Castinetti said he understands it’s a touchy subject to even mention, but the Kowloon would be affected if a rollback were put in place, along with The Continental and several other restaurants.Castinetti also questioned whether Saugus would be that big of a draw for last call seekers.He said he suspects if people in Revere were to leave to the city for one more drink, they might choose Malden, Everett or Chelsea over Saugus and Lynners probably wouldn’t head out to Route 1.”I do think we need to do our homework though,” he added.Selectman Peter Rossetti isn’t even sure the board could roll back the hours without a solid reason.”If we’re just trying to pre-empt something I’m not sure that would stand up at the ABCC level (Alcohol Beverage Control Commission),” he said. “Maybe one of the things we should look at is creating classes of (liquor) licenses.”Rossetti said the town has only beer and wine licenses and full liquor licenses but nothing that differentiates a restaurant license from a bar license.”It’s something to look at,” he said.Selectman Stephen Horlick said he would prefer to see how the situation in Lynn plays out before the board even discusses it.In the meantime, Horlick said the board could do what it has always done and deal with late night complaints on a case-by-case issue.”If the bar owners are fighting it then the best thing we can do right now is wait and see what happens in Lynn,” he added. “If it does come before the board though, the board should look at it as a public safety issue.”