Ambrosino: Bar rollback will reduce crime

REVERE-Mayor Thomas Ambrosino urged the License Commission Thursday to ban liquor service locally after 1 a.m. but consider granting special 2 a.m. closing permits in some circumstances.About 60 people attended Thursday night?s City Hall hearing. Commissioners Michael Pepe, Linda Guinasso and Thomas Henneberry tentatively plan to discuss and vote for or against the rollback at their Feb. 21 meeting.Ambrosino and a half dozen other city officials told the commission rolling last call back an hour to 1 a.m. will reduce the number of drunken drivers on local streets and other types of crime.But bar owners and their attorneys echoed the complaints of Lynn counterparts who opposed the Lynn Licensing Board?s Dec. 19 decision to establish a 1 a.m. closing time. “This is the easy way out but it is arbitrary and capricious,” said attorney Charles Balliro.Balliro said bars he represents, including The Shipwreck, Bill Ash?s and the Esquire, cannot afford losing one of their most lucrative hours for doing business at a time when property taxes are on the rise and state laws have forced bars to spend money on sprinkler systems.?We haven?t made a nickel for the past two years,” said Cove owner William Dolan.Ambrosino told the commission he has empathy for the bar owners but said the specter of Lynn drinkers leaving bars there at 1 a.m. for another hour of drinking in Revere “tips the scales” in favor of a local rollback.?The situation in Lynn has really changed the landscape. We will become a destination for people served their last drink there.”Lynn bar owners are fighting the rollback in Superior Court and Balliro said Revere bar owners will file a court challenge if a roll back is approved.Ambrosino echoed the suggestion of a bar owner in urging the commission to consider a 2 a.m. special permit.The suggestion, if it is adopted, potentially gives the commission latitude to allow bars with trouble free histories to stay open later. It could also help the city attract the attention of casinos eying local racetracks as development sites.?If I wanted to choose between Boston and Revere retreating back to 1 a.m., I?d choose Boston,” warned attorney James Cipoletta, who represents five local bars.About a dozen liquor serving establishments currently stay open until 2 a.m. Police Chief Terence Reardon and Capt. Michael Murphy said clubs and bars that have had their closing times rolled back to 1 a.m. by the commission for license violations have seen dramatic drops in alcohol-related problems.Murphy said police calls to the Lido Entertainment Complex dropped by 80 percent after the former Wonderland Ballroom was ordered to close at 1 a.m. Police were called 20 times to the Lido in 2007.He said 43 percent of the drunken driving incidents police respond to occur between midnight and 4 a.m.Cipoletta and other rollback opponents said the commission?s success in penalizing problem bars by setting earlier closing times makes more sense than imposing an across-the-board rollback.But Dan Dillon has tended bar for 50 years and thinks 1 a.m. is an ideal closing time.?The transformation of the customer from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. is like Jekyll and Hyde. Your heart is in your mouth for that last hour,” he said.