Marblehead lounge issued warning

MARBLEHEAD- Selectmen issued a warning to the Rip Tide Lounge Wednesday night after a 60-minute hearing on two alleged liquor license violations.Town Counsel Marc Miller presented police statements on an early-morning drunken driving incident Dec. 7 in which the driver said he had six-seven beers at the Rip Tide after hours, and a noontime accident in which an intoxicated man backed his car into the car of Selectmen Chairman Harry Christensen in the National Grand Bank parking lot and told police he was drinking at the Rip Tide that morning.Attorney James Walsh, the lounge’s lawyer, presented statements and evidence indicating that the first driver never went to the Rip Tide on the evening of Dec. 6 and in fact left work at 9:08 p.m., not midnight as he claimed.He said the second driver had two drinks at the Rip Tide that morning and told him three days after the incident that he did more drinking at the offices of a civic club called Market Square, located in the Masonic Hall.Selectmen discounted the first incident but voted 4-1 to issue a warning on the second and told Rip Tide owner George Ciampa that his license would be suspended if there are any further credible incidents involving his bar. Judy Jacobi voted against the warning on the grounds that the incident involved an accident and someone could have been hurt.Board members questioned the possibility of drinking at Market Square, which does not have a liquor license.