Saugus selectmen spar over restaurant

SAUGUS – Selectman Stephen Castinetti stepped up to defend a local club at Tuesday’s meeting after his colleague Stephen Horlick tried to take the absent business to task.The Oasis Restaurant & Bar at 24 Bennett Highway (Route 1 North) was scheduled to appear before the board on a request to extend its hours to operate between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., but the hearing was continued at the bar owner’s request.Despite the request, Horlick tried to raise a discussion on the club during “members motions” when he asked Police Lt. Stephen Sweezey about a number of police incidents at the Route 1 location.”I don’t think it’s appropriate to discuss this when Oasis is not here to defend itself,” Castinetti said.Horlick went on undeterred asking Sweezey if he would ask Police Chief James MacKay to issue a letter on how he would like the board to proceed given the number of incidents at the club.”We’ve had five incidents over three months,” he said. “Several after 2 a.m.”Castinetti said if Horlick was going to persist then he would defend the club. Of the four incidents Horlick alluded to, Castinetti said two had already been dealt with and one was a misunderstanding.”It seems to me you bring up the fourth just to incite and embroil people over an incident that didn’t really exist,” he said.Castinetti said the fourth incident turned out to be cars that were illegally parked.”The only liquor violations were four months old and they’ve already been addressed and I don’t think we need to address them a second time,” he said.Castinetti accused Horlick of bringing up the incidents from November only because the business owner was asking to extend his hours of operation.Sweezey nixed the conversation as well, saying he too would prefer to wait until the public hearing when Oasis officials were present. He said he could discuss the full reports at that time.Horlick said he would make a motion to bring the owner of Oasis in for a separate hearing.”We took a firm stand in liquor violations and I want answers,” Horlick said.He did not, in the end, make the motion and Chairman Donald Wong said everything would be discussed during the April 8 meeting when the Oasis owner would be on hand with his business plan.