Revere License Commission faces bar rollback proposal

REVERE-The City Council-approved push to extend weekend bar hours could end up before the License Commission where commissioners have already shot down similar bids to reverse a 1 a.m. closing time.The council has sent Ward 1 Councilor James Kimmerle’s proposal to extend bar and club hours to 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays to Mayor Thomas Ambrosino who stands by his support for the commission’s decision to roll back liquor serving hours.”The commission as a whole will decide what to do with it,” Commission Chairman Michael Pepe said.Pepe and commissioners Thomas Henneberry and Linda Guinasso approved the rollback Feb. 21 following a January hearing where a half dozen police officers and elected officials spoke in favor of a roll back and a half dozen bar owners spoke against it.Local bar owners argued the roll back would saddle them with economic hardships. They said the commission should continue to exercise its authority to roll bar bars’ hours on a case- by-case basis.A Peabody police officer at the January roll back hearing said that city’s decision three decades ago to set an earlier closing time reduced traffic accidents.Prior to the February vote about a dozen liquor serving establishments stayed 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 drunk driving incidents police respond to occur between midnight and 4 a.m.But 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.That said, Dan Dillon told commissioners in February he 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 month for that last hour,” he told the commission in February.Prior to the rollback vote, Pepe said his decision in favor of rolling back hours was swayed in part by Dillon’s comment at the Jan. 10 hearing.Since the roll back’s approval, bar owners have launched court challenges to reverse the move and tried to put liquor licensing under the council’s jurisdiction. Both efforts have failed to reverse the 1 a.m. closing.The rollback leaves local late night drinkers with Saugus and Boston as their destinations.