Tab split among Lynn bar owners

LYNN – Their businesses are located in Wyoma Square, but Lazy Dog owner Tom Dill and Rolly’s Tavern proprietor Rolly Hayes are miles apart with their respective viewpoints on a proposed 2 a.m. liquor serving closing time.Hayes favors the current 1 a.m. closing time, and a letter outlining his view will be included in the official record for tonight’s Licensing Board hearing on the closing time. The hearing starts at 6 p.m. in City Hall Veterans Memorial Auditorium.In his letter, Hayes states that he was impressed with Police Chief Kevin Coppinger’s presentation during the board’s July 28 hearing outlining reductions in crime since 2007 when previous board members voted to roll the 2 a.m. closing time in place at that time to 1 a.m.”Police Chief Coppinger’s study and statistics show the dramatic drop in overall crime in Lynn since the implementation of the 1 a.m. closing,” Hayes wrote.Dill took a different tact when he addressed the board on July 28.”I have a lot of customers asking on the entertainment nights, ?Could we stay a little bit later, you know, we have a babysitter for the night, we’ve taken Uber home – we this, we that,'” he said.A lifelong resident and businessman for 30 years, Dill favors a proposal submitted by Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy to commissioners on June 15 that recommends implementing a 2 a.m. closing on a trial basis.Dill and fellow Lynn Restaurant Association members took the lead in May in asking the board “to consider reinstating the 2 a.m. establishment closings.”Under Kennedy’s plan, liquor serving establishments could return to a 2 a.m. closing time “effective immediately” on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. They would be required to close their doors at 12:30 a.m. and not re-admit customers or let new customers in under any circumstances.The proposed trial period would last through Nov. 1, but Kennedy’s plan allows the board to meet in October to discuss extending and altering the trial period. Dill in July told commissioners “the trial basis protects everybody.””Let’s give it a shot. It’s a couple of nights, and if it goes well, it continues, and if it doesn’t go well, then there are going to be reasons why, and we will look at them and point to those,” Dill said.Hayes has been in business for 10 years in Wyoma Square and employs 25 people. He called Kennedy’s proposal for a 12:30 a.m. readmission ban “difficult to enforce.” Hayes said staying open until 2 a.m. and enforcing the 12:30 a.m. closed door policy “would actually cost me money.”Hayes said the strides the city has made in improving downtown security and attracting diners and auditorium concert-goers is a big reason why he supports the current 1 a.m. closing.”Lynn has come a long way in 10 years,” he said. “Nice restaurants have opened, and the reason people are doing well is because people feel safe coming to dine here. I don’t see the value in staying open until 2 a.m. with all the progress we have made.”But Dill said “it is a different time and a different era” – problem establishments have gone out of business and a diligent board has enforced rules on liquor serving.He echoed the July 28 comments of Lynn Restaurant Association attorney Frederick Riley, who called the 1 a.m. closing time approved in 2007 a restriction on liquor-serving establishments “whether they deserved it or didn’t deserve it.”The three-member Licensing Board has set a strict 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. hearing schedule for tonight. If 1 a.m. proponents finish making their case with time to spare, Chair Patricia Barton said commissioners will deliberate and, possibly, vote on retaining the 1 a.m. closing time or scrapping it in favor of 2 a.m.”I want to be as fair as I possibly can,” Barton said.Commissioners Miguel Funez and John Krol said supporters on both sides of the closing time discussion have contacted them since July 28. Both men declined to reveal preferences – if any – they have for a closing time, but Krol said, “I’m 98 percent sure about how I am going to vote.