The Mill Side Tavern could be the next Westbrook bar to fight the city for its right to serve alcohol.
Police are recommending denial of the bar’s liquor license after they said owners and employees refused to cooperate during an investigation into a fight that began inside the tavern and spilled out onto the street last month.
Back in March 2008, city officials denied a liquor license to the owners of Skybox Bar and Grill. Though the state eventually overturned the council’s decision, granting a liquor license to Allen and Lynn Moore, the matter still hasn’t been settled, and the Moores filed a lawsuit against the city in April.
Like Skybox, the Mill Side is a working-class bar where regulars gather for sports games and drink specials. Though the name has changed, it’s been an established Westbrook watering hole for decades.
When police and city officials came down on Skybox for having 13 calls for service during the period of a year, the public questioned whether other bars would be held to the same standard. Police said the Mill Side’s 10 calls for service between May 2008 and May 2009 put the bar on the department’s radar screen. However, it was the fight last month and what authorities said was the lack of cooperation from the owners that led police to recommend that the council deny its liquor license.
But Mill Side owners William and Patricia Kowalski said at a City Council meeting Monday it’s all a big misunderstanding.
The Kowalskis had installed surveillance cameras in the Cumberland Street bar in May, after meeting with police, who were concerned about the number of calls for service that had been made from the bar during the past year.
At that point, the bar’s food service license was up for renewal. Capt. Tom Roth told city councilors police wanted to recommend city officials deny it because of the number of calls made to police due to problems with people in and around the bar. Denying a food service license is one way to prevent bars from continuing to operate, because state law says food must be sold anywhere alcohol is sold.
However, he said, police felt assured after meeting with the owners about measures taken to keep the bar safe – like installing cameras and keeping open communication with the department – and didn’t recommend denying the license.
But since then, Roth said, the Kowalskis haven’t held up their end of the bargain.
“We made it very clear when we met with them we expected cooperation,” he said.
According to Roth, when police responded to a fight at the bar on June 13, a bartender refused to hand over the videotape from the surveillance camera. When a detective asked the owners for the tape again in following weeks, they said it had been recorded over.
“It’s just very suspect that that video’s not available,” Roth said.
The Kowalskis, who’ve owned the bar for 17 years, told councilors they have always cooperated with the city. They said no one asked for the tape on the day of the fight. William Kowalski said he reviewed the footage the next day and saw nothing he thought could aid police in their investigation, so he didn’t save the tape. By the time police asked him for it, weeks later, he said, the footage from that day had been taped over.
“We have no problem with giving up the tapes,” Kowalski said, and added that he would contact the company that makes the surveillance cameras to see if there’s anyway the footage could be recovered.
“We’re not trying to hide anything from anybody,” Kowalski told city councilors and the Mayor Bruce Chuluda.
Though three councilors were in favor of denying the Kowalskis their liquor license Monday, the other four councilors and the mayor voted to postpone the renewal in order to give the owners a chance to recover the tape.
“This whole thing boils down to a lack of communication,” Patricia Kowalski said after the meeting.
The Municipal Officers are scheduled to vote on Mill Side’s liquor license at a meeting Aug. 3.
Police say a lack of cooperation from the employees and owners of Mill Side Tavern after a fight at the bar last month led to the department’s recommendation that the City Council deny its liquor license.Send questions/comments to the editors.
