Glo Ultra Lounge, Shadow Lounge and Kush High End Complex must each hire 2 to 3 police officers to assist with security during the late evening hours.
The Shadow Lounge on Worthington Street was one of three bars on the street granted permission on Friday to have entertainment past the 1 a.m. curfew.SPRINGFIELD — Mayor Domenic J. Sarno on Friday granted permission to three additional bars in downtown Springfield to keep the music playing past a 1 a.m. entertainment curfew.
Late-night entertainment permits were granted to Glo Ultra Lounge, Shadow Lounge, and Kush High End Complex, all located on Worthington Street, and owned by Paul V. Ramesh.
Ramesh had filed a lawsuit in Hampden Superior Court in April, after the late night permits were denied for Glo and Kush. Based on the new decision, which followed multiple hearings and a detailed plan for bar security, legal action is likely to be dropped, said Ramesh’s lawyer, Daniel D. Kelly.
“Obviously, we are very pleased with the mayor’s decision,” Kelly said Friday. “We submitted what we felt was a very comprehensive security plan. Obviously, the mayor agreed with us. We look forward to working with them in this process.”
Kelly said the bars will resume late-night entertainment effective immediately.
Sarno enacted the 1 a.m. entertainment curfew in April. It allows bars to stay open until 2 a.m., but requires them to shut off all entertainment, including music and television sets, at 1 a.m., unless they obtained the special permits issued by the mayor on a case-by-case basis.
More than a dozen bars have obtained the late night permits to date. Many received the permits after hearings, and after providing security plans and documentation that their food sales exceeded 40 percent of their income.
Alesia H. Days, the city’s director of licensing, said the approval of the permits for Ramesh’s bars “is predicated on your compliance with the conditions outlined in the security plans of the establishments.”
The three bars will hire two to three extra-duty police officers to work at the bars during the late evening hours, along with added security personnel, and take steps to disperse patrons at staggered times and from more than one door, Kelly said.
Sarno said he launched the curfew in April as a means of reducing late-night violence, improving public safety and reducing a drain on police resources.
Critics have said the curfew has hurt business for many bars in the downtown entertainment district and the neighborhoods.