It is the second time in a week Mayor Sarno has come down hard on a downtown bar for violations.
02-05-10-Springfield-Staff Photo by Dave Roback-The exterior of Center Stage on Dwight Street in Springfield. See Story.
Updated to include comments from Peter Sygnator, chairman of the Springfield License Commission.
SPRINGFIELD – Mayor Domenic J. Sarno on Friday announced a 10-day suspension of the entertainment license for Center Stage, a downtown topless bar, as a result of a recent fight involving two underage patrons that left a police officer with a broken jaw.
Sarno said the decision comes based on a recommendation from the city Law Department which conducted a hearing on the March 20 incident.
With a suspended entertainment license, a bar can still serve alcohol, but cannot provide music, televisions, video games, and, in the case of Center Stage, topless dancers, according to Peter Sygnator, chairman of the license commission.
“It doesn’t sound like much fun to me but they could potentially remain open and serve drinks in silence,” he said. “Under those circumstances, it is not likely they will open but there is nothing to stop them from doing so.”
But, according to the mayor’s office, the 10-day suspension is not immediate, and only 5 of the days, between Tuesday, June 7 and Saturday, June 11, are consecutive.
The remaining five days will be held in abeyance for a period of one year beginning Sunday. Sarno spokesman Thomas Walsh said if the bar keeps out of trouble for the next year, the remaining 5 days will not have to be served. If there are any
additional problems, the 5 days will be added onto future discipline handed down by the city, he said.
Sarno’s action was the result of a March 20 fight inside the bar. Two underage patrons were let inside the bar and allowed to drink without anyone verifying their age.
One of the two, identified as Miguel Sosa, 20, of 769 Union St., struck a police officer who was trying to break up the fight and broke his jaw.
Sosa was charged with assault and battery of a police officer, resisting arrest, threatening to commit a crime and giving a false name to a police officer.
Sarno said the city has an obligation to maintain order in downtown bars as a way of protecting patrons, employees and police. By allowing two underage patrons inside to drink initiated a chain of events that created a public nuisance and injured a police officer, he said.
It is the second such action Sarno has taken in a week involving a downtown bar.
Last week, Sarno rejected an application from the Worthington Street bar Sinners & Saints for a Sunday entertainment license, meaning the bar may remain open until 2 a.m. on Sundays, but all forms of entertainment will have to shut down at midnight Saturday. That action followed a large disturbance in January that required police to break up.