Owners debate liquor permit issue with city

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DAYTON — Several business owners who could lose their liquor permits claim they have been working with police to improve safety measures at their establishments.

The owners expressed their frustrations at Wednesday’s City Commission meeting, where the city held its first reading on the emergency resolutions about the objections to the renewal of the liquor permits for:

The Commission is scheduled to vote April 18 on whether to recommend to the Ohio Division of Liquor Control to revoke the liquor permits.

The owners of Loch Nez, Envy Lounge, Hammerjax and Food City told commissioners that they have had issues at their establishments, but feel that their licenses should remain intact.

“We’re very diligent in protecting our patrons, our neighbors, my family. I’m not sure what else I can do,” Sheryl Williams, owner of Loch Nez, told the commissioners. “I’d love to have a continuing relationship with the police.”

Dayton Police Lt. Chris Williams said Sheryl Williams (no relation) did attend the department’s Bar Safe training, but added that police received complaints from neighbors about loud and disorderly behavior in and around Loch Nez.

“The local neighborhood group in conjunction with the priority board wants to object,” Lt. Williams said. “We support those objections.”

Jerry Booher, owner of Hammerjax, told commissioners that he felt police did not give an accurate portrayal of events that have taken place at his downtown nightclub to the local media outlets.

“We have good, respectable people who pay taxes in the city of Dayton who come to our club,” Booher said. “We take care of all those people. We protect all those people. We don’t have any problems inside.

“It seems like if people leave, they go outside, go down the street somewhere and have a problem. That’s not our problem.”

It is their problem, according to John Danish, the city’s law director.

“When you create an environment where you bring in a group of people that the mix of which creates a problem that is predictable, no matter how good your security is inside the bar, when you dump all those people outside, onto the streets, who complete their violence that we then have to respond to, we attributed it to the bar,” Danish said.

Last week, police were called to Hammerjax after a bartender was shot in the back as he entered the club after taking a smoke break, Booher said. He believes the shooter was attempting to rob the club.

Maj. Larry Faulkner claims Dayton police have been called more than 80 times to Hammerjax since Jan. 1, 2011. Booher disputed the number of calls.

Demetrius Wright, owner of Envy Lounge, which was the scene of the fatal shooting of a Central State football player last September, said he has contacted police about improving safety measures, but they have not responded.

“We reached out to the police with several emails and not one response back,” he said. “Our problem is, it’s not our patrons. It’s people who can’t get in.”

Faulkner said Hammerjax and Envy are two of the biggest problem nightclubs downtown. In his opinion, both clubs are failing safetywise and they need to improve the screening of their patrons and quit using outside promoters.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2414 or kelli.wynn@coxinc.com.