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103 Ultra Lounge ‘close to the edge’ of losing liquor license

Orono Town Council hesitant to approve license renewal

By Zach Dionne

Posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009, 12:00 am

For the second time in three years, the dance club operating at 103 Park St. in Orono is in danger of losing its liquor license. The Orono Town Council spent nearly an hour and a half Monday night deliberating renewals of 103 Ultra Lounge’s special entertainment and liquor licenses. Ultra Lounge opened after the former tenant, Ushuaia, faced a similarly crippling permit loss in early 2006.

“I’m having a real hard time going down this road again, with another establishment in this community doing the same thing that other establishments have done and gotten into a lot of trouble over,” said Geoff Gordon, council chairman.

Gordon called Ultra Lounge owner Robbie Snow’s level of preparedness for the renewal hearing “zero.”

Councilwoman Terri Hutchinson said she would have voted to deny the permits if pushed to make a decision that evening.

“I say that to you right now to give you a clearer sense of how close to the edge here you really are,” Hutchinson told Snow.

The council’s primary concerns were the level and frequency of incidents of violence, over-intoxication, questionable presence of minors and ambulance transports. Orono Chief of Police Gary Duquette issued a condensed police report at the start of the discussion; 84 illegal incidents occurred between Jan. 31, 2008 to Jan. 19, 2009, compared to 65 the previous year.

“It’s not the number of incidents, it’s the nature of the incidents that I’m concerned with,” Duquette said.

Snow said the meeting was his first time seeing the numbers.

“Before I came here tonight, I really thought that we had done a good job. I came here with no hesitation,” Snow said. “I get here and see this black-and-white of incidents that have happened and I guess it makes me think twice.” Snow maintained that the comprehensive police report was “out of context” and did not attest to the establishment’s situation.

“These permits have been heavily scrutinized every single year,” Hutchinson said. “This is by no means any kind of shoo-in for this establishment. I’m incredulous that you would say that you came here for the first time this evening thinking everything was fine.”

Duquette said he felt “insulted” at the suggestion that the police reports came out of context.

“He can paint it any way he wants, but this is fact,” Duquette said. He said his report only skims the surface and he would “have to submit a book to you folks to get everything in there.”

Much of the debate focused on two incidents: a March 16, 2008 assault case when a male fractured a female’s skull with two strikes from a metal baton in the parking lot and an April 25, 2008 intoxication case with three females being transported by ambulance from a private sorority party hosted at Ultra Lounge.

“I don’t care how you paint it; it started inside, they were thrown outside, so call us,” Duquette said. Ultra Lounge called Orono police eight times out of 84 incidents. By comparison, Bear Brew called 41 on 76 incidents. Snow’s defense was that Ultra Lounge staff often gets the attention of officers parked across the street at Bangor Savings Bank.

“Involve us more,” Duquette said. “It would probably be a little bit smarter to call us a little sooner, before these things get out of hand, and not hope that we’re sitting across the street.” Duquette said Snow has not followed through with his original management plan presented when he opened 103 Ultra Lounge in 2006.

“Historically, there’s been a problem with the parking lot,” councilman Mark Haggerty said. “I’m trying to find out . what you’re doing to actively keep problems from happening or not.”

Snow moved to alleviate responsibility for incidents on several occasions. When Haggerty asked Snow if he was responsible for the parking lot, the original response was “yes and no” before Snow said he is “ultimately responsible.”

Snow said he and his security staff patrol the parking lot “severely,” making rounds every 15 to 20 minutes, although no fixed schedule is in place. Snow has no formal arrangement with Orono police as far as monitoring the parking lot, but cited their assistance multiple times.

“I can’t stop every vehicle that pulls into the parking lot and go through everybody’s vehicle,” Snow said. “As far as the liquor violations are concerned, it’s nothing to do with me personally or the establishment.”

Council chairman Geoff Gordon interjected to tell Snow he was not helping himself.

Snow said he has not read the laws on his liquor license. At his 2008 license renewal, Snow pledged new management strategies – he cited examples of new re-entry policies and an ultraviolet stamp procedure for alcohol consumption privileges as improvements.

Gordon said the club’s problem is the screening process at the door.

Gordon said he assumed the police report represents a small percentage of the total offenses. “That’s just plain too many. You’re not managing it properly.” He added Snow must be “almost impossibly vigilant” in his role.

Councilman Tom Perry said he was unprepared to take action on the matter.

“I’m convinced that you work very hard, and I’m convinced that you want to do a good job. I’m also not satisfied with what we’ve heard has been happening this year. I want to know what you can do about it,” Perry said. “How can we move in a more positive direction? And I don’t think you can respond to that right now.”

Town Manager Catherine Conlow said television cameras in the meeting and being put on the spot may have caused Snow to be disarmed and unprepared. She said the council does not enjoy contentious discussions and wants businesses to operate smoothly.

“I think that an applicant needs every opportunity to discuss that with the council,” Conlow said.

“The only place I could go tonight is to vote no, because Robbie [Snow] has repeatedly said he’s doing an excellent job, and he’s not,” Haggerty said. “And we need an alternative plan to improve, and I’m not hearing from you at all a vision that you can figure out how to do that.”

Gordon agreed Snow came to the meeting unprepared and advised him to use town office personnel and Duquette as resources.

“He needs to come in and engage in conversation,” said Nancy Ward, Orono administrative assistant.

Snow was given two weeks to prepare a new plan for the council.

“It has to be a convincing plan that will accomplish the goal of reducing the number incidents of overly intoxicated people,” Gordon said.

The council made a formal action to table the license approvals until 4:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 23.

Prior to the Ultra Lounge deliberation, The Sports Cafe and Bear Brew Pub received unanimous approvals for liquor and victualer’s licenses and special amusement permits. Bear Brew’s victualer’s license was approved under the conditions that 12 fire safety codes be met. Four of the 12 violations have been corrected.