RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) – When Eclipse Teen Night Club opened 10 months ago, the place was packed every Saturday night with as many as 350 dancing teenagers.

But the numbers have dwindled since then, and now 17-year-old club co-owner Josh Terenzini says he plans to close the club on Saturday.

“I don’t know why people stopped coming,” he said Friday. “They say they’re busy, but I don’t see a lot else to do in Rutland.”

Terenzini, 17, said he started the club with help from his mother and grandmother because he wanted to provide young people between the ages of 13 and 18 a safe place to have fun.

The 10,000-square-foot dance hall – formerly the home of Bumps teen nightclub – at the Howe Center seemed like the ideal spot, he said.

When he started the club, Terenzini rounded up 16 volunteers to staff the club and provide security. He originally rented couches, chairs and a pool table, and later bought a pool table.

“We did better than the previous establishment (Bumps) in that we had less drugs and alcohol and fights,” he said. “We had better security and better relations with the police, but maybe that’s it. We have very strict rules. At Bumps, you could come and go as you wanted. Here, once you leave, you can’t come back.”

That rule, designed to discourage people from sneaking things into the club or getting into trouble in the parking lot, is one of nine rules Terenzini and his mother imposed.

Other rules prohibited drugs, alcohol, smoking, fighting, stealing, disrespect to staff members, gang colors, “drug-related shirts,” and backpacks.

Terenzini said the rules and the consistency with which they were enforced might have driven off some of his customers who were expecting a teenage nightclub owner to be lax on security.

“I think even some of my own friends didn’t think I would really enforce the rules too much,” he said.

But even now that he can’t afford to keep the club open because of the drop in business, Terenzini said he has no regrets about the way things were run.

“I think I’ve had 10 months of success overall,” he said. “This was a safe place for teens to have fun on a Saturday night.”

AP-ES-07-26-04 0651EDT