NORWAY – Selectmen at their regular meeting Thursday voted unanimously to renew a liquor license for Charlie’s Entertainment Center after listening to the bar owner and one of his neighbors argue about parking.
Jerry Micklon, whose family-owned business All-Rite Accounting, lies across the street from the entertainment center, said he had posted signs in his parking lot to deter the entertainment center’s overflow customers from using his lot.
“The signs say all unauthorized vehicles will be towed, for two reasons,” Micklon said at the meeting. First, there are too many beer cans, broken bottles and trash strewn around the parking lot after a busy night at Charlie’s. Second, the signs protect him from being sued, he said.
Paul Creamer, who owns Charlie’s, responded, “My customers are not going over there and dropping bottles.”
In a phone interview Friday, Creamer said he wants to pave the parking area between the buildings and has asked for contributions from his neighbors. But there are conflicting opinions about who is responsible for what.
Planning Board Chairman Dennis Gray said Charlie’s neighbors, which include Wiles Auto Body Shop and the building that houses The Norway Color Center, and Hair and Company, agreed in 1998 to share a parking lot, but that this collaboration has deteriorated.
Ross Pendexter, who owns The Norway Color Center with his father, Arnold, refused to comment on Friday. Micklon also declined to be interviewed.
Town Manager David Holt said the town’s attorney recommended that the town renew Creamer’s license and, in a sense, distance itself from the dispute.
Attorney Geoffrey Hole wrote in a letter to the board, “The selectpersons should not attempt to determine private property rights.”
Holt said on Friday, “Their testimony (from Micklon and Creamer) had little to do with the ultimate decision the board had to make. It’s OK for the town to hear about issues, but we don’t want to hear things said about people that might be negative and that might not be relative to what we are doing.”
Norway Police Chief Rob Federico said that Charlie’s does not cause many problems for town police.
“When he first opened, there were numerous problems with over-serving and intoxicated people in the street, but it was a matter of growing pains,” he said. Charlie’s opened in 1998.
After Creamer became more familiar with the ins and outs of running a bar, Federico said, “It has been very successful.”
Federico referred to the parking lot fight as a civil matter that is not in the police department’s purview, and Creamer said he has hired an attorney.
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