LEWISTON – Club Adrenaline owner Carmine Cartonio is aiming for the Cellar Door’s old clientele.

He just doesn’t want the Cellar Door’s problems – and Cartonio doesn’t think he’ll get them.

“We began making adjustments with our security staff weeks before that other club actually closed,” Cartonio said Thursday. He’s increased the size of his security staff, fitted them with radio headsets to keep them constantly in contact and promised to not put up with problems.

The Park Street nightclub will begin opening its doors on Tuesday nights next week. That’s the same night the Cellar Door was busiest before it lost its liquor license earlier this month. Cartonio even hired the Cellar Door’s old DJ and will be offering similar drink specials.

But his staff will be different, he said.

“This place needs to be known as the one place that doesn’t put up with (stuff),” Cartonio said. “People need to come in knowing that they can have a good time, but they’re going to be safe. My bouncers and my staff need to be on top of their game.”

The Cellar Door nightclub in Auburn closed last week after numerous incidents requiring Auburn police response. Owner Paul Morency agreed to close the downstairs disco that drew a young, hard-drinking crowd. In exchange, the city agreed to renew his liquor license and special-use permit for his Midnight Blues Club.

But Cellar Door patrons said closing the club would only send the same hard-partying crowd to some other club.

Lewiston Police Chief William Welch said it won’t happen in Lewiston.

“There are any number of places in Lewiston they could go,” Welch said. “We’ve been meeting with bar owners pretty regularly letting them know that neither the police nor the city council will let it get out of hand.”

Lewiston has individual officers assigned to each bar and nightclub in Lewiston. Those officers are meeting with clubs owners and staff now. Police will be studying call records and incident reports, looking for increasing complaints of disturbances, loitering, littering and noise around bars and nightclubs.

“It’s not just problems in the clubs themselves, but outside of it – of people leaving,” Welch said. “If they are causing a disturbance around you, you are the problem. It doesn’t matter if they are in your club at the time or not.”

Lewiston has had its own history of raucous nightclubs. Problems with brawls, littering, noise and disturbances at Lisbon Street nightclub Rock’n Robin’s in 2004 had police prepared to take that club’s liquor license. Owners closed the club before that happened.

Welch said his officers work pretty closely with club owners to keep problems from happening.

“We meet with them regularly to talk about what’s going on,” he said. “They know right away if there is a problem with their liquor license.”

Cartonio said he plans to have Lewiston police provide a refresher course on picking out fake IDs and keeping crowds under control. And he promises to be on hand, making sure his bouncers and other security staff are always working.

“I don’t believe it’s ever the crowd’s fault,” Cartonio said. “You can control the crowd. You can’t stop every fight, but you can stop things from escalating.”

Sometimes it’s simple things, like cleaning up empty beer bottles right away.

“That’s one less thing someone can use to hit someone with,” he said.

Cartonio said he’s considering adopting a dress code and will ban anyone who causes a disturbance immediately.