LEWISTON – Conflicts between Park Street residents and bar-goers might just be a fact of life, according to bar owners.

Carmine Cartonio, owner of Park Street’s Club Adrenaline, told city councilors Tuesday he does what he can to keep noise complaints down. He has strict rules, bans people who cause problems and has his bouncers monitor the street outside after closing time.

“But when you’re talking 200 people, you can’t always control how they behave,” he said. “I’m open to any solutions you might have, but when you have old people living between two clubs, you might always have a problem.”

Councilors didn’t place any limits on Cartonio’s club, or the nearby Blue Elephant Lounge, but they did agree to have the Planning Board investigate the situation.

“And I hope the planning board keeps in mind that there are elderly people living there,” said Councilor Lillian O’Brien.

O’Brien said she’s heard reports from elderly residents of the Oak Park apartments. The building is adjacent to two night clubs and the Oak Street parking garage.

Residents have complained that bar patrons leaving for the night make make too much noise as they walk to their cars in the parking garage. O’Brien said she favors changing zoning rules so bars are no longer allowed along Park Street, between Main and Maple streets.

The existing bars would be continue to operate – unless they lose their liquor licenses.

“In other words, they continue to operate until they screw up,” said City Administrator Jim Bennett.

Councilors agreed, by a 4-2 vote. Only Councilors Ron Jean and Norm Rousseau voted against passing the measure along to the planning board.

“There must be another way to deal with this,” Rousseau said. “We have mixed uses downtown and we always have. It’s just the nature of our downtown. So there has to be a way of controlling this without closing the area to certain businesses.”

Police Chief Bill Welch said it was up to bar owners and staff. Both bars have done a lot to cut down on complaints.

“But I suspect they can do more,” he said. The clubs have problems because they are serving too much alcohol to obviously drunk patrons,” he said.

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