LEWISTON – The city silenced Club Adrenaline’s speakers Tuesday night, pulling the Park Street nightclub’s permit to have live entertainment.

“They still have their liquor license,” City Administrator Jim Bennett said. “They can’t have live music any more, but it doesn’t shut them down. But usually, if there’s no entertainment there are no customers. That’s sort of the rationale here.”

The decision caps a year’s worth of controversy between the club and elderly neighbors living in the Oak Park apartments.

Voting in April, councilors gave club owner Carmine Cartonio until June to get things cleaned up. It didn’t happen, neighbors said.

Neighbor Phyllis Plourde said the club continued to be noisy, waking her up and knocking tea cups off a shelf.

“I called the police, and they went by and it got quieter,” she said. “And, then a few minutes later, it was as noisy as ever.”

Police responded to numerous complaints, including two serious reports involving juveniles drinking, according to Police Chief William Welch.

On April 27, police found a 20-year-old walking down Park Street with a bloody face.

“He was highly intoxicated and said he’d been assaulted in the club,” Welch said. The second happened last Wednesday when police found a man walking along Park Street, shining a flashlight into parked cars. He identified himself as an employee at the closed club, and police had him open the club to prove it. Inside, they found two juveniles drinking.

“The man said they were doing some work for them so he let them have a couple drinks,” Welch said.

Club owner Cartonio said the 20-year-old in the first instance was never inside the club, but was assaulted by one of the bar’s patrons.

That was just as bad, Welch said.

“You weren’t concerned enough to call police that night when that man was bleeding and needed medical attention,” Welch said.

Cartonio begged councilors not to blame him for the second incident. That was the actions of an employee.

“I can feel sorry for people trying to do something for their business, but I’ll tell you – you’ve lost my sympathy,” Mayor Larry Gilbert said. “It’s time that I think that people have their peace and the enjoyment they need from their homes.”

Councilors refused to renew the licenses and permits for the Blue Elephant Lounge in March. That’s a second Park Street bar blamed by Oak Park residents for noise and drunken rowdiness.

That club has since moved down to 347 Lisbon St. and reopened.

The city also banned new bars in the area surrounding the Oak Park apartments they can come up with a better way to regulate them and cut down on noise complaints. Councilors voted earlier this month to extend a moratorium on new liquor licenses in the area until September.

City Administrator Jim Bennett said the council and the city’s Planning Board are scheduled to meet Monday to discuss changing zoning around the apartments to keep nightclubs and bars out. That meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chambers.