Jordan McBride

The News Journal

A new Newark policy puts bars and restaurants at risk of temporarily losing their ability to sell alcohol if customers or employees break the law.

The measure, a nuisance point system designed to hold establishments accountable for the actions of their workers and patrons, applies to all alcohol-selling establishments in Newark except for liquor stores, Klondike Kate's, Deer Park Tavern and Grain Craft Bar and Kitchen.

The three establishments are exempt because they do not operate under special-use permits as the rest of the alcohol-serving businesses in town do.

Under the new point system, businesses would accumulate points for infractions such as serving alcohol to minors, building code violations and the behavior of their customers. The measure will be enforced by the Newark Police Department.

Newark Mayor Polly Sierer said there was no specific incident that prompted the administrative change, which will be introduced over the summer and put in place as University of Delaware students return to campus for the fall semester.

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According to Maureen Feeney-Roser, Newark’s planning and development director, special-use permits were introduced by the council in the 1980s to further regulate which businesses can sell alcohol in city limits.

Because Klondike Kate's and Deer Park were in existence and selling alcohol before the introduction of the new permits, the new zoning law could not be retroactively applied to them.

Grain, which opened in 2015, does not operate under a special-use permit because the property that it sits on was already being used to sell alcohol when the permit plan was introduced. There have been multiple restaurants that have occupied that location since the 1980s, but because the property was never abandoned for more than a year, Newark's zoning laws did not require the owners of Grain to apply for a special-use permit.

That means that these businesses are allowed to sell alcohol in Newark with only a state-issued liquor license, while new restaurants and bars have to have both a liquor license and a special-use permit.

Feeney-Roser said that special-use permits give the city “some control over the distribution of alcohol in our community.”

Sasha Aber, the owner of Home Grown Café, which has been open for 16 years and operates under a special-use permit, said she does not understand why Deer Park and Klondike Kate's are not subject to the new point system and her restaurant is.

“Everyone should be under the same rules,” Aber said. “If you’re going to protect the downtown, do it across the board and make things fair.”

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Lee Mikles, a co-owner of Grain, views the point system differently. He praised the City Council for approving the point system and said that businesses not covered by the measure are still required to be responsible for their actions.

“These aren’t the only rules that apply,” Mikles said. “Just because you’re not a part of the point system doesn’t mean that you don’t have to adhere to the other rules that are related to underage drinking and other things.”

Once an establishment incurs a certain number of points, an operator is at risk of temporarily losing the ability to sell alcohol.

“Over my career, we’ve seen what happens when restaurants start to fail,” said Sgt. Dennis Aniunas, who has been with the Newark Police Department for 18 years. “They tend to move towards catering to a college crowd, and we tend to see problematic behavior such as underage serving.”

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Under the new system, businesses will receive one to 10 points for each infraction.

One-point infractions include citations for pedestrian issues such as blocking sidewalks; traffic issues such as customers or taxis blocking the road; or open container, underage consumption, public urination and possession of illegal drugs in the establishment’s private parking lot.

Three-point infractions include noise violations, disorderly conduct and building code violations.

Six-point infractions are for assaults and related offenses, sexual offenses, serving alcohol to a minor and employee/management associations with gang activity.

Ten-point infractions are reserved for the most serious violations. They would be given in the case of acts causing death, offenses involving deadly weapons and dangerous instruments, aggravated possession or distribution of illegal drugs and riots.

If a business receives six points in a 12-month period, it will receive a warning letter from the city. If it exceeds 10 points in that time period, a mandatory meeting is held between the restaurant, the Police Department’s Special Operations unit supervisor, the city solicitor or representative and someone from the Planning Department. The meeting is held to determine whether or not a recommendation should be made to the City Council to revoke the business's special-use permit.

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Over the past 12 months, the Newark Police Department responded to 13 assaults, nine instances of disorderly conduct and 13 property crimes, including theft and criminal mischief, at Deer Park.

At Klondike Kate's, over the same time period, the police responded to nine assaults, 13 alcohol-related offenses, 10 property crimes, five instances of disorderly conduct and one instance of unlawful sexual conduct.

If the new point system had been in effect and applied to both of the bars during this time period, Deer Park would have accrued over 100 points while Klondike Kate's would have accrued between 25 and 38 points.

In contrast, in that same time period, Home Grown Café saw one assault, four instances of disorderly conduct and three property crimes.

The owners of Klondike Kate's declined to comment.

Aniunas said the police will roll out an education program on the new point system sometime in August at their Newark Nightlife Partnership event, which is co-hosted by the University of Delaware and is held in conjunction with Delaware Tobacco and Alcohol Enforcement.

“Let me make this clear, we are not targeting any businesses in Newark right now,” he said. “There’s nothing specific that we’re going after at this point. It is just a tool we’re putting into place that we could use in the future if we have a business that comes up that has an issue where we see rampant underage sales to minors or continuous calls to service to that place.”

Contact Jordan McBride at jmcbride@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @jordanlmcbride.