By Laragh Dooley
Penalizing bars when drunken patrons spill out onto the street yelling and screaming is misplaced justice, says Baseline’s city councillor Rick Chiarelli.
Chiarelli says the patrons should be fined instead.
Coun. Diane Holmes, who represents Somerset Ward, disagrees. She says noisy bar patrons who spill out onto the streets in the wee hours of the morning frequently wake up her constituents who live in the Elgin Street area.
She believes the bars which continuously let this happen should be held responsible. If Holmes has her way, the street’s sleepless residents will soon have a good night’s rest.
Recently, she presented a motion that would force bars to refund the police enforcement costs incurred while dealing with rambunctious bar patrons and their violations under municipal bylaws.
Consequently, Susan Jones, the city’s bylaw director, says bar owners could be responsible for paying more than $1000 per violation.
The city already has the bylaws to charge bars the cost of policing. Holmes’ motion is to compel city council to enforce its own rules.
Chiarelli says these extra costs will cause some owners to “simply walk away and close up shop,” he says.
“We don’t want to lose them.”
Terry McCann, an Elgin Street resident, says the street can be loud for an hour and a half after the bars let out.
“The kids get out and they go crazy,” says McCann. “The guys are yelling and fighting, and the girls are crying because the boys are fighting. I can hear it but I’m used to it now.”
McCann adds that the noise comes with the territory and says he knew what to expect when he moved onto Elgin Street over a year ago.
Ben Berry, another Ottawa resident, says city council needs to stop dealing with noise complaints coming from residents who live next to bars.
Those who live next to the Queensway do not complain to council about the noisy sound of cars, Berry says.
He does not believe the bars should be responsible for the costs, as Holmes suggests, because bars pay enough property taxes to cover the city’s costs of dealing with drunken patrons.
If Holmes’ motion is approved, Chiarelli says he is concerned there wouldn’t be enough bylaw officers to deal with both the noise complaints and the work they already do.
Bylaw officers are currently dispatched by priority, and for the most part, they are in the suburbs doing very important work preventing crime, he says.
Chiarelli also says bringing bylaw officers downtown to deal with noise complaints would endanger suburban parks and neighbourhoods .
Andrew Fuller, owner of the Manx Pub, says Elgin Street has become a circus, especially on the weekends.
He says he would be glad to see more officers on Elgin Street keeping the peace, but does not want to pay for them because his pub has not had any problems.
But Holmes says the vast majorities of bars are fine and are run very professionally.
“It is cracking down on just the few that are costing all our taxpayers a great deal of money to try and enforce our bylaws,” she says.
Chiarelli says he was happy to see a decision on the motion deferred until November. It will give council time to hear from bar owners and determine the impact the bylaw could have on their industry, he says.