Premier Bar closed as nuisance
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WARREN -- The Premier Bar, 2261 N. Park Ave., was closed and boarded up Wednesday afternoon after it was deemed a public nuisance and the city obtained a temporary restraining order from Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Peter Kontos.
The city will return to court Tuesday to seek a preliminary and permanent injunction against the establishment.
Safety Service Director Enzo Cantalamessa said the city has received numerous complaints from the club's neighbors about loud all-night parties, people blocking their driveways and gunfire.
Since Feb. 21, police have responded to nearly 50 calls at the Premier Bar, including three reports of shots fired, several fights, a person with a gun and a suspicious person complaint.
Cantalamessa said the bar is not open daily but has concerts and parties for special events.
"Recently, on Nov. 13, there was a bring-your-own-bottle, after-hours party held," he said. "An undercover agent from the Ohio Investigative Unit of the Highway Patrol made a buy. This establishment does not have a liquor license."
After obtaining a search warrant for the bar on the same day, police recovered beer and intoxicating liquor, marijuana, pills and five firearms. On the day of the search warrant, Chester Adams, Premier's operator, told agents he planned to reopen the business immediately.
"We get complaints from residents about commercial and residential establishments that they consider nuisances," Cantalamessa said. "These are hard to establish cases against."
Cantalamessa said city officials always will work to keep businesses open when possible, but warned officials will take action against those that break the law and make a neighborhood unsafe.
"If you're going to have an establishment that serves liquor, then have a liquor license," he said. "We want establishments to prosper and do well, but you have to follow the rules."
Cantalamessa said 2261 N. Park Ave. has a long history of problematic businesses occupying it, even before Adams took it over.
Neighborhood resident Kimberly Gunter said neighbors have been complaining about activities at Premier Bar for the four years she has lived in the neighborhood.
"We've had shootings, stabbings, people parking in our driveways and drugs," she said. "It has been a horrible nuisance. We made complaints to police, City Hall and at city council. They've been very helpful.
"We were trying to get it shut down for the safety of the neighborhood," Gunter said.
Gunter said the boarding up of the bar will be good for the entire neighborhood.
Councilman Alford Novak, D-2nd Ward, said this is the fifth time that a club operating in the building has been boarded up because of nuisance complaints over a 15-year period.
"It was different owners, under different names," Novak said. "We worked to close a bar in this location a year after I became a councilman in 1992."