WESTFIELD – The License Commission held two hearings Monday night to discuss incidents which occurred at downtown nightclubs during the Westfield State University Homecoming Weekend.
City Police and Fire department supervisors were dispatched to both incidents initiated by callers reporting large, and noisy, gatherings of club patrons outside the Maple Leaf Inn on Arnold Street and in the Franklin Off-street Municipal Parking lot behind Shenanigan’s Pub & Restaurant.
Officer Juanita Mejias wrote the reports on both incidents which included dispersing the crowds outside the two establishments and raised the issue of exceeding the capacity limits set by the Fire and Building departments.
Commissioner Edward Diaz said it was fortunate that none of the patrons and no police officers were injured that night, especially at Shenanigan’s where Mejias estimated that more than 300 patrons were inside the club, located at 150-154 Elm Street, while another 150 patrons waited in the parking lot to enter the establishment.
“There should have been a little more planning (to deal with crowd control) for an event like this (the Homecoming event),” Diaz said. “You should have had that sixth sense to pick up the vibe that night.”
“Safety of the public and of our officers is your responsibility,” Diaz said. “It could have gotten real ugly.”
Commissioner Alice Dawicki said that the two incidents pulled all of the officers on duty downtown, leaving the rest of the city without proper police coverage and that it was fortunate the incidents occurred at a change of shift where officers coming in for the midnight to 8 a.m. shift were able to assist officers at the two scenes.
Diaz also urged the Police Department to have a more robust “proactive planning” process for special events in terms of putting additional officers on duty.
Adam Adamczenko, the crowd control manager at Shenanigan’s, said that the situation got out of control quickly because of poor communication by the club’s staff.
“It was getting close to capacity (160 patrons) and by the time I got to the back door (to stop staff from allowing more patrons inside) we were over capacity,” Adamczenko said. “We’ve been near capacity quite a few times, but this is the first time that we were over capacity.”
Mejias said that the DJ at Shenanigan’s incited the crowd as police were clearing the club by playing the song “F*** the Police” as officers attempted to clear the club.
Club owner Laurie Lucia said the DJ was fired and will not be allowed to return to Shenanigan’s because of his action to incite the crowd.
Lucia said that she held a staff meeting to determine what steps in the future could be taken to eliminate the possibility of a similar situation from occurring again.
Adamczenko said that additional staff will be positioned at the rear door and that a master control switch will be installed to turn of the music.
The commission voted to send Lucia a warning letter that a violation of the club’s license did in fact occur and that there would be “consequences” if it were to occur again.
“We’re letting you off easy because you did take responsibility, but there could have been a different outcome,” Diaz said.
The commission took no action on the Maple Leaf Inn which was not at capacity, but did discuss issues of crowd control. Part of that discussion is the fact that Arnold Street, including sidewalks, is being reconstructed at part of the Gaslight District Improvements, a contributing factor to patrons being in the street.
The Maple Leaf capacity is 205 patrons, but only 160 were allowed inside the establishment.
