SEATONVILLE — After a lengthy and sometimes heated exchange of words between the Seatonville Village Board and supporters of the Seat-N-Fille Tap, board members decided to give bar owner Julie Morgan one more chance.
Before Monday's meeting, things didn't look too good for the bar. After several years of hearing complaints about the bar, last month the board received a petition with 95 signatures in support of revoking or not renewing the bar's liquor license, and directed the village attorney to send a letter to the bar regarding the board's intent to not renew the liquor license.
At Monday's meeting, Village President Bill Heitz had had enough.
"I'm just fed up with it myself," he said to Morgan. "I want you out of there."
Morgan was at the meeting, accompanied by a number of supporters. She said she wanted to clarify the incident April 1 in which there was an alleged stabbing at the bar. Morgan and bartender Danny Blackburn detailed the events of the incident between several patrons and Morgan's son, Jeremy Knight, but said there was no stabbing in the bar.
Heitz then listed complaints about bad language and noise coming from the bar, but Morgan said she respected the residents.
"I don't think there is any respect shown to this town," Heitz said. "If I was running a place of business that I knew that 95 residents in the town don't even want you to be there, I would pick up my hat and go somewhere else."
Heitz also asked about upkeep on the building. Morgan said there's a lot of damage in the bar because owner Vivian Briddick won't replace the roof.
Trustee George Woods then said the bar was open after hours and presented some photographs.
"Vehicles in front of the bar don't mean anything," Morgan said. "People could just leave their vehicles because they're going with someone else."
Blackburn said he needed to keep his bartending job and wanted to do what he could to keep the bar open.
"I got laid off from my job, and she was nice enough to hire me," he said. "What can we do to make it work?"
Trustee Luke Plym said Morgan was in a tough spot.
"Just to make this clear, not everybody's against your bar, not even everybody on this board," he said. "But you have to run that bar tighter."
Trustee Chad Errio, who lives near the bar, said he had always supported the bar.
"But even I'm getting fed up," he said. "It's a daily thing where I'm picking up stuff and broken glass in my yard, and my fence has been run over twice. What happens outside your bar is legally not your responsibility, but the problem is, it is an outcome. It is a result of the bar being there."
Trustee Jack Brown told Morgan when residents complain, the board has to take action, and Blackburn said there were things they could do to ease the complaints.
"If you did all of these things, you wouldn't be here now," Heitz said.
But the board seemed to be convinced the bar could turn things around.
"If they think they can do it, I'm all for it," Plym said.
Brown agreed, although he warned the issues needed to be dealt with.
The board agreed to extend Morgan's liquor license for three more months, until Oct. 1.
Despite their vote, some of the board appeared to doubt anything would change.
Plym said he thought the board would be having the same discussion in three months, and Errio said the next three months would be warm and busy, which would create a challenge.
And Heitz said he was going to keep a close eye on the situation.
"I'm going to watch that tavern so close," he said. "One tip and it's over."
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