As the vote to tighten early morning bar hours draws closer, the Channahon village board Monday heard from two bar owners about how the changes would affect their businesses.
“I don’t think it’s right,” Chris Sarris, owner of The Office Bar and Grill, told trustees. “I feel like you’re taking my income away from me, and I’ve done nothing wrong. . . I still don’t understand what the reason is.”
Village President Missey Moorman Schumacher is proposing shortening hours bars with a Class A liquor license may serve liquor by one hour on the weekends. If approved at the board’s Dec. 19 meeting, the bars would have to stop serving at 2 a.m, up from the current 3 a.m.
Keeping drinking establishments open late leads to more police incidents, Schumacher has said. The village board has to look out for the safety of all of Channahon’s residents, she said this week.
Sarris said village staff had given him a list of eight early morning police incidents at The Office Bar and Grill or in the parking lot of the strip mall in which the bar is located. The list goes back two years, he said, but half of the incidents took place at times when the bar wasn’t even open for business, such as reckless driving in the parking lot.
Channahon Police Chief Jeff Wold indicated he would look into the list further.
“I believe there’s nothing that’s happened at my bar to warrant this,” Sarris said. “I’m losing 104 hours a year. . . I’m losing a ton of money, is what it comes down to, and so are my employees.”
Schumacher said, if the changes are eventually approved, the bars would actually have more hours to serve liquor than they do now, as the board is considering allowing Class A bars to open earlier on Sunday mornings, after the request was made by Tom Doud of Channahon Lanes bowling alley.
Jack Davis, owner of KG9, the second of the three Channahon bars that have Class A licenses, echoed Sarris’s remarks about the amount of money he would lose if the village took away the early morning hour and added that being able to open early on a Sunday morning would not benefit him.
“The eight to 10 on a Sunday morning is not going to make up for a Saturday night,” Davis said.
Schumacher and trustees said they are also considering allowing the bars to stay open later on such holidays as Halloween, Labor Day, St. Patrick’s Day, the day before Thanksgiving, and on the day in July when the village celebrates Fourth of July with fireworks.
The third Class A bar owner, Tom Doud, previously told the board that losing an hour on weekend nights wouldn’t make much difference to his business, but having more hours on a Sunday morning would benefit him.
“I hope people come out and make sure this does not pass,” Sarris said after the meeting.
The village board may vote on the change at its Dec. 19 meeting.
Channahon trustees Monday also heard a report from Will County Center for Economic Development President John Greuling on how the organization has been working for Channahon and other western Will County communities.
Included, he said, are the commitments by the governor and the Illinois Department of Transportation to provide the dollars to reconstruct the Houbolt Road/I-80 interchange; the creation of a Freight Mobility Plan to look at freight movement issues faced by local communities; and steering businesses looking for new locations to the area.
In its 2016 Annual Report just released last week, Greuling said the total number of jobs created in the county this year is 8,093, which he said was the largest number he’s seen in 15 years.
After the presentation, Channahon trustees approved contributing the village’s annual $5,000 contribution to the organization.