Leary: We are not going to have it here

Local Historic City News reporters learned details of some of the 145 police calls reported over the last four months at Two Hundred Lounge on Anastasia Boulevard during last week’s city commission meeting; and one commissioner says, “We are not going to have it here”.

Police Commander Barry Fox told commissioners at the March 14th meeting that the night spot has dominated police calls from neighbors and employees in recent months.

Co-owner Nick Cirelli told commissioners that he’s been cooperating with the city, and that he has suspended a promoter “who is responsible for the problems”.

Arrests and citations at the club have included battery, illegal drugs, gunshots fired, fights, and overflow parking on neighbor’s property, according to police.

Cirelli believes that a past practice of keeping music going until minutes before closing, then pushing everyone out of the club, causes these incidents. The “hard push” as it is called, was condemned by city commissioners. Owners say they will try operating without it.

Although major blame was attributed to the promoter making the end of night “hard push”, stopping that one practice, alone, would not cure everything; but, for now, it appears to have stayed the tide of complaints.

Fox told commissioners that police are monitoring the situation; however, since a “30-day cooling-off period” has been in place, “there have been no calls”.

Cirelli, who is partners with Bryan Greiner in Two Hundred Lounge, says “we’re losing $20,000 during this cooling off period” but he emphasized that they are committed to keeping peace in the Davis Shores neighborhood.

Photo credits: © 2011 Historic City News staff photographer