FeedsStripped of license, Club Xtreme opens to teens
In some form, Club Xtreme will live on in the City of Wayne.
A week after city officials learned that the Michigan Liquor Control Commission (LCC) would not renew the liquor license for the club on Michigan Avenue, they learned that club owner Bob Wojtowicz planed to reopen the club as a teen night club.
“They’re not going to be serving any alcohol,” said Wayne City Attorney Dick Clark. He said he received the letter on Friday.
The club opened in June of 2006 and city officials have been concerned about the issues that have come up virtually since then. They recently met in two special meetings to discuss the increase in crime in the area of the club, which is just west of Wayne Road on the westbound side of Michigan Avenue.
Since June of 2004 there have been 17 felony arrests, 257 misdemeanor arrests, 61 misdemeanor warrants, 17 LCC violations as well as 83 parking violations issued near the club.
Police have sent 24 reports to the LCC that resulted in 92 citations. Those resulted in several temporary suspensions of the liquor license. One of those suspensions will take place this weekend.
Another violation was recently adjudicated, too, according to Clark, that would have resulted in a 30-day suspension of the license. That is now a moot point, he said.
“It really doesn’t matter since they’re not going to get the license renewed, anyway,” he said.
Those issues caused the council to draft a resolution in opposition to the renewal of the license, which would have taken place at the end of this month. The LCC ruled that the license would not be renewed unless the city council approved of it.
Lawrence Shulman, an attorney representing Wojtowicz and Club Xtreme, said Thursday that he hadn’t received notification from the state.
“I think the most likely action will be to challenge it in court,” Shulman said. “I expect that will be the next step.”
Clark said there was no law against opening the club as another type of business that did not serve alcohol.
“My concern with a teen club is that, even if there is no alcohol served there, the management needs to operate it responsibly so we don’t just have a different set of problems,” Clark said. “He hasn’t shown that he can operate the club responsibly, yet.”
Operating the former bar as a teen club wouldn’t preclude the owners from proceeding with the potential litigation, either, according to Clark.
“We’ll just have to wait and see what they’re going to do with the legal issue,” he said.
