Women’s Club Party Rules Protested : Regulation: The city has restricted hours of weekend parties that use the club’s facilities. The group says rental income, needed to pay debts, will decrease significantly.
ARCADIA — Angry members of the Arcadia Women’s Club say their group will go under because of a recent city decision to restrict weekend renters of their clubhouse to an earlier closing time because of complaints by neighbors of loud, lewd and violent behavior.
“We cannot pay off our indebtedness without these parties and wedding receptions,” former Mayor Floretta Lauber, a club member, told the City Council on Tuesday. The club had borrowed $76,000 for the facility after the Whittier earthquake.
Despite the protests from club officials, the council let stand the October decision by the city’s Business Licensing Department. Under that ruling, the department will initially deny all new permits to use the club at 324 S. 1st St. on Friday and Saturday nights.
If the denial of the permit is successfully appealed--usually a foregone conclusion--music will be allowed only until 10 p.m. and doors must be locked, and all party-goers gone by 11 p.m.
“The new party rules have already caused two wedding receptions to cancel. Without these parties it’s impossible to meet our financial obligation,” club president Margerie Elliott said.
Frank Macciola, owner of a 50-unit apartment complex at 113 Diamond St., next to the clubhouse, and Donald Deitrick, a resident of the complex, said the licensing decision did not go far enough to prevent incidents outdoors. They presented the council with a petition signed by nearly 20 residents who support their stand.
“It’s not going to be solved,” Macciola told the council. “There is a problem. Tenants have had people having sex on their front lawn.”
Deitrick added that partiers have also urinated on the lawn, dropped cans and bottles, loitered on the sidewalk, played car radios loudly, and even had fistfights.
“It has given me cause to do a citizen’s arrest,” he said.
Police records show 12 incidents were reported relating to the clubhouse this year. Among them:
Jan. 12, an arrest for urinating in public.
March 9, a loud party broken up by police.
Sept. 19, a fight between a groom and his new father-in-law.
Sept. 26, a street fight among party guests.
To help reduce the problems, the club has hired a security guard and installed a noise meter at the facility, home to the club since 1930.
Only Mayor George Fasching voiced support for a proposed trial period that would include the guard and noise meter, under previous requirements that allowed music until 11 p.m. and closure at midnight.
Meanwhile, club officials said Deitrick is being “hypersensitive” about the issue. And they blame Macciola for part of the problem, citing the proximity of his apartment building to the clubhouse.
“It’s like the people who buy a building near an airport and then ask for the airport to be closed,” Lauber said.
