New Paltz renews old Tavern Owners Agreement

Supervisor Susan Zimet was also town supervisor when the original agreement was signed in 1999. She remembers the black eye the community got from a cover story in the Times Herald-Record. It ran with the headline “Trouble in party town: New Paltz officials are saying they’re losing control of the downtown after dark.”

“Everybody thinks we have a bucolic wonderful town, and we do. But we also know that at night that the switch turns off and the community changes,” Zimet said. “At this particular time in the late ’90s, gangs were first starting to form.

“A lot of gangs were fighting over who would get to have the turf of New Paltz. It was getting really dangerous, people’s throats were getting slashed and the police were being put in danger.”

Because the bars were advertising “all you can drink” specials on radio stations outside of New Paltz, out-of-towners started seeing the college town as a party mecca.

After a lot of debate, bar owners, college officials and civic leaders hashed out the 1999 agreement. It’s remained in place and self-regulated by the bars ever since.

Michael Beck, the New Paltz Tavern Owners Association president, noted that they feel the work has paid off. It’s also benefitted bars.

“Over the last 15 years, we’ve gained perspective on our responsibility for the safety and well-being of our customers — while in our establishments and after they leave,” said Beck, who owns P&G’s Restaurant.

The way the agreement was set up gave SUNY New Paltz, the village or the town a forum to complain about advertising they felt created unsafe conditions. It allowed bar owners a chance to address the problems early before they got out of hand.

“If we don’t have a good relationship with the community, the Police Department and the state university, the can put us out of business,” he said.

Part of the problem in the 1990s was a lack of communication, according to Beck.

“One of the worst things was that the whole conversation was taking place in the newspaper,” he said.

Tavern Owners Association members — including one new bar, Shea O’Brien’s — signed a new version of the agreement at March 25’s meeting.

The new agreement adds social media to the list of places where sexually suggestive ads cannot appear, and it also mentions a new initiative — the “Respectful Community Sign.”

The sign asks patrons exiting bars to be “considerate and respectful of our neighbors” and urges them to refrain from littering and to be quiet walking home.

Noise from drunken students returning to campus is still an issue for villagers.

SUNY New Paltz is also placing posters on campus, urging students to drink one fewer drink per night out and drink one fewer night each week.

Police Chief Joseph Snyder was a detective in the NPPD during the wave of violence in the ’90s that lead to the Tavern Owners Agreement. He dealt with cases like that slashing firsthand.

“You always have waves of things that occur. And overall, I think we definitely have more control over what’s going on in the community,” the chief said. “When you look at some of the pictures that were up there, some of the graffiti and some of the gang activity that was starting to pop up, we had to really step up and regain control back then.”

New Paltz has had other influxes of gang activity since the original Tavern Owners Agreement was signed. However, the infrastructure built in 1999 has made it easier to curb and control crime waves on Main Street, Snyder added.

Currently, all the bar owners in the group have their bartenders get certified in TIPS, or Training for Intervention Procedures. It helps bartenders spot underage drinkers, and it arms them with techniques to refuse service to overly drunken patrons.

The 2014 Tavern Owners Agreement asks local drinking establishments to redouble their efforts to ensure all patrons are of legal drinking age, not to serve visibly drunk patrons and not to promote “near beer” or non-alcoholic beverages as a safe alternative.