No one would mistake it for the Oak Bar
at the Plaza Hotel and for the handful of regulars at the Spring Point
Tavern on South Portland’s Benjamin W. Pickett Street during a recent
six o’clock hour, that’s likely the appeal. Inside, the dress code is
casual– T-shirts and sandals– and the jukebox is loud– blaring
Metalica, the White Stripes and Lynard Skynard. The level of volume was
jarring not only because it proved impossible to conduct a conversation
without resorting to shouting, but because there was no sonic
indication that there was anything going on inside mere steps outside
the front of the establishment (where the bar faces not homes but a
parking lot affording a clear view of Fort Gorges). That is not to say
the property was completely silent. From the back of the bar, where it
abuts yet another large college parking lot, there was plenty of
boisterous conversation and loud laughter coming from the open air
patio/ smoker’s lounge, but no music.

    The fact that all those decibels fail to escape the
tavern’s interior is no accident. Inside the smell is not of stale beer
but fresh paint being applied to the new drywall where the management
had punched holes to ensure there was insulation. The manager on duty
motioned to new double-pane windows and thick doors installed sometime
after last October when the South Portland City Council threatened to
take away the establishments entertainment license after
complaints  the jukebox, live music and karaoke events had become
a neighborhood earsore and a potential moral danger to the future
tenants of SMCC’s new dorm.

    On Monday night the city council revisited the
license issue to determine if the tavern’s efforts and expense to
address neighborhood concerns had been enough. Mayor Claude Morgan,
whose district represents the neighborhood bar, had indicated before
the meeting that it had not and referenced what he described as
numerous noise and public safety issues generated by the tavern and
it’s patrons since October.

    But at the meeting, police records showed the noise
complaints occurred on a single night when a new bartender failed to
close the window after a large party attending a function at SMCC
decided to continue their festivities at the bar.

    It is clear that there are neighbors who would like
to see the tavern and its patrons go. If not an ideal neighbor, the
owners have demonstrated they are responsible and responsive neighbors.
It is also clear there are neighbors who quite enjoy the tavern and the
service it offers as a place to meet friends, listen to live music and
enjoy some of the privileges of adulthood without having to get in
their cars and drive across a bridge.

    In the end the council unanimously approved the
license that will allow patrons to frequent an establishment that
offers more than drinking in silence. The council was wise to limit the
lingering noise pollution by requiring the tavern to prohibit patrons
from bringing their drinks with them when they do go out for a smoke.

    Both the council and the tavern owners should be commended for seeking compromise rather than a showdown.

–Ward Peck