Police consider new regulations for after-hours clubs

Last weekend's hullabaloo that brought out the SWAT team to an upstart after-hours club across from Coe College on First Avenue East is prompting the Police Department here to look at regulating such enterprises.

Edgar Haynes Jr., the engaging 25-year-old “innovative entrepreneur” who owns the club, says he's on the department's side.

Haynes, a Washington High School graduate featured a year ago in The Gazette for his We Deliver late-night food delivery business,  acknowledged on Tuesday that he has had his go-rounds with the Police Department in the last couple years as he has tried to get his concept for an after-hours club turned into reality.

His current location at 1323 First Ave. SE, which most recently had been a Mexican restaurant with its Kumbala name still on the building, is the third spot he has been at that has attracted Police Department attention.

Initially, he opened a place at 14th Street and B Avenue NE. He then moved to 713 Third Ave. SE, which he closed after a run-in that led to a charge, not yet resolved, of bootlegging. Haynes says it was a misunderstanding.

Police Lt. Chuck Mincks on Tuesday said the department has been called numerous times to Haynes' business locations, with the majority of calls coming after 2 a.m. when bars in Iowa, though not after-hours clubs, are required to close.

Police officers were called out both early Saturday morning and early Sunday morning to Haynes' current location, which he is calling Back on First.

The call Saturday morning, just before 4 a.m., centered around a weapon displayed and perhaps shots fired, and when officers arrived, a teenager was running from the club. He had a gun and drugs on him when police caught him two blocks away, police said.

Police set up a perimeter around the building and called in its SWAT-like team of officers called the Special Response Team. Once in place, officers then slowly emptied the establishment. Two people were arrested.

A call early Sunday morning led to an arrest of uncooperative customer.

Lt. Mincks said last weekend's events and police calls to other spots where Haynes has operated have left the Police Department scratching its head a bit.

The after-hours club, Mincks noted, is not like a bar with a liquor license, which gives police officers reason to enter at will and look around. In contrast, he said the after-hours club is like a private party on private property, which presents the Police Department with a dilemma – Can officers enter the property without a warrant or not? In fact, the department acquired a court search warrant early Saturday morning before it prepared to enter Haynes' club.

The lack of clarity about after-hours clubs, Mincks said, has the department looking at an existing ordinance in West Des Moines – West Des Moines' city manager, Jeff Pomeranz, becomes Cedar Rapids city manager on Sept. 20 – that would let the city better regulate after-hours clubs.

Mincks said any such ordinance, for instance, might limit such establishments to certain areas away from residential and other zoning districts much like strip clubs are. Such an ordinance also might give police permission to enter at will and let city officials in to make sure crowds do not exceed fire-code regulations, he said.

“I don't want it to sound like we're getting all Orwellian with so many restrictions,” Mincks said. “But people ought to be able to expect to drive down First Avenue without getting shot through their car windows.”

He said he also is preparing to use the city's existing “nuisance abatement” ordinance against Haynes to get him to change practices so police officers are not called to his business so often. The department had prepared a similar action against Haynes at his last stop, but he closed the business before the action was taken, the lieutenant said.

The nuisance abatement action might not work this time either. Mincks said Haynes' landlord is forcing him into an eviction hearing on Thursday.

For his part, Haynes said the Police Department is wrong to view his club as a private one. It's open to the public, and he said police officers have always been welcome inside.

Haynes said he was the one who called police early Saturday morning after two men buying chicken wings from his menu got into an argument and one had a gun.

“The city thinks I'm fighting them,” Haynes said. “I'm fighting the people the city perceives are in here, the people we're not allowing to come in.”

Whatever stumbling blocks are to come, Haynes said his concept remains a good one that he intends to pursue.

“There's an untapped market for after hours,” he said. “There's still a lot of people in Cedar Rapids who are up after 2 a.m. (when the bars close).”

At his current spot, he charges $5 admission, people bring their own alcohol and he offers a menu of food. He doesn't let patrons leave with open bottles of liquor, and it those bottles that led to the bootlegging charge, he said.

After-hours, Haynes added, is only part of his business. On Tuesday, he looked out the window across First Avenue SE to Coe College, and he said there are plenty of students to feed day and night.