Kodiak Lounge kept in the dark
This letter is with relation to the article “Controversy at The Kodiak Lounge.” As bar owners/operators who live directly next to the Kodiak Lounge we understand the importance of respecting resident views and we also realize the importance of respecting our fellow resident families in the community.
The Kodiak Lounge has successfully operated for two years now with not one single police call out or complaint. We would hope that if our neighbors were affected in any way by noise from our Lounge or our patrons that we would be informed of this directly because we are always on site and we have a zero tolerance to unruly behaviour. We were unaware that the council meeting was going to turn into a public hearing format and we were surprised to find that a resident had taken it upon herself to walk door to door covering triple the area that was asked for opinion. This particular person was not hired by the city or ourselves with substantial credible information regarding the Kodiak Lounge to present to residents. We understand that this person has frustration over late night behaviour, but we feel as a business that we suffer considerable setbacks due to the over serving and lack of due diligence with other liquor establishments.
We tend to not have the same issues as other liquor establishments because we are always on site and operate the lounge ourselves. We invite Tannis McDonald and anyone else who may be interested to come in and actually see our lounge. It is not situated downstairs with the potential of being a nightclub, as was the previous bar in this location and it is very small. We have a 55 person occupancy. We do not even have a dance floor! I think residents would be pleasantly surprised. From our calculations 85 per cent of the petition that was presented to city consisted of signatures outside the polled area and the letters of objection presented to council were under 10 and consisted of complaints regarding behaviour that did not specifically correlate to the lounge. Five of these 10 letters were from residents who did not actually reside in the specific area being polled by the City. In the future business owners should have an option to actually know if someone is going to create a petition against their business and then they would have the opportunity to also offer information to residents. If a business owner is able to communicate with the council after or during the discussions of a council meeting, alternative solutions can be made that fit with the opinions of the community and business owner. In the future once we have recovered from this application we may or may not like to reapply for a more reasonable closing time of 12 a.m. and we invite anyone with any concerns or anyone that is just curious about our lounge to come in and have a friendly chat and see what we are all about. Gee, I hope the City is going to apply the same sort of regulations with the late night rentals at the community centre.
Joe and Sadie Howse
Raging Elk Hostel
Fernie