City votes on liquor license for nuisance store

WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) – Warren City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to object to a liquor license renewal for an area convenience store.

The council says the Convenient Mart on Elm Road near Larchmont Avenue has nuisance issues they want to be corrected.

Second ward Councilman Andrew Herman says revoking its liquor license renewal was step one. He says there’s been numerous complaints from the members of his ward over the years.

“This has been developing for months now, even years,” Herman said. “The partying until, you know, four or five in the morning, sometimes shots being fired. Neighbors’ houses have been strafed with bullets. The Convenience Mart itself has been hit with bullets.”

Herman says neighbors complain of constant activity in the parking lot and shots being fired constantly, including two people shot at the store on July 9.

“Kids have been shot. We don’t want to see someone get killed,” he said. “These are people with firearms turning their brains off in a public residential area, you know, so it’s not acceptable.”

The store currently has a D-5 liquor license which allows for the sale of beer, wine and pre-packaged mixed drinks plus on-premise consumption of high-proof spirits until 2:30 a.m.

Although neighbors tell Herman the parties continue well beyond that time.

“When I tried to go in after hours I was not allowed past the door but someone else went right past me,” Herman said.

He’s even tried to talk with the business owners and they haven’t been able to control the excessive partying.

An objection will be filed with the Division of Liquor Control where Herman hopes it can be resolved without the license being revoked permanently — or the business shutting down.

“The last thing I want to see is a business owner that’s been there for 30 years get shut down,” he said.

But Herman says something must be done because it has become a safety hazard for the community.

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