City of Plaquemine fines nightclub owner over multiple infractions

The Plaquemine Board of Selectmen at is meeting last week fined the owner of a nightclub on Belleview Road $300 and ordered him to serve two eight-hour days of community service for a variety of complaints the city has received about his place of business.

The motion for the disciplinary action passed the Board of Selectmen unanimously.

“We’ve had 34 calls in the past 12 months on Jay’s Joint,” Mayor Ed Reeves explained. “He needs to clean it up or I’m going to shut him down. Despite warnings, he hasn’t cleaned it up since. “

Reeves said complaints about Jay’s Place range from disturbances in the parking lot to minor crimes in its immediate vicinity.

“We can’t continue to have thee calls,” he said. “We’ve got thefts, we’ve got busted faces, we’ve got broken arms. It’s not going to happen in Plaquemine.”

“A lot of the calls came from the owner or manager, calling the police to come get them out of trouble,” Reeves said. “They say they don’t want that kind of stuff happening at their place either.”

Bar owner Craig Creighton has told the mayor that a major reason his place has trouble is because it closes later than the other bars in town.

“They say with everybody else closed by midnight, everybody that’s been drinking goes over there and starts trouble,” Reeves said. “That’s not our problem, that’s theirs.”

The mayor said that the club has made some security improvements – security lights in the parking lot are an important one – but its management needs to control their crowd.

Reeves said there have been 10 fistfights at the club in the past 12 months and another 24 nuisance calls. “That’s just unacceptable,” he said.

Another move made by the management of Jay’s Place has been the banning of many of its repeat troublemakers, he continued.

“He (Creighton) told me they’ve forbidden 18 people from coming in there,” Reeves said. “They’re not welcome there anymore. Evidently, they’re big troublemakers.”

The mayor said the city has no problem with the type of business it is and hopes the owners can get the problems stopped and continue to do well at the location.

“I told him they look very busy and we’re glad to have them in town, but we can’t have all of this trouble,” Reeves said. “Councilman Micky Rivet (in whose district the club is located) has had it up to here (his neck, the mayor indicated) with the problems.”

The city’s ordinances would’ve have allowed the Board of Aldermen to fine Creighton up to $500 along with the two days of community service with this first disciplinary action and the next time he gets called to a council meeting, it is likely to be more severe yet.

“On the second offense, the fine ranges from $500 to $1,000,” Reeves said, then addressed Creighton directly. “So you need to get it straight or otherwise the next time, you’re going to be paying $1,000.”