For neighbors, bad memories of clubs linger

By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Neighbors living behind 1743 S. Raccoon Road in the Wedgewood Plaza have bad memories of two clubs there.
Screeching tires at 2 a.m. Windows rattling from loud music. Hundreds of teenagers congregated in the parking lot, some of them getting into fights.
The Mill closed in 2002 amid legal and financial difficulties.
The Teen Scene, its successor, closed in December 2004 as the teenage crowds that gathered there continued to cause problems for the neighborhood and police.
But a corporation called Fahrenheit Entertainment vows to be a better neighbor as it opens a new complex there.
Neighbors said they hope so.
Township officials, too, said they hope the problems of the past won't be repeated.
Remembers the fights
Police Chief Robert Gavalier said he was in the thick of the parking lot fights. He can remember calling Youngstown, Boardman and Canfield police for help at least five times when he was a turn commander.
The problem with teen nights, he said, was that they would open the doors at 10:30 when the club closed, releasing 1,000 kids into the parking lot at once.
Gavalier said a fight would break out at one end of the lot, and police would run to respond. Then, a fight would break out at the other end. Making many arrests wasn't possible. One time, he said, he was hit in the head by a rock.
He said he's heard "this story about three different times," that the club will not be a nuisance under new management. But he said that after meeting with the club's new management Tuesday, he has hopes it will be better.
Restaurant focus
Club management has said it intends to focus heavily on its new restaurant, the Wedgewood Grill. It will be open for lunch beginning at 11 a.m., and the kitchen will remain open until the nightclub, The Wedge, closes around 2 a.m., said general manager Rudy Nieblas.
Gavalier said he hopes the restaurant will bring in a different kind of crowd. Club officials have said the nightclub will be for the over-21 crowd only.
Trustee David Ditzler said the previous clubs stretched thin a police department already short on manpower. He said the new owners will be under more scrutiny because of their club's location.
Ditzler owned a bar in Youngstown in the early 1980s that could hold 1,000 people. He said a situation can quickly get out of control, and in the past, inexperienced people made mistakes at the clubs.
Ditzler said the neighbors' issues are "very much a concern" of his. But he also said a restaurant catering to families and a nightclub for adults only sounds good. "We want businesses to succeed."
Noisy neighbors
Neighbors agreed. Laurie Drive residents Andrew Monk, Carol Yohman and Rosemarie Wallace remembered what it was like living near the clubs.
Yohman said she is about eight houses away, but she could still hear the music while in her bed with the windows closed.
Monk, 18, who lives closer, said the clubs were "really noisy. Our windows rattled all the time."
Yohman said she felt sorry for her neighbors who lived closer, a sentiment echoed by Wallace, who lives farther away. With her windows closed and the air conditioning on, she didn't hear the music, she said. Still, she didn't want her neighborhood to suffer. Both women say they're intrigued by the new owner's concept.
"The restaurant -- I wouldn't mind that," Yohman said.
"Austintown needs something here," Wallace said. "Everything is in Boardman."
"I'm all for someone having a nice place," she added. "I'm for giving everybody a chance."
starmack@vindy.com