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Alleging drug activity, city uses public-nuisance law to close bar
Meanwhile, people are stealing meat to get drug money, the police chief says.
EAST LIVERPOOL — The city is apparently the first in Columbiana County to use a civil action against a private homeowner, in 2007, and now a bar in the fight against drugs.
Authorities late Monday afternoon closed Dan’s Bar, 115 E. Sixth St., by padlocking the doors and covering the windows with plywood.
Police Chief Mike McVay said the bar had been the source of complaints about drug transactions and use, fights and prostitution.
The department has been watching the area from April 2007 to September, the chief said.
McVay said the bar is owned by Dan Brand, but his daughter, Carol Kidder, runs it.
McVay said the family believed it was cleaning up the problem.
“I don’t understand that, but they feel that way,” he said.
Police obtained a temporary restraining order from Judge C. Ashley Pike of Columbiana County Common Pleas Court. The city wants the business declared a public nuisance. Police gave the judge a packet of documents and police reports to show the business should be closed.
East Liverpool and other authorities did the same thing in 2007 against Robert Conkle, a former East Liverpool water superintendent, over alleged drug activity at his home in the city. That was the first time the public nuisance law was used against a home in the county.
McVay said Conkle is under court order to sell his home.
According to members of the county prosecutor’s office, the law passed in 1999 distinguishes a drug house from other forms of nuisances. But authorities don’t have to establish that the home or other property is actually a drug house.
The city has seen a growing drug problem for the last 10 years, McVay said.
Officers have asked visitors why they are in East Liverpool. People have told them they are on vacation. The city is easily accessible from West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
People coming to East Liverpool, the chief said, “don’t have a vacation” home in the city.
Drugs come into the city from New Jersey, Columbus and Youngstown, he added.
Off-duty police officers are being hired at a city grocery store to especially watch the meat counter. People, the chief said, aren’t stealing meat because they are hungry.
“They are taking it and selling it for drugs,” McVay said. Petty thefts are also increasing, he added.
The problem is not limited to the unemployed, he added.
There is an outstanding warrant for a doctor accused f possessing drug paraphernalia, and a local attorney has entered a rehabilitation facility after fleeing McVay, who was trying to serve him a criminal warrant involving drugs, the chief said.
County Prosecutor Robert Herron recently issued a statement asking county residents to start locking up their cars and recreational vehicles to cut down on minor crimes that lead to illegal drug purchases.
wilkinson@vindy.com