No one would mistake it for the Oak Bar at the Plaza Hotel and for the handful of regulars at the Spring Point Tavern on South Portland’s Benjamin W. Pickett Street during a recent six o’clock hour, that’s likely the appeal. Inside, the dress code is casual– T-shirts and sandals– and the jukebox is loud– blaring Metalica, the White Stripes and Lynard Skynard. The level of volume was jarring not only because it proved impossible to conduct a conversation without resorting to shouting, but because there was no sonic indication that there was anything going on inside mere steps outside the front of the establishment (where the bar faces not homes but a parking lot affording a clear view of Fort Gorges). That is not to say the property was completely silent. From the back of the bar, where it abuts yet another large college parking lot, there was plenty of boisterous conversation and loud laughter coming from the open air patio/ smoker’s lounge, but no music.
    The fact that all those decibels fail to escape the tavern’s interior is no accident. Inside the smell is not of stale beer but fresh paint being applied to the new drywall where the management had punched holes to ensure there was insulation. The manager on duty motioned to new double-pane windows and thick doors installed sometime after last October when the South Portland City Council threatened to take away the establishments entertainment license after complaints  the jukebox, live music and karaoke events had become a neighborhood earsore and a potential moral danger to the future tenants of SMCC’s new dorm.
    On Monday night the city council revisited the license issue to determine if the tavern’s efforts and expense to address neighborhood concerns had been enough. Mayor Claude Morgan, whose district represents the neighborhood bar, had indicated before the meeting that it had not and referenced what he described as numerous noise and public safety issues generated by the tavern and it’s patrons since October.
    But at the meeting, police records showed the noise complaints occurred on a single night when a new bartender failed to close the window after a large party attending a function at SMCC decided to continue their festivities at the bar.
    It is clear that there are neighbors who would like to see the tavern and its patrons go. If not an ideal neighbor, the owners have demonstrated they are responsible and responsive neighbors. It is also clear there are neighbors who quite enjoy the tavern and the service it offers as a place to meet friends, listen to live music and enjoy some of the privileges of adulthood without having to get in their cars and drive across a bridge.
    In the end the council unanimously approved the license that will allow patrons to frequent an establishment that offers more than drinking in silence. The council was wise to limit the lingering noise pollution by requiring the tavern to prohibit patrons from bringing their drinks with them when they do go out for a smoke.
    Both the council and the tavern owners should be commended for seeking compromise rather than a showdown.
–Ward Peck