Readers back police chief’s call to shut down bars two hours earlier

Villages-News.com readers are overwhelmingly backing a police chief’s call to shut down bars two hours earlier in the Spanish Springs area of The Villages.

Lady Lake Police Chief Robert Tempesta is asking the town’s commission to consider an ordinance amendment that would cut off liquor sales at midnight, rather than 2 a.m. as the law currently allows.

The request for the change is prompted by a long list of late night calls to police in recent months. Notably, a man was shot and killed in the wee hours March 7 at Applebee’s, located on Bichara Boulevard.

“All bars should be closed by midnight. If someone wants to drink afterward, they can do it at home,” said Leisa Menzl of the Village of St. Catherine.

She said closing the bars two hours earlier “will keep down wrecks, fights, ugliness and people stealing out of golf carts” in the northern part of The Villages.”

Elissa Rothschild of the Harbor Hills community in Lady Lake contends the late-night hours have attracted troublemakers.

“There is no reason on this earth that people need to be out of their home drinking after midnight. It leads to nothing but trouble,” she said.

Reader Leslie Lewis wholeheartedly agrees.

“I support a new ordinance to stop allowing liquor sales after midnight in Lady Lake. Serving liquor after midnight in Spanish Springs attracts trouble. The shooting death at Applebee’s is proof of that. Like my Texas mother told me when I was a teenager, ‘Be like Cinderella. I want you home by midnight because nothing good happens after midnight,’” Lewis said.

Dr. Tyler Nelson of the Village of Rio Grande said he fully supports the change to the ordinance to clean up the late-night shenanigans at Spanish Springs Town Square.

“The Villages are designed to entertain Villagers and were created as a nice living environment for retirees. When the music stops at 9 p.m. most of the squares empty out,” he said.

So who is left to drink endlessly until 2 a.m.?

“It would appear that it is not, in all likeliness, 80-year-old Villagers drinking until the wee morning and then causing trouble for the police. It’s time to shut down this party for the few troublemakers who can’t control their drinking habits or themselves at 2 a.m. I’m sure most of us do not want to see fighting, drunks and vandals causing trouble in our square,” Tyler added.