Library Bar closed on City Island

The Library Bar on City Island has been temporarily shut down by the Police Department.

After numerous complaints about the bar reached the City Island Civic Association, the 45th Precinct conducted an operation in June where decoys were sent into the bar, located at 316 City Island Avenue, and allegedly served without having their identifications checked.

Two violations were issued, and on Thursday, July 28 a temporary nuisance abatement order for violations of the State Liquor Authority regulations closed the bar.

“The Library Bar was closed as a result of Nuisance Abatement laws,” a police department spokesman said. “The bar was closed for selling alcohol to minors. It was a precinct level operation.”

Senator Jeff Klein called on the SLA to take action after local residents reached out to his district office, after a 17-year-old City Island resident was run over by a patron of the bar, Peter Wolfman. He had been drinking in the bar prior to the accident on November 13, 2010.

“I, like my constituents on City Island, continue to be concerned with recent activity at The Library Bar, Klein said. “During the past few years, I have sponsored training sessions to help restaurants and bars root out fake IDs and prevent the establishments from unwittingly facilitating underage drinking. The case involving The Library Bar and its underage sales is particularly concerning.”

“A lot of people said that there was underage drinking going on at the The Library Bar,” Barbara Dolensek, CICA vice president, said. “They were operating under the liquor license from the previous establishment at that same location when they first opened.”

According to sources, approximately a month before City Island resident Emily Sexton was hit by Wolfman after exiting the bar, the SLA renewed its liquor license for The Library Bar after finding no adverse history.

The accident drew attention after Wolfman said in a deposition to the court that he had been drinking at Library prior jumping the curb in his pickup truck.