Oak Bluffs looks to tighten underage drinking enforcement

Following recent instances of minors entering the Loft nightclub, the Oak Bluffs select board is urging the owner to install cameras for better enforcement against underage drinking. 

On Tuesday, the Oak Bluffs select board addressed recent incidents in which two underage patrons were spotted in the Loft, although it is unclear whether they used fake IDs or were even served alcohol. 

“We try to run as tight a ship as we can with technology, and we got beat,” J.B. Blau, the local restauranteur who owns the Loft, told the board. 

The discussion follows the board’s decision in December to respond more quickly to alcohol-related incidents. At the time, the board was responding to accusations of drinks being served after last call at the Loft and complaints about music. But the town didn’t take action until three months later. 

Blau said he was “super disappointed” about the situation, saying he also knew both teens — one played basketball with his daughter and the other he had coached in an intramural league — and hired Island attorney Robert Moriarty to conduct an investigation with his staff. 

Moriarty said there were two recent instances of minors entering the facility on July 11 and July 13. He said an ID scanner is used at the Loft, but the minors told police that the doorman waved them in, an assertion Moriarty doubts. He highlighted that the doorman, who’s been suspended, only came to the Vineyard a month ago on a J-1 visa and didn’t know the minors. 

Moriarty, who said he once bartended in Edgartown, said there were instances while he worked there when people entered alcohol-serving establishments because they knew the doorman. He recalled one case when two teens with alcohol, who had their brothers’ IDs, were confronted by Edgartown police officers who knew them to be minors. He also stated ID scanners will be beaten by people using another person’s ID or well-made fakes. 

Oak Bluffs town administrator Deborah Potter noted that one of the minors had been seen frequently around the establishment before. “It appears to be a pattern of behavior, at least for this individual,” she said. 

While the board ultimately didn’t pursue penalties for the Loft, they highlighted that a lack of working cameras at the time left gaps in evidence. They urged Blau to invest in additional cameras 

Dion Alley, board chair, said if another incident of a minor being admitted into the club occurred and evidence was lacking like in the recent cases, there’d be license suspensions. 

Still, they plan to speak with Oak Bluffs Police Chief Jonathan Searle and if fake IDs are found, there would be consequences for the underage patrons. 

“It’s not gonna be just a one-way street,” Alley said. 

Blau highlighted that the Loft was a 400-person night club and some people may get around the ID scanner, but admitted “we screwed up.” He said usually it’d be his daughter or her friends who notify him of underage patrons, and he then gets his doorman to make them leave. 

“We don’t want minors at all. They do us no good,” Blau said.

Repairs to jetties, Union Chapel area

In other news, the town is preparing to open a bid process to replace the weathered, rounded stones of North and South jetties. Public bid documents will be made available on July 30 and with the town plans to award a contract by September 12. Carlos Pena, lead engineer from Foth, said the work consists of replacing 230 feet of North Jetty and 320 feet of South Jetty, raising the jetties, and building concrete bases at the end of them. 

The project is expected to begin roughly a week after the Steamship Authority closes its Oak Bluffs operations for the season and be completed on May 15. Alley said the town should contact Seastreak that it may not be able to accommodate them this fall. The ferry line, which ended a year-round service to the Vineyard after financial losses, has been eyeing a possibility of returning the off-season commuter service. 

The jetties’ replacement is expected to cost $6.2 million. Although this estimate was made roughly two years ago, Pena said costs of stones have remained stable compared to other construction materials like steel. 

Meanwhile, the Vineyard Preservation Trust is working to make the area around Union Chapel more accessible and safer — including replacing large black oak trees deemed a danger of falling over — and the town is considering paying for the curb cut portion of the project. It is unclear at this time, if approved, what the town would pay, although the entire project is expected to cost up to around $70,000. Ultimately, the request would need to go before voters at a town meeting.