Subscribe
Community
Fee increase could mean trouble
Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by ERICA MITRANO
Wayne McKnett, owner of The Tavern in St. Leonard, stands in front of an antique sideboard and brass cash register, survivals of the bar’s earlier days.
|
E-Mail This Article
McKnett, 74, is already having trouble keeping the local watering hole open, and a proposed $1,250 increase in annual licensing costs for establishments staying open past midnight could be the final straw, he said.
‘‘I’m having a hard time with it right now with the smoking law, the economy the way it is and now they want to do this,” McKnett said, and blamed controversy surrounding bars on Solomons Island for his plight. He said he thinks there are people in the area who want the bars to close at 12 a.m. to cut out the noise in the summer, but previous attempts have been unsuccessful. He said he feels that small businesses like his end up paying for larger bars that attract large crowds and the police that have to monitor those establishments.
‘‘I’m a little bar in St. Leonard and I don’t have anybody around me to complain. I’m very unhappy,” he said.
The Tavern has a long history in the town, first opening as ‘‘The Boys” in 1936, according to a history compiled by Bob Waller, a friend of McKnett’s. In isolated St. Leonard it was a gathering place for the town’s planter elite, and when it burned to the ground in 1961, ‘‘more local legend and lore was burned ... than any other evening since the British breezed through here in [1814].”
McKnett witnessed more of this history than most, having patronized the bar for 40 years before buying it eight years ago, when ill health forced him to sell his charter-boat business. As owner, McKnett put an end to the brawling that had given the bar a reputation as a rough-and-tumble place.
‘‘I’ve made some changes. I don’t put up with any nonsense, any fights,” he said. ‘‘People know that if there are any altercations they’re out, and they’re out for good.”
He’s also done other things to raise the tone.
‘‘The place doesn’t smell like beer has been spilled everywhere. Let’s just say there’s a better clientele than when I first took it over. I don’t mean to be snobbish” but the place is cleaner and calmer, he said.
While the Tavern sees occasional visitors from seasonal workers at Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant and Dominion Cove Point in Lusby, the bar mainly relies on a coterie of regulars who play pool and join in quiz and karaoke nights.
The progression of the years has been measured in beers for John Swoap, 59, who has worked at the Tavern for 17 years; ‘‘We were one of the first bars in Calvert County to have good beers,” including Guinness and Maryland-brewed beers, he said. Now, ‘‘I always have at least one Maryland beer, and sometimes more than one.”
Being at a center of community life ‘‘is kind of neat,” Swoap said. ‘‘You see kids who came in when they were 6 or 7 to shoot pool with their dads, and now they’re ... customers. It’s kind of weird.”
Hattie Kaplan, 73, has worked there for 26 years and said she also enjoys working at a place central to the community.
‘‘I enjoy our customers, especially our older customers,” she said. ‘‘I work every day but on Monday. It keeps me in contact with everyone. ... I just enjoy it because it’s just like home, just like a part of my life.”
