Brunswick Zone Weekend Hours Extended —With Conditions

Oak Lawn Village Board members voted 4-2 to allow to resume closing at midnight on weekends during Tuesday’s village board meeting.

Brunswick has been operating under a village-mandated safety plan following a gang shooting in the bowling center’s parking lot on July 31, 2010. In addition to closing at 10 p.m., Brunswick also agreed to hire off-duty Oak Lawn police officers to provide security and began charging a $5 cover after 9 p.m.

Last fall, the village board allowed Brunswick to resume

Comparing Brunswick’s latest safety proposal to a similar safety proposal in 2006 following another gang incident, Trustee Tom Phelan (Dist. 6) said he had significant issues with Brunswick being allowed to close at midnight on weekends.

“This is a nightclub issue,” Phelan said. “It’s about people driving from 20 miles away past three bowling alleys to get here.”

Phelan took issue with remarks he said were made by Brunswick President Jim Fox to the village manager and other village officials.

“(The president) lamented the extraordinary decline in revenue and blamed it on both the onerous changes that were voluntarily put in place and also Trustee Phelan’s inflammatory oral public statements,” Phelan quoted from the email.

“Instead of it being about the gangbanger shooting on 103rd Street, it was about my telling people in the neighborhood that we are taking this seriously,” Phelan added.

Oak Lawn Police Chief Bill Villanova said he was comfortable with Brunswick’s request to resume its weekend midnight operations but there were no guarantees that another violent incident couldn't happen again.

“Our officers that are working there are very aware of all the concerns that we raised,” Villanova said. “Since our officers started working there the numbers show an improvement. They told me they believe we’re moving in the right direction.”

Paul Martinez, director of global operations for Brunswick, said the bowling center has lost an estimated $1 million in revenue. Since the shooting, Brunswick has lost 120 league bowlers who've moved their leagues elsewhere because they can no longer enjoy a few cocktails after league play. Martinez placed revenue losses at $500 per league bowler.

“Since we lost a customer base, we’ve been flooding the market with free games,” Martinez said.

“You can torture numbers to make them say anything you want,” Phelan said.

The village board agreed to extend Brunswick’s weekend hours with conditions, including continued reviews of the bowling center’s public safety plan every 60 days. Brunswick also must close the video and billiards area at 10 p.m. on weekends.

Phelan and Trustee Alex Olejniczak (Dist. 2) voted against the proposal.

After the vote, Martinez blamed the diminished attendance on the shortened hours. He didn’t want to speculate if customers’ perception of the Oak Lawn Brunswick was that of a gang hangout since last summer’s shooting.

“We’ve implemented every best practice to deter it,” Martinez said. “We’re trying desperately to make (the village) happy. The reality is you can never say you’ll be 100 percent. Dunkin Donuts isn’t 100 percent. It’s one of those double-edged swords.”