Cooling Their Heels

Mayra Gutierrez has been planning an elaborate party for her quinceanera, a traditional Latino coming-out celebration marking a girl’s 15th birthday. She has sent out announcements to family members and friends inviting them to the April 29 event at the Ice House banquet and concert hall.

But Mayra may have to scramble to find another place if the City Council next month decides to shut down the Ice House.

She’s not alone. The pending decision has scores of other families worried that they will be forced to find another place to celebrate their birthdays and weddings.

“I spent a long time looking for a place to have my quinceanera. It took months to finally find the Ice House,” Mayra said. “If I have to cancel, I’ll be so mad, I’m just going to give up and not have a quinceanera at all. . . . You can’t find another hall that easily, and it’s too late to try to find another place now. It’s not fair.”

The Ice House, a controversial concert and banquet facility that last week had its entertainment permit revoked by the Planning Commission, is appealing the ruling. Council members are set to hear the appeal at a meeting either on April 4 or April 18, city officials said.

Meanwhile, people planning coming-out parties, weddings and other celebrations are nervously awaiting the council’s decision. Several officials are leaning toward upholding the license revocation, but allowing weddings and other family-oriented celebrations to continue.

Franchesca Arenas, whose wedding is April 22, said she couldn’t wait. She canceled her reservation at the Ice House and ordered new invitations to announce that her reception has been moved to another hall.

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“It wasn’t easy,” said Arenas, 28. “I had to find another place because I couldn’t get a 100% guarantee that my wedding could be at the Ice House. . . . I hope everything turns out fine for everyone else, but I couldn’t just wait to find out only days or weeks before my wedding that I couldn’t have (the reception) there.”

The problem arose when violence marred two recent punk rock concerts at the Ice House.

Police began pushing to have the building’s entertainment permit revoked since February after a second person was stabbed in two months.

Police Chief Patrick E. McKinley said the punk rock concerts had become dangerous and posed a threat to the city. He said the concerts’ promoters did not provide enough security and proposed that they hire 12 police officers for future live concerts at a cost of $50 per hour per officer.

The concert promoters said the price was too high and proposed a compromise in which they would hire six police officers and 10 private security guards. Area business owners pleaded on the Ice House’s behalf, saying that the concert-goers buy their goods when they come to town.

But planning commissioners were not convinced, and neither was the Ice House’s leaseholder and operator, Francisco Roman.

Roman has told the concert promoter, who had no formal sub-lease agreement with the Ice House, that he will ban all punk rock concerts there.

“With that music here, we’re just going to have more problems,” Roman said. “The police wanted to take away our entertainment permit because of the trouble the skinheads cause at these concerts, so I’m not going to allow (punk rock) concerts any more. I would rather have weddings and quinceaneras because the people live around here and they can’t afford other places for their parties. It’s more important to save the family-oriented events.”

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Whether the City Council will allow that remains to be decided.

Mayor Julie Sa said the council has not made up its mind on the matter but added that forcing people to cancel their weddings and birthdays perhaps would be too cruel a ruling.

City officials said the council could opt to allow the wedding and birthday receptions to continue and only place a ban on concerts that do not provide adequate security as determined by police.

Chief McKinley said he would not object to such an agreement.

“The weddings and the other parties at the Ice House are not a problem, and we support that kind of activity,” he said. “It’s very wholesome and it has not created a problem for us.”