by Peter Children of Mason City –
Who said you can’t have fun in a small town?
In the center ring of this three ring circus is George Barlas, owner and operator of Chop/Eleven restaurant & lounge. At issue with police are the man hours consumed by addressing trouble calls “outside” of the above mentioned establishment. The key word here is “outside”.
The police have confirmed that 284 such calls were attributed to Wal-Mart west of the city in a 12 month period. While there is a myriad of reasons the police were called to the retail giant, it is the cost related to man hours that seems to concern both Brent Trout and the good Captain and others at the MCPD. It is entirely OK that both these gentlemen can deal with 15 times more such calls to the west side to preform duties commiserate with services paid for with our tax dollars, but have difficulties tolerating 19 calls that fall under the exact same purview. And a much longer drive from headquarters, I’d add.
In addition there is a bar/restaurant not far from there that has 63 calls to their establishment during an 18 month period. That adds up to over double the amount of calls to Eleven Lounge.
Now look up “Double Standard.”
Peter Children