Staff Writer

More than 100 people, most wearing motorcycle gear and Bentley’s Saloon T-shirts, packed an auditorium last week for a public hearing on increasing the capacity of the Arundel business. 

The planning board hearing April 15 at Mildred L. Day School came more than a year after owner Bentley Warren first asked the board to increase capacity of the saloon from 180 to 950.

Albert Frick, of Albert Frick Associates, an environmental consulting firm in Gorham working with Bentley’s, gave a brief overview of the proposal.

 “Bentley’s has had mass gatherings with as much as 1,200 to 1,500 people,” Frick said.

Warren said that until his bar was cited three times last summer, he had no idea it was violating occupancy requirements.

The fire marshal told the owner the inside of his establishment had occupancy of 212, but the planning board deemed the occupancy acceptable at 180, according to Frick.

Warren now hopes the board will allow the bar’s capacity to 423, 212 inside and 211 outside. The town ordinance requires fewer than half total capacity be comprised of patrons outside on decks and patios.

Bikers, Bentley’s bartenders, neighbors and patrons at the hearing spoke for and against expanded capacity for more than two and one-half hours.  Noise and safety concerns with an additional number of motorcycles riding up down the Route 1 corridor were among the biggest fears from those who opposed the change.

“I understand the basic issue is noise, we’re going to get that anyway. (Warren) has done back flips for anything the town asked,” said Laurie Baldwin, an Arundel resident. “Bentley’s isn’t just a bar, it’s a community.”

When Claire Unsinn, a critic of motorcycle noise spoke, many in the crowd laughed at her comments, howled and even jeered at the speaker.

“We’re here to be respectful,” said board Chairman John derKinderen after Unsinn finished.

“I don’t have a problem with motorcycles, I have a real problem with loud motorcycles,” Unsinn said. “Our lives have been turned upside down, it’s a nightmare.”

“We try to keep them quiet, the noise isn’t our problem really,” Warren said. He said he too was annoyed by the sound of loud motorcycles he heard while eating breakfast at his girlfriend’s house.

“They turned down to go to the ’Port, which is good and bad for us, but everybody thinks they’re coming to my place,” Warren said.

Warren ended the meeting by thanking everyone for attending, even those who opposed the saloon, but voiced frustration at the pace of approving expanded capacity.

“It’s not you,” he said to the board. “You’re just reading the law. Let’s work the law into us (what the saloon wants). Bentley’s is probably not going to be around if we can’t get these people to work with us,” Warren said.

Warren said he had been forced to turn away patrons and leave lines of people outside his doors to wait, even though it didn’t look busy inside. He said this would affect his clientele because people would not be as likely to ride to Bentley’s if they thought they could not get into the saloon.

Arundel Town Planner Tad Redway said he and the planning board had expected Warren would ask for a change to the ordinance when he first approached the town.

Bentley’s operates under a town ordinance for restaurants, not exactly a perfect fit for the saloon, but the closest the town had on its books, Redway said.

Redway and derKinderen said they could not estimate how much time it would take to change the ordinance now, but expected a change would not be ready in time for summer, Bentley’s busy season.

Last Monday, Warren asked selectmen for a mass gathering permit for an April 25 “Spring Ride for the Troops,” a charity ride that begins in York and ends at the saloon.

The permit was granted and allows more than 1,200 patrons for the charity event. Changes have been made to the ride including taking a different route to reduce noise around the Route 1 area.

Staff Writer Suzanne Hodgson can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 233.