The Revere License Commission tackled a full agenda of business at its regular monthly meeting last Wednesday afternoon, November 16, in the City Council Chamber.
The principal matter taken up by Commission Chairman Robert Selevitch and fellow member Daniel Occena was the noise problem emanating from the Oceanside Events Center (formerly known to longtime residents as the Wonderland Ballroom) at 1290 North Shore Road.
The commission had sent a letter last month to Charles Delpidio, Oceanside’s manager, to come before the commission to address the numerous complaints received by city officials regarding the problem of patrons hanging out both in the parking lot behind the building and the nearby MBTA garage until well after closing, where they are loud and play music in their cars until 3:00 a.m.
The large apartment complex at 500 Ocean Ave. directly backs up onto the parking lot and the Springhill Suites hotel at 400 Ocean Ave. is close by.
Selevitch cut right to the chase to start the hearing.
“I assume you have some plan you want to execute?” said Selevitch to Mr. Delpidio, who is a resident of Easton. “There is the new reality that there are a lot of neighbors who abut your parking lot. We’ve got a stack of complaints from residents and emails to City Hall to their councilors.”
“I realize that a lot of your customers want to stay after you close and play music in the parking lot, but I think a more proactive approach has to be taken,” added Occena. “I visited the parking lot recently at 1:45 a.m. and it was bad.
“The music was extremely loud and the amount of cars — it was really bad,” Occena reiterated for emphasis. “You need additional security or something else.”
“Oceanside has come a long way and has been a respectable establishment in Revere,” said Delpidio. “We have asked the Revere and MBTA police to assist us with clearing the parking lot without our patrons making noise.”
Delpidio said he regularly hires two Revere officers for details each night, but informed the commission that his efforts to hire MBTA detail officers to clear patrons from the T garage have been unsuccessful because of a lack of manpower with the T police.
He added that Revere police have been more responsive recently and there have been no noise complaints in the past two weeks.
“I’ll be more than happy to listen to whatever anyone wants to suggest,” said Delpidio, who noted his willingness to hire additional detail officers or to take whatever other measures might be necessary. “We want to work together in harmony to make this work for everybody.”
Ward 2 City Councilor Ira Novoselsky was on hand and addressed the commission.
“I’ve received phone calls at 3:00 in the morning about the noise,” said the long-time ward councilor, who acknowledged that the situation has improved in recent weeks. “Hopefully, it’s being controlled and we can continue moving forward with a lack of noise.”
Although the commissioners did not take any formal action at this time, they made it clear to Delpidio that they will continue to monitor the situation in the weeks ahead.
Another controversial subject taken up by the commission involved the status hearing for the Class 2 Motor Vehicle Dealer license of Brothers Auto Body, 16 Naples Road.
The commission provisionally approved a license for the owner of the establishment, Kenneth G. LaFauci, 90 days ago, on the condition that LaFauci would address the fines and late fees associated with his business that had been assessed by the city which, with interest, total more than $34,000. The commission gave LaFauci six months to resolve the matter, but scheduled an interim status date to review his progress.
Atty. Edward Lonergan appeared with LaFauci and essentially informed the commission that the situation still is unresolved. Lonergan had appealed the fines in the Chelsea District Court, but after an unfavorable ruling, he is appealing the matter further to the Superior Court.
Occena, who is an attorney, acknowledged the slow process of the court system, but honed-in on unpaid real estate taxes. Lonergan initially told the commission that all of the real estate taxes — which are entirely separate from the issue of the fines and late fees — had been paid, but Occena noted that the city’s tax records indicate that some taxes are still owed from FY 2021 and 2022.
Lonergan said his client will take care of any outstanding real estate taxes forthwith.
“This is just a status hearing and we will review this fully in February,” said Occena.
