York Hotel bar gets reprieve

The nightclub at the York Hotel will remain open for at least a couple more weeks, in spite of a recommendation from Edmonton's public safety compliance team that it be shut down immediately.

Lawyers for the hotel took the licence suspension to the Court of Queen's Bench Friday morning, where a judge pushed back the date of a hearing before the city's community standards & licence appeal committee.

The judge ruled the owners weren't given enough time to prepare for the Friday hearing.

The decision worries Nicole Chapdelaine, the co-ordinator for the compliance team.

"We're not seeing changes, and we're still seeing the same criminal behaviours and safety is a concern," she said, adding that any delays can only put more people at risk.

"We feel as a team that we need to deal with that and bring that to the forefront so that it's being looked at seriously, because we don't want people to be fearful to go out into the city."

Edmonton's top police officer has also expressed concern about a bar that saw emergency personnel called 1,214 times over a period of two years.

"Any location in the city where our officers have repeat calls for service — calls are a drain of resources on our officers and on our ability to tackle other problems," said Chief Mike Boyd.

The new hearing is scheduled for Feb. 8.