The third-best college bar in the nation, as ranked by Playboy magazine, averted its potential closure by agreeing to a plea bargain deal with the city attorney's office according to city officials.
After weeks of back-and-forth bartering, The Kollege Klub, 529 N. Lake St., hammered out a stipulated settlement that will include a monetary fine and potentially lengthy suspension of business for exceeding the maximum of 200 points of violations last February after the Madison Police Department discovered a large amount of underage individuals in the bar, sources said.
In discussions with the city attorney's office Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he was told that the city wants the establishment shut down for three weeks, with the majority of the term served while UW-Madison is in session.
The exact wording and terms of the agreement will be revealed during today's Alcohol License Review Committee meeting where it must first be approved before it makes its way to the City Council for final consideration.
\It's kind of like with your drivers license,"" said Dick Lyschek, ALRC member and Bull Feathers, 303 N. Henry St., owner. ""When you acquire so many points, you make an appearance before the ALRC, they make a formal expression of concern and then it lowers your points back down by a certain amount.""
The plea bargain agreement is par for the course for these types of infractions, according to Lyschek. The stipulated settlement avoids a lengthy hearing process in which the ALRC takes on the appearance of a judicial court where the committee is both jury and judge. The process can take several days, though Verveer said he could not remember the last time a student area bar went through the process.
The last downtown bar to receive a stipulated agreement was Mondays, 523 State St., in the fall of 2000 when they were forced to pay thousands of dollars of fines and were shut down for approximately a week, ALRC member Tom Garver said.
The city took a longer look at the Kollege Klub due to its previous regulation infractions and point violations, Verveer said.
""Because the KK has had their licenses suspended over the past couple of years it is at this point that they will really serve a much lengthier suspension of possibly several weeks,"" he said.
Despite this, Lyschek said he does not see the city's action as a forewarning to area bars.
""I don't believe that there are any particular warnings being sent here,"" he said.
