Orono lets Margarita’s retain liquor license

ORONO – Town councilors Monday night voted unanimously to renew a downtown restaurant’s liquor license even though its owners were fined by a state agency in the 1999 death of a New Hampshire man.

No comments were made during a public hearing held before the meeting.

Margarita’s Restaurant and Watering Hole agreed to pay a $1,250 fine in July in a con- sent degree drawn up by the Bureau of Liquor Enforcement and the restaurant.

The bureau filed a rule violation last November after the body of 23-year-old Benjamin Gelston was found next to his submerged pickup truck in Orono’s 16-foot-deep Water Pollution Control Facility in October 1999.

Gelston, whose blood alcohol content was 0.19 percent – more than twice the legal limit – at the time of his death, had been at Margarita’s the night of the accident, according to police.

The restaurant agreed to the consent degree after an investigation found sufficient evidence that Gelston had been allowed to remain at the popular nightspot for a significant amount of time while intoxicated.

Town Manager Gerry Kempen said after Monday’s meeting that “the incident was a one-time problem and not part of any ongoing problems at that location. Even though it was a tragic accident, it was not an indication of ongoing problems,” he said. “They paid their fine and the state got restitution.”

No one representing the Mill Street restaurant spoke at the meeting.

In other business, the council agreed to apply to the Department of Economic and Community Development for a Mature and Dominant Employer Retention Program to benefit Byer Manufacturing Co.

The money would allow the company to fund an engineering study to assess moving the firm to a new location in town.

Owner Jay Shields has said he would consider selling or renting his current building at 74 Mill St. to the town for a municipal library if he can find a more suitable spot that better meets the company’s current needs.