Hangar 9

 Hangar 9 is scheduled to reopen this Thursday.  For those that do not get downtown that much, the music venue/bar has been closed for remodeling since May so a lot of people are looking forward to what the interior looks like.

Hangar 9

 Hangar 9 reopened last night. According to a friend that was there, the place was packed earlier in the evening, then cleared out some after 10 , then saw an influx of people again to pack the place about midnight.

Funko and hangar 9

 One of the new owners of Hangar 9 is Andrew Perlmutter, who was the CEO of Funko until stepping down in February of 2024. Funko, for those who don't know, makes POP figures, those little plastic models of characters from popular culture with oversized heads as big as their bodies.

Hanger 9

 From what I hear, Hanger 9 has sold. No idea as to who or when it will reopen or if it will reopen under the same name. Too bad a deal could not have been closed last fall, so that the business did not shut down and disrupt the lives of the employees.

Hangar 9 Party

 Hangar 9, which will close after some 40 years operating on Dec. 31, will hold a farewell/retirement party tonight from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Seems rather early for an event at a bar, but then the people who remember the Hangar 9's heydays may not stay up that late anymore.

Hangar 9

 Barring someone stepping in and purchasing the venue, longtime Strip staple Hangar 9 will close its doors on January 1 2025. The venue has been up for sale since early this year.  Several potential buyers expressed interest in the business since it was put on the market but no takers.

Hangar 9

According to the notice on their marquee, Hangar 9 will reopen to the public next Thursday July 9th. That leaves Trax and what used to be known as Stix the only bars that will not have reopened after the shutdown.

Halloween Concert

Rather impressed with how quickly the Carbondale Halloween committee responded to the inclement weather last Saturday, moving the day's concerts to Hangar 9. Not particular good for the food trucks and other vendors who expected to sell stuff to concert attendees but certainly a boon in sales for the Hangar and hopefully the city allowed the food trucks to relocate to the street in front of the Hangar with minimal paperwork.

Wanna Buy Into Downtown

Fat Patties, Pagliai's and Hangar 9 are all up for sale. Sally Carter, owner of Hangar 9, wants to spend more time caring for her husband and Lance Jack, owner of Fat Patties, wants to move on to the next stage in his life. No idea why Pagliai's wants to sell.

City Council Meeting

Started off watching the meeting late on TV, but got tired of talking back to the screen during the discussion on rescinding the ordinance closing so walked over to the council meeting shortly after 9 p.m.

It took me aback how much space the council had allotted for the meeting as seating was double what the council sets up for a typical meeting.  Maybe there were more people there during the previous two hours.  If so, they had all left by 9 p.m. 

The second thing that struck me was how empty the place was, given how much space had been allocated for seating. Since the camera focuses on the speaking individual, you don't see the only half a dozen or so people sitting throughout the rest of the room.   It looked as if the council expected a much higher attendance for the meeting, likely because of the discussion of Halloween on the agenda, than actually turned out.

 I saw Sally Carter of Hangar 9, who was the only bar owner to speak about the ordinance, and the executive directors of the Carbondale Convention and Tourism Bureau, Carbondale Main Street and the Chamber of Commerce, all of whom spoke in favor of changing the ordinance to allow the three remaining affected bars to remain open Halloween weekend as did Sandy Litecky, though I think she spoke as herself and not as an official representative of the Arbor District.  The only person to speak in opposition was an SIUC student, who pointed out that Polar Bear, cited by several speakers as an example of an alcohol related event that happens without significant disruption, takes several months of planning ahead of time.

Lance Jack sat in the audience as well.  Due to his ownership of Fat Patties, he could not participate in council discussion on the topic, not will he vote on it.  Since spectators are warned to turn off their cell phones and there is a sign at the entrance warning the same, I found it amusing when Jack's started ringing in the center of the meeting, causing him to exit hurriedly.

This was only a discussion regarding ending the ordinance.  I expect to see a proposal to repeal it on the agenda for the next meeting, possibly with a 1 year sunset clause, so if the students and outsiders get out of hand this October, the closure would resume in 2014.  From listening to council member's discussion, I think Fritzler and Fronabarger would vote to keep the ordinance as it stands, while the other four (Jack, of course, unable to vote on the issue), would vote for repeal.

Halloween Redeaux?

The annual Halloween bar closure may come to an end now that Hanger 9 owner Sally Carter has decided to approach the Liquor Advisory Board regarding ending it.  For years now, bars on the Strip have had to close the weekend before Halloween in an attempt to end the raucous party that accompanied the holiday.  Now the closure only affects 4 bars: Hangar 9, Sidetracks, Gatsby's and Stix.  Even Old Town Liquors, which did close for several years the nights of the ban, now remains open and SIUC, which used to schedule fall break for Halloween weekend, in order to move students out of town during the period, has moved it to a weekend earlier in the month.

Generally, no discussion takes place regarding removing the ban until September, when people start thinking about it again and considering the possibility of removing it.  Unfortunately, due to the time it takes to move a proposal through the LAB first, then City Council.  Look at how long it took to move the ordinance allowing chickens within the city limits to move through council.  Serious discussion started in 2009 but the ordinance didn't get approved until 2012.  Ergo, starting discussion regarding changing the ordinance now, rather than waiting until September, bodes well for those wanting to remove or alter it.

Hangar Nine Video

In case you haven't seen it yet, the Carbondale Times has posted the security cam video of the yahoo trying to steal a TV from the Hangar's patio.  Made CNN yesterday.

Hangar 9

Latest word on the reopening of Hangar 9 is they play a soft opening for Thanksgiving weekend and a grand re-opening shortly afterwards.

Hangar 9

Latest word on the Hangar 9 rebuild is the current set of plans got approved last month, after two previous sets were re-designed. This version located the beer garden at the front of the building, the idea being the music stays along the street and out of the neighborhood behind the Hangar, reducing the number of complaints from residents there. Some building has started, hopefully completed sometime this spring.