Lang
5/19/23
The owners of an Iowa City bar that has been the source of multiple police calls have been fined after they allegedly broke an agreement with the city.
Last December the owners of H Bar on South Van Buren Street agreed under a temporary injunction to close by 2am and allow Iowa City police officers to enter the bar to perform community care functions anytime the establishment is open to the public.
The injunction stems from the fatal shooting of 36-year-old Waymond Thomas outside H Bar on October 23rd of last year. That incident was preceded by a shooting on August 7th that left a young woman with multiple gunshot wounds, a fight on June 19th where a firearm was recovered from an individual barred from carrying guns, and a large fight on April 10th.
From January 1st through October 26th of last year, there had been 173 calls for service in and around H Bar, an approximately 4,400 percent increase over the previous six years for the same location when it was a hookah bar.
6th Judicial District Judge Ian Thornhill filed an order earlier this week indicating the bar had stayed open past 2am on six different occasions since the injunction was put into place. Violations on February 26th and March 18th were dismissed in return for the owners of H bar…who operate under the name “Groundwork”…agreeing to pay $2,000 in fines for four violations on January 1st, March 4th and 5th, and April 9th. All of the violations were discovered after various noise complaints, the latest being at 5:28am on March 5th.
Groundwork and the city are still negotiating a permanent agreement.