by Janet Smellie
Northern News Services

NNSL (DEC 13/96) - Yellowknifers will soon be able to dance the night away in a new 195-seat club, despite a groundswell of opposition from the local business community.

Last week, the NWT Liquor Commission granted Corey Wong a liquor licence for his building at the corner of 50th Street and 51st Avenue.

Built on the site of the Right Spot exotic dance club, which burned to the ground three years ago, the new bar will be called The Raven.

According to the Liquor Commission, this makes 72 licensed facilities, 22 of which are cocktail lounges, bringing the number of licensed seats in the city to more than 5,000.

Several businesses, including Gold Range Investments, intervened at last week's public hearing, claiming that granting the licence will over-saturate the market.

"That's one seat for every three Yellowknifers including children," says Jim Brydon, a lawyer representing the Gold Range.

"Time will tell how this will hurt the market," Brydon added.

Lisa Tesar couldn't agree more. As the manager of the Gallery and the Cave Club on nearby Franklin Avenue, she said adding another bar on the same street as the popular Gold Range Hotel and the Right Spot is ridiculous.

"It's not so much the competitive side that worries me, but that stretch is already seeing serious problems with violence and street fights. Adding another bar between the two will see an increase in violence."

Russ Heslip, who owns the building which houses a boutique and a framing shop two doors down from the new bar said, the situation is "out of control on our street with vandalism."

"I've already lost three windows in the last few months from drunken people spilling out of one bar and travelling down the street to another," Heslip said, adding, when the former Right Spot operated in that same spot, break and enters were also a problem.

"We had a guy break into Wolverine Sports and have a shoot-out with the police where he blew out the windows at the Bank of Montreal. Do we need that again?" Heslip asked.

While Corey Wong owns the building, The Raven is being leased by Jim Wong, who's just moved to Yellowknife from Vancouver.

Wong said he and his wife decided to invest in the new dance club after he heard of the new diamond mine opening North of the city.

"It's an opportunity for Yellowknifers to have something new. I'm not trying to make another Gold Range. I don't even want his business. I'm hiring a local manager and all local staff," Wong said, Under no circumstances, he said, does he plan to turn his club into a strip club.

A quick tour of the yet-to-be opened bar shows three main bars, including a shooter bar made of Douglas Fir as well as a 23-square-metre dance floor made of oak.

Pool tables, Wong said, will also be brought in.

Despite the opposition, Merlyn Williams, chair of the NWT Liquor Commission's five-member board, believes adding a new bar to Yellowknife is a progressive move.

Williams said the board was not convinced rejecting the application "would clean up the problems on 50th Street."

Williams said the board is recommending enforcement be beefed up along the strip so vandalism can be reduced.

"The board has no jurisdiction on what happens outside of licensed premises," Williams said.

"We heard at the hearing all about the beer bottles littering 50th Street but we only have jurisdiction over the conditions inside the licence premises."

"The Right Spot was there before. It's now reappeared. I don't think it will affect the market as much as people think," Williams said.

But bar owners disagree. George Lund, who manages the Polar Bowl Pub and bowling alley two blocks away, said sales are down $10,000 this year compared to last year.

Checkers, the popular dance club, reports sales are down at least 40 per cent from last year.

"The big boom they say BHP is suppose to bring is certainly not happening. The majority of workers are returning south already," said Otto Chankasingh, Checker's owner.

"This new bar will kill us."