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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - The Gold Range Saloon is appealing a liquor board decision to shut it down for a week next month after the board found the bar violated the liquor act six times last year.

The sign outside the Gold Range Saloon says "open" now, but the bar has been ordered to close Feb. 23 to March 2 after the NWT Liquor Licensing Board suspended its license earlier this week. The board found the Gold Range contravened the liquor act six times. Management was also fined $8,500. Gold Range is appealing the decision. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo

The establishment was also fined $8,500.

The punishments stem from two separate incidents. Staff were twice found to have served liquor to intoxicated persons and to have left washrooms in dirty conditions.

In one instance, the Gold Range was fined $1,000 because a waitress took a shot of alcohol when she thought she was off work. She was not being paid at the time, but the board considered her to still be a licensee representative as she was helping out at the bar on her own time.

At hearings earlier this week, an RCMP patrolman told the board he saw a man lying down, passed out behind a table, with two others passed out at a table on Monday, Sept. 22, 2008, while performing a spot check from 11:05 to 11:20 p.m. that evening.

Sam Park, 29, who manages the day-to-day operations of the bar, said he and his cousin - visiting from Korea - were working the bar that night.

Park left the bar to his cousin while he took a short dinner and washroom break - lasting 30 minutes, he said. The break coincided with the spot check.

The RCMP officer said there were about 40 patrons in the bar.

"Clearly, leaving the operation and management of the bar to an inexperienced visiting cousin from Korea, even for a short period of time, was a huge error in judgement," said Don Kindt, chair of the NWT Liquor Licensing Board, in his written ruling.

Less than two months later, on Nov. 8, Jim Forsey, chief liquor enforcement officer, told the board he observed a waitress drinking a shooter while she was working.

The waitress told the board she purchased four shooters for herself and three friends at 1:55 a.m. - five minutes before the bar was to close - and then waited until after 2 a.m. before she and her friends drank them. She was under the impression she was off work.

Park said staff are only paid until 2 a.m. but they usually help clean up and get patrons out the doors until 2:30 a.m. Park said staff are offered a courtesy drink.

Kindt said although the waitress was not being paid, "the definition of "worker" in the liquor regulations goes beyond employees who get paid. Staff volunteer their time but when doing so are to be considered representatives of the licensee."

Yung Yang Park purchased the bar Feb. 26. 2007 and his son, Sam, has been a manager ever since.

"This is their first offence," said Kindt, adding this factored into the board's decision.

The Gold Range's liquor license is suspended from Feb. 23 to March 2. Sam Park said he will appeal the ruling.

He would not comment on how much money the business would lose during the closure or what he felt about the decision, only saying:

"What would you think if your business was closed for that length of time?"