The following link contains a Technical Paper regarding downstream effects of the levee overtopping at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania during Tropical Storm Agnes.
The June 17, 1972, slaying of 18-year-old Keith Barker, which remains unsolved, left a dubious mark on a place that was one of the area’s premier and family friendly nightclubs.
Three decades later, the bar’s reputation has changed dramatically and it is haunted by high-profile crimes — including a 1993 stabbing that nearly killed owner Leo Yerashunas.
After two murders in the past two months, authorities have labeled the 422 Main St. night spot a nuisance and say they’re strongly considering asking a judge to have the place shut down for good.
Yerashunas, 66, says he was helpless to prevent the spate of crimes.
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Transients now live in and visit Edwardsville, and some show up at his bar, he says.
There’s simply no way to identify who they are or predict who will commit crimes, he says.
Frustrated over the violence, Yerashunas has decided to sell the club he bought in 1969 as a 28-year-old.
Whether he sells the bar or it is shut down, the era of The Glass Bar under Yerashunas’ stewardship looks to be coming to an end.
‘The place to go’
With its upstairs and downstairs bars, The Glass Bar accommodates between 300 and 400 people. There’s room downstairs for a live band and a dance floor. It was long considered a popular place for singles and couples to meet.
Edwardsville Mayor Bernard “Ace” Dubaskas remembers it often filled to capacity in the 1960s and 1970s when he went there with his wife.
“It was the place to go,” recalled Dubaskas. “At one time, it was a classy place in town.”
You’d need to dress nicely, have to behave and know drinks would cost much more than any of the numerous other bars in town, the mayor recalled.
“It was a place you went to maybe once a month,” said Dubaskas, who now advocates for the bar’s closure.
Dubaskas recalls dancing to bands who covered Elvis. Music by Bobby Vinton and The Chevelles was frequently requested.
After the recent shooting, numerous residents called talk radio shows to reminisce about the bar’s history. Many said the bar saw its glory days under the ownership of Jimmy Dennis, who attracted notable musicians to play there in the 1940s and 1950s.
Yerashunas bought “Jimmy’s Glass Bar” in 1969, and renamed it Club Lee. In his recent letter to the editor, Yerashunas said he has “adjusted with the times, as well as the people” in order to keep the business afloat.
It wasn’t easy, he says.
Some themes didn’t work
When Barker was murdered in 1972, police considered it an isolated incident that might occur anywhere 350 people are gathered at a dance club. The unsolved killing remains a painful memory for residents and police. It came days before the devastating flood caused by Tropical Storm Agnes, which halted the murder probe and disturbed the crime scene.
For years after Barker’s murder, people would occasionally have arguments that led to fist fights at Club Lee, but no notorious crimes occurred.
Then, Yerashunas was stabbed in the spleen while breaking up a fight inside his bar in January 1993. That case also remains unsolved.
At the time of the stabbing, the atmosphere and crowd at Yerashunas’ bar was changing. Patrons began requesting Top 40 music, which included hip-hop and reggae. The bar drew a more diverse crowd.
“I welcomed everybody who came. If you were prejudiced — whether you were white, black or Hispanic — I asked you to leave,” he said. “If you came in and were nice to me, I was nice to you.”
The bar was closed for weeks after the stabbing as Yerashunas recovered. When the bar reopened, Yerashunas changed his theme and returned the name to The Glass Bar. The business became a country music bar — which featured line-dancing lessons.
It flopped.
“I didn’t make any money. I couldn’t pay my bills. How many country bars do you know in the area? They all go out of business,” he said.
Yerashunas soon returned to playing the popular music of the day, and his crowds returned.
“I’ve played everything from rock ‘n’ roll to country to hip-hop, whatever was popular,” he said.
Changing neighborhood
Yerashunas sees himself as a victim of a neighborhood that is becoming infiltrated by dangerous people.
Violent people from out of the area are moving to Edwardsville and surrounding communities, attracted to cheap housing, he says.
Some try to come to The Glass Bar.
Of the thousands and thousands of people who have patronized his bar over 39 years, only a few have caused problems, he says.
He said he doesn’t and can’t discriminate who to allow in the bar.
For one reason, there’s no way to tell who is there for a few drinks and a good time, and who may start trouble.
According to Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board spokeswoman Francesca Chapman, the Liquor Code says it is unlawful to permit persons of “ill repute” to frequent a licensed premises.
“And while the term ‘ill repute,’ has never been defined precisely for purposes of the Liquor Code, court decisions have held that a licensee is in the best position to know the reputation of the persons it sees frequent its premises,” Chapman wrote in an e-mail.
“So the Code generally leaves it up to each licensee to determine whether a particular person is of ‘ill repute,’” she added.
However, Chapman noted the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act prohibits discrimination based on race, gender and ethnicity. She advised licensees to make sure not to unlawfully discriminate if they choose to refuse service.
Yerashunas said the most common solution that members of the public, and even the police, have given him is to change the theme of the bar again.
“They say to change the music you play. Then I go out of business faster,” he said.
Bar’s fate in limbo
The future of The Glass Bar remains uncertain, but people’s opinions are clear.
A majority of neighbors surveyed by police have demanded the bar be closed, prosecutors have said.
But many loyal customers stand by Yerashunas’ efforts to run a crime-free establishment, and say it’s a shame he may lose his business.
“He worked a lifetime for this business, and all of a sudden some people start shooting people over stupid stuff,” said a longtime patron, who asked only to be identified as Amanda. “It was never a bad place. Now poor Leo has to pay for it.”
Connie Parker, aunt of recent murder victim Sabrina Cordy, said she wants the bar closed even though she likes Yerashunas.
“Leo wasn’t a bad man. Leo isn’t a bad man. But the people who come in here from out of town make it a bad place to be,” Parker said. “What I’d like to see is actually all these people from out of town not coming into our town anymore and bringing their guns.”
After Cordy’s murder, Yerashunas dropped his asking price for the bar from $365,000 to $265,000. The father of six and grandfather of 12 says he doesn’t want to deal with the ever-increasing problems anymore.
The Glass Bar has been in the LCB’s “nuisance bar program” since August 2006 when the LCB’s Bureau of Licensing recommended its license renewal be denied. Yerashunas appealed the ruling. That set up a hearing last year in front of an independent hearing examiner. The LCB offered witnesses, while Yerashunas gave a defense. The three-member Liquor Control Board was considering the fate of the license before the December shooting occurred. On Jan. 29, they voted to revoke the license. Yerashunas has appealed.
As Luzerne County District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll decides whether to seek to have the bar padlocked under a separate action, Yerashunas laments at how such a small percentage of people could destroy his livelihood.
Meanwhile, the bar remains open 15 hours a week — Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays, from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., its usual hours of operation.
“People have come here for 39 years to have a good time,” Yerashunas said. “I have done my best to run a good establishment for more than half my life, and have enjoyed every minute of it.”
“In retrospect, I am now suffering too because of this violence … If I am forced to close my doors, at a time when I would be looking forward to retirement, I now have to start all over with nothing but a dream, and a will to survive. Ironically, I find myself back in the position I was in at 28 years old when I first purchased Jimmy’s Glass Bar.”
Heidi Ruckno, staff writer, contributed to this report.
bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2055
Here’s a look at some high-profile crimes linked to The Glass Bar/Club Lee
- Feb. 24, 2008 Sabrina Cordy, 23, of Wilkes-Barre, was shot dead in the parking lot across the street and another girl, Melba Cruz, 23, of Wilkes-Barre, was shot multiple times. Andrew D. Woodham, 27, was arrested and charged with criminal homicide in connection with Cordy’s death and attempted homicide and aggravated assault for wounding Cruz, 23. Police said a fight erupted in the bar and spilled into the streets. It began over a prior dispute in another location between Cruz and another woman, police said.
- Dec. 15, 2007: Jabbar Wallace, 32, of Wyoming, allegedly fatally shot Eric Cusaac, 23, of Brooklyn, N.Y., in the men’s room. Police say the shooting was the end result of a minor traffic accident that occurred days before. The men disputed early that night at another bar.
- June 25, 2004: A Dickson City man was severely beaten at the bar. Police arrived at 1:50 a.m. and found the victim lying on the sidewalk in front of the bar. He was flown to Community Medical Center, Scranton, in critical condition. Police believe the incident was gang-related.
- April 25, 2004: Edwardsville police responded to a fight in progress in front of the bar and, as arrests were being made, encountered an 18-year-old girl who acted intoxicated. She had been served mixed drinks in the bar, police said. The Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement investigated and charged owner Leo Yerashunas with selling alcohol to a minor.
- Sept. 7, 2002: A Wilkes-Barre woman hit another woman in the throat with a glass mug in front of the bar at closing time. The defendant later pleaded guilty to attempted assault.
- May 16, 1998: Police responded to a report of an assault victim lying in the parking lot. A Wilkes-Barre man was fighting with his girlfriend in front of The Glass Bar and beat up the victim when he intervened, police said.
- Jan. 22, 1998: Two men from Nanticoke assaulted a third outside the bar. The victim was knocked to the ground, punched and kicked, thrown into a brick wall and left unconscious with broken facial bones. The assailants claimed the victim danced with their girlfriends in the bar.
- Jan. 1, 1993: Owner Leo Yerashunas was stabbed in the spleen while trying to break up a fight inside the bar. No arrests were ever made.
- June 17, 1972: Kevin Barker, 18, was shot and killed in the parking lot across the street from the bar after a dispute inside with an unknown man. The case remains unsolved